Rick Wakeman's Grand Piano Tour

Grand indeed!!! Last night was so incredible... in three words: Rick. Wakeman. Rocks.

Start of the night:

Getting psyched for the mini-moog...

Only to discover that the "Grand Piano Tour" means exactly that. No synthesizer. Just a grand piano. Temporary confusion (what, Rick Wakeman without a synth?!?) turns into total amazement when I discover that Rick Wakeman jams out on the Wurlitzer just as well as he does on the Korg or Roland... holy shit, it was a fantastic show!!!! And did you also know that Rick Wakeman is a stand-up comic and is regularly on a BBC comedy show? He performed a bit of his routine between songs... very funny indeed; I do love British humor and a talented raconteur.

The one downer of the night was that no cameras were allowed in the show, which meant I couldn't call out "Play Catherine Parr!" and capture it on film, like my brother asked me to do...

Here's the real version of Catherine Parr...


After the concert, Rick let his fans line up for autographs and photos. About 100 of us waited to meet the keyboard master. About 99 of those in line were 45-year-old men clinging to an old dream. And one was a 32-year-old female strangely obsessed with an aging icon who writes music about the Middle Ages.

Case in point... It was finally my turn...

I started yammering about my childhood love of his Henry the VIII album... (please feel free to take a closer look at RW's face here, which seems to say, "What in the f**k is this girl talking about? Someone save me now...")

And I also told him how much I adored Tomita...

The other ultimate 70s synthesizer guru...

I think he liked me... he was telling me here how he once played with Tomita...

Good thing I didn't piss off that angry/bored bodyguard.

The ultimate photo op...

He's about 6'4"... and you'd think he were Johnny Depp or something, the way I'm looking here.

So... that's about it, my crazy Sunday night at the Birchmere.

Toodles...