The ‘Refugee’ tour
Lee Jackson (bass, vocals) / Patrick Moraz (keyboards) / Brian “Blinky” Davison (drums, percussion)
Now this was a bit of a coup. Refugee were an interim band bridging the gap between The Nice (Davison and Jackson being the remnants after Keith Emerson had departed for ELP) and the Yes of ‘Relayer‘ (in the form of the talented Swiss keyboards wizard Moraz). They only made one album and toured only the once too, so I was very fortunate to catch them.
As I recall they were very competent and Moraz dazzled with his deft keyboard skills. I remember thinking back then that Jackson couldn’t sing for toffee/hold a song in a bucket, and you had to listen beyond the vocals, which was fairly easy because all of the melodies and themes were carried by the brilliant Moraz. It’s no wonder that he very quickly moved onwards and upwards into Yes (although Anderson had apparently wanted Vangelis instead).
Listening to the album hundreds of times since then has done nothing to change my opinion regarding Jackson’s singing, but the music itself is really very good indeed.
Interestingly, I recently watched an old BBC Prog-Rock programme on YouTube wherein Keith Emerson said that the reason that he split The Nice was the standard “musical differences”, but he went on to say that Lee Jackson would have needed a carrot up his a*se to be able to sing in the key that Emerson wanted. 🤣🤣
Possible setlist: Ritt Mickley; Diamond Hard Blue Apples Of The Moon; Someday; Papillon; She Belongs To Me (Allegretto); Grand Canyon Suite; Credo; Jam (improvisation) (from only three weeks earlier at the North East London Polytechnic.)
Gigs'n'Stuff 