Might as well start with the heavy stuff so to speak, so here are the current confirmed dates and venues for Rick's up-coming soiree around the UK and parts of Europe (that will let him and the band in!).
There will be more dates added, so if you're mad keen, or just mad and want to know if any more are to be added, then please feel free to call BDA on 0942 605465 toward the end of May, or of course give Carla a ring at the office.
28th May 1990 Leisure Centre Horwich.
29th May 1990 Arts Theatre Greenock.
30th May 1990 Gaiety Theatre Ayr.
1st June 1990 Winter Gardens Margate.
2nd June 1990 Woughton Centre Milton Keynes.
3rd June 1990 Grand Opera House York.
4th June 1990 St. David's Hall Cardiff.
5th June 1990 Assembley Halls Watford.
6th June 1990 Marina Theatre Lowestoft.
7th June 1990 St. Georges Hall Bradford.
8th June 1990 Ritz Theatre Lincoln.
9th June 1990 Assembly Rooms Derby.
10th June 1990 Opera House Blackpool.
This show is a charity show, where all the money is going to the Sharon Allen Leukaemia Appeal. There will be a full supporting first half which will include Jim Bowen and Jethro on the comic side, plus two other acts (that really do exist!) but can't be publicised as they are performing in the area shortly afterwards and their agents are obviously concerned that if they are publicised as appearing on this show it would adversely affect sales of their own shows.
11th June 1990 Municipal Hall Colne.
12th June 1990 Music Hall Shrewsbury.
13th June 1990 Civic Theatre Southport.
14th June 1990 Civic Hall Winsford.
15th June 1990 Leisure Centre Gloucester.
16th June 1990 Apollo Theatre Oxford.
17th June 1990 Ferneham Hall Fareham.
18th June 1990 Festival Theatre Paignton.
19th June 1990 Queens Hall Theatre Barnstaple.
20th June 1990 Empire Theatre Hackney.
On the 21st of June at Nottingham Television Studios, Rick and the band record a live show for future showing for Central Television on all regions. The broadcast date is as yet unknown, as is whether or not it will be in front of a live audience. If you would like to go, we suggest you contact Central Television and hassle them for tickets which are normally distributed free. Rick and the lads would love a "friendly" audience!
5th July 1990 Vienna Austria.
6th July 1990 Graz Austria.
14th July 1990 White Rock Theatre Hastings.
21st July 1990 Leisure Centre Kendal.
25th July 1990 Playhouse Theatre Whitley Bay.
27th July 1990 Spa Pavilion Felixstowe.
28th July 1990 Playhouse Theatre Weston Super Mare.
29th July 1990 Princes Theatre Clacton on Sea.
30th July 1990 Pavilion Theatre Worthing.
1st September - 22nd September. Italy, France, Spain and Germany.
27th Sep 1990 Queens Hall Widnes.
28th Sep 1990 Marlowe Theatre Canterbury.
29th Sep 1990 Town Hall Oakengates.
30th Sep 1990 Wellington Pavilion Theatre. Gt. Yarmouth
We hope this gives you enough to go on.
The technical crew will be Stuart "Dr. Doom" Sawney and Chris "Props" Ransom, both of whom worked with Rick on the ABWH tour. For one week whilst "Props" is prebooked with Bill Bruford's Earthworks, his place will be taken by Chris McLeod, who also worked on the ABWH team.
The PA company is BHSS sound services and the show will be mixed by Ian Barfoot.
There will also be an additional person, (Michael Goodman on the June and September UK shows and Adam Wakeman on the July leg), who will be in sole charge of merchandising, which will consist of records, new T-shirts, scarves, CD's and cassettes, posters, car stickers, brochures, bugs (home grown on Ashley) and anything else we can find of interest!
Most tours are given a name, and so Rick has decided that as it heralds the return of the English Rock Ensemble, the tour should be lovingly referred to as the "ERE we go again" tour! (No rude comments please).
With the exception of Blackpool, all shows will have no support, Rick and the ERE doing a two and a quarter hour show, with a fifteen minute interval. The majority of shows are programmed to start at 7.30 pm.
BDA (the tour agents), reckon that in England the majority of people should, at some juncture, be no more than a twenty minute drive away from a Rick Wakeman gig!(Some people have suggested that twenty minutes away from a Rick Wakeman gig is probably the best place to be!).
The ABWH Spanish/Japanese/USA & Canadian Tour
The end of February saw the band play three shows in Spain before flying off to Japan where they played five shows in Tokyo and one in Osaka before flying into Vancouver for a single show.
From there they travelled across country to New York where they took part on the 17th of March in the televised Radio City Music Hall concert in support of AIDS charities. Other participants included Chevy Chase (one of Rick's hero's, who he managed to get to talk with), Dionne Warwick, Whitney Houston. Michael Douglas, Burt Bacharach. Hall and Oates, Barry Manilow....the list goes on and on, and it was one hell of an evening, literally raising millions (tickets at $1,000 each!)
More shows followed up the East Coast, culminating with two sell out shows at the Philadelphia Spectrum (18,000), and Madison Square Garden, New York (18,000). A great way to finish the first 18 months of the bands' life.
Future ABWH Plans
On April the 23rd the band commence recording in the South of France, once again Tony Levin joining them on bass. The first stint of recording to last through to around the 19th of May.
Individual work on the album will then continue, with Rick returning to the studio on the evening of the 22nd of June, through to the 29th of the same month.
The album is to be produced by Jonathon Elias, and with luck should be completed by the end of July and be released sometime in September.
There will be no more ABWH concerts this year, but plans are afoot for touring next year, and details will be announced before the end of the year is out.
On the band's individual front, Bill is doing some solo concerts with Earthworks at the end of May and the beginning of June. Jon is working on the shortly to be released Jon and Vangelis album, Steve is putting the finishing touches to his solo album and Tony Levin you may well have seen having the GOSPELS re recorded, which is something that Rick would very much like to do. Again we promise to keep you informed as to developments here.
Apart From Music
On the 20th of May, Rick makes his fourth appearance at Wembley Stadium....as a footballer, in a match prior to the equivalent of what used to be called the Freight Rover Trophy. Rick has no idea what team he is playing for, or who it is against, or what teams are in the all important final afterwards.
Due to the massive decline in Rick's footballing skills over the last ten years, we doubt whether he cares!
Now for the big one.
On the 23rd of April Rick does the TV of his dreams.... no not Top of
the Pops, no, not the Two Ronnies, no, not Question Time but, yes,
PRO CELEBRITY GOLF!
Filmed in France, Rick will be playing with either Sam Torrence or Ronan Rafferty. The transmission date is unknown, and if Rick has a bad day we probably won't tell you!
TV
For those of you living in the HTV region, Rick's concert recorded in Swansea last year will be transmitted on the 25th of April. For those of you who don't live in the HTV area, either get a friend who does to video it, or watch Neighbours instead.
Competition Time
Before giving the result, and correct answers to the previous competition, we have to say what a fabulous entry we had, and in a couple of areas you are indeed more knowledgeable than us!
Here is the new competition for all who wish to rack their brains in a bit of fun. The prize to be announced at the same time as the result.
1, On what tracks of his solo albums has Rick sung on?
2, How many different labels have released Rick's solo work in the UK
and can you name them ?
3, What band did Ashley Holt record with in the early seventies? Who was
the bass player in the band, and what band was that bass player formally
with ?
4, What was the name of Davy Paton's band, and name one of the hits
he wrote.
5, What is the name of the blues band that Tony Fernandez plays for when
not working with Rick?
6, What other drummers have worked for Rick, either on record or on stage
?
Difficult we know, and we reckon about 50% correct should win it, so don't panic if you don't know a lot of the answers.
And now the moment a lot of you have been waiting for. The result of the last competition.
We caught even the most knowledgeable out here and there but first...the answers.
The first question was what year did Ashley and Rick start working together. 1967 at the Top Rank Ballroom, Watford. WE will accept 1966 though as neither Rick nor Ashley can recall whether or not he started at the very end of 66 or the beginning of 67!
The final title of Maybe '80 was Rock 'n Roll Prophet, and was issued on the Moon Record label.
Most of you got the first two right. (Rick got one right)
Now the tricky one. What singers in a lead capacity have not worked with Rick on stage but have on, record?
A lot of you were unsure whether or not TV appearances counted. Well the series GASTANK does, as people did perform live on stage. (I know, very sneaky!).
Acceptable answers were Roger Daltrey, Tracy Ackerman, Paul Nicholas, Linda Lewis, Hereward Kaye, John Parr, Mario Fasciano. Bill Oddie and Tim Rice.
Now before you all start shouting that we've missed some let us qualify the ineligible.
Believe it or not Chaka Khan did appear live on stage with Rick at a charity function in London in 1981, at the Victoria Palace.
Roy Wood and Maggie Bell appeared on Gastank.
Brian Mathews was a narrator and not a singer.
Stephanie Lawrence sung HERO on film, but the record was never released.
Kenny Lynch never sang lead vocals and did appear on stage with Rick in Aldershot.
Roger Daltrey (but not Paul Nicholas) appeared on stage with Rick for the Tommy concert at the now defunct Rainbow in London.
No arguing please!
Tony Visconti was involved with three records. Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios and From a Witchwood, both Strawbs albums and Rhapsodies, Rick's solo double album.
And the winner is GRAHAM BLEATHMAN, member number 420, just to give our illustrious winner his full and proper title.
What has he won we hear you all cry?
An American CD edition of Journey to the Centre of the Earth will be dispatched in the next few days which I'm sure Graham will probably flog and go on holiday to Bermuda!
A sad note now. After four years as Rick's personal secretary, Carla has decided it's time to move on. She leaves on May the 4th, and we all wish her well and lots of luck for the future. A new mug, sorry replacement has not been decided upon yet, and so continue to write to us, phone us, fax us. and as soon as the "lucky" lady to be, (poor soul), we will let you know.
A bit of advance warning for which we hope you'll bear with us, in as much as the July issue will arrive on your mats about two weeks into the month, due to the fact that Rick does not return from France until the end of June and we would obviously like to give a full up to date report on how the recording is going
Also in the July issue we will attempt to answer some of your many questions that you have written to us with, some of which we think we know the answers to!
Finally thanks to all of you for renewing your membership. We hope that you find 'the bulletin' informative and fun and maybe keeps you a little ahead of the game. Thanks for all your letters and your kind support.
Text scanned, OCRd and checked by Jon Hinchliffe