Bulletin No. One
Welcome, poor misguided music lover, to the first of our two monthly bulletins. As you will appreciate, certain other "happenings" may well crop up in between these news sheets, and wherever possible we will try to send out updates.
We have included a discography with this issue as well, which hopefully clears up the main question of what albums have been released over the years. We have also listed the record labels as well, so you can hustle them if you can't get them anymore!!
Anyway, down to business, firstly here are the concerts booked so far March. We have included the end of February as well in case some of you get the bulletin early. Admission prices vary according to venue and capacity, and Rick hastens to add that he has little or no control over them.
Feb 16th. Royal Albert Hall. Rick is doing a short set (approx 30 - 40 minutes) as part of the Football League Centenary celebrations. The concert is meant to represent music and musicians through the ages, and Rick is meant to represent music in the seventies. He is not happy about this tag, and claims he's doing the gig for two reasons.... his deep love of football and his good friend the bank manager!!
Feb 19th. Wolverhampton. Grand Theatre. Intimate Evening Show
Feb 20th. Leamington Spa. Royal Spa Centre. Intimate Evening Show
Feb 21st. Hemel Hempstead. Pavillion. Intimate Evening Show
March 6th. Blackpool Grand Theatre. Intimate Evening Show
March 7th.Chatham. Central Hall. Intimate Evening Show
Mar 12th. Bangor. Theatre Gwynedd. Intimate Evening Show
Mar 20th. London. The Astoria. Intimate Evening Show.
It is hoped that a few more appearances may transpire and if they do we will endeavour to keep you informed.
TV and radio is difficult to keep track of, because as you can appreciate they are often recorded weeks in advance and a few days notice as to transmission date is not uncommon. So we have decided to let you know when Rick is recording various programmes, so you can keep your own look out as well!
Feb 10th. Evening Interview on LBC (London only) live between 8 and 9pm.
Feb 19th. Live lunchtime show. Daytime live BBC (with the band)
Feb 23rd. Rick is recording a sports programme for channel four. To the best of our knowledge it is as part of a panel discussing commercialism in sport, although we would not be surprised to find that Rick has to pole Vault over Tessa Sanderson whilst gripping Daley Thompson in his teeth.
Feb 26th. Rick is recording a kids programme with Floella Benjamin for Channel 4 called The Tree House. In the true Jackanory vein, Rick is telling a story, along with some very distinguished actors. I think Rick has been included to lower the tone - transmission date not known.
Mar 3rd. Rick is performing as a guest on a Central TV special. No more info is available at present.
Mar 7th 8th and 9th, Rick is recording a show as a guest with Gary Willmot. No more details are known as to what when or how Rick is to make a complete berk of himself
April 1st. ITV all channels. 10.15pm. The Word. This is the special of the Gospels that Rick recorded with Ramon Remedios, Robert Powell and the Eton College Chapel Choir in Israel, with a Symphony Orchestra. It runs for over an hour. Newspaper and magazine articles are difficult to keep track of, especially as reviewers often appear and write without anybody's knowledge! At present we know of no special articles, although, local press tend to do write ups the week before the Intimate Evening Show hits their respective towns.
Recording
January and in fact much of March has been, and will be taken up with recording. Throughout January Rick co-produced with John Burns, and played on a New Age recording featuring Tony Fernandez on percussion both tuned and "thumped". The album is called ZODIAOUE and should be available before the end of March on President Records. The Classical New Age album that Rick recorded with Ramon Remedios entitled "A Suite of Gods" is now available, also on President Records. President have been most obliging in that if you find a shop that is not stocking the "stuff", then please phone and let them know and they will do their best to rectify the matter. It is now almost certain that Rick will be performing on, and co-producing a record entitled "Presented to the Heart " for Alexander Mezak, who is the biggest recording artist in Yugoslavia. Cliff Richard has also pledged his support for the project which is based on Slovenian Folk law. Stylus records have also said that they plan to release The Gospels once again to coincide with the TV showing of the Word. The next New Age album from Rick will be "The Seven Wonders of the World". Sea Airs and Night Airs are also in the process of being completed.
General News
Rick has moved with the family to the Isle of Man and is building a studio so he can work from home, and produce music when he wants to and not when studios are available.
The Time Machine album, now complete, features John Parr, Ashley Holt, Tracy Ackerman, and Roy Wood as well as the Greasy Wop (Tony Fernandez) and Davy Paton on bass. As yet no release date or label has been agreed upon, but we'll keep you informed.
Negotiations are currently taking place for Rick to produce two foreign acts, one in Italy and one in Austria. More details if and when they happen.
Finally a big thank-you to all the "mad members of the RWCC" the response was considerably more than we expected, so we've got our work cut out, but we'll do our best! Anyway, as promised, here are some answers to some of the queries that we've received over the last couple of months that may not have been answered already in this bulletin.
People who wrote wanting to help in the newsletter in various ways, we will be writing to in the coming weeks, thanks to all for their suggestions, even the physically impossible ones!
Posters....not planned at the moment, although I should think that that's a real possibility in the very near future for sale at gigs.
Piano Vibrations - Let's put the myth to bed once and for all about this record. It was released on Polydor as part of their "Vibrations" collection produced by John Schroeder. Rick was actually booked as a session musician and played his jolly little piano bits in a three hour session at Pye studios in London sometime in 1970. It was then released as an album featuring Rick or I do believe Ricky (ugh) Wakeman on keyboards. A&M to whom Rick was signed at the time with Strawbs, were slightly less than amused, and ensuing legal arguments took place. Rick got £9. Rick's mum has a battered copy, but Rick is not enamoured with the album for many reasons, (£9 being one of them!). Anybody wishing to try and get hold of this deleted album, we can only suggest you try Polydor direct or the local second hand record shop, where believe it or not, a couple have appeared I'm reliably informed.
A few enquiries regarding The Caped Crusader, a book which came out in 1977 about Rick's career, (ha ha we say). It is out of print, both hardback and the Granada paperback version. Again it's down to the old second hand book shops I'm afraid. Rick is in the process of writing a book on various exploits, and subject to a publisher liking it (ha ha) should be finished by the end of the year. There are many more projects, gigs etc in the pipeline, but we have decided that until things are pretty firmed up commitment wise, there is little point in telling you about it, as people tend to get majorly upset when A WORLD TOUR ends up as three gigs in Neasdon!
Well that's it for this bulletin, although I'm sure you'll be getting at least one update in the coming weeks.
Any questions, please direct them to Carla Brown at the address at the top.
Text scanned, OCRd and checked by Jon Hinchliffe