Wakeman steers tour bus film

By Scott Munro
published

Rick documents life on the road with help from Fairport Convention, Pretty Things and others

Rick Wakeman is the presenter of a documentary about touring life, to be broadcast later this week.

The keyboard icon leads Tales From The Tour Bus: Rock’n’Roll On The Road, which explores the less glamorous side of travelling as part of a band.

The hour-long film features interviews with the Pretty Things, Fairport Convention, Girlschool, The Damned and Suzi Quatro, while footage of the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Marc Bolan is also included.

Wakeman says: “From the 50s to the 80s these musical pirates could be glimpsed travelling the length and breadth of the country, changing the musical landscape as they went, playing wherever they could get a gig and risking everything for us. This is the story of their journey.”

Tales From The Tour Bus will be shown in the UK on BBC Four on Friday (April 24) at 9pm. Find out more.

Scott Munro
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.