Greg Lake dies, aged 69

In a post on Lake's website and social media channels, his long-time manager and friend Stewart Young confirmed that the singer died on 7th December 2016 after "a long and stubborn battle with cancer".

Young goes on to write "Greg Lake will stay in my heart forever, as he has always been. His family would be grateful for privacy during this time of their grief."

At 9pm tonight (8th December) Planet Rock will be remembering Greg Lake by broadcasting an archive My Planet Rocks from 2005, where Greg spoke with Mark Jeeves about the artists that influenced him. Listen here.

Greg Lake first rose to prominence as a member of the first lineup of King Crimson; he had been a school friend of Robert Fripp, with whom he also shared the same guitar teacher. Initially a guitarist, Lake was persuaded by Fripp to switch to bass in the band and ended up helping to produce the band's groundbreaking first album 'In the Court of the Crimson King', considered by some to be the most influential prog rock album of all time.

Lake left King Crimson in 1970 after meeting Keith Emerson whilst on tour, and they formed the supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer along with drummer Carl Palmer of Atomic Rooster. ELP became one of the most popular and commercially successful progressive rock bands of the 70s, having sold over 48 million records.

As well as success with ELP, Lake also scored a hit with his Christmas single 'I Believe In Father Christmas', beaten to the No. 1 position only by Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

With the break up of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Lake briefly joined Asia in 1983 to cover vocal duties for a few months whilst they were on tour. Shortly afterwards, Emerson and Lake joined forces with Cozy Powell to form Emerson Lake and Powell, recording one album and touring.

As well as continuing to record solo material and collaborating with a wide variety of musicians including Robert Plant, Gary Moore, and The Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Lake also spent time touring with the Greg Lake Band. And of course there were the occasional reunion shows with ELP, the last of which was at High Voltage Festival in London, 2010.

Our thoughts are with Greg's family and friends at this time.