Rick Wakeman at St George’s Hall Bradford Review
Rick Wakeman
St. George’s Hall, Bradford
1 February 2015
Reviewed by Norman Totton
St. George’s Hall in Bradford was the venue where on Sunday night 1st January, I went to see the inimitable Rick Wakeman on his ‘Yet Another Evening With Rick Wakeman 2015’ tour.
Richard Christopher “Rick” Wakeman (he really, really doesn’t like being addressed as Richard) is an English keyboard player and composer best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes. He is also known for his solo albums, contributing to the BBC comedy series Grumpy Old Men and for Rick’s Place, his former radio show on Planet Rock that aired until December 2010.
Rick’s musical career began at age 5 with a thirteen note recital at a concert organised by his music teacher for her pupils in front of their parents. The applause that came his way encouraged him to go for it again and it was on his fourth time around that his mother jumped up on stage and dragged him off the stage! Notwithstanding his inglorious removal, he’d caught the performing bug, and the rest as they say ‘is history’.
Rick’s history is one of pianist, composer, band member, solo performer and collaborator with many other outstanding singers and composers including David Bowie, T. Rex, Elton John, Cat Stevens, and Black Sabbath. As a solo artist he has sold approximately 50 million albums.
As we waited for Rick’s entry onto the stage we were treated to a rendition of Pachelbel’s Canon in d major, whereupon Rick sat at the piano to join in karaoke style, a wonderful piece of music enhanced by his talented fingers and feel for the music.
He performed many fine examples of his music during the evening and entertained the audience by regaling us at the end of each piece with jokes, stories and extremely funny interludes of his life e.g. one of his ex-wives left him because he didn’t open the door for her, but as he said, ‘I panicked and swam to the surface’!
Rick performed music from a few of his albums: The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Journey to the Centre of The Earth. He is a very talented musician and demonstrated that to the fullest at St George’s Hall, Bradford where I and the rest of the audience were entertained to a wonderful evening with Rick Wakeman.
To get to St Georges’ Hall, Bradford is relatively easy and parking at the NCP carpark is a matter of minutes away. My evening at St. George’s was helped by the very attentive staff where nothing seemed to much trouble to make sure the evening was as enjoyable as they could make it.
Rating: 5/5 
Rick Wakeman is currently on tour around the UK. For more information, tour dates and venues visit www.rwcc.com/live.asp.
For other show at St George’s Hall in Bradford visit:
www.bradford-theatres.co.uk/venues/st-georges-hall.
St George’s Hall. Bridge St, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD1 1JT | 01274 432000
