This was a very unique billing. The first and only rock concert I have ever been to where there were no guitar players. Organ, bass and drums was the sonic tone of the evening.
The opening act was Brian Auger and The Trinity featuring Julie Driscoll on vocals. Brian Auger and his band were a three-piece as described. Add to this triumvirate a sultry, beautiful female lead singer and you have a great combination for stardom. Too bad it didn't work out.
Julie Driscoll had a minor hit with a song called 'Wheels on Fire'. There was nothing really special about the group except for their hypnotic, ten-minute version of the Donovan song 'Season of the Witch'. It's hard to believe today, but Julie Driscoll was the only female performer to ever play The Rock Pile.
There were very few women involved in Rock music at the time, with Janis Joplin at the top of a very short list.
The Nice was essentially the same lineup with drums, bass and organ but without the sexy lead singer. They were mainly instrumental, with a few vocals sung badly by the bass player Lee Jackson.
It didn't matter. The Nice played Rock, Classical and Jazz, with virtuosity and an outrageous stage presence. Their sound was a pre-punk monotony of machine-like rhythm, created by the solid performances of Jackson and drummer Brian 'Blinky' Davison. This energy was punctuated with blasts of amazing keyboard riffs. Keith Emerson not only played classical riffs with wild abandon, he also jumped onto the keyboard, stabbed a knife into the keys and then threw it into the speaker behind him. Emerson managed to apply the same manic intensity to playing the organ that Pete Townshend brought to the guitar. This was an amazing performance that pre-dated Emerson Lake and Palmer by two years.