RICK WAKEMAN – Journey To The Centre Of The Earth

Without any doubt the most famous piece in Rick Wakeman’s discography is the 1974 release of Journey to the Centre of the Earth that was based on Jules Verne’s novel. Supporting this grandiose album he went on a world tour together with his band in 1975 and the last show of this tour was at the Myer Concert Bowl in Melbourne, Australia on the 4th of February. The local Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra and the Melbourne Chamber Choir helped out the band on stage. They did a really fantastic job working together with Rick and his rock band to perform a perfect show of Journey and some of the Wakeman classics. The playing band consists of Rick, Jeffrey Crampton (guitars), Roger Newell (guitars), Barney James (drums), John Hodgson (percussion) and the two great lead singers Ashley Holt and Gary Pickford Hopkins.

The show starts with Catherine Parr and Guinevere, followed up by the entire Journey saga. The use of a narrator (Terry Taplin) makes this live documentary even more special, because nowadays Rick plays this suite without narration. For some of the new fans this could be the first opportunity to see Journey with full orchestra, choir and narration. After the 40-minute epic of Journey comes Catherine Howard, Merlin and Anne Boleyn, and Reprise from the Forest finishes off that glorious night in Melbourne in front of a capacity crowd, which means something like 30.000 people. A picture and the sound quality is quite good, especially if we bear in mind that it was shot in 1975 when none of today’s technology was available. Of course there are not that many camera movements due to their fixed status, but the using of the zoom and some other effects make it interesting. And to make it even more value for money a free 70-minute audio CD is included in the DVD package with the same material (of course a few songs less, because the entire show is about 95 minutes). This is a must for all Rick Wakeman fans.