Ken,
Besides Moodies covers what sort of stuff does Mr Iceberg play?
John
>
> I had the good fortune to catch Michael Iceberg's show at the South
> Florida Fair last Friday in West Palm Beach. For those of you who
> don't know, Michael Iceberg is kind of a one-man-band, keyboard
> prodigy who used to perform quite a bit at Disney World in Florida
> during the mid 1970s. Back then, he used synthesizers and at least a
> couple of Chamberlins.
>
> Now, he's strictly using all electronic keyboards - unfortunately the
> Chamberlins are gone. He played for about 40 minutes or so, doing
> three shows a day at the fair. I talked to him after the show, and he
> doesn't seem to miss the Chamberlins, says he's "moved on". I bought
> his "Michael Iceberg Live" CD which he was selling after the show
> (along with two others), and the Chamberlin sounds on the recording
> are great. On that older CD, he had violins (which didn't sound like
> Mellotron 3-violins), flutes and trumpets. All sounded very
> "accurate" (unlike the TRON) and were loaded with reverb (probably too
> much). These were the sounds which were missing from his show on
> Friday (to me, anyway).
>
> For his current show, he pops out of a giant, smoking Pyramid (or
> Iceberg) on stage which contains his seat and the keyboards, which
> surround him. There is a camera overhead and a giant screen behind,
> so that you can see him play.
> The great thing about Mr. Iceberg is that he is very entertaining,
> and he
> explains what he is doing just about every step of the way. Yes, some
> of it was kind of corny, geared toward the kids and the older folks
> there in the audience, but how often do you get to see a 62 year old
> man in a tuxedo pop out of a giant smoking pyramid and start wailing
> on a rack of synths? Not too often, these days.
>
> After the show, someone mentioned the Moody Blues (who he covers on
> the live CD), and I heard him say that if it weren't for the Moody
> Blues, he wouldn't be doing what he is doing now. So, chalk up
> another one for Mr. Pinder! Iceberg had another interesting comment,
> this one from the live CD (recorded in 1978). When talking about his
> keyboards, he said that he had electronic machines (synthesizers) and
> mechanical beasts (Chamberlins), and compared changing sounds on the
> Chamberlins to changing gears on a bicycle. You could tell that he
> wanted to become all electronic back then, and that's what he
> eventually did.
>
> While down in West Palm I got to meet JP "TronLord" of our list, and
> he showed me the famous "Microtron". I took some photos (and even a
> QuickTime movie), which will all be posted on my web site one of these
> days. Thanks JP, for showing me all the gear.
>
> If anyone has a chance to see Michael Iceberg, he is very entertaining
> and is a great showman & musician.
>
>
> Ken M.
>