<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are bands that simply play music.\u00a0 While some engage with their audiences, others are what are referred to as \u2018shoegazers\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018SGs\u2019 are bands that don\u2019t make eye contact or go out of their way to make small talk with their fans – they just play.\u00a0 Rick Wakeman is a peg that does not exactly fit in either of these holes.\u00a0 Wakeman was always a somewhat flamboyant keyboard player when he was with the early line up of Yes.\u00a0 In spite of a successful run of albums (including <\/span>Fragile (1971), Close to the Edge (1972), <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973)<\/span><\/i>, Wakeman decided to leave the band in 1974 to pursue his own music.\u00a0 Never mind that he returned to the band five different times, he has kept himself busy right up to the present day making some outstanding albums and putting on some outlandish live performances.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When <\/span>Prog Magazine<\/span><\/i> asked Wakeman about the roots of his over the top shows, he said, \u201cI just like grandiose.\u00a0 I loved the idea of telling stories with music since I was about eight, when my father introduced me to Prokofiev\u2019s <\/span>Peter and the Wolf<\/span><\/i>, but over the years, I got bored going to concerts.\u00a0 The music was great, but I came to the conclusion that a concert should be a multi-purpose entertainment.\u201d\u00a0 Wakeman wore flowing capes on stage with Yes and put a lot of body English into his bank of keyboards.\u00a0 The \u2018grandiose\u2019 didn\u2019t stop at the edge of the stage.\u00a0 His bassist, Roger Newell said, \u201cWe used to travel in Clark Gable\u2019s Cadillac, refurbished by Rolls Royce.\u00a0 We had a TV in there, and two bars, just for the band.\u201d\u00a0 His son, Adam Wakeman, agrees whole-heartedly:\u00a0 \u201cDad doesn\u2019t do things by halves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yes, there were hints of what was to come before Wakeman left Yes the first time.\u00a0 Still, his first epic solo outing started small enough.\u00a0 He joined a group of musicians at a tavern in Buckinghamshire for a weekly jam.\u00a0 There the seeds were planted for an extravagant project that would be titled <\/span>Journey to the Center of the Earth.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The production, which included his band, a full orchestra, a choir, and a narrator, soon grew too large to record in an actual studio.\u00a0 Rick turned his attention to the Royal Festival Hall where it all came together during twin concerts held on January 18, 1974.\u00a0 The London Symphony Orchestra and English Chamber Choir recorded the epic <\/span>Journey<\/span><\/i> in front of a live audience of 3,000.\u00a0 It surprised no one that Wakeman had to refinance his home and sell some of his vintage cars to fund the project.\u00a0 It became a bit of a habit to self fund his \u2018bigger and better\u2019 musical challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While recording <\/span>Journey, <\/span><\/i>Wakeman\u2019s drummer Barney James realized they were into the big time when he looked out from the Festival Hall stage and started recognizing faces:\u00a0 \u201c…and there\u2019s Steve Howe in the audience, John Lennon with Yoko Ono, Ringo, McCartney with Linda, politicians, Peter Sellers with Britt Ekland, and God knows who else.\u00a0 Just faces everywhere.\u00a0 That is when we went, \u2018Blimey, this is serious\u2019.\u00a0 I think only then did it hit us.\u00a0 I did realize that I was into playing with the big boys, and the high budgets.\u00a0 We all had to follow Rick into his dreams.\u201d\u00a0 Wakeman toured the entire program because, as he noted, \u201cThis is how we recorded it, so this is how we toured it.\u201d\u00a0 These kinds of tours were always money losers but the albums sold after the tours made up for the expensive productions.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rick Wakeman was only just getting started.\u00a0 According to <\/span>Prog\u2019s <\/span><\/i>Henry Yates, \u201cAs vast as <\/span>Journey <\/span><\/i>was, it\u2019s but a pub gig in an upstairs room next to Wakeman\u2019s most opulent hour.\u00a0 Ask the average progger about 1975s <\/span>The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, <\/span><\/i>and chances are, they\u2019ll cite the shows before the album.\u00a0 Adam says, \u201cMy dad says people come up to him on the street, and they remember the show on ice, because it was just so ridiculous.\u00a0 Brilliantly ridiculous:\u00a0 that\u2019s what I mean.\u00a0 You know, it was just such a bizarre thing to do.\u201d\u00a0 Adam is referring to his father\u2019s decision to not stage <\/span>King Arthur <\/span><\/i>at Royal Festival Hall, but to do it over three nights at Wembley Arena.\u00a0 There was one minor catch to this plan:\u00a0 the Ice Follies were scheduled to play Wenbley and the ice rink was in place.\u00a0 Wakeman, in his normal \u2018can do\u2019 style, said, \u201cIt won\u2019t be a problem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Because Wakeman had put up the funds for yet another lavish production, the suits at A&M Records were fine with it.\u00a0 As long as the production sold albums, they were not in any hurry to tell him \u2018no\u2019.\u00a0 In this case, the 72 piece orchestra, six piece band, 64 member choir, and 16 more in the brass choir were enhanced by 60 plus skaters and a show crew of 50.\u00a0 Wakeman likens the choreographer’s job for a production so vast to that of putting a massive jigsaw puzzle together;\u00a0 it just meant one had to get the right people involved.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Adam again recalls (with a smile on his face), \u201c<\/span>Arthur <\/span><\/i>was just this crazy show with loads of people dressed up as horses, and knights, and stuff like that,\u00a0 Back in the 70s, putting on a show and doing it on ice wasn\u2019t practical and wasn\u2019t really feasible, but that wasn\u2019t the point.\u00a0 The point was, he wanted to do it – so they did it.\u201d\u00a0 Newell adds, \u201cThe funniest thing is that Rick said, \u2018Look, there\u2019s gonna be a lot of girls skating round while we\u2019re playing:\u00a0 What should they wear?\u00a0 Of course, we\u2019re young guys so we say, \u2018stockings and suspenders\u2019.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what they wore for one of the numbers!\u00a0 I don\u2019t recall stockings and suspenders coming into Arthurian legend, but hey, it does now!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Wakeman told <\/span>Prog <\/span><\/i>he was surprised everything worked as well as it did and he enjoyed the Wembley dates.\u00a0 Perhaps not the part where his cape got caught in an elevated synth and left him hanging in mid-air, but certainly the whole show was memorable.\u00a0 As drummer James puts it, <\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I can not say that I have been to a live performance quite as involved as either of Rick Wakeman\u2019s.\u00a0 My version of a great show is one where the music carries the day, like Chicago in their glory days with bassist Peter Cetera and drummer Daniel Seraphine still in the band.\u00a0 With that said, there are always interesting visual things that can elevate a show.\u00a0 One of these events took place at NMU\u2019s Hedgecock Fieldhouse when the headline band was the Detroit based group, Catfish Hodge.\u00a0 They were a solid band, but the interesting visual stuff on this night happened during their opening act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Keyboardist Michael Quatro and his drummer (sorry, I never got his name) put on a serviceable two man band opening set.\u00a0 Quatro was dressed in a white jumpsuit (think latter day Elvis) and the backstage was lined with a literal wall of white speaker boxes and amps.\u00a0 Each appeared to be about three foot square and they were stacked at least four high and 12 across (if my math skills are still intact, that would be at least 48 speaker cabinets).\u00a0 It might have been more or less, but I can\u2019t find a clear photo showing his stage set up from the early 1970s.\u00a0 It was impressive and the show he put on was awesome, right up until one of the speakers began to make an ungodly squealing sound.\u00a0 The longer it went on, the more annoyed Quatro appeared until he finally yelled backstage, \u201cRussell!\u00a0 Could you PLEASE unplug that one?\u201d\u00a0 It took him a bit to get back into his groove, but I still see him center stage, arms extended to each side as he played two keyboards at once with the wall of white speaker cabs behind him.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Foghat brought a different look when I saw them perform at Lakeview Arena in Marquette.<\/span><\/p>\n They were perhaps the first group I saw who took the concept of \u2018stage clothes\u2019 up a notch.\u00a0 Each band member was sporting silky looking duds, each in a different color.\u00a0 I always liked their good time boogie music, but never pictured them wearing threads similar to what The Beatles wore during their <\/span>Sgt. Pepper <\/span><\/i>era – minus the braids and military frills.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All I knew of the Canadian trio Triumph was the \u2018Rock and Roll Machine\u2019 tagline that every poster and radio ad used to promote their show in Marquette.\u00a0 They also had quite an impressive wall of equipment behind them, not to mention drummer Gil Moore\u2019s massive drum set.\u00a0 They employed a bank of backlights that surely caused the power to dim across Marquette County when they lit up the arena.\u00a0 Had I been following the band from show to show like a Deadhead, I probably would have invested in some good sunglasses.\u00a0 They used a bit of pyro but their go to stage set was lights, lights, and more lights.\u00a0 For a time they also used a large \u2018TRIUMPH\u2019 sign set with motion lights that went forward, backward, and in enough random patterns to make you dizzy.\u00a0 The music and the lightshow made me think, \u201cWow – that was fun!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The two most interesting shows I saw were by the same band – Blue Oyster Cult. \u00a0 Both took place at Lakeview but they weren\u2019t carbon copies.\u00a0 This was another case of seeing a band before I knew anything about them and then playing catch up by finding their albums.\u00a0 At the time of the first show, they had just released their <\/span>Agents of Fortune<\/span><\/i> album.\u00a0 They brought a fair share of pyro to the party and it was tastefully used to highlight certain songs.\u00a0 Singer Eric Bloom (who also played guitar and keyboards) pulled out what looked to be a Roman candle at one point and fired it over the audience.\u00a0 Their signature trick was getting all five band members arrayed across the stage as they traded guitar riffs – and yes, one of them was drummer Albert Bouchard.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The second show was supposed to be a dual headlining show with Ritchie Blackmore\u2019s Rainbow.\u00a0 I was disappointed when they announced Rainbow had reluctantly had to cancel (the mercurial Blackmore was known for doing his own thing but I don’t really know why they canceled in this case).\u00a0 The groans that greeted this announcement turned to cheers when the MC informed the nearly packed house that BOC would be playing an extended two set show.\u00a0 Sure, I wanted to see Rainbow, but the previous Blue Oyster Cult show was still in the back of my mind – it had been one of my top five concerts.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The music was solid but the pyro and lightshow seemed to be more tamed down.\u00a0 Perhaps spreading their set over two hours had something to do with it.\u00a0 I also wondered if they were still recycling the same light\/pyro script but it turned out they were not.\u00a0 Their most recent album (<\/span>Spectres<\/span><\/i>) featured the massive hit <\/span>Godzilla<\/span><\/i> and drummer Bouchard turned in one of the most dazzling drum solos I can remember.\u00a0 The solo was set in the middle of <\/span>Godzilla<\/span><\/i> and as he neared the end of his set piece, the stage went dark and he stopped playing completely.\u00a0 This caught the audience by surprise because a general hush fell over the crowd.\u00a0 Suddenly, strobe lights lit up the drum riser and there was Albert Bouchard wearing a very large Godzilla head bashing away at his kit.\u00a0 The strobes gave the whole scene a jittery vibe like an old time movie.\u00a0 It may not have been the greatest drum solo on record, but the combination of the strobes, Godzilla head, and Bouchard\u2019s theatrical playing made it memorable.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Does a band have to put on a show to give an audience a good experience?\u00a0 No, but there is something about \u2018spectacle\u2019 that sells tickets.\u00a0 Would Alice Cooper\u2019s music still stand up live without the cane, guillotine, and top hat?\u00a0 Having watched him perform some of his hits with the Hollywood Vampires minus all the stage props, I would have to say yes.\u00a0 In other cases, one can listen to Pink Floyd\u2019s <\/span>The Wall<\/span><\/i> and get the story, but something tells me the live version without the props wouldn\u2019t be as well received.\u00a0 I loved Peter Frampton\u2019s show at NMU during his <\/span>Frampton Comes Alive<\/span><\/i> era but that was in a fieldhouse.\u00a0 I watched the video of him performing in\u00a0 the much larger Oakland A\u2019s baseball stadium later in that tour and it just seemed like the music got lost.\u00a0 He spent a lot of time running around, changing places with the drummer, and trying hard to reach the people in the cheap seats, but it wasn\u2019t a very good concert.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When DJ centered concerts like deadmau5 became the rage, I tried to keep an open mind.\u00a0 Loud techno pop, a lot of lights, and an enthusiastic crowd were all elements found in his show. Even with his enormous mouse head with the light up eyes on, I didn\u2019t find it interesting.\u00a0 As an old band guy, I guess my preference is still people playing live music on stage, even if they are gazing at their shoes when they perform.\u00a0 That is fine – every generation is entitled to their own version of \u2018putting on a show\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 The Rock and Roll Machine in action!\u00a0 A good look at their light propelled version of\u00a0Hold On!<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are bands that simply play music.\u00a0 While some engage with their audiences, others are what are referred to as \u2018shoegazers\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018SGs\u2019 are bands that don\u2019t make eye contact or go out of their way to make small talk with their fans – they just play.\u00a0 Rick Wakeman is a peg that does not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2986"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2989,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986\/revisions\/2989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span>\u201cAbsolute chaos!\u201d\u00a0 The sound in the arena was impossible with the walls bouncing back the sound from every angle, but Newell says, \u201cWe knew our stuff backwards and it\u2019s just as well,\u201d considering the acoustical challenges the arena presented.\u00a0 The reviews were mixed, but again the album sales covered the deficiencies.\u00a0 Of those critics who called <\/span>Arthur<\/span><\/i> \u2018Wakeman\u2019s grand folly\u2019, he says:\u00a0 \u201cGood for them.\u00a0 They remember it, though.\u00a0 I\u2019d love a couple of pounds for everyone who\u2019s claimed to have been at one of those three shows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n