Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Off To See The Wizard
by Russell Turner - 21:26 on 13 March 2019
Opportunities to see my music hero, Rick Wakeman, are limited, and becoming more so as The Keyboard Wizard increases in age. So chances must be taken when they’re offered.
In July he’s 70, and celebrating by performing Journey to the Centre of the Earth (I think the second LP of his I bought) at the Royal Festival Hall in London where it was first recorded in 1974. Only two gigs are planned, complete with choir, orchestra, band, Alfie Boe and Robert Powell, and billed as the last time it will be staged in the UK. I resisted for a while then decided I have to be there.
The down side is the cost and logistics. Tickets went on sale this morning, prices ranging from £180 to £45, presumably at the back of the gods behind a pillar. I plumped for the front of the rear stalls at £75, which under the circumstances is reasonable.
Less acceptable is the cost of the flights I’ll need to take, which with their add-ons comes to £166; I’ve yet to add in a hotel and travel from Gatwick to London and back (and the show T-shirt). The total will do serious damage to my piggy bank but must be borne – if it turns out to be Rick’s final major show and I miss it I’ll rue the day.
A further inconvenience is that City Limits plays at Foxes on the Friday and Saturday, so to attend the last night of Journey on the Sunday, after leaving Foxes around 2am I’ll have to be at Inverness airport around 6am for the 7am flight. The only other one on a Sunday arrives at Gatwick with too little time before the gig to be comfortable.
It will be worth it. Matchgirl will think I’m mad. She just doesn’t understand.
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