Vol. 6, No. 9 - September 1999 - Rick Wakeman

Wakeman teams up with Spice Girl!!

Yesterday I watched 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks' on BBC television and mr. Rick Wakeman was (again?) in the panel. It's a music quiz where celebs have to guess which is what. Extremely funny. Rick was in the same team as Mel C. from the Spice Girls. What a joker that Rick!

Rick on "Countdown"

Rick is "Countdown"ing again this week. Yesterday he told the story of his TV Non-Apperance the morning Gandhi was ssassinated. He was due to appear on morning TV but was cancelled because off the serious nature of the breaking news. In the waiting room with him were Michael palin and another Python in Python Woman gear and a full parrot suit. They wanted to know weather they would be on the show.

Today he had a list of proverbs that children were given to complete. And of course they did them in some interesting ways. Such as Where there's smoke theirs Pollution. And Don't put off tomorrow the clothes you put on today.

******************************

From: Jon Hinchliffe [jon@praying-mantis.com] - Sept 14

As Rick finished on Countdown today. Richard Whitley (the host) what he was up to next and Rick said he was preparing for some concerts at Wembley in January with a Choir and Orchestra.

Now before you get to excited this was recorded before the last newsletter was issued. I therefore don't know what to make of it.

Whitley then seemed to try his best to embarrass Rick with nice comments.

The other stories Rick told were some more children's views. This time on Marriage.

Yesterday's story was about the 70's Japanese tour where Rick was reading out Phonetically spelt Japanese to the audience and the translator had played a trick on Rick and he made him say something about the girl at the front having big breasts.

Rick Wakeman Photo Gallery

Barbara wrote: "Bruce has some really great photos of Rick in full regalia at his website. You might want to have a look at them."

I am in the middle of contemplating some "design" changes for the "RW picture gallery", so I plan to be adding some more pictures in the near future..My RW picture gallery....

http://home.maine.rr.com/abajoran/gallery.htm

Maria Lucia's picture pages... written in Portuguese, but easy to figure out... http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/dylan/799/fotosgaleria.htm

I've also added quite a few midi files of Rick's music... http://home.maine.rr.com/abajoran/wakey.htm

Rick Wakeman & Mario Fasciano Press Conference

From September 30th till October 2nd, Rick Wakeman will be in Italy to promote together with Mario Fasciano "Stella Bianca alla Corte di Re Ferdinando".

We'll be collecting all interviews and all TV appearances!!!!

Bye,
Vannuccio Zanella
www.mprecords.it
Tombolo - PD (Italy)

Rick and Norman Wisdom

Can someone on this list please tell me what Rick's connection is with dear old Norman Wisdom? He appeared on Saturday night's "Heroes of Comedy" on UK Channel 4. I missed the first half!!

***************************

From: Jon Hinchliffe [jon@praying-mantis.com] - Sept 27

Rick inevitably showed up on the tribute program to Norman Wisdom last night. And made quite a few comments about his next door neighbour. He recorded the World of Wisdom with him and Rick is a comedy collector.

The Sky Goes All The Way Home

The latest Artist Shop newsletter is out and you'll find it in its entirety at http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm. Here's an excerpt for Wakeman fans.

We've got a lot of new and forthcoming releases added to our Voiceprint page many of which have just come out in the last month including Various Artists/The Sky Goes All The Way Home - This project was co-ordinated by Ashley Franklin of BBC Radio Derby's Soundscapes (Mojo and The Wire both highlight his show). His 15 year old daughter Claire, has Downes Syndrome and she attends Parkwood School, Alfreton in Derbyshire. Whilst the family were on holiday, Claire, whilst gazing out of a car window said "the sky goes all the way home..." Because of her condition, Claire's sentences are few and far between. This extraordinarily poetic phrase inspired Ashley to contact hundreds of musicians in order to compile an album. All profits from this release will go to Parkwood School (to raise funds for their minibus) and The Downes Syndrome Association, whose director has written some of the sleeve notes. Ashley has compiled a 35 track double cd, 25 tracks of which are exclusive to this release, and the running time is over 2 and a half hours. There is a sensible balance between local musicians and names of international repute - Peter Hammill, Rick Wakeman, Anthony Phillips, Celtus, No-Man, Roy Harper, Biosphere, Gordon Giltrap, John Wetton, Kevin Coyne, Nick Harper, In The Nursery, Robert Fripp, The Enid and many more.

Rick actually donated two tracks to this double CD, Hymn of Hope and A Little Piece of Heaven. According to the liner notes, both of these tracks were previously released on Rick's album, Can You Hear Me. Most of the tracks were newly recorded for this album, but it seems the producer was collecting tracks during Rick's bout of illness. So, unable to do something new at the time, he offered these two tracks instead.

yessng@aol.com | Moonrise Mountain | Yes News | Traveling | Marillion