RICK WAKEMAN
The Caped Crusader parks the wisecracks and ivory-tinkling covers on Earth and teams up with The English Rock Ensemble for a long-overdue journey back to prog’s extra-terrestrial realms.
Words: Chris Roberts
Edited by Dave Everley
prog.reviews@futurenet.com
Illustration: Martin Cook Rick Photo: Lee Wilkinson
It’s all very well tinkling out Silent Night, Stairway To Heaven and Eleanor Rigby, and cracking jokes for a living, but Rick Wakeman has grasped that prog fans crave something a little more ambitious from their number one keyboard wizard. After enjoying playing King Arthur and Journey To The Centre Of The Earth in big live shows in recent years, and hearing the call from those who prefer his 70s stuff to his Bobby Crush phase, he’s recorded an instrumental prog album that taps into the DNA of those unrivalled classics of pomp while revving up the energy factor to contemporarily acceptable levels. He’s freely admitted he’s listened to the oldies and used sounds he heard therein that he hadn’t dabbled with for a long while. The process appears to have inspired him as, along with the three members of his “ensemble” - actually just an insanely proficient kick-ass band - his musical emissions make for a highly pleasurable mission to Mars.