Rick Wakeman fulfilled a long-held ambition when he performed his rock symphony The Six Wives Of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace in 2009, marking the 500th anniversary of the English king’s ascension to the throne. Ahead of the event he discussed his 1973 debut solo release with Prog and dispelled some myths about his career.
The Hampton Court shows will be one of the biggest events you’ve undertaken of late. How did it come about?
Even though some of the Henry pieces have been played at shows over the years, the thought of doing them as a standalone concert hadn’t really occurred to me. A few people had asked me over the years but I didn’t really have the right reason for doing them.
Then I got a call from Trevor Dunsford at Hampton Court. He said, “Do you know what next year is? We’ve got a lot of events coming up. How would you like to put on The Six Wives Of Henry VIII ?”
So there I am on the other end of the phone with a huge grin on my face. I said, “I first put in a request in 1973. I’ve had some late replies to things – but this takes some beating!”
It seems you’re not going to be holding anything back in terms of presentation.
When I met up with Trevor he asked me what I wanted to do. I said, “The stage will have to be huge – at least 50 metres wide; a 70-odd piece orchestra, a 40-piece choir, a seven-piece band; various guests, actors, actresses, narrators; three new pieces of music, adding a further 30 minutes to the piece in total, new arrangements keeping the original flavour; jugglers and hog roasts and things all around.”
I sat back and waited for the response, and he said, “Brilliant!” I left the meeting walking on air.
The sheer scale brings to mind your illustrious The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur on ice at Wembley.
People say to me, “You lost a lot of money on that." Yes and no. Yes, I did lose money on it – I sold out three nights at Wembley but it cost me a fortune. But worldwide that album had sold four million when we played the show, and about 12.5 million to date. I classed it as advertising. It always gets voted biggest spectacular – and also biggest folly. I take that as a compliment, really.
In 1999 you followed 1974’s Journey To The Centre Of The Earth in 1999 with Return To… but that appeared to be overlooked. Was it bad timing or prog experiencing something of a dip in form?
I agree 100 per cent. I also got it totally wrong. I call it the “anniversary effect,” If the timing’s right then it can be great – if it’s not, forget it. That was the 25th anniversary but the timing was absolutely wrong. We don’t play that live very much, but when we do, mostly abroad, we get monster crowds for it.
According to Wikipedia – not always the most reliable source – you got your first ever keyboard from the late Jack Wild, the actor who played the Artful Dodger in the film Oliver!
Not my first keyboard – that was a Woolworth’s reed organ, which cost £4. I got my first MiniMoog from Jack. I wanted one when,I joined Yes but they cost a fortune. I was on £18 a week in The Strawbs, and got £50 a week when I joined Yes. Brian Lane [Yes manager] also managed Jack Wild, who had one for sale. They cost over £1,000 – but he only wanted £35 for it because he didn’t think it worked. There was nothing wrong with it! Jack wanted to play two notes at a time, but it was a monophonic instrument.
You were fingered as one of the protagonists who got the Sex Pistols kicked off the A&M label.
Nothing to do with it whatsoever. It was a publicity thing dreamed up by A&M in London as an excuse for getting them off the label. I went mad and the head of A&M was sent on a six-month sabbatical. It was allegedly the likes of me and Richard Carpenter saying we’d leave. But we were artists signed to the label – we had no say on who they had on the label.
And to say I don’t like punk! I was the one who signed The Tubes to A&M – probably the original US punk band. I did a documentary about punk recently, and there was a press officer from A&M concurring with everything I said. The only reason they used me and Richard Carpenter was because he lived in America and I lived in Switzerland.
You were responsible for the cover of Yes’s 1979 album Tormato, weren’t you?
Yes! We’d moved away from Roger Dean to Hipgnosis for artwork. It was all based around this place in Devon called Yes Tor, where we’d had our photo taken. They brought the full artwork into RAK Studio to present to us. We all looked at it and said: “This is shit!” It was horrendous.
Steve Howe said, “I could have taken this photo with a Brownie camera and splodged some blue paint on it.” There was always a bowl of veggie food around at the time, and there were some squidgy tomatoes in the salad. I picked one up and slung it at it. They said: “That’s the actual artwork!”
Brian Lane picked it up with tomato running down it, laid it flat and said, “Photo that – that’s your artwork.” They said: “But the album’s called Yes Tor.” And Brian said: “Yes Tormato!”
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