Impresario Rick Wakeman retakes centre stage at The Palladium for the second night and puts the progressive into progressive rock.
Same Wakeman, same musicians, even the same backing choir as night one. But this evening’s entertainment was vastly different.
And it was different because of the music. This evening covered select songs from his time with prog rock band Yes plus his second solo album Journey To The Centre of The Earth (we’ll call it Journey). If last night was history, this was 70s sci-fi.
The Yes tracks included ‘Roundabout’, ‘And You And I’, and ‘Wonderous Stories’ products of the band – featuring a young Rick Wakeman – in its 1970s heyday and taken from such ‘seminal’ albums as Fragile, Close To The Edge, and Going For The One.
These seemed to be the crowd pullers with the venue far busier on this second night. Does this prove you can never really get over your first true love?
Snuggled unannounced among the Yessongs was ‘The Meeting’, a track from 1980s spinoff-band Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe which was formed of ex-Yes members. This is not uncontroversial as ABWH was even sued by Yes for mentioning their name in its tour promotions. However, battle of the bands aside, the song segued excellently into ‘Wonderous Stories’ before that itself brilliantly led into the deep cut ‘South Side of the Sky’ from the Fragile album.
One surprise was how ‘Wonderous Stories’, a relatively tame three-minute ballad penned by singer Jon Anderson, took on renewed life ‘live and on stage’ in a new arrangement where drums played a constant rhythm rather than adding percussion as they did in the original.
‘Wondrous Stories’ with this added beat became a wondrous tribute to former Yes members Chris Squire and Alan White who both played on the original recording and were the band’s two longest serving members until their deaths in 2016 and 2022 respectively. ‘The Meeting’ and ‘Wondrous Stories’ together became a loving eulogy to fallen comrades and were an absolute high point of both evenings. Both allowed singer Hayley Sanderson to showcase her talents by taking off with ease from the high register of original vocalist Jon Anderson, letting the songs soar, the pitch never an issue.
Closing the Yes-set was ‘And You And I’ from Close To The Edge (1972). But this was played nearly untouched – a song un-revamp-able given the superb construction of the original.
After a brief interval the night moved on to Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Wakeman’s first solo album to hit No.1. This is a pure 1970s ‘concept album’ but the version played was that re-recorded in 2012 version rather than the four track LP recorded live in 1974. It’s what we would now call a ‘re-imagination’ of Jules Verne’s classic science fiction book of the same name.
It’s a single suite of music over 40 minutes long. And playing it with little or no break is a challenge. More than any other session this tested and demonstrated the knowledge of everyone on stage. At no point is there time for the performers to take a breath and feel out their shift to the next phase in the album.
Unfortunately, Journey did have a big problem. The show as advertised included ‘a special guest announcer’. I expected this announcer to provide the constant narration that featured in both the 1974 and 2012 versions, narration that explained the album’s plot and added that something special. But neither a narrator nor narration were forthcoming.
But – of course – as Journey wrapped up and the music faded, the musicians received a standing ovation. They had just been on point for over 40 minutes straight.
For the encore, we received one more Yes classic: ‘Starship Trooper’ from The Yes Album (1971). This was the only track where Rick didn’t play on the original. Perhaps slightly predictable, it was nonetheless sensational to hear it played live on stage.
‘Starship Trooper’ is a big song split into three parts called ‘Life Seeker’, ‘Disillusion’ and ‘Würm’, with the final section allowing the band to launch into an extensive vamp with everybody getting the chance for a tremendous solo.
Rick even busted out his keytar (guitar shaped keyboard) again to challenge his son Adam to a keytar duel. The dual was to be a very silly yet perfect conclusion to both nights of music until disaster struck and Adam’s keytar went key-put. Technicians gave life support but the patient died on stage. Adam then improvised with one of his synths – the band played on as if nothing had happened.
The song closed, the band bowed and the fevered audience clapped till their palms went red.