Rick Wakeman – Spa Pavilion Felixstowe – 21 April
2003

We arrived with plenty of time at what used to be my local venue. The first
thing that struck me as I walked in were the blue lights lighting up the stage.
They were a good colour and they were nicely positioned with some atmospheric
smoke already on.

The next thing was the size of Rick’s rig now. It is more like the set up on
the last tour with Ashley Holt in 1990. A Semi-Circle of Four sets of keyboards.
Two keyboards on Rick’s right. Rick’s main moog was perched before the next
set. This had a camera/projector watching it throughout the show. A Gem and
a Roland keyboard were on the 2nd stand. Two korgs on the third. Another Moog
was positioned in between the 3rd and 4th stands and there were two more keyboards
on Rick’s left.

Ashley Holt had a small space in front of Rick and he had a music stand so
he tended to sing looking towards the left of the stage. Tony’s drums were on
the left with Lee Pomeroy on bass just in front of him. There were two more
keyboards at the back on the right including the Piano set-up with "Candles".
In front of these were Ant’s Glynne’s two Marshall amps.

Just before the show started there was a stiff no Damian warning! Something
like "Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, the vocalist
originally contracted to sing with the band on this tour will, with immediate
effect, no longer be performing with Rick and the New English Ensemble." They
then announced Ashley would sing instead and gave his credentials.

The PA then played the Overture from Return To The Centre Of The Earth as has
happened on previous tours. The back of the stage had spinning spirals projected
on it.

As the overture finished Rick came on stage on a long black and gold long coat.
His hair is now getting quite long again. I still find it surprising that he
is clean shaven although I am sure he has been like this sometime now. I guess
I have just been trained expect a bearded Rick for so many years.

I have to say I was really touched to see Ant back on stage again. Given how
UK doctors had written him off with his cancer and he had his last piece of
brain surgery in March it was amazing to see him embarking on such a long tour.
He played well and really enjoyed the night so I wish him all the best.

A 20+ minute version of "Journey To The Centre Of The Earth" was the first
song of the night. The intro seemed a bit long to me and Rick seemed a bit lost
in the mix so I am not sure if there was a slight glitch somewhere. Anyway it
was great to have Ashley back on the vocals. I really like Damian as a person
and as a singer but I have always felt that his voice is not best suited to
Rick’s work. He is much better singing his own solo stuff and on Arjen Lucassen’s
Ayreon and Star One projects.  Maria is very much a Damian fan and she
was really gutted when he walked out on the tour and she wasn’t sure she was
that bothered about seeing Ashley again but even she admitted that he suited
the songs much better.

When Ashley came on both Maria and I thought he looked thinner and healthier
than when we saw him in Braintree with Rick.

With the lights coming on at the start of the show some red lights were used
and these seemed to point right at us in the 2nd row making it hard to see stage.
Luckily we either got over it or they were not used that much later in the show.

There was a full lighting rig with Varilites too. This tour is apparently put
on by a company with Jim Davidson (A UK Comic) as Chairman so it is to him we
have to thank for allowing Rick to tour with a full production.

As mentioned before when Rick soloed on his right moog the projector was stitched
to show what he was playing. Being on the 2nd row I was a bit to low to get
the full effect of this but I am sure it was fascinating to watch for people
that could see it.

When Ashley was not singing he played tambourines.

During Journey Ant’s guitar was not very loud but it seemed to get better during
the night.

It was great to see there was lots of in band humour going on despite the loss
of Adam and Damian. There were lots of smiles between Rick, Ashley and Lee and
then a bit later Ant and Ashley talking and laughing.

I am pretty certain Rick used all his keyboards during Journey. He started
on his Left. Moved to the right pair and did "Hall of the Mountain King"
on the Front left side.

"The Realisation" and "The Spaceman" from "No Earthly
Connection" where next up. Prior to doing this Rick mentioned they didn’t
remember much about recording the album. They were in a studio next to a vineyard
and after 7 weeks they had drunk so much wine the vineyard started sending them
wine with their own special label on it.

I need to hear this piece again as there seemed a lot of reworking going on
in this one. For instance Ant seemed to play a completely new guitar solo. I
couldn’t follow it at all. It seemed highly unmelodic to my ears but perhaps
I need more time to get accustomed to what I was hearing. That is one thing
I find with Ant’s guitar. He can be quite crunching and I guess Steve Via "modern"
to my ears.

Ashley seemed to have two volumes loud and louder! Even on a quiet section
he still seemed to be belting it out. He was actually left at normal volume
in the mix when the rest of the band were quieter perhaps he would normally
be turned down a bit.

Catherine Parr was next and this was pretty much a standard recent live performance
of this. Rick had to make some big leaps around kit on this one and again used
nearly all his keyboards again. At one point Rick seemed to solo with his left
hand on the moog. Unfortunately the keyboard was too quiet to hear. I will have
to try and watch out for it again tonight. (Lucky Me!)

The first half ended on "Out There". Erik Jorden was on the spare
keyboard. Lee Pomeroy turned on his bass’s flashing lights. They seemed to be
screening footage from the DVD on the back of the stage but again I struggled
to see this.

This version of "Out There" was completely instrumental. Rick mainly
tripleted on most of the lead vocal areas but Ant took over lead vocal on his
guitar for quiet section.

I have to say that by the point I was wondering about the crowd. It was not
as big as it could be which is a shame. I did get a poster pack but I am in
an area without a local date as such so my efforts were limited. I am also rather
shy so it took me all my courage to even ask about putting a poster in the local
Virgin. It didn’t help they didn’t have any obvious place to put it. But the
manager did take one and it got easier for me. I hope this promotion worked
better in other towns.

Back to the crowd not only was the place perhaps only 2/3rd full but the crowd
seemed dazed or engrossed. I couldn’t decide. They certainly seemed quiet. Although
they applauded as usual there seemed to be no atmosphere. I was also amazed
at the end when no one seemed to wait for Rick’s autograph. Perhaps I was in
the wrong place.

There was a 20 min interval and then Tony started off the 2nd half. This time
his opening drums were for White Rock. Yippee. I have to say it seemed a little
sluggish compared to how I remember it and didn’t seem to have the impact I
expected for it. The back projection was of the "White Rock" official
Olympic film, which was nice. It was the Toboggan section for those that don’t
know.

White Rock went into "Searching For Gold" for a couple of phrases.
Ant and Lee then left and were shortly followed by Rick. That left Tony doing
his Drum solo. I thought that was strange timing for a drum solo really and
it was quite long. Maria is more into drums than me but I haven’t remembered
to ask what she thought yet. Tony had three DDrums in his kit as well as normal
acoustic ones.

The lighting for the solo was very good unless you hate strobes!

This again merged into the next song, which was King Arthur. Something was
really tickling the band in this one. Ashley seemed to have a problem with his
mic at one point but I couldn’t decide if he was just putting it on for the
bands amusement.

"Dance Of A Thousand Lights" was next with nice lighting. They used
white lights on a mirror ball and Purple light on Rick over on his pretend Piano.
They also had various projections going on.

I think "Cathedral of Sound" was next although my notes are poor at this point.
Rick had introduced this using Ashley’s mic and he attempted to really tighten
the Mic for his tall height. When Ashley returned he struggled to undo it or
at least that was the gag they decided to perform.

Erik was back on Choir for this one and Ashley sang it. Again I have to say
this sounded more suitable for his voice than it does for Damian’s on the CD.
It sounded very No Earthly Connection. Having said this Ashley was not perfect
on the song. Actually as he got to end of the lyrics he was pretending to shoot
his lyric sheet and giving Rick "you B******" looks.

At one point Ashley conducted Erik on the Choir, which creased up Rick. Then
at another he went into boxer mode because the beat felt a bit like the Rocky
theme tune.

There was a full band intro by Rick at this point. Ashley had actually done
one a bit earlier but it wasn’t as comprehensive.

To end the set they did "Merlin The Magician" with Ashley on the vocals that
were never on the original. Rick did a Keytar solo and went into the crowd as
usual. He sat behind one bloke and he didn’t even turn round to see. I just
don’t understand some audiences. Rick picked a lady to go on stage and for once
it was one that didn’t seem to be too worried. Unfortunately Rick didn’t get
the Keytar into Piano mode at the right point so he had to run into his main
kit and find the quickest Piano sound he could get.

The encore was "Starship Trooper" with Ashley on vocals. During the
first "Time Can Remember" section he seemed to lose it completely
and Lee started helping him out. On later ones I wondered if he had it correct
but for once the vocal mix was too quiet. Ashley certainly took the section
at a deeper pitch than normal.

Lee took a solo at the start of Wurm. I then noticed Erik and Stuart Stanway
had joined in. Ashley was again highly playful during the Wurm section. When
Ant was out in the crowd doing his bit Ashley decide to pretend to play one
of his other guitars. Then once Ant was back he pretended to play Rick’s other
moog.

The show ended with the end of "Out There" being played on CD. It might be
a different track and I have it down wrong.

Overall an excellent night and the best production I have seen with Rick. I
think Damian has kind of shot himself in the foot by walking out on the tour,
as the show is probably better with Ashley. Having said this I know Ashley is
not everyone’s cup of tea and he does occasionally miss notes. He does have
a lot of power though and I think this is what Rick’s songs need. I don’t think
he will ever replace Jon Anderson in Yes though if Startship Trooper is anything
to go by.

I feel very disappointed that the crowd in Felixstowe wasn’t what it could
be. I wonder if all the one-man shows have had an effect. Certainly there have
been bigger audiences there for Rick. I also wonder if playing Colchester tonight
is a bad move. We often joke about bad routing of tours but it does make sure
audiences don’t overlap. I have a spare ticket for tonight as Maria’s daughter
originally wanted to go but has changed her mind. I tried giving it to a friend’s
dad at the gig last night but he doesn’t feel he can get out for another night
on the trot. If tours crisscross the country and come back to an area at least
people have a bit more time to save for a ticket and are not quite such a burden
on resources such as babysitters.

Rick Wakeman – Leisure World, Colchester – 22 Apr 2003

I didn’t make notes for this one and I didn’t get round to writing up while
I could still remember. The main things I remember are the intro lighting sequence
didn’t work for the Return Overture and there were a couple of other lighting
problems during the night. I of course was able to see which jokes were pre-planned
for each gig and which were genuine. Tonight Ashley "pretended" to
play Ant’s guitar but didn’t go into Rick’s keyboard area. He had more room
on stage tonight so he tended to give Lee a bit more company.

In the 2nd half Rick appeared in a cape. He didn’t do this the first night.

This was the first time one of our children had gone to a gig with us. Liam
really enjoyed the show and is trying to talk us into taking him again. He was
too shy to go and talk to Rick so Rick kindly went and talked to Liam. Tony
Fernandez joined in and they had a chat about Football. Actually Rick was discussing
football after the gig the night before at Felixstowe too. He is clearly still
mad on it.

Leisure World was not full to capacity. The was a lot of space on the side
but I have to say it was probably as full as I have seen it for any Rick gig
and they were a much more responsive audience.

Rick Wakeman – Cliffs Pavilion Southend On Sea – 19
May 2003

This was my third date of the tour and we were really looking forward to it.
We weren’t to be disappointed this was the best show we had seen for several
reasons. It was a good omen, when the pre-show announcement about Damian being
replaced by Ashley was made, the crowd actually cheered.

I could be wrong but Ant’s hair seemed longer than at the last gig. Rick’s
looked a bit lank.

Rick wore different stage clothes tonight. He wore shimmery gold cape and white
under suite for the first half tonight. This certainly goes down well with old
fans of Rick. Growing his hair and wearing capes seems to be showing Rick is
trying to play to the audience. Sadly I believe the audiences won’t be enough
for the tour to break even. This is really disappointing but then the posters
were not over strong on pushing the fact it was Rick and a band. I guess fans
not liking a one man show might have not bothered this time. It amazes me the
number people asking the merchandise stand what band Rick used to play with.
I checked why the person next to me was at the gig. He apparently tends to go
to most 60’s gig. I am not sure what made him go to Rick but he knew he was
funny. At the end of the first half I asked how it was for him and he commented
"he doesn’t do short pieces does he?!" but he did seem to think it
OK.

The camera on the keyboard was on a wider setting tonight so both of Rick’s
main keyboards when on the moog could be seen well. The screen seemed higher
up above the band tonight so I was able to see the projections better than on
the previous nights.

Sometimes the projections were lost slightly in the lighting. Also I noticed
on "Starship Trooper" they had a really poor slowing down of the screen rate
switched on making it a little pointless watching it.

I couldn’t decide tonight if there was some new lighting. There were some half
circle lighting effects on the on background which seemed new to me.

Rick was still in good spirits. He really started having fun in No Earthly
Connection.

I get the impression Lee is one of the catalysts for the fun making on stage.
He always seems to be happy, smiling and looking for an opportunity to interact
with the others.

Tony seemed to throw in an extra few drum beats on his d-drums during No Earthly
Connection and this had Rick really laughing.

Another thing I noticed this time was Ashley was the one controlling the end
of the song. In the past everyone seems to have taken their cue from Rick.

During "Catherine Parr" Rick seemed to adjust the sound on his Rick’s Left
hand keyboard via the Moog on his left. Is it likely that the Moog would be
controlling the sound of another keyboard too?

An example of Lee looking for fun was during this song he went up to Rick’s
rig and seemed to egg him on for his solo run’s. Rick was finding it amusing.
Lee was also the screen as well as the Rick in person.

Actually I noticed during this that video frame rate was not keeping up with
Rick’s fingers. I don’t think it was a special effect just that it wasn’t the
normal rate we are used to watching.

I hadn’t noticed before but Ant is a bit of a face puller when soloing so he
clearly feels what he is playing.

During "Out There" I got the impression we were seeing new animations.
I guess it is possible I just didn’t remember them all but I had noticed the
clips were being repeated a lot at previous gigs.

Ashley is now singing on "Out There" but he is not taking the same
vocal lines. He has had to adjust it to suit his style and range more. Rick
still seemed to enjoy it though and was visibly singing along.

I also got the impression there were more sound effects being playing during
this song now. To be honest I am a little baffled at the choice of "Out
There" as a closer for the set. I guess I am just not keen on the song.
I think I preferred it instrumental to with vocals on CD or live.

For the 2nd half Rick returned in a black suit under the cape he wore in the
2nd half at Colchester.

In "White Rock" I noticed Rick was watching the film projection as he played.
I haven’t noticed him take any notice of it before. This venue was by far the
best for seeing the projections so perhaps Rick had watched it before but it
wasn’t noticeable. Given Rick plays music while visualising images I wonder
if watching the film would be a help or hindrance to his playing.

With exception of the two new songs Ashley is now singing to the audience rather
than Lee and the music stand.

Ashley now sounds pretty good throughout "Cathedral Of The Sky".  This song
got a really good crowd reaction too!

During Rick’s walkabout with the keytar Rick grabbed a drink while soloing
away. The lady he chose as a keyboard stand tonight also got the hang of it
straight off and this seemed to give Rick more time to solo and show off.

To my amazement Rick got a half audience standing ovation at the end of the
main set. It is amazing how audiences in different areas react differently.

In my notes I have it written down that for the encore Rick was back to his
first cape. As it has taken me a week to finish writing this review and I am
completely blank on weather this was the case or not. I am certainly surprised
to read it.

Lee didn’t turn on the flashing lights on his base tonight. I wonder why?

Ashley was also a lot better on Starship Trooper tonight. In fact he didn’t
have his music stand on stage at all for the encore.

There was a new feature for Wurm. Ash is now bought a guitar case on stage
from this he gets a blow up guitar. While Ant is out in the audience Ash is
really having fun on stage.

When Ant came back Ash went into Rick’s rig again but the time Rick was prepared
for him. He had collected a blow up hammer from behind his kit at the start
of Wurm. As he soloed perfectly he was bashing Ashley on the head with it.

During Ant’s Wurm solo I got the impression it sounded a lot like Trevor Rabin’s
arrangement on a 90125 Yes show that was shown on the BBC.

The band got a full standing ovation for this song. It was really nice to be
in such an appreciative audience.

After the show we hung around as usual. Rick was longer than normal coming
out and one lady got quiet snappy with Mike Holden on merchandising because
he said Rick normally comes out after about "ten minutes and it was now 16minutes!"

I grabbed a word with Ant and he said how he was really enjoying the tour and
he felt like a had found the real Ant again after the traumas of last year.
I was really pleased to hear it.

Rick Wakeman – Fernham Hall, Fareham – 29 May 2003

I am not sure what my write up of this one will be like as I have seen a 2nd
gig since then. We were not booked to see any more Rick shows but Liam had really
enjoyed the show he had seen. With it being half term there was no reason why
my daughters could not come either. They had fancied it before I booked Liam
to see a show with us but their mum had booked them tickets for Westlife and
S Club for their birthday’s and things didn’t work out.

We originally eyed up Peterbough as the gig to go to as an extra but at Southend
Mike had mentioned the tour would be filmed at Fareham. We thought therefore
it might be nice for the children to see a gig that would later be released.
Unfortunately the venue was switched but never mind.

Fernham Hall is a nice little theatre and had sold pretty well. It had some
flat seating and some tiered seating. People tended to go for the tiers so the
side seats at the front were empty and we got third row seats on the right hand
side. Our view was slightly restricted but I got a different perspective on
the show which was nice.

Something looked different about Ant’s hair tonight so I wondered if he had
had a haircut. I guess I will have to wait for my photos to return.

Mike Holden was sounding extremely tired on the merchandise stall tonight.
You could certainly tell it was the end of a long tour. Malcolm didn’t seem
too unhappy but we didn’t really bother anyone tonight.

We meet up with Marc Harry and his family which was nice and then the children
were desperate to get to their seats so we went in and waited.

Ashley came on stage in a lively Hawaiian shirt tonight. And Rick’s hair was
in better shape again.

From our position on the right we could see Rick playing his right hand moog
from the front as well as on the screen. This was really nice it also allowed
me to see Rick changing the settings throughout the songs.

At the start of the show we didn’t seem to be able to hear Ant too well. We
were in front of PA which meant we were getting a sound full of Rick, some drum
and vocals but I noticed Ant asking for more on stage too. His amp’s should
normally have swamped us being on the right anyway.

During Journey it was good to see Rick still enjoys the lyrics as much as ever.

I was pleased to see my daughters were really engrossed in the show from the
off.

In "No Earthly Connection" the band seem to have got in the habit of playing
"Statues" when the music is supposed to stop. They were certainly doing it earlier
in the tour and it is still present. I got the impression Rick started his solo
on a different keyboard tonight. Normally in NEC it is the back right one
but this time it was the front left one and then to the back right one. I of
course could just have failed to notice this every other time.

Tony didn’t do the extra drumming in the quiet sections of NEC tonight

Again Ashley was in charge of signalling the start of the last note and the
end of it.

I got the impression there were some extra cymbals in Rick adlib bit of Catherine
Parr.

It was amazing watching Rick’s fingers as he builds up on moog and I was also
surprised at how much sound adjustment Rick does to the Moog.

I have seen "Catherine Parr" many times since I first saw Rick in 1985 and
this is probably the first tour where I have really enjoyed it. All of a sudden
it has just registered with me. It might help that Maria and I enjoy the fast
bit near the start and end of it but I am appreciating Tony and everything about
it a lot more.

For the start of "Out There" Ash went to the back with Rick to watch
the video footage. Rick is definitely watching the video and playing to it on
"Out There". I don’t know if he needs to pick up on some signals in order to
keep in time etc

Lee had his Bass lights turned back on tonight.

It was a good size crowd but I have to say they seemed a bit lethargic again.
I wonder if it is an age thing. I suspect I am still at the lower end of the
majority of the crowd. There are a few youngsters about and one or two children
but the majority of people still seem older than me.

At the end of the first half my youngest Abbie who is 10 wanted to know why
it was "called Rick Wakeman when he doesn’t even sing!" When she saw him after
the show I told her to ask him but I ended up doing it for her. I was curious
to see if he would have an off the cuff remark for her but it was a pretty much
straight forward answer of he didn’t think he should call the band "fat
man from" and I forget where. He then got on to joking about how Ashley
is the "Former Fat Man of Pop" now that he has lost some weight.

Rick’s capes were as per Southend although I doubt he changed in the encore.
I need my photos back again but I have only just sent them off.

He remained  in his white suit all night tonight though.

The Projector here was lower than Southend again. The main way I could tell
was that it was hard to see the lower keyboard freeze frames on White Rock.
They were easy to see at Southend.

I was curious to see what my daughters would make of Tony’s 10 Minute drum
solo. They liked the lights but did find it a bit boring. Maria loved it still
and Liam has wanted to play drums since we first saw Rick.

Having said the crowd were quiet they did seem to react well to the drum solo.

In "Arthur" there was some interest off stage on right. When I asked Ant later
he said the people on the sound desk had been wearing hats and giving scores
at various points during the show.

Being on the right I couldn’t see too much of "Dance of a 1000 lights" but
there was a mirror ball tonight so the lights were nice to watch again.

It was about this time in the gig we started thinking seriously about weather
we could make Peterbourgh the next night. We may never see another UK Rick show
to this standard and the children had heard us wondering about it in the interval
and said they wanted to go again. We just had to worry about the cost and a
babysitter for Becky again. We did try to interest her the next morning but
no she still didn’t want to go despite the glowing reviews from the others.

I really do prefer Ashley singing on "Cathedral of the sky". He really does
a good job on it.

At the start of "Wurm" not only did Rick leave his area to sneak the blow up
hammer in but he went to the piano keyboard and wrapped up Stuart Stanway in
his Cape while playing it.

It was a cracking end of show again and a handful of people did stand up to
give the band an ovation.

Rick Wakeman – The Cresset, Peterborough – 30 May
2003

Well I wait a well over a year to take my daughters to a gig and then I take
them twice in two nights. Poor bank balance!

I can’t remember if I have mentioned this before but and I can’t confirm it
from tonight’s gig but I have seen Lee has a Moog box on the floor and I am
pretty sure it is a set of Bass Pedals.

For this gig we managed to get Row 5 seats on the flat section and this time
on the left. I could not believe how badly these seats were filled again. The
children had no trouble seeing and the view was perfect. The place did seem
fairly full though. To my amazement at the end of the show Wayne came up and
said "Hello".  I was convinced he was avoiding going to any gig I was going
to go to. We have had numerous oppertunies to meet over the years but never
made it. It was good to see he is a real person and not just an e-mail response
🙂

The main thing I noticed from this distance was how much clearer and nicer
the Varilites were. I assume it was the distance and not a change of set up.
They were set to multi beam patterns and really effective.

Tonight’s show was being videoed but I don’t know how good it will be as I
could only spot two camera’s. I didn’t look hard though.

The Cressent is a larger theatre than Fareham and has good facilities in an
out of town location. I will have to remember it for future use.

During "Journey" the keyboard playing projections were a little lost in the
lights. I wonder if the lights needed to be brighter for the filming?

Again the band were playing musical statues in NEC. Rick and Lee were also
bouncing and bopping around together earlier than normal.

I was disappointed to find I still could not see what the sounddesk were doing
that was providing such amusement on stage.

For the first time on the tour I could see Tony behind drum kit. That made
a nice change and I could see how much interaction with the others he gets too.

Throughout the first half I was mucking about playing Abbie’s leg as a keyboard
etc. She loved this and even when I stopped she continued to play the keyboards
on her leg herself. I tried to get Zoe to join in but she wouldn’t have any
of it. I guess at 12 it was not good for her street credibility. I still felt
the fun we were having really made the 2nd night special for me. My dad has
never paid much attention to any music let alone music I would like so it is
a really strange concept to my that my children could enjoy something I love
so much with me.

Rick seemed to be throwing extra moog notes in "Catherine Parr" tonight. I
thought through out the show he seemed to be trying to outplay himself and make
the songs extra special.

I wasn’t quite sure about Ashley’s vocals on "Out There" but perhaps I still
need time to adjust to the new arrangement.

In "White Rock" I was convinced it was a normally a White strobe that was used
as the band came back on for the last minute. Tonight however Multi-coloured
strobe.

During "Starship Trooper" I thought Rick seemed annoyed about something early
on. My impression was that he thought he fluffed something but I didn’t spot
it. Then it seemed like they replayed a section or got something wrong somewhere.
It will be interesting to see if "Starship" gets included in the DVD and a shame
if not.

The night was again excellent and I was really glad to have made an extra show
and to have taken the children to it. They really loved it and have talked about
the experience a lot. After the show they wanted things signed again. Rick had
promised Zoe a new pen the night before because he had used her’s for signing.
Little did he know she would say she was going the next night though. As it
happened he didn’t give her a pen but he remembered his promise and apologised
to her.

There has been a cameraman at all the aftershow signings. I have no idea why
he needed so much material. Anyway Liam was desperate to be filmed and deliberately
trying to walk into shots etc not realising how bad it looked. However the cameraman
noticed when I asked Tony to give Liam a tip on how to start as a drummer and
Liam was then videoed having a lesson and being given some of Tony’s sticks
(signed of course).

I think the camera man comment to us that people wouldn’t believe we were in
different locations because we had been to so many after session signings. That
gave Maria chance to mention how desperately Liam wanted to make the DVD. He
then suggested that Zoe, Abbie and Liam do a little sketch. Liam had to
say "I want to play Drums like Tony Fernandez". Abbie "I want
to play keyboards like Rick Wakeman" and Zoe "I want to get drunk
like Ash". They had several takes at it. It will be interesting to see
if they do manage to make the DVD at all.

Regardless they were all buzzing about it and chuffed to bits.

I was also amused when Ant gave Abbie a kiss goodbye. The look on her face
was a picture. She really looked starstuck. What a shame I didn’t get it on
film.

I would hate to think this was the last time we saw the band playing together
but if it was it was great to have managed so many dates and to have taken the
children along and for them to have enjoyed it.

Zoe and Abbie have even taken a Rick Wakeman video home to watch. I am stunned.
Having said that I showed them a clip from Melbourne 1975 and they thought it
dreadful and really laughed when they saw Rick and especially Ashley. They much
preferred the current band DVD.