The Rick Wakeman Yuletide Christmas Show at Lighthouse Poole Review

DISCLOSURE – TICKETS TO SEE THE SHOW WERE GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER AND GUEST FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW

Reviewed by Georgina Bentley

This has been billed as ‘the Christmas show not to be missed’ and ‘festive fun with a difference’. Both of those descriptions I have found to be true in a whirlwind of a Christmas spectacular. There was something for everyone in this show of varied music, well apart from the style of country and western. Rick himself said at the beginning of the show that there would be many musical genres preformed tonight but most definitely not country and western.

The stage is set in the Poole Lighthouse Concert Hall with two Keyboards, two guitars and a grand piano. There’s a Christmas tree and tinsel too making the set more festive. Rick Wakeman is joined in the Yuletide show by his son and fellow keyboard player Adam Wakeman and Mollie Marriott (daughter of the late Steve Marriott) on vocals.

The first half is packed with too many songs to name but each little set whether it was two or four songs were brilliantly arranged and the songs flowed into each other seamlessly with Rick even moving from keyboard to grand piano in between songs. One song that stood out for me was a beautiful piece entitled ‘Julia’, in between the sets Rick would give a little synopsis of where the songs/music are from, this one was from his studio album based on the George Orwell dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, with the Lyrics by Tim Rice.

Another set which I thought was brilliant and contrasted two songs really well was the lovely Christmas carol ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter’, which was sung with such emotion by Mollie Marriott, and The meeting, which is a song that Rick Wakeman wrote with fellow ‘Yes’ band member Jon Anderson.

During this first half there was some Christmas present giving between the 3 performers which made for some light entertainment, after which Rick gave the audience a great treat of his Nursery Rhyme Concerto on the grand piano. I have never heard this before and thought it was very clever, well known nursery rhymes were played in the style of several well know composers, such as Baa Baa Black Sheep being played in the style of Mozart!

To end the first half we had two pieces that Rick Wakeman had done with David Bowie, the fantastic Space Oddity and Life on Mars, these were excellently performed.

After the 20 minute interval there were many more both well-known and not so well known pieces. Adam Wakeman gave us a brilliant piano arrangement from his band Black Sabbath which showed what an accomplished musician he is too and we even had an audience participation set of The Twelve ‘Dogs’ of Christmas in honour of the charity, Saving Strays, that Rick Wakeman is a patron of.

There was a gorgeous rendition of Morning has Broken and a really lovely song I personally had not heard before called Welcome Star, these two together really complimented each other. We had a very vibrant arrangement depicting Kathryn Howard from Rick Wakemans studio album The Six Wives of Henry XIII, this had many dance-like sections.
To finish off a lovely evening we had We Wish You a Merry Christmas and then an encore of Silent Night and Eleanor Rigby.

A show packed with music and something for everyone thrown in.

This show was part of the Rick Wakeman Yuletide Christmas Show Tour, for more information and tour dates visit www.rwcc.com.

Rating: 4/5
Tickets cost from £37.95 (booking fees may apply)
For more information visit www.lighthousepoole.co.uk or call the box office on 01202 280000
Poole Lighthouse, 21 Kingland Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 1UG