The year continues to race by and there are certainly some milestones along the way, one of which has just happened being my very last one-man piano solo tour of Italy which finished in Rome just a few days ago. I will continue to do some shows that include the piano but these concerts will mainly be played on keyboards as that is much less stressful on the hands when playing. I expect there might well be one off performance where there is just the piano, but these will be shorter and few and far between.
The 6 shows in Italy were so enjoyable. First class Steinway Model D pianos at every one and wonderfully looked after throughout. Thanks to all who made it happen.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I am back at the Granary with Erik to do two more days of recording the new piano album. I am so pleased with the way it has gone so far and really hope that the album is not only one that's enjoyable to listen to but also one that will encourage positive discussion… more about this next month.
On the 13th and 14th, I will be sitting on the phone doing radio phone interviews for the US dates at the end of the month and early April. Always interesting to hear what questions are asked and even more interesting to hear what answers I give!
On the 25th I fly to America for somewhat of a strange schedule, as the middle part is the Cruise To The Edge for a few days.
This kind of tour, piano and keyboards, will be my last in America as no promoters seem remotely interested in booking me on the West Coast and these last shows are ones we couldn't fit in last year. I am still hopeful that I can bring the ERE over to America and indeed anywhere else where it's possible, to perform what I lovingly call the Palladium shows of the 6 Wives and Arthur one night and a YES set and Journey on a second night.
I have been putting together a load more podcasts (The Myths and Legends of Rick Wakeman) with my great friend Mark Jeeves and am thrilled to announce that they have charted in the podcast charts… I didn't even know there were podcast charts! They are great fun to do and we are looking at doing a live one this Christmas with the venue yet to be chosen for an audience of around 100… if the old Planet Rock Xmas live events that we did when Rick's Plaice was still on the air, then it will be nothing short of riotous.
I was also extremely honoured to be asked to contribute a small section of memories about my great friend Johnnie Walker for Radio 2… I am also invited to a celebration of the life of another great departed friend, Steve Wright.
I feel that 2025 and 2026 are transitional years for me and ones full of musical changes where possible. Instead of the "solo" shows, these will in future be "not quite solo" shows as I will have at least one guest musician with me, as was done with the Xmas shows and could be anything from just myself and a vocalist, or another instrumentalist or a combination of anything from 3-10 other musicians. I also would like to do much more choral work and things are moving ahead with plans for this to happen.
One of the most exciting performances I will be doing as a one off, is a short 50-minute piano concert, in a country I've never been to before and not a human in the audience… now that's got you puzzled I hope!!!... more in the coming months…
Later in the year I will also be travelling out to Bosnia to help at our Saving Strays rescue centre there. We also have some fun fund-raising events planned for later this year including 2 Xmas concerts.
All the upcoming tour dates and one-off concert dates are here on the website, and I really hope you can make some of them.
Thanks again for all your support…
Bye for now...
Cheers Rick
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