Rick Wakeman celebrates 50 years of music at The Palladium (Night 1 of 2)
This was night one of a two-night extravaganza dubbed “The Return Of The Caped Crusader”, where Rick Wakeman was to perform the songs and albums that helped him become a ‘prog rock’ god.
Both shows feature Rick and his backing band The English Rock Ensemble playing his key solo albums in full alongside some of the hits from the band Yes where Rick was keyboardist.
On the first night were two fan favourite albums and some of his finest work: The Six Wives Of Henry VIII and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and The Knights of The Round Table (aka ‘Six Wives’ and ‘King Arthur‘). These were reprised on their 50th and 48th anniversaries and I was intrigued. Accompanying them was the prestigious English Chamber Choir.
The English Rock Ensemble were sharp. “ERE” includes his second son Adam Wakeman on keyboards, Hayley Sanderson (of Strictly Come Dancing fame) on vocals, Dave Colquhoun on electric and acoustic guitar, Lee Pomeroy on bass, and Adam Falkner on drums. This updated English Rock Ensemble has been backing Rick for the past few decades and have this material burned into the back of their brains (the unfortunate souls).
The show opened with Rick discussing why he was doing both shows and cracking wise about the amount of wives he had, before explaining that Six Wives was going to be played in historical rather than album order (apparently dictated by the constraints of the original vinyl version). This subtle change still made for a new experience.
The Six Wives has musical interpretations of the lives of Henry VIII’s various wives. Some of it was originally written while Yes recorded their classic Fragile in 1971, Rick’s debut album with the band. Released in 1973, Six Wives was Rick’s first solo release but one guest-featuring all of the 1972 members of Yes except for the band’s vocalist Jon Anderson. Also the first debut album by a Yes member it was the first album in a series of classic albums that could hold their own against Yes’ best.
The album – unlike the wives – came alive, with extra energy and power unique to a high-quality live performance. Some songs were lifted further when the choir added vocal harmonies. In particular the choir contributed to “Anne Boleyn” and it’s extract from “The Day Thou Gavest Lord is Ended”. Topically, this 1870 hymn was recently played at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
The music was superb. The audio quality was also great although the guitar was noticeably quieter than other instruments – perhaps only when heard from the area where I was sitting. However, the lighting setup was an issue. While for most of the show it created colourful visuals, as the album closed with ‘Catherine Parr’ some lights had sections of the audience blinded when they should have been on the edge of their seats with excitement.
Perhaps this was royal Tudor punishment for those in the cheap seats.
After the interval, Rick returned in another luxurious cape and described his fascination with the mythology of King Arthur. He even suggested a future performance of the King Arthur album but “on ice”. Wakeman did this in live shows in 1975 to legendary effect – that year he toured the world playing 50 live shows. You can catch the visuals on ice on YouTube.
Hayley Sanderson haunting vocalist (songwriter, saxophonist and singer on Strictly) now stepped up to the mic and added extra layers.
One highlight was “Sir Lancelot and The Black Knight”, a six-minute epic covering the intense struggle between the two knights. This track is a great example of how silly yet brilliant this type of music can be, as proven by the chants of “fight” near the beginning. It has world class musicians at the top of their game, crashing vocals and a song about something incredibly silly. It’s the Shakespearian actor playing the role of a clown and everyone loving it.
And the encore – well it started magically. Rick pulled “Merlin The Magician” from his King Arthur set to the encore set. This performance of “Merlin” was spectacular, bouncing from the light and floaty, to the heavy, and even to tones of honky-tonk piano.
To cap the night, Rick and son Adam fought out a “keytar” duel – a keytar is a keyboard shaped like a guitar! This absurd exhibition perfectly ended the evening and left the audience happy. Some of us were even happier as we looked forward to returning the next evening for Part II.
