Rick Wakeman: "On Loan from God"

Rick Wakeman to end his solo touring career with two Christmas concerts

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries

Marlborough College Memorial Hall where Rick Wakeman will perform his last two touring concerts in December

MARLBOROUGH, UK (ANS) -- Keyboard legend Rick Wakeman, who has recently completed a sell-out tour in the UK with his YES colleague, Jon Anderson, has announced that he is ending his long solo touring career at the Marlborough College Memorial Hall in Wiltshire, UK, on Friday and Saturday, December 15 and 16, with two special Christmas concerts.

Rick Wakeman during a performance of The New Gospels at Calvary Chapel Downey, California. This was a special event for ASSIST Ministries

Wakeman, a committed Christian, will include several special guests at his Christmas concerts at the upscale Marlborough College.

On Saturday, the 16h, there will also be a Christmas Party lunch with Rick in Swindon at midday at The Marriott Hotel.

A spokesperson for Wakeman said, "This is a rare chance to see Rick at an informal function where you will be able to enjoy a traditional 3 course Christmas lunch with Rick and also watch him play a few light hearted numbers on the keyboard. A sort of 'mayhem' really. Last year Father Christmas [Santa Claus] turned up and handed out presents to the children who had been dragged along by their parents.

"Rick announced last year that he is retiring from solo touring at the end of 2006 and so this weekend will be very special indeed."

Cover of Rick Wakeman -- the Caped Crusader

For details about ticket costs and availability, check out their website at www.rickatmarlborough.com.

A remarkable friendship

It was more than 30 years ago when I first met Rick Wakeman. He was a teenage student at the Royal College of Music in London and I was a reporter on the Middlesex County Times in Ealing. I had gone to the Musical Bargain Centre in South Ealing on the lookout for stories. When I entered the store, I heard someone playing keyboards in such an extraordinary way, that I asked the manager who he was. He told me it was Rick Wakeman and he regularly came in to practice and was often joined by John Entwistle, the bass player with the Who, though John was not there that day.

He called Wakeman to come out and give me an interview and then I discovered that he was helping to pay his college fees by doing sessions. "I've just played keyboards and arranged 'Morning Has Broken' for Cat Stevens and played mellatron for David Bowie's 'Space Oddity,'" he told me.

After the story appeared, Rick invited me to his home in Northolt and shared with me that he was a Christian and was a Sunday School teacher at the local South Harrow Baptist church where he had been baptized.

We have been friends ever since and I had the rare privilege of writing Rick Wakeman's official biography called Rick Wakeman - the Caped Crusader which carried a foreword from Elton John. It is now out of print, but copies are available (at high prices) at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/002-4410825-6071247?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Rick+Wakeman+-+the+Caped+Crusader.

After I moved to Southern California in 1982, Rick came over from Britain to do several benefit concerts for ASSIST where, like all those who attended, I marveled at his talent.

Like all those who have admired his skills, I am sorry that Rick won't be doing anymore solo tours, but I know that his talent, which he says is "on loan from God", will continue to be heard in the studio and also on tour with YES.

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com.

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