RICK WAKEMAN

No expensense spared is an interresting, amusing and entertaining album. The Wakemans again show that keyboards can be used to make rocking music. You do not need a guitar for it! This is a more entertaining album than its predecessor. Of course, the Wakeman style of playing and composing songs is recognizable. But for someone enjoying the Wakeman style, I can recommend this album.

I tend to rate this album as a four, but regarding the rating definition, 3 stars fit better. Even after a few years, No expense Spared is not starting to bore. And that indicates the quality of the music.

— First review of this album —

Henry's Wives get a makeover

In May 2009, Rick Wakeman resurrected his de facto début album for a one off performance in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace near London UK. The setting was significant as Henry VIII was responsible for the transformation of the site into the magnificent building which now stands there. (It also meant that Rick would not need to venture too far north, something he appears to have an aversion to these days!).

This album captures the resultant performance, presumably selecting the best recordings from the two nights. As the DVD runs to over 2 hours, we can safely assume though that a significant part of the gig (and all the narration) has been omitted from the CD release which contains the six tracks from the album plus three others. The set is bookended by "Tudorture 1485" and "Tudorock", a couple of pieces which appear to have been written especially for the concert. They are decent enough pieces which draw in themes from the six key pieces, but simply serve to whet the appetite for the main course.

With a full orchestra and choir present, Rick takes the opportunity to flesh out most of the Wives mainly by adding new sections rather than simply repeating existing ones. Both "Kathryn Howard" and "Katherine Parr" thus become 12 minute plus pieces, and Anne Boleyn" runs to over 10 minutes. On the other hand, tracks such as "Jane Seymour" remain largely faithful to their 36 year old ancestors.

For much of the time, the orchestra and choir are, to these ears, too far in the mix. While I appreciate that it is the talents of Mr Wakeman are what we are here to appreciate, the synth and organ often overwhelm those supporting him.

The third additional piece is entitled "Defender of the faith", a reference to the title first bestowed on by King Henry VIII by Pope Leo X (and then revoked and subsequently restored by parliament). Once again, this is a typical Wakeman synth number, but here enhanced through the support of the English rock Ensemble, the choir and the orchestra.

In summary, a fine document of what must have been a magical evening. Clearly, the DVD version will serve to recreate the event far more satisfactorily, but as an audio experience, this is a very good album.

— First review of this album —

Rick Wakeman has realised his long time dream by playing the complete six wives of Henry VIII album 36 years after his release. He his accompanied by the English Rock Ensemble, the Orchestra Europa and the Englisg Chamber Choir. Naturally the music is classical oriented with many keyboards sounds plays by this excellent musician. The stage settings and the light show are impressive and add to the value of this Blu-Ray. The picture quality is stunning and the DTS sound excellent by capturing the sound of the choir and orchestra. In 1973, some songs of that album had to bet cut to fit a 40 minutes album, but here we have the complete songs. One of the highlights of the show is when Rick plays his organ elevated in the air. But most of all, the quality of the music is so good that you can enjoy the show without all the theatrical effects. The only problem that i had was getting throught the necessary narration between songs, but you can skip those with your remote control. The extras are short with a 20 minutes making of that show where Rick present with good humour the musicians. Highly recommended!

I'd rather say it as a masterpiece concept album...

As the world now moves into simplicity, I had a project to transfer all of my prog CDs into MP3 format so that I can carry the music easily wherever I go and I can be consistent with the spirit of "Keep on proggin' ...!". It's not an easy job actually with approximately 2000 CDs at my shelf. But I have to keep it going anyway, before it's too late. Surprisingly I found some CDs which I have never reviewed in progarchives including some albums of Cast (Mexico), Camel, and Rick Wakeman. How can I forget the phenomenal album like '1984'? When it was released in 1981 I was so curious on what Mr Wakeman would say about the year 1984. By that time actually I was not aware that this album was inspired by the work of George Orwell. Sorry .. I was too busy with prog music developments so that I did not pay enough attention on novel.

The first record that I listened to this album was in the format of cassette. I was really amazed with Wakeman's bold ideas hiring Chaka Khan from R & B fame in this seminal work. The first time I hooked to this album was when I heard the opening track 'Overture' which really blew me away at first listen. At first, I was not quite impressed with the opening orchestra. But when the music enters especially the transition piece to the third movement 'War Games' of this overture. WOW! What a great combination of powerful female vocal and symphonic music. Fabulous! And .. too my knowledge, this is the first time I heard that an overture has a long duration (10 minutes) before the other tracks come up. Brilliant idea!

The beauty of this album lies in brilliant ideas on combining nice melody with orchestra and talented singers like Chaka Khan and Jon ANderson. All songs in this album have excellent melodies. Combined with excellent arrangements it then creates music with excellent harmonies. Not only that, the frequent changes of style are all performed with smooth transition allowing Mr Wakeman's melodi keyboard solo. Even though this album does not seem so complex but it still has a good degree of progressive elements. In fact in 'Robot Man' you can hear how Wakeman has creatively created a great composition where he explores the R&B music - taking advantage of Chaka Khan area of expertise - while maintaining inventive keyboard work.

I highly recommend you to have this phenomenal album. It's not in the vein of 'Six Wives' or 'Journey' or 'King Arthur' but it sets the new standard of Wakeman's music. AS for my case, I have been replaying this album more than five times and I don't feel getting bored with it. It's so interesting. In this album Rick collaborate with lyricist Time Rice who used to work with Andrew Lloyd Weber. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

I spent much of my early years in prog listening to The Six Wives Of Henry VIII and loved it, despite it being a bit over the top in parts. So I looked forward to the follow ups with pleasure. Journey was pretty mediocre but surely he'd sort it out next time out.

Nope, he didn't. Myths is probably the most pompous, pretentious album ever. The composition is amateurish, the orchestration poor, the lyrics laughable and the vocals........well, if ever there were 2 vocalists who simply can't sing in tune, Ashley Holt and Gary Pickford-Hopkins are they. I'd rather listen to a cat being neutered. Rick plays a few worthwhile solos, but the only track worth listening to is Merlin, despite the excruciating banjo-driven section in the middle.

This is one that's getting the lowest grade. Avoid like the plague.

Prog at 100 miles an hour, with twisting, swirling magical melodies by Rick Wakeman. Very well structured and developed, but sometimes seems to go overboard with this speedy, keyboard oriented prog. This leaves a bit to desire, since it is a constant flurry of incessant musical information, being a little to much to keep up with at times, and gives us the impression that all of the other musicians are struggling to keep up with Wakemans superhuman speed. This matter aside, it is full of beautiful Yes-inspired harmonics and is a clear demonstration of all of Wakemans bombastic talent and imagination that we've all seen throughout his years in Yes. It incorporates a wide spectrum of sounds, especially with all the keyboards, going from church organ to Mellotron, covering as many instruments as he possibly can. This gives the music a very heterogeneous sound, concerning all of the different tones that are used throughout the album. So it sounds like a classical piano piece during one moment, church music during another, and progressive rock on cocaine in the next. Recomended for Yes fans who are looking for something new and exciting.

Right, Wakeman goes musical. As I have an avid revulsion of the hollow theatricality of musicals (please feel free to convince me there is at least one worth hearing), I can't find anything enjoyable about this release. The songs are badly written, the singing is horrible and, as usual with rock music embracing an orchestra, the instrumentation is even worse. Complete kitsch and cheap sentimentalism.

By the way, isn't that Richard Kleiderman on the piano in Merlin the Magician? (which is one of the few songs that has a few interesting bars by the way). And oh dear! What are those annoying mosquito sounds? "That would be a moog mr. Bonnek, the sacred synth of holy prog! Shame on you!" No thanks, if I want moog I'll put on a Klaus Schulze platter. Now you come to mention it, I'll put on "Dark Side of the Moog VII" right away. I need something to shake off this frightening experience.

This review is a reworked version of my original review written for ebay last year. The cassette version of this record introduces me to Rick Wakeman, and the far more brilliant music of Yes more than ten years ago.

Back to this album, I loved it so much that i bought it twice as the first one was wrecked in car stereo years ago. Then came the age of CD, I easily found this down in ebay. There are at least 3 versions of this cd with different artwork, but 2 upgraded version has an extra song. In the end, i chose this 3 song version.

According to Rick himself in his offcial website, he hated this album so much since it was finished without his consent, and the label didn't really remunerate him as they are supposed to. He also disliked the vocals and the arrangements on this (which I guess was done without his approval).

However, inspite of whatever Mr Wakeman has to say, in this record we audience can enjoy a rather new perspective/approach to his music as it is obvious that RW himself has little to do with the arrangement. It is not without flaws, but it is refreshing. I would say it's a good job for whoever that had done the arrangement. Also in comparison to his favorite choice of yore Ashley Holt on the original Journey to the Centre of the Earth concert in the 70s, I do prefer this voice and the rock-oriented arrangement. The guitar works and the drumming here are nothing but average. The bass is surprisingly good, although not Chris Squire good. Merlin the Magician finally has words to it. His keyboard works are as brilliant as ever.

Big cons for this album. things seem quite solid, but it suffers to a certain extent from a copy and paste approach to computer-music production, i.e. a few identical repeats in a song. Horrible idea to extend the album length.

In summary, this album is as non-Rick Wakeman as can be, so not a good starting point if you want to appreciate Wakeman's solo albums. For that and the horrible copy-paste approach in music plus ugly artwork, I should say a one-star rating. But as I said above, there are some brilliant moments and I feel compelled to promote this up. 3 stars. not more.

Terrible movie, decent music and good performances

Progressive Rock fans are hard to understand, RICK WAKEMAN is an icon of the genre and one of the men who has done more for the music "we love", I rarely find a Proghead that didn't enjoyed "Close to the Edge" and at least two or three WAKEMAN albums, in every poll he's considered among the best and most popular keyboardists in history.

With 10% of this merits, any POP artist is considered an untouchable legend, but many of us who talk hours about our love for Prog, are the same ones who blame good old Rick as direct guilty of the first debacle of Symphonic Prog.

We shout "close minded" when anybody dares to admit he doesn't like "Thriller" or "Never Mind the Bollocks" but we say that "Lisztomania is crap and most nod in approval. Now, I admit this soundtrack is not a masterpiece in the level of "Six Wives of Henry the VIII", "Criminal Record" or "Myths & Legends", but it's a good chance to listen one of the best keyboardists in Rock history giving excellent performances on arrangements of Wagner and Liszt music.

If this wasn't enough, Roger Daltrey (A living Rock legend), the competent Paul Nicholas (Cousin Kevin in Tommy), The National Philharmonic Orchestra and The English Rock Ensemble are part of this album.

I agree that the movie is ridiculous, because it's like watching "Tommy" in the role of FRANZ LISZT facing WAKEMAN as the Nordic God Thor, but we are here because of the music, not the movie...and I believe that the music is not bad.

Apart from the usual clean piano performance, Rick plays a killer Moog in songs like "Master Race" or "Rape, Pillage & Clap" plus the memorable "Free Song" in which gives a lesson in the use of Synthesizers.

If this was one of his boring 80's New Age albums, I would be the first one to rate it low, but this is RICK WAKEMAN in 1975 at the peak of his career and the performances are above the average. The least "The Cape Crusader" deserves is respect and no less than 3 stars on this release.

I am in a negative mood so its time to review this stinker. A detestable album that rarely troubles my CD player. I played it a grand total of 1 and a half times. Its good study music because it is so forgettable. I love Yes and think Rick Wakeman is a genius but this is tripe. I could play this in front of my parents during dinner and they would not flinch. Dinner music is bad prog. In fact, what prog? It was just piano wankery, and badly compiled snippets of orchestrated lush. It sounds like a classical concerto at times and Wakeman blends in the background. It is nothing like his classics 'Henry 8th...' or 'Journey to Centre of Earth'. It is unrecognizable as far as Yes goes - it is as far removed from Yes as you can get.

The best thing on it is "Catherine Howard (live)", but I already had that track on other Wakeman albums. 'Eleonor Rigby' is usually a great track but I can't remember this version at all.

The best thing about the CD is it is cheap. I picked this up for about $5 at budget Australian Store Chickenfeed. If anything it was simply the thing to do as there were no other copies in the store and it was a cheapie. However, the music is flat and really dreary. I wish I could like it but I can't even force myself to play it now. I would rather play ELP's Love Beach - at least its hilarious entertainment.

Some CDs are cheap for a reason - nobody wants to buy them and they are no flamin' good. I guess some diehard completists will get a kick out of this, but count me out!