------------------------------------------------------- MARCH 21, 2004 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: Ground and Sky Prog Reviews http://www.progreviews.com/reviews/display.php/?rev=rw-ic Review: Rick Wakeman In Concert: King Biscuit Flower Hour By Joe What do The Grateful Dead, KISS, The Sex Pistols, and Rick Wakeman all have in common? Well, not a whole hell of a lot. But at one time or another, all of them played the Winterland Theater in San Francisco. This disc documents a concert by Wakeman and his "New English Rock Ensemble" at the venue on November 2, 1975. Perhaps licking his wounds from his earlier full-fledged, ice skating-meets-prog 'extravaganza' at Wembley earlier that Spring, Wakeman wisely chose to scale back. Drawn from his three albums up to that point, the material suffers not from the ditching of the orchestra and choir. Actually, it feels like a giant, stone weight had been cast off. With no dry George Plimptonian narrations or choirs singing lines like "crocodile teeth, lizard's head..." deadpan, Wakeman and the band let their hair down and everything seems more spirited, more... well, more like a regular rock concert on a Saturday night, as opposed to a Sunday matinee at the Royal Albert Hall with Her Majesty the Queen. Though most of the pieces here were originally written for and recorded with the full orchestral treatment, the feeling of symphonic grandeur that is needed to make them work is retained. This is largely due to the addition of two brass players and percussionist John Hodgson, who breaks out with the vibes and timpani at various points. Now, that's not saying that this is a terrific CD, because it really isn't. The sound is about what you'd expect: just adequate enough for King Biscuit to broadcast it out to the masses, but definitely not recorded with the intention of standing on its own terms. Vocalist Ashley Holt still sounds as gruffy and unpleasant as ever to me. And did I say something back there about letting their hair down? From the notes to this concert CD on his website, Wakeman jokes, "The only sober person amongst the entire entourage that day was the car park attendant!" Not too difficult to believe, as the band often seems to pull ahead of itself, choosing to dazzle the crowd with speed and at times tripping up with an evident sloppiness not helped by the sound quality. Finally, this concert still reeks with the pure indulgence that characterized rock concerts in the early 70s, and actually to a certain extent nowadays, too. Guitarist John Dunsterville tries to pull a Steve Howe with a lengthy solo departure in the middle of "Catherine Howard," appeasing the all-too-eager crowd with gratuitous references to "San Francisco" (the Scott McKenzie song) and "California Here I Come." Then there's the inclusion of Grieg's "Hall of the Mountain King" tacked on at the end of "The Forest." You listen to bits like this, and can't help but chuckle to yourself, "And where are they now... the lil' people o' Ston'enge?" A marginally enjoyable tidbit, exclusively for the Wakeman archivist. The rest of the population can assuredly pass. As for Winterland, it would receive a more memorable showcase exactly one November later, as the setting for a certain film concert by Martin Scorsese called The Last Waltz. There is also now available on DVD the final concert of the venue, the Grateful Dead on New Year's Eve 1978. King Biscuit Flower Hour Records (70710-88009-2) UK 1995 Rick Wakeman, piano, organ, moog, mellotron, clavinet, harpsichord, electric piano; John Dunsterville, guitar; Roger Newell, bass; Tony Fernandez, drums; John Hodgson, tuned and untuned percussion; Ashley Holt, vocal; Martin Shields, trumpet; Reg Brooks, trombone Tracklist: 1. Journey to the Center of the Earth — 12:03 2. Catherine Howard — 11:42 3. Lancelot & The Black Knight — 5:30 4. Anne Boleyn — 8:57 5. The Forest — 6:43 6. Arthur & Guinevere — 14:40 7. Merlyn the Magician — 7:21 8. Catherine Parr — 8:29 total time 75:29 Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com