Rick Wakeman - Live At The London Palladium 2023 - 4CD set coming soon!

A new 4CD box set, featuring two magical concerts performed by Rick Wakeman, the English Rock Ensemble and the English Chamber Choir
at the London Palladium on 22 and 23 February 2023
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​In February 2023, Rick Wakeman CBE performed two sell-out concerts at the London Palladium which celebrated his most acclaimed work as a solo artist and as a member of YES. A year on, he releases ‘Live at the London Palladium 2023’ on his own label Fragile Records, in partnership with Esoteric Recordings - an impressive 4CD set, which features the concerts in their entirety.

The five years from 1971 to 1975 were an incredibly creative half-decade for composer/keyboard player Rick Wakeman. During that time, he not only helped YES, the most successful progressive band of all time, create some of their best-known classic album, but he also wrote and recorded three solo albums, which each achieved multi-platinum sales and set a trailblazing standard for future concept albums to follow.

For his 2023 concerts, he revisited those golden years, unveiling new arrangements of some of his most iconic back catalogue adapted for band and choir, including the premiere of ‘The YES Suite’, a Wakeman-penned medley featuring instantly recognizable themes taken from YES music. Alongside Rick, centre-stage behind his trademark giant keyboard rig, he was accompanied by his long-standing band, the English Rock Ensemble - featuring Dave Colquhoun (guitars and backing vocals), Adam Falkner (drums), Lee Pomeroy (bass and backing vocals), Hayley Sanderson (vocals) and Adam Wakeman (keyboard, guitars and backing vocals) – and the English Chamber Choir, conducted by Guy Protheroe, with recorded narration by famous actors Peter Egan and Ian Lavender.

A memento of two unique and magical nights, this box set features fresh interpretations of Rick’s back catalogue that have never before been released on record in this form, and is both a wonderful souvenir for long-term fans and an outstanding introduction to a groundbreaking musician’s repertoire for new ones.
RICK WAKEMAN takes his band on the road for an evening of classic prog rock in February 2024. 
The tour will start in Glasgow on 15 February 2024 and then visit Liverpool, Manchester, Brighton, Birmingham, York, Gateshead and London before concluding in Bristol on 28 February. The two-part show will consist of Rick’s new arrangements of Classic YES material for band and vocalists, followed after the interval by his much-loved epic Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Recordings of these magical one-off concerts are now available on CD as follows:

TRACK LISTING
DISC ONE
The Six Wives of Henry VIII
1 Catherine of Aragon
2 Anne Boleyn
3 Jane Seymour
4 Anne of Cleves
5 Catherine Howard
6 Catherine Parr

DISC TWO
The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

1 King Arthur
2 Lady of the Lake
3 Guinevere
4 Lancelot And the Black Knight
5 The Best Knight
6 Sir Galahad
7 Excalibur
8 The Last Battle
9 (ENCORE) The King of Merlins
10 (ENCORE) Merlin the Magician

DISC THREE
Classic Yes
1 Roundabout
2 The YES Suite (part A – The Meeting)
3 The YES Suite (part B – Wonderous Stories)
4 The YES Suite (part C – Southside of the Sky)
5 And You And I
6 Starship Trooper / Wurm

DISC FOUR
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
1 The Preface
2 The Journey Overture
3 Journeys Dawn
4 Crystals / The Gothic Cathedral / A Quest for Water
5 The Hansbach / Fervent Prayer
6 The Recollection / Lost And Found
7 Echoes / 4 Miles
8 The Reunion
9 A New Vista
10 A World within a World
11 The Raft
12 The Battle
13 Cumulous Clouds
14 The Storm
15 The Cemetery
16 Quaternary Man
17 Mastodons
18 The Forest
19 Ages of Man
20 The Tunnel
21 Hall of the Mountain King / Mount Etna