Rick Wakeman - Spa Pavilion Felixstowe - 5 November 2000
From: Jon Hinchliffe [jon@praying-mantis.com] - Nov. 11I have finally recovered enough to write this. I am amazed it is so long again. Sorry.
This was the 2nd leg of a tour I had already seen 3 dates of. Originally there were no nearby dates so I wasn't going to bother with this leg. Then about 2 weeks ago this show at Felixstowe was added in. "Oh no" I thought. This is really going to push the attendance figures. Rick had already played the theatre on the first leg of the tour and despite there being only 3 weeks of sales they managed about 500-600 people. Surely people that saw that tour would be disappointed if they come again and see exactly the same thing. I was also worried how many would bother after all they can't all be as keen as me. Then I looked at the date and worse still it was the night after I was in Wigan with Praying Mantis. I would be a total wreck. Still Rick was playing a local theatre and I want him to do so again so I made the effort and this time got mum to drive me. She had already seen this tour once so I wondered what she would make of it. With trains delays, floods and storms I wondered if I would get back from Wigan in time. Thankfully the predicted worst storm for 100 years was either late or just not that bad and I got hope with time to spare. I dare not rest though in case I went into a crash (I find as long as I can keep the adrenaline flowing I can keep pushing. Resting for as little as 15 mins can set me into decline and it is just beyond my endurance to start pushing again.)
Around 7pm the weather was definitely bad and when we got to the coast it was great watching the rough sea. We parked up and the wind was so strong it was hard to walk straight. With suspected poor ticket sales and bad weather I wondered if the gig would be on. We got inside and I was pleased to see it was.
The last time Rick played Felixstowe he it was a few weeks into the tour and Rick looked very tired. I was therefore stunned to see Rick was in great shape tonight and he played a really special show. He had changed almost all of the stories and even mucked about with the set on the spur of the moment. It was truly worth the effort and fatigue.
The crowd as I predicted was very disappointing 300-400 I would guess. But they all seem to enjoy the gig and my mum comment Rick had played a lot better than when she saw him in Sudbury.
Rick came on for the first set half way through Pachebel as usual and then joined in with it. Then instead of saying how he wanted us to pause for thought for all the suffering e.g. young children being made to watch him. He came off stage and selected four of the audience. In fact he had a close call as he almost selected the lady he choosen last time for holding the Pedal in Merlin. I spoke to her later and said she must be a glutton for punishment and apparently she was as she had the same seat as last time. Any way he chooses someone a couple of seats from her and a couple from my row and someone else. He then said he had done a function the week before for Transsexuals, homosexuals and lesbians that liked to have sex with the pets and that he would like to apologise to these people as they were now going to see a second show in a week!
Instead of Birdman of Alcatraz were got After The Ball tonight. This was a nice surprise for me and mum really enjoyed that one. I don't know why she didn't like Birdman though I think both are great.
It was then the story of his Granny at the Albert Hall performance Journey. She had refused to move seats to allow Peter Sellers to sit with his wife. He followed this naturally enough with The Recollection and Dance of a Thousand Lights. Which were 2nd set songs last time. Recollection also had drums on it. A bit like the ones of softsword actually (Timpani?). I assume this was a backing track. I can't see Rick being able to generate them but I wasn't really looking. I have to say I thought they really helped the piece though.
We got a quick story about Cilla Black in Pantomime followed by the usual intro to Seasons Of Change from Prelude To A Century. Then a David Beckham joke. Apparently he has started doing after dinner speeches (which people found amusing enough as he doesn't have a reputation for being too bright).
We then got a short intro to Jane Seymour. Just the fact he wanted to play it years ago but it's only recently technology allowed him to get the sounds. The first half ended on the Nursery Rhyme Concerto.
The 2nd half started with Rick saying there was more rain in his dressing room that outside. He therefore came on stage in a workman's hat and coat. He started to tell the story of how Elgin Mansions got named and tried to take the coat of and completely failed for about 60 seconds much to the crowd's amusement. Apparently it was unintentional. He finished the story and then played it apparently for the first time in years. I doubt it was true though. He certainly played it well. I wonder if he likes playing these tunes for his own amusement at home.
Catherine Howard and Catherine Of Aragon followed a couple of Jokes from Countdown. Then the Norman Wisdom intro to Children Of Chernobyl. You know he never tells these stories in exactly the same way. I am aware of bits missing or bits I haven't heard before.
Next was a story about after show signing sessions. One mother and daughter wanted signatures and the daughter told her mother to ask Rick something and she was scared to. It turned out Rick had signed her knickers and the mother wanted it done again. Rick agreed and expecting her to have some in her bag. No she just dropped her Jeans. A pair of old ladies were then heard to say, "We don't have to do that do we?"
And You and I and Wondrous Stories followed this supposedly because it was Jon Anderson's birthday the previous week.
The Set closed with the usual Help/Eleanor Rigby combination. For the encore Rick played Angels From The Realms Of Glory from the new Christmas Variations album. This was after another funny but worrying story. The CD's came back from the factory in time for the November release but they have the wrong barcode on them. He said it reads 2KG of Persil. This means his Xmas disc has now been delayed and gets a February release next year :-( Poor Rick So overall a lot of variation from Rick and a very good night.
After the gig I made a point of remembering to ask Rick directly how he gets the secondary sounds to work on the "Piano". It is down to key pressure. Apparently there are 8 levels of key depression and you can assign sounds or commands to each level. It is obviously very hard to master this technique.
Jon
Rick to appear on BBC Children in Need
From: Wayne Smith [wayne@rwcc.com] - Nov. 16
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cin/around_country/night_sth.shtml
No time slot allocated...****************************
From: Wayne Smith [wayne@rwcc.com] - Nov 18Well I guessed you'd all be p*ssed off about it, so I thought at least I'd give you a report from the scene. And chaos it was, from start to finish. Nobody appeared to know what anyone else was doing, including what was happening at "head office". Rick alternated between "the green room" and the stage, and his only significant contribution was a rather amusing medley of tunes which lasted about 2 minutes (including the wedding march - ahem!) which went down very well in the hall. I don't think it was broadcast. As you've correctly picked up, most of Rick's stuff was broadcast in the South region only, though as I said earlier, I'm not entirely certain the BBC staff knew what was being broadcast, and where.
Of the "celebs" at Reading, Leo Sayer did his bit and left (I think he had a gig somewhere), Ian Paise did his famous one handed drum roll and hit the road, and Uri Geller turned up 5 minutes before his "slot", plugged his book and too disappeared without trace (disappointing a lot in the audience). The BBC producers on the scene were mightily pleased that Rick stayed from 4pm till after midnight, mingled with the crowds happily signing everything in his path, including autographs for 4 year olds who didn't have a clue who hewas ("excuse me, are you someone famous?" - "no, I'm the car park attendant" - "are you a famous car park attendant?" - "absolutely!" etc. etc.) I'm sure it did his reputation no harm whatsoever.
Rick left well after midnight, drove to Liverpool, slept in his car before going to the Manchester derby.
For the record, the recently restored organ was "pants", and the BBC thought Jane Seymour not exciting enough. And anyway, it clearly wasn't going to be the sort of event that lent itself to solo virtuoso performances. The kids loved the teddy bear picnic, which was part of the medley. And finally, for the record, it was interesting watching the "sparse" audience being pushed into shot to make it look lively. And finally finally, for the record, I had always thought that the money totals at these events were picked out of thin air to look good on the night (me being cynical!) - they were however being counted downstairs at the Town Hall, including the cash buckets coming in, and the totals were passed at 15 minute intervals to the floor manager.
So there you have it, Rick does Children in Need. Sorry if any of you stayed in to watch - we weren't to know what a "farce" it would be (in the nicest sense of the word!)
Morning Has Broken
From: Graham Johnson [ggj@dircon.co.uk] - Nov. 25
Subject: Morning Has BrokenTo cut a long story short, and thanks to Wesley Miller for pointing it out to me...http://www.kevinmayhewltd.com/worship_resources/pwRecordings.html now lists...
MORNING HAS BROKEN .. 1490055 .. CD .. =A313.99 inc VAT
Rick Wakeman weaves his magical compositional and playing powers around fourteen of his all-time favourite hymns in this stunning collection of some of the most beautiful melodies ever written. If you remember Rick's stunning piano introduction to Cat Steven's recording of Morning has Broken you'll know what to expect of this new CD. From the simple charm of Morning has Broken to the moving Abide with Me and rousing Glad that I live am I, Rick describes this lovely CD as: 'one of the most satisfying recordings I have ever made.'1. Now thank we all our God (4:06}
2. There is a green hill far away (3:46)
3. Glad that I live am I (3:25)
4. All things bright and beautiful (4:04)
5. Jesu, lover of my soul (3:18)
6. Jerusalem (3:34)
7. O come, O come, Emmanuel (5:44)
8. All people that on earth do dwell (3:18)
9. I vow to thee, my country (3:03)
10. Hills of the north, rejoice (3:23)
11. When I survey the wondrous cross (3:22)
12. Morning has broken (3:25)
13. Abide with me (4:07)
14. The day thou gavest (3:46)
Wakeman to appear at Electronic Music festival in the Netherlands
From: Roy DeRousse [roylayer@yahoo.com] - Nov. 29From: Quantum Productions [quantumproductions@wxs.nl]
Hello fans of Synthesized and Ambient Music ----------
(apologies if you have received this message more than once, we have sent out this message to several EM/Ambient message-lists)
For those of you who don't know yet: the 8th annual Alfa-Centauri EM festival will take place on Saturday, April 28, 2001 in Theatre 't Spant in Bussum, with concerts of Rick Wakeman Roedelius & Alquimia Peter Mergener Lightwave you will find all the latest info on: http://home.wxs.nl/~quantumproductions/8thalfa.htm
Here is an update on the latest festival information ....
*** Ticket Sales Ticket sales is running extremely fast, this is something we could have expected with this musical program, but is going even faster than we could have dreamt of. As you probably know there are 1000 tickets available and we are quite happy to conclude that current advanced bookings for tickets is 3 months ahead on our regular schedule ! This is great news for electronic music ! On the other hand however: if you are planning to come over to the festival, don't hesitate too long with ordering your tickets, because we are seriously going towards a situation with very little (or even zero) tickets available at the box office (but we will let you know as soon as this is the case).
***Sponsorships We are proud to announce the 5 companies willing to sponsor this event, which are the Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds, Mopro (Emagic NL), Voerman (KORG NL), Groove Unlimited and Digital Music Media.
*** Participants Also the list of participating companies is rapidly growing: these companies will have a stall at the festival. You will find their names on our website. There are still a couple of stalls available, but since October 1 there is a First-Come-First-Served policy. So if you want to present yourself or your products during this great EM-event, make sure to contact chaitsma@chello.nl or phone +31 (0) 299 647630 or just reply to this message and we make sure to contact you !
*** Traveling and venue info On the festival website you will find more and more relevant info about the venue, traveling, parking space, hotel information, etc.
*** Latest news We will publish the latest news about the festival, the artists, and the program on our website. But you can also subscribe our special Festival Mailing List so that you get the latest information through e-mail. Just send us a short message with 'subscribe Alfa Centauri Festival' and we will do so...Well, we look forward to meet you at the festival on April 28 next year !
On behalf of the festival team
Kind regards
Eric Snelders / quantumproductions@wxs.nl +31 (0) 31 5265635
Association Alfa-Centauri PO Box 1131 NL-1270 BC Huizen the
Netherlands
Strawbs Concert Programmes online
From: Roy DeRousse [roylayer@yahoo.com] - Nov. 30A bunch of old concert programmes for the Strawbs were recently uploaded to the excellent Strawbs site at
http://www.strawbpage.ndirect.co.uk/index.htm
The first two programmes feature some rare photos of Rick Wakeman.