The Emerson, Lake and Palmer tribute band Noddy's Puncture was the brainchild of keyboard wizard Tom Szakaly. He formed the band from the ashes of cult rock band Shanghai. Tom had decided to forge a band, which would fulfil his own musical ambitions and encompass his love of the music of ELP. Together with Adey McDermott on drums and vocals and Mark Conroy on bass and vocals his band came to fruition and they gradually gained a following playing ELP material together with some rock classics.
Over the coming years the band progressed and earned a reputation amongst many ELP fans and as this reputation grew so did Tom's keyboard pyrotechnics...
At their appearance at the 25th Anniversary Convention in Birmingham in 1995 Noddy's Puncture played a storming set, with a review from the ELP fanzine Impressions writing "Tom Szakaly strode the stage like a colossus..." but as the band's reputation was growing so were internal wranglings, eventually resulting in Adey and Mark leaving the band.
The next line-up saw the return of Lez Piszkalo on drums from the aforemetioned Shanghai along with bassist/vocalist Tony Gunderson who Tom knew of from the local music scene. This line-up lasted a mere two years before again, problems of a different nature forced Noddy's to look for a new bassist.
So Lez and Tom together sought the assistance of old (school) friend and mutual musical acquaintance (from the earlier Shanghai days) Tony Hallsworth. Tony stayed with the band for about a year and a half before Lez announced his desire to play different material. There was even talk of resurrecting old Shanghai numbers, but not wanting to change the bands direction - it was after all supposed to be an ELP tribute band - Tom decided he'd be better off with actual ELP fans as fellow band members. The search was on....
In desperation Tom even contacted members of ELP and there were offers of help which Tom really appreciates (thanks Keith...;^) but before too long a local bassist emailed Tom as he'd seen it mentioned on the Internet (the ELP digest amongst others) that Noddy's Puncture wasn't only flat at the bottom. Tom suggested a get together....
He agreed and so it was that Phil Blakeney (notice the 'lake' in the surname)
and drummer Steve Roberts, another ardent ELP fan from
Wales (which has produced many things…!!) who Tom found purely by chance
on the internet, got together and kept the ELP flag flying …. for a while
at least. It was with this line-up that Noddy’s Puncture played their
yearly two night ‘Six Bells’ Bank Holiday week end outing down in
Sussex in August 2005.
The second night is quite well documented as none other than Keith Emerson
himself came along and joined in for most of the bands set. He also very kindly
allowed Noddy’s to release a live CD from the night. Needless to say that
this release heavily features Mr. Emerson (aka “The Masked Man”)
and is available now. Please see the Audio page for
some downloads.
Some time later Phil Blakeney had to leave the band due to personal commitments
and the search was on for yet another bassist. Tom definitely wanted to keep
to his decision of ELP fan band members only…. this could be a problem.
It was during a visit from a friend that Tom's mother
asked why he didn’t have a go..? So it was that the last line-up saw Kevin
Colon on bass and vocals and as he was also a huge NICE fan he suggested that
the band started to perform more NICE numbers. 'Country Pie' and the first part
of 'Pathetique' were added to the set and work also began on 'For Example'.
Unfortunately, just as everything was looking promising (well, musically ...
the vocals were a weak point) Kevin decided he wasn't going to carry on. This
he announced just four weeks before a rather important and prestigious gig -
a double bill event with UK Gensis tribute G2.
Something had to be done - and quickly! Watch this space...!!
A review of Noddy's Puncture
in Impressions magazine summed up as follows: "If you live in the UK then
this is a must, it is possibly the closest you will get to see a live ELP performance".
Now add to that “live Nice performance” and you’ll get the
picture. Need we say more..!?