Rick Wakeman Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist, songwriter, television and radio presenter, and author. He is best known for being in the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004 and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. He is a current member of Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman. Born and raised in West London, Wakeman intended to be a concert pianist but quit his studies at the Royal College of Music in 1969 to become a full-time session musician. His early sessions included playing on "Space
Journey to the Centre of the Earth (album) Wakeman wished to make an album that told a story with its music, something that he had been inspired to do so since his father took him to see a performance of the symphonic fairy tale "Peter and the Wolf" by Sergei Prokofiev which features a narrator telling the story and an orchestra illustrating the action. Wakeman had wanted to do an orchestral rock piece based on the 1864 science fiction novel "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by Jules Verne as early as November 1971, but he put the project on hold until he had finished recording "The