August seemed to fly by and looking back, I can see why as it was so busy. On the sporting front ….(not much of that anymore at my age I’m afraid), there was my Golf Day at Burhill which was a fabulous success and all down to the hard work put in by my friend and organiser Graeme Slocombe. The golf was superb, (well everybody’s golf was superb except mine), and the evening’s entertainment was of a fabulous standard and everybody seemed to have a really great time. We raised over £47,000 for the research centre we support at Gt Ormond St, which in a time of recession shows how much the people who supported us really do care. My thanks to everyone.

I also played golf for the Comedian’s Golf Society. (I accept that I am not a comedian as such, but was admitted to the society by the members after they saw me play).

The Cropredy Festival was a wonderful event and I don’t think I’ve ever heard the band play better. The warm up show at The Assembly in Leamington Spa was great too. What a beautiful venue The Assembly is.

I managed to fit in all the filming for Vintage Television which launched on September 1st and I am really hoping that I will have more involvement in the coming months.

Much of August was also taken up with recording tracks for the new Jon Anderson / Rick Wakeman album which we sincerely hope will be ready in time for the tour of the UK. The album is going to be called The Living Tree and will contain at least 9 new tracks as yet never recorded and these will include the four that we wrote together for the last Jon and Rick tour 4 years ago.

Whilst on the subject of the tour I have decided that this time around I won’t be playing the grand piano as I felt it would be nice to make a change from the last tour and so I will be taking out a couple of high tech keyboards which will bring a new colour to the music.

On the 1st September I flew to Dublin for the launch of Radio Nova on which I have a two-hour show every Saturday evening from 6-8pm. The launch was fabulous. They had planes with banners, dancing girls in the streets, Harley Davidsons everywhere and a big boat on the river with a great Bon Jovi tribute band playing. The streets were unbelievably crowded and I had a wonderful time. If you’re in Dublin or the surrounding area, give the station a listen, it’s excellent.

I’ve got more than a few Intimate Evening shows this month and all the details can be found on the website. In-between these Erik Jordan and myself will be working on The Living Tree album.

“Rick’s Place” every Saturday morning at 10 o’clock on Planet Rock continues to flourish and it’s great fun working each week with David “Kid” Jensen. My Radio Nova shows we pre-record in England and that is also great fun to do. It’s an area I really enjoy and hope to expand upon next year.

A couple of off the wall events will be my hosting our local Gardener’s Question Time on the 25th September at Brockdish Village Hall. The event sells out months in advance and is great fun and I have learned a lot over the years I have been hosting it and who knows….one day I might get invited onto the real Gardener’s Question Time on Radio 4.

Another annual event I’m involved with is with the Women’s Institute!….The hold a national coffee morning in aid of Macmillan Nurses and I open one in a village near me in Suffolk called Yaxley. The event is on the 24th and I am proud to be a part of it, as the Macmillan nurses were absolutely wonderful to my mum in her last days.

One thing I have learned this year is that next year I have to leave gaps for some relaxation as I realise that working flat out for 99% of the time is not conducive to good health and I have to own up that I rather enjoy living on this planet!

……..more next month!!

Cheers,
Rick

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