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The Latest Breaking News from Rick Wakeman

“We had no money, no management, and we’d been dropped by the label. But when we plugged in and played, it was the most magnificent thing”: Midge Ure’s prog moments with Ultravox, Robert Fripp, Kate Bush, Jethro Tull and, indirectly, Steven Wilson

Taking the same attitude to keyboards that he’d first taken to guitar, he regards his best 80s work as “synth prog” – and it’s difficult to disagree

Louder

“I remain proud to have worked with a special talent. I’ll even miss the ‘downs,’ but mostly remember the ‘ups’”: Strawbs mastermind Dave Cousins remembered

A six-decade career full of kindness – and occasional volatility – came to an end when the folk-tinged prog icon died aged 85 in 2025

Louder

Rick and Oliver Wakeman reunite for UK live dates this Christmas

Rick Wakeman's A Hint Of Christmas tours around the UK this December. where he'll perform with son, Oliver, and Mollie Marriott

Louder

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Brian May and Rick Wakeman join stellar lineup at 2026 Starmus festival

The Starmus Festival celebrates astronomy, space exploration, music, art, and the natural sciences

Louder

“That brief time is the bane of my life. They were everything I was against”: Prog veteran David Paton loved working with Alan Parsons, Kate Bush, Rick Wakeman and Jimmy Page. But there’s one band he hated

The singer, bassist and guitarist explains what it was like to make music with legends – and wonders if he retired too soon

Louder

“I’d get thrown out then brought back in. I just couldn’t play in a conventional way”: Japan’s Richard Barbieri on coloured hair, lipstick, a fingerless glove and the unusual reason he joined the band

Future Porcupine Tree member recalls being put off playing keyboards by Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman, and feeling culturally homeless before the new romantic era

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Rick Wakeman announces his The Wizard Of Prog - Ultimate Highlights Concert Tour for early 2027

Rick Wakeman will also release his autobiography, The Wizard Of Prog, in October

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“I started my first band at 13. We tried Yes’ Roundabout… it was a valiant attempt!”: Long before David Bryan joined Bon Jovi, he was trying to play like Rick Wakeman

American keyboardist still loves the Yes album that was his favourite in the 70s, and explains where he satisfies his craving for writing complex songs

Louder

"Out of the first 10 Prophets sold, one went to Rick Wakeman, one to David Bowie, and one to Joe Zawinul. It took off from there": The history of Sequential in 10 synths, sequencers and drum machines

We chart the rise, fall and revival of one of the synth world's true titans

MusicRadar

“Kate Bush saw me recording at Townhouse Studios, popped her head in, saw the Fairlight and said ‘What's that?’”: We speak to Yes, Asia and the Buggles' synth legend Geoff Downes

From pop to prog, keyboard maestro Geoff Downes charts his journey from auditioning for Wizzard to global success with the Buggles, Yes and Asia

MusicRadar

"The band were screaming at me to come on stage as our time was running out." How Rick Wakeman got his first cape, by Rick Wakeman

After reading a live review that described him as a giant comical spider, Rick Wakeman knew he had to take action

Louder

“Peter had such a glorious touch thanks to his wonderful simplicity. But then he went off the rails and became a gravedigger”: How 10cc’s Rick Fenn ended up working with David Gilmour, Peter Green, Mike Oldfield, and almost all of his other heroes

The underrated guitar great looks back on the “improbable serendipities” that punctuate his 50-year career, hails the guitar he’s been playing for almost all of it, and reveals the favorite solos in his catalog

Guitar World

“Greg Lake was a bit of a cabaret singer. Jon Anderson, whatever you think of his lyrics, bloody meant it”: The prog stars who influenced a comedy musician’s career – and made him become a milkman for a while

Graham Fellows, creator of Jilted John and John Shuttleworth, started out with ELP before finding Yes, Focus, The Enid and Pink Floyd (although he has no time for The Dark Side Of The Moon)

Louder

"You can borrow the luggage of the past, you can amalgamate it with things that you've conceived could be in the future, and you can set it in the now." How David Bowie conquered time to write the song that gave him an audience

How a young David Bowie’s artistic manifesto was capturedin three and a half perfect minutes

Louder

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Rick Wakeman launches new weekly podcast with comedian Griff Rhys Jones

Rick Wakeman and Griff Rhys Jones will launch new podcast, The Sound Of The Seventy Year Olds, on February 27

Louder

“I said, ‘There are no vocals. It’s an instrumental album.’ The lawyer said, ‘Do you mean we’ve just paid $12,000 for a piano player?’” Rick Wakeman relives the moment he delivered The Six Wives Of Henry VIII to a horrified record label

In 1970 they gave him Scotch in the morning, a big cash advance and a three-ton limousine. Eventually the man who’d hated the resulting album gave him a platinum disc for its sales

Guitar World

“Playing with Vince Neil, opening for Van Halen, it got to be total rock ’n’ roll excess. I had to reassess why I was even playing guitar”: Steve Stevens on resisting shred, how Paco de Lucia made him go nylon, and Billy Idol’s eternal appeal

Billy Idol’s collaborator of 40-plus years transcends the punk-rock guitarist mold, taking in flamenco, jazz‑fusion, prog and classical styles – and he is as excited aboutguitar today as he was when he first picked one up

Louder

Debate: Will the return of Rush be the biggest prog event of 2026?

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson own the limelight all year, or can King Crimson, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Crown Lands and The Pineapple Thief grab headlines?

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Louder

Rick Wakeman, Steve Hackett, Asia, Caravan, Focus and more lined up for huge new prog cruise taking place this summer

Prog-friendly venue Trading Boundaries announces a new prog cruise venture up and down the Rhine for July

Louder

“If you’re talking dazzling sleight of mind, radical ideas and a willingness to create shock-art for the masses, there was no one more brilliant”: Revisiting David Bowie’s career from a prog perspective

Beyond his work with Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Rick Wakeman and others, plus comparisons to Rush, ELP and krautrock, a commitment to audacious experimentation ran through the true icon’s entire life

Louder

“We came on after the bingo but before the stripper. It freaked me out when this woman walked past us naked… it was enough to put you off sex for ever”: Jon Anderson before, during and after Yes

His unique voice has made him revered among music fans – while his unique attitude has made him notorious among label execs

Louder

“He was unable to write something with delight in it. Suffering battle fatigue, he wrote of asking what it’s like back home. It’s epic”: William Shatner’s surprising Christmas album with Jethro Tull, Yes and King Crimson alumni

The Star Trek icon gets silly and serious in turns as he discusses what the season means to him, the secret to living long and prospering, and the presents Kirk and Spock might give each other

Louder

“My first boyfriend introduced me to The Wall. It was the only interesting thing about him”: Author and musician Joanne Harris on having the audacity to perform Pink Floyd, Rick Wakeman and Genesis music in her school band

She explains why prog makes her think of Barnsley, lists some of her favourite records and recalls taking her daughter to a Genesis tribute show only to hear her say: “Ah yes, Mastodon!”

Louder

“There’s been a lot happening on Mars since I last visited. So there’s more than enough inspiration”: Rick Wakeman on his sequel to The Red Planet, and taking David Bowie along for the ride

Keyboard maestro has gone back to work with the English Rock Ensemble for the follow-up to his 2020 album, and he says the process feels like early 70s Yes

Louder

“I said, ‘I don’t want to work with him!’ I was bitter that he was doing so well. But I needed the money”: How a prog supergroup with 200 hits between them got together

Quartet with connections to Yes, 10cc, Kate Bush, The Police and many others took five years to agree their debut album was ready to release

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