An archetypal champion of 1970s prog-rock, Rick Wakeman is instantly identifiable by his flowing blonde hair, banks of keyboards and grandiose classical-jazz-rock fusions. Born in Perrivale, Middlesex, on May 18, 1949, he started playing electric keyboards at the age of 12 and studied piano, clarinet and orchestration at the Royal College of Music, going on to become a session musician. He played Mellotron on David Bowie's A Space Oddity (1969) and piano on several other Bowie and Cat Stevens hits before becoming a regular member of the Strawbs in 1970. The following year he joined Yes, working on three of their biggest-selling albums before launching his solo career in flamboyant style with the instrumental concept album The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1973). It broke into the UK Top 10 album charts and has gone on to sell over 15 million copies. Wakeman continued the thematic theatrical style with Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1974) and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975), which was also the subject of an extraordinary concert performed live at London's Empire Pool on ice. Wakeman had uneven success in the next decades following a change in musical fashion and financial issues from two divorces. His most popular album was the conceptual rocker 1984 (1981), which was followed by the minor pop hit single "Glory Boys" from Silent Nights (1985). He expanded into other areas such as hosting the television show GasTank, composing for television and film, forming record labels, and producing his first new-age, ambient, and Christian music with Country Airs (1986) and The Gospels (1987), respectively. In 1988, he reunited with former Yes bandmates for Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, which led to his third period in the group until 1992. Wakeman's most significant album of the 1990s was Return to the Centre of the Earth (1999), his first UK top 40 album in 18 years, and his piano album Piano Portraits (2017) produced his first UK top 10 album since 1975. Starting in 2009, Wakeman revisited his three hit albums of the 1970s by performing them live with new and expanded arrangements. From 2016 to 2020, Wakeman was a member of Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman. He continues to record albums and perform concerts worldwide in various capacities. 2020s releases include The Red Planet (2020), Yessonata (2024), and Melancholia (2025).
