We hear the group rehearse "21st Century Schizoid Man" during the soundcheck - great, they'll be playing that tonight!? They have to go through it over and over again, though, trying to get the transition to "Rondo" right, which is rather tricky. At the end of the soundcheck we can't tell whether they are happy enough with it to go ahead and play the piece as part of the encore tonight. We'll see... We meet Keith Wechsler, who has just arrived in Europe and will be doing the sound mix from tonight onwards. (He was working as Greg's guitar technician when we last saw him on the '96 Japanese tour.) And it's the third night that we see Pär Lindh and Tor Ansgar Bakken, it's nice to have some familiar faces around in such a remote part of the world!

When the door opens, the venue is quickly filled with people - and heat. We can see the group are suffering from the excessive heat and humidity in the place throughout the show. Keith, in his black shirt and black leather trousers(!), has to wipe sweat off his face with a towel after each piece.

"Pictures" doesn't sound as tight as usual, but perhaps that's because we are nearly fainting ourselves by that point. The strong backlights from above the stage not only glare down onto the stage but also directly hit the audience in front of it. We don't want to complain, though, for we're happy to be able to watch ELP play from such a short distance, which is impossible in Japan where most concerts have reserved seating and a row of security staff at the front of the stage and between rows, forbidding audiences to leave their seat.

To our joy, the medley they play for encore does include "21st Century Schizoid Man", sandwiched between "Fanfare" and "Rondo". Although the transitions between the pieces still don't sound very smooth, we are glad to be able to hear "21st Century..." live at last, and so are everyone else in the audience, who all sing along to it. Despite the sound quality being not as good as in Munich - and one of the channels going off in the middle of the set! - it has been a concert well worth attending.

28 June, Kassel:
Contrary to the weather forecast, it's a bright, sunny day, and for the first time on this tour we are sweating. As it turns out, it remains clear for the whole day and into the evening, but they have now set up the stage inside and are going ahead with an indoor concert. Greg starts to develop an infection in his right ear and has to see a doctor before the band make their way to the venue.

We sit down and watch the group go through their soundcheck. The PA sounds good again, to our relief. They are rehearsing the transition from "21st Century Schizoid Man" to "America" again. Perhaps they were not happy with the result in Luxembourg and are planning a new combination? Again, we'll just have to wait and see...

After the opening act by Sieges Even, their equipment is moved off stage and ELP's gear brought on and put in place. The audience's anticipation is getting high, and after a while Will Alexander comes on stage to pull the black covers off Keith's equipment. As the grand piano and the stack of Moogs are revealed, there's a big cheer from the audience.

The sound is good tonight - probably the best so far on this tour as far as we can tell, although right in front of the stage is not the best place for objectively judging the overall sound quality. One local friend of ours, who watched the concert from the back of the hall, says afterwards that the sound was good and loud, and the deep, subsonic bass sound during Keith's solo in "Lucky Man" made his whole body vibrate and almost made him sick in the stomach! In fact everything is - at least almost - perfect tonight: solid performance from the band who are now obviously working in full harmony to an appreciative and enthusiastic audience. The inevitable singing along to "Lucky Man" by everyone in the audience - and we are not just talking about the chorus bit, they are singing the verses, too! - amuses Keith, obviously pleased to see 1,500 people in the hall singing together, and he's grinning throughout the song. But his hand seems to be giving him some trouble, he's shaking it every now and then in between playing. It doesn't show in his performance, though, and there is a great applause at the end of his particularly aggressive and energetic Hammond solo in "Stones of Years", as well as the furious "Creole Dance". He has his "cowboy" outfit on tonight: jeans with brown rawhide patching, a matching vest and a white shirt. He will sport the same look in Amsterdam and Dresden again, while Greg's and Carl's outfits are to remain the same for all the dates we attend.

As they go into the encore, we are curious to see how it will develop tonight - but alas, no "21st Schizoid Man" and no "America", just "Fanfare" and "Rondo" as they had been playing up until Munich. Perhaps they have decided it just didn't work. As they go off stage, people are still clapping, shouting for more. Well, they won't come back again after the upside-down Hammond climax, we know that, don't we? But no, we are wrong: the band does come back and go straight into "21st Century..." and then into "America" as they had been rehearsing during the soundcheck. Then they go off again, the end of the evening. With the extra 10 minutes of encore, the concert has lasted nearly 2 hours.

Paradiso is a small club venue with a balcony all the way around the dance floor, and another small seating area at a higher level at the back, altogether holding around 1,200. Most groups who play here are not as widely known as ELP, but it is also a legend in its own sense: the Rolling Stones, for example, once played a secret gig here. Tickets for tonight's concert are sold out in advance, and as the door opens and people are let in, the place fills very quickly, and yet the queue of people waiting to get in never seems to end.

Abandoning our usual position in the front row for once, we have secured ourselves seats on the balcony, right above Keith. From this position we can see the place is literally packed full of people and observe how enthusiastically they react to each piece the band plays. The heat of the place tonight is really incredible!

Keith is again seen shaking his right hand a few times during the concert. After "Creole Dance" he grabs the mic and tells the audience: "my left hand is killing me!" which surprises no one, after the incredible torture we have just witnessed Keith give it playing that rigorous piece. Just from hearing him play, it is almost impossible to think or imagine his hands are not in perfect working condition, he truly amazes the audience with his dynamic solos (in "Stones of Years", "Take a Pebble" and "Creole Dance") and receives huge applause and cheer after each one of them. His fingers also don't get tangled up while he's playing "Toccata & Fugue" upside down, as they did on some of the other nights.

One thing that has been bugging some of us up to this evening is that, at the end of the piano improvisation section of "Take a Pebble", Keith has always plunged, without pausing for a second (as on the record), straight into the decending figure that leads into the verse again. It sounded like he was rushing the whole thing too much: we personally appreciate the return of his fast, machine-gun play on this and the '96 tour (in comparison to his style of playing on the Black Moon tour), but he doesn't need to always play so fast, in all places! He had said in an interview several years back that in the early days of ELP he had felt compelled to show off how fast he could play but now he no longer have the need - so why suddenly again? To prove to himself, perhaps, that he could again after the troubles with his hand? In any case, we felt that pause in "Take a Pebble" was definitely needed there. And tonight, in reaction to the enthusiastic audience, he does pause after the highest note and looks on to the audience, as if to tease them, to let them anticipate what is to come next. And it works much better that way.

Watching the whole show from above the stage, we also find out that the voice announcing "Welcome back my friends..." at the beginning of each concert is not taped but belongs to Richard Coble, the band's tour manager!

The band do come back for the second encore ("21st Century..." and "America") tonight, as they continue to do for the rest of the tour.

30 June:
Day off again.

1 July, Nuremberg:
Serenadenhof (Serenade Garden) is a small enclosure at the side of ruin s of an ancient colosseum. The walls are covered in ivy, and as the name suggests, it is a very romantic setting, save for the modern tents covering the whole area including the stage. A small slope covered with grass and shrubs separates the stage from the audience. Shortly after the soundcheck is over, the blue sky suddenly turns grey and a thunderstorm breaks out. The crew runs around covering the mixing desk and the equipment on stage with plastic sheets, which is not an easy task as the wind is so strong. This delays the public admission, and as people (armed with macs and umbrellas) are finally allowed in, it is still raining a little, but luckily it stops in time for Sieges Even's set.

Another happy concert. Another sing-along session to "Lucky Man". This time Greg calls out to the audience to join in, in the middle of the second or third chorus - but the audience doesn't need the prompting, they are already singing along, making Keith grin again. This one must counts as an "outside" venue, we get to see the firework display again - great! But the local press photographers, not anticipating something like this, all manage to miss a great shot. Keith plays "Take a Pebble" with that crucial pause again, so we are happy.

When they come back for the second encore, Carl is in his white bathrobe - with "Carl" stiched on - and socks and shoes. He walks right up to the front of the stage, turns around and bends while pulling up the robe, exposing his sweat-soaked, blue underpants to the audience, before taking his position at the drum kit!

2-4 July:
A few days off for us. ELP play in Paris and then at the Out-In-The-Green Festival in Halle (in former East Germany) but we give those a miss and instead do our washing and get some rest at Akiko's flat in Berlin. God, the band must be really tired, travelling and working so hard every day!

The group seem more relaxed than usual, and so do the audience: apart from 5 rows of fanatic ELP fans (us included) at the front, many people are sitting or lying down on the grass during the show. Right at the beginning of "Knife Edge" the bass gets cut off, but Greg reacts demurely, as if he is amused by the accident. The problem gets sorted out in a few minutes and the group play "Knife Edge" once more from the beginning, perfect this time.

Due to time restrictions there is only one encore this evening. Keith gets up on top of his grand piano to play "Toccata & Fugue", and when he comes down to continue playing on the synthesizer (in normal style!) he seems to have hurt/cut himself in his finger. It looks rather painful, but he continues to play as usual - true professionalism!

6-10 July:
Days off for us. ELP go on to play the Daytona Festival on the 6th. This festival, at the former Canadian Military Air Base in Lahr (in the Black Forest, South West Germany) has been advertised as "an international meeting place for bikers and music fans" featuring the Scorpions, Deep Purple, James Brown and a score of lesser-known bands, as well as motorbike workshops and family entertainment. ELP are playing on the third day of the festival, along with Deep Purple. They then go on to play the Montreux Jazz Festival on the 7th, where they will be able to have a few days off before returning to Germany.

• Another thunderstorm caused all groups playing at the Daytona Festival technical problems with their equipment, as water poured down on the storage area. It also meant a long delay in the day's proceedings and ELP had no time to do soundcheck. (We later met one fan at the Hamburg concert, who had been to the Daytona Festival, and she said that the ELP "were good but short. They stopped in the middle of their set to sort out the technical problem, and came back on 15-20 minutes later to play the rest.") On being asked whether the place was really full of bikers (they had expected 80,000 bikers to attend the 3-day festival), Will answered: "you couldn't tell whether they were bikers or not, but there certainly were lots of people."

• The Montreux concert, on the other hand, went down exceptionally well. They played the main stage - the Stravinsky Hall, holding 4,000 - on the same bill as Supertramp. The equipment, when it dried, worked perfectly again (to Will's great relief, no doubt.) Everyone was happy about this concert, and it is ironic that this is the only one to attract a negative response from a newspaper critic. Reviews of all concerts in Germany & Amsterdam have been very positive.