Rick Wakeman reports a new prog album is in the works

Rick Wakeman
Rick Wakeman (Image credit: Robin Little/Redferns - Getty)

Rick Wakeman (opens in new tab) reports he’s planing on releasing a new prog album later this year.

The keyboardist first made the announcement on his website (opens in new tab) and has posted some updates on Twitter this week.

Looking ahead to 2020, Wakeman originally said: “The first couple of months will include recording a new prog album for release in late March. It’s going to be instrumental and very keyboard heavy. Now there’s a surprise!”

He followed that with a tweet on Monday saying recording had begun and later added: “Recording yesterday surpassed all hopes. Hopefully more of the same today and indeed for the next few weeks of recording.”

And earlier today, Wakeman tweeted: “Another really productive and inspirational day in the studio yesterday. Just today to go for recording this week and then a few days of reflection before continuing again next week.”

Wakeman has also revealed that he’s planning another run of Grumpy Old Rockstar shows across North America later in the year.

He explains: “During April and May there will be around 15 to 20 Grumpy Old Rockstar shows in the US and Canada, in towns and cities that we didn’t manage to get to on the tour last year. 

“This will be the first leg of two, with the second 15 to 20 shows being later in the year.”

Last month, Wakeman released Box Of Boots: Official Bootleg Series which captured his live work recorded between 1974 and 2014 (opens in new tab). It was limited to just 1000 copies, with each package containing a signed and numbered certificate.

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Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.