Rick Wakeman to play with his sons at Gloucester

Tom Ozric wrote: Yeah - a 'funny Prog facts' thread - great idea Oliver W. is nearly as good as his father. On the recent live Yes package 'Live In Lyon', if I wasn't aware that Oliver was on keyboards, I'd swear it was Rick !! Would be funny to see Rick play whilst intoxicated. It just doesn't work. many have tried, and all have failed   'White Rock' has many great tracks.  'Judas Iscariot' is a fantastic piece indeed - gives 'Awaken' a run for its money. Rick gets the best mini-moog sound out of the lot of 'em.  Maybe it's his playing style.  Dave Stewart is still my 'No.1' keyboardist. I hope you love 'tales From Topographic Oceans' - I've heard Rick thinks it's a pile of crap........(features some of his best work I think).    Track 2 of 'The Six Wives......' is a mind-blowing track that just 'cooks' - Alan White is amazing, and the bass-work of Dave Wintour just blows - a rare moment of Rick and band jamming hard !!

At the time I wasn't sure, but now I do believe Yes should have kept Oliver and not get Geoff Downes back. I would think that Oliver together with Davison could have given Yes the freshness to their writing they so desperatley need. And they could be the base for the new Yes for the next generation. As for Topographic Oceans, well, I do like it, though it's not my favourite Yes ablum; I do love "Revealing Science of God"... but somehow agree with Wakeman that the album would have benefited from not being a double album, and having the rest of the songs made into shorter ones. And yeah, I also love Anne of Cleves, and really like Alan's drumming on it.

Now, about what happened when Wakeman planned his show drunk, as far as I remember it (I must listen to the DVD where he tells his tale in order to start the funny prog facts thread) is: first, he saw one part of the band and told them he would change the opening song for... well whichever. Then he saw another part of the band and told them he would change the opening song... but he told them a different song. Then he the other musicians and told them he would begin with another song. So, three different blocks of musicians started playing something different. And then, well ones though they were mistaken and they tried to change to one of the songs the others were playing, while the other part also changed to another song, and so they went on not being able to settle on any one song for, well, quiet a while. Then, the venue happened to have a church organ, which was somehow concealed beneath the stage and would come out through some mechanism, so Rick wanted to use the oportunity to play "Jane Seymour". The thing is that during the concert, when he tried to get in to play the organ, the mechanism wouldn't work and the organ wouldn't come out, and Rick ended up hurting himself, and when the organ finally came out he was bleeding and wouldn't play anymore. Sorry the story is rather patchy, that's why I needed to check it out again. However, next day, when Rick went to take the plane for the next venue, he saw the review of his show. The critic went with something like he wasn't usually a fan of Rick Wakeman, but that last night's show was an eye opener. It began with a mindblowing pastiche of three of his most known songs and went on praising it. And then, he said the death scene on Jane Seymour was just mindblowing.

Dellinger wrote: Yes should have kept Oliver and not get Geoff Downes back.