Vincent Crane

Vincent was largely a self-taught keyboardist, who taught himself how to play boogie-woogie on piano, but would later study both composition and music theory at Trinity College in London

He started playing the Hammond Organ in 1967, and shortly thereafter joined a band called “The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown”, a theatrical rock group that preceded acts like Alice Cooper

They had a hit song that charted in the U.S. the U.K., and Canada in 1968. It was a heavy organ and brass arrangement called “Fire”

During the band’s first U.S. tour in ’68, Crane suffered a nervous breakdown, and spent several months in a mental hospital. After he left Brown’s band, he started a band with Carl Palmer (who was the drummer in the band and who later of course, was the drummer in ELP) called “Atomic Rooster” They had a couple of minor hits

Vincent later collaborated with a series of British artists, including Rory Gallagher, Peter Green, and Dexy’s Midnight Runners

He passed at age 45 from a drug overdose