New Year's Eve With Nektar
On December 31, 1976 Nektar performed a New Year's Eve concert at the Calderone
Concert Hall, in Hempstead, Long Island, New York. This was a very special concert
with Dave Nelson joining Nektar on stage on guitar and vocals for the very first
time. This concert is one of the few times Dave performed "Remember The Future"
part 1 in its entirety.
Larry Fast also joined Nektar while onstage as well as performing some songs solo,
entertaining the crowd. "Wings" was performed live for the first time
in the United States that night. "Dream Nebula" was played in its entirety
and well as "It's All In My Mind" and "Burn Out My Eyes"
which magically flowed into "Silver Lady." This was Nektar's debut
of "Silver Lady," a song that Nektar didn't record however, Larry
Fast did, when he appeared with Rod Argent (Vocals) and Others on the 1977 Lp Intergalactic
Touring Band. The concert was a smash and ended with Larry doing a what many of
the fans thought was a take off of Emerson Lake & Palmer's Karn Evil 9 3rd Impression.**
** "As I thought, it's not ELP at all. It's something that I did by
setting the sequencer on auto–pilot with some selected randomness in it about
when it would start and stop. The notes actually include some partial note strings
from sections of Recycled and other bits which are part of a Synergy piece called
Sequence 14. It was a very "Moogy" technique which is what might have
created the ELP confusion," Larry Fast.
"Lots of preparation went into this concert, We had few weeks to find a guitarist
(that will be another story) and put the show together for this New Years Eve Gig.
We covered all of the details with the exception of the lightshow, dry ice etc.
I remember standing at Dave's side calming him down as the dry ice enveloped his
pedal board rendering it invisible as the show started. We (Dave and I ) often have
a laugh about it but it was panic time for him. He had never seen a lightshow never
mind being in one. The light on stage was always moving as the show progressed,
the flash pods and fireworks blinding him temporarily as he did not know to look
away. He did an incredible job for his first show and we pulled it off, we pulled
out all the stops for that one," Mo Moore.
Footnote: Mo was also involved peripherally with Intergalactic Touring Band, playing
a ghost double neck on the album and his Fender bass was played on the entire album
courtesy of his friend, Pete Sobel, a regular at Mo, Larry and Taff's home in Chatham,
NJ. Mo also accompanied Larry to Bell Labs for the recording of the Bell Labs Computers
singing the chorus of "Silver Lady." Contract difficulties prevented him
from appearing as a guest artist.