Rick Wakeman has announced "The Even Grumpier Old Christmas Show 2020", an evening of music and laughter — and grumpiness!
Rick's back — and even grumpier than last year! Following 2019's sell-out Christmas tour, the keyboard wizard will embark on another festive foray around the U.K., visiting some of the cities he didn't get to the first time around. "The Even Grumpier Old Christmas Show" will kick off on November 27 at London’s Cadogan Hall and continue to Dorking, Basingstoke, Leicester, Birmingham, Gateshead, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Edinburgh, Bradford, Hull, Southend, Cambridge, High Wycombe, Southampton, Salisbury and Bexhill.
Both as a member of YES and as a solo artist, Rick Wakeman is known across the world for his virtuosity, creative flair and wicked sense of humour. A true rock legend, with over 50 million albums sold in five decades, his music continues to reach new generations of fans.
Fans of his solo concerts will already know that they combine spellbinding piano music with side-splitting stories and revealing insights into his lengthy and varied career. New fans should expect an evening of superb musicianship, featuring tracks from last year's release "Christmas Portraits" — Rick's instrumental arrangements of traditional festive tunes — as well as music from YES, his own solo epics and early Bowie hits, plus fantastic arrangements of THE BEATLES tunes, and much, much more, interspersed with knockabout (and sometimes bawdy!) humor.
"The Even Grumpier Old Christmas Show" is guaranteed to round off what has been a stressful year for everyone with an entertaining evening of glorious piano music and hilarious fun.
Professional musician, keyboard player, songwriter, broadcaster and raconteur, Wakeman's career started as a much-in-demand session player, who performed on recordings by David Bowie, Elton John, Lou Reed, Al Stewart and hundreds more artists. His big break came in 1971 when he joined YES, who went on to become the most successful prog rock band in the world, but Wakeman has also always gone his own way outside the framework of that group.
In the seventies, he achieved chart-topping success with solo albums such as "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth", "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII" and "The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table", which cumulatively sold over 10 million copies in North America alone.
He has written several film scores, amongst them two for director Ken Russell ("Lisztomania" and "Crimes Of Passion") and two "Harry Palmer" movies starring Michael Caine ("Bullet To Beijing" and "Midnight In St. Petersburg"), and in the U.K., has built up an impressive reputation as a witty guest and host on shows like "Grumpy Old Men", "Countdown", "Watchdog" and the comedy cabaret show "Live At Jongleurs". His wickedly irreverent acceptance speech when YES was inducted in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017 nearly brought the house down.
That same year, he made British chart history when his "Piano Portraits" record became the first solo piano instrumental album to enter the U.K.'s Top 10 on release — a feat he then repeated with last year's "Piano Odyssey". Both records feature tunes that have a special connection with Rick's personal musical journey and his subsequent tours, in which he performs a selection of tracks accompanied by hilarious memories and anecdotes have been instant sellouts in the U.K.
