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Thread: Rick Wakeman - The Grumpy Old Rock Star Tour

  1. #76
    Member Man In The Mountain's Avatar
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    Saw him Friday night. This was the 2nd time I've seen him play solo piano, and while it's a nice evening out, it's nothing special. He's been playing the same pop hits piano songs and same jokes for 20 years. Granted I knew that going in... so I wasn't disappointed, but it's such easy effortless money for him. The best Wakeman show I saw was in 1985 when he came to some Irish Pub in Chicago with a full band, including Rick Fenn (10CC) on guitar, and Tony Fernandez on drums, and they played all his classic 70's stuff. Journey, Authur, 6 Wives... Rick had about 20 keyboards on stage set up in two configurations than he ran back and forth in between. The stage was too small for all the keyboards though, so Fenn had to play off stage behind the amps. He would occasionally run out front to do a solo, then retreat back behind the amps. To top it off, Rick invited everyone at the show to buy a pass after the show for $5, to see them rehearse the following night in the club. We did that, and watched them play the whole show again in a low-key fun atmosphere with only about 30 people in the audience. Great times. The only other time I saw him with his own band was the Wakeman & Wakeman show in the early 90's (the tour with his son Adam). But that was instrumental, and not quite the same as the '85 show I saw.

    Not really sure why he doesn't come to the states with a band. He sold out the Arcada Theater with just a piano.... so what's the deal???

  2. #77
    Quote Originally Posted by Man In The Mountain View Post
    Not really sure why he doesn't come to the states with a band. He sold out the Arcada Theater with just a piano.... so what's the deal???
    He probably can't afford it, unless it's something like the ARW deal or whatever.

  3. #78
    Quote Originally Posted by Bartellb View Post
    I'm not reading this thread in case of spoilers. Some questions for anyone who has seen this. I'm assuming and hoping there's no openings act? Does Wakeman come on at the scheduled time? Since Fripp seems to be the only one who does this how late does Wakeman come on? Is there an intermission? How long does he play?
    Thanks

    No opener, starts on time, plays about two hours, no intermission.

  4. #79
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Man In The Mountain View Post
    This was the 2nd time I've seen him play solo piano, and while it's a nice evening out, it's nothing special. He's been playing the same pop hits piano songs and same jokes for 20 years.
    Yeah, the Rick Wakeman DVD I bought recently made me realize Rick Wakeman playing acoustic piano for two hours really isn't that interesting.

  5. #80
    I didn't even realize he's been doing this show for 20 years or that it's only piano. I assumed he had an arsenal of keyboards on stage. Regardless I hope and think it'll be fresh and enjoyable since I've never seen this show or seen him outside of Yes and have no idea what songs he plays or what to expect.

  6. #81
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bartellb View Post
    I didn't even realize he's been doing this show for 20 years or that it's only piano. I assumed he had an arsenal of keyboards on stage.
    This seems to be the case with a lot of people. To the point where I find it rather pathetic, I'm afraid. There were a lot of people there that I found odd that they were attending this show, as they looked more like Iron Maiden fans, than guys wanting to hear some nice piano and naughty jokes. I expected to hear shouts of "Play Gates of Delirium!!!" during a few songs. Yes, I get Rick didn't play on that, the point is how unaware a lot of people are going into this show. No offense to Bartellb. Certainly, not everyone is unaware and people enjoy the show. There are clearly a few though that I wonder how they got talked into this one....

  7. #82
    Quote Originally Posted by Man In The Mountain View Post
    This seems to be the case with a lot of people. To the point where I find it rather pathetic, I'm afraid. There were a lot of people there that I found odd that they were attending this show, as they looked more like Iron Maiden fans, than guys wanting to hear some nice piano and naughty jokes. I expected to hear shouts of "Play Gates of Delirium!!!" during a few songs. Yes, I get Rick didn't play on that, the point is how unaware a lot of people are going into this show. No offense to Bartellb. Certainly, not everyone is unaware and people enjoy the show. There are clearly a few though that I wonder how they got talked into this one....
    One of Wakeman's stories is about a solo gig around the time he had a biggish UK radio hit with Waterfalls, or something new-agey. To his horror a bunch of bikers turned up and were sat in the front row. He played the first half of the set with as much rocked-up piano versions of Yes songs as he could muster. At the interval one of the bikers approached him menacingly. "We hope you're going to play Waterfalls, that's our favourite"...

  8. #83
    Member dropforge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Halmyre View Post
    One of Wakeman's stories is about a solo gig around the time he had a biggish UK radio hit with Waterfalls, or something new-agey. To his horror a bunch of bikers turned up and were sat in the front row. He played the first half of the set with as much rocked-up piano versions of Yes songs as he could muster. At the interval one of the bikers approached him menacingly. "We hope you're going to play Waterfalls, that's our favourite"...
    Yeah, that's a great story from the first (IIRC) of his Grumpy books. It actually happened at the close of the concert. They were some Hell's Angels in attendance, and they sat in the front row. At the end of the show, one guy went up to and grabbed his arm (gently, I can only presume) and said "'Waterfalls' is my favorite composition of yours, are you going to play it?"

    Therefore, it became the encore, added at that precise moment.

  9. #84
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    Quote Originally Posted by dropforge View Post

    Therefore, it became the encore, added at that precise moment.
    "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player."
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  10. #85
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    Fart jokes and Bowie covers.

    Am I missing something?
    The Prog Corner

  11. #86
    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by miamiscot View Post
    Fart jokes and Bowie covers.

    Am I missing something?
    Not really. Maybe a little piano playing.

  12. #87
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    Quote Originally Posted by miamiscot View Post
    Fart jokes and Bowie covers.

    Am I missing something?
    Yes, he mentions for the 1 billionth time that he didn't get paid for Morning Has Broken.

  13. #88
    Quote Originally Posted by Man In The Mountain View Post
    This seems to be the case with a lot of people. To the point where I find it rather pathetic, I'm afraid. There were a lot of people there that I found odd that they were attending this show, as they looked more like Iron Maiden fans, than guys wanting to hear some nice piano and naughty jokes. I expected to hear shouts of "Play Gates of Delirium!!!" during a few songs.
    I heard a few comments from people around me at the Harrisburg, PA show that made it clear they thought it was going to be a full band show, not a solo piano performance. And there was a jackass sitting near me in the balcony who yelled out "CLOSE TO THE EDGE!!!" after the second or third song.

  14. #89
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ground and Sky's Ghost View Post
    And there was a jackass sitting near me in the balcony who yelled out "CLOSE TO THE EDGE!!!" after the second or third song.
    Well, he was in the balcony ..... maybe he was in the first row
    "Normal is just the average of extremes" - Gary Lessor

  15. #90
    Wakeman appeared on WMGK Philadelphia, The John DeBella show today (I think). You can listen online or download the podcast (45 minutes) here:

    https://wmgk.com/episodes/rick-wakeman-podcast/

    It's a good show. I've heard some of the stories before, but some were new to me.

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