JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH

Many great musicians shine brightest when they're part of a band. Rick Wakeman is definitely one of them. With Yes, he sounds absolutely incredible?his compositions and the chemistry he shares with the rest of the group are unmatched. But on his own, Wakeman's solo career has always felt? uneven. Ambitious, yet but not always convincing.

Personally, I think his strongest solo efforts are The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1973), White Rock (1977), and certain parts of The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975). Beyond those, a lot of his work feels repetitive, like variations on the same formula that don't quite land.

And it makes you wonder, how is it that someone as talented and celebrated as Rick Wakeman doesn't have a more consistent solo discography, In many ways, he seems to coast on the fame he built as a session musician for legends like David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, and Cat Stevens, and of course, as a key figure in the golden era of Yes.

But there's one album one live album where everything comes together: Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974). This is Wakeman at his best, fulfilling all the promise of his talent and vision. Inspired by Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, which he saw as a child with his father, Wakeman set out to create a full-length composition with narration, orchestra, band, and choir. It was a massive undertaking, and his first time writing lyrics something he admitted was far outside his comfort zone and had to rewrite from scratch due to a lack of confidence.

Rather than just blending rock and classical sounds for effect, Wakeman envisioned each element playing its proper role giving the music real depth and dynamic contrast. With help from Wil Malone and Danny Beckerman, who translated Wakeman's musical ideas into orchestral and choral arrangements (despite Beckerman having no orchestral experience!), the result was a vibrant, symphonic journey. The full composition was originally 55 minutes long, but had to be trimmed to 40 to fit on a single LP. It's structured in four parts: "The Journey," "Recollection," "The Battle," and "The Forest" which cheekily ends with a snippet of Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King.

Armed with Mini Moogs, Mellotrons, grand pianos, and organs, Wakeman delivers a performance that captures him at his creative peak, not just as a player, but as a composer and arranger as well.

The live premiere itself was as grand as the music. Two back-to-back sold-out shows, each with 3,000 in attendance. The guest list included the likes of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Peter Sellers, Steve Howe, and several British politicians. The evening began with classical pieces, humorous interludes, and three tracks from Six Wives, including a comedic piano segment accompanied by Laurel and Hardy footage. There was even a whimsical encore, the Pearl and Dean Piano Concerto, made up of old TV commercial jingles. It was weird, wonderful, and very Wakeman.

Of course, not everything went perfectly. Wakeman famously had to buy tickets from scalpers for his own parents. Narrator David Hemmings performed with a black eye after a domestic mishap, which Wakeman's wife disguised with makeup. Still, Hemmings seated on a throne with the script in his lap delivered a theatrical flair that elevated the whole production. Interestingly, Wakeman's first choice for narrator was Richard Harris, but when he couldn't do it, Hemmings stepped in during a chance meeting and offered himself on the spot.

Despite the scale and success of the concert, the planned filming for a home video never happened. Wakeman skipped the post-show party exhausted, asleep in the car on the way home.

In the end, Journey to the Centre of the Earth is everything you could hope for from Rick Wakeman: dramatic, melodic, wildly ambitious, and entirely unique. It's his crowning achievement a blend of electronic and acoustic textures, bold storytelling, and symphonic grandeur. Nothing else he's done, solo or with Yes, quite matches it. A one-of-a-kind masterpiece.

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