Rick Wakeman announces 10-date UK tour

Rick Wakeman has announced a 10-date UK tour.

He’s lined up the dates in support of his Piano Portraits album, which was released in January via Write Notes.

The record was inspired by the reaction to his performance of David Bowie’s Life On Mars on BBC Radio 2, and features a total of 15 tracks, including Stairway To Heaven, Space Oddity, Eleanor Rigby and Amazing Grace.

Speaking about the album, Wakeman previously said: “I’ve been wanting to do a piano album for years and I spent quite a bit of time looking at everything from straight classical pieces to stuff that I’d played on in the past like Morning Has Broken and Life On Mars.

“Plus pieces of music that I thought would work really well like Stairway To Heaven and classics like Clair De Lune. Nearly all of the tracks have a memory for me somewhere down the line and it just seemed to work.”

On the live dates titled Piano Portraits In Concert, the shows will feature “at least eight of the pieces on the album, plus other musical surprises, and all will be interspersed with hilarious anecdotes from this well-known and accomplished raconteur.”

Tickets will go on general sale on February 3 via MyTickets.

Rick Wakeman Piano Portraits In Concert UK dates

May 25: Bury St Edmunds The Apex
Jun 03: Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion
Jun 08: Buxton Opera House
Jun 10: Basingstoke Anvil
Jun 17: Leicester De Montfort Hall
Jun 22: London Cadogan Hall
Jun 24: Birmingham Town Hall
Jun 25: Manchester Royal Northern College of Music
Jul 05: Wavendon Stables
Jul 06: Wavendon Stables

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