Locked Down But Not Out
After several piano releases and notwithstanding the coronavirus, Rick Wakeman dives headlong back into prog with forthcoming all-instrumental album The Red Planet.
Words: Nick Shilton Portaits: Lee Wilkinson
“Lee [Pomeroy] said to me that he can hear Yes in some of The Red Planet. Well I was part of the band, so there’s always things I’ll do that will sound like Yes. And I’m not worried about that one iota.”
Coronavirus has generally proved a great leveller. But there are exceptions to every rule, as evidenced by music mogul David Geffen tweeting injudiciously from his Rising Sun superyacht in the Grenadines, while Richard Branson shamelessly sought a British government bailout for Virgin Airlines from his Necker Island tax haven in the Caribbean.
However, Rick Wakeman has been subject to coronaviral levelling. Not only was an April launch at the National Space Centre in Leicester for his forthcoming all-instrumental album The Red Planet kiboshed, but a house move has also been delayed. Hence his pithy verdict on the impact of Covid-19: “It’s been a nightmare artistically and work-wise.”
Wakeman has been confined to his current barracks, save for grocery shopping for himself, his wife Rachel and his mother-in-law. However the keyboardist hasn’t been using Skype, FaceTime, Zoom etc. “My phone is so old that nothing works on it. The automatic spellcheck is a nightmare. It turns ‘pianos’ into ‘penis’. So I’ve had a few strange texts go out that maybe shouldn’t have gone out. Especially to the vicar…”
Perhaps surprisingly given the array of keyboards that surround him onstage, beyond the proficiency of using Sibelius music notation software, Wakeman doesn’t regard himself as technically minded. His sometime English Chamber Choir collaborator Guy Protheroe instructed him swiftly on the rudiments of Sibelius. “Guy came over and said, ‘Forget the book’, and it’s been great. I just use the book for reference occasionally. I’m not very good at reading instructions. Do you know any cook who’s [got] good looking at cookery books?” he asks rhetorically.