The Nice

The Nice
The Nice at the Ernst-Merck-Halle in Hamburg, West Germany on 28 March 1970[1]
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Progressive rock psychedelic rock jazz fusion art rock[2] proto-prog[3]
Years active	1967–1970, 2002
Labels	Immediate, Charisma
Spinoffs	Emerson, Lake & Palmer[4] Refugee Jackson Heights
Spinoff of	P. P. Arnold
Past members	Keith Emerson Lee Jackson David O'List Ian Hague Brian Davison

The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band.

The group was formed in 1967 by Emerson, Lee Jackson, David O'List and Ian Hague to back soul singer P. P. Arnold. After replacing Hague with Brian Davison, the group set out on their own, quickly developing a strong live following. The group's stage performances featured Emerson's Hammond organ showmanship and abuse of the instrument. Their compositions included radical rearrangements of classical music themes and Bob Dylan songs.

The band achieved commercial success with an instrumental rearrangement of Leonard Bernstein's "America", following which O'List left the group. The remaining members carried on as a trio, releasing several albums, before Emerson left the band in early 1970 in order to form Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The group briefly re-formed in 2002 for a series of concerts.