Short Reviews [ Rick Wakeman - 2022 - "The Myths and Legends of Rick Wakeman"]

There are some people in this world who just cannot get enough of Rick Wakeman, and I must confess I am one of those. I have no idea how many of his albums or DVDs I have in my collection, but the official number is probably “lots”. So, when I saw that Cleopatra was releasing a four CD set from his most prolific period, I was very excited indeed. Apparently, this comes with an informative booklet but without that to hand I can only comment on the four discs themselves. I don’t believe any of these are full concerts, and I would not be surprised if any of them are cleaned up bootlegs as the sound is not always as good as one might expect, but that could always be due to poor recordings at the time. Although there are some overlaps in terms of tracks, it is not too bad, but any fan will be glad to hear these, although I cannot be confident they have not already been made available elsewhere. Take for example the last CD in the set, which was recorded at The Maltings in 1976, this may well be audio recorded for the film which is now available as the DVD ‘Video Vault Volume 2 - Live at the Maltings 1976’ which was released back in 2007. No matter if this has already been released previously, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Rick with the band working through so many songs we now rightfully think of as classics. With one CD from 1974, one from 1975 and two from 1976, and a playing time of nearly four hours with music from the likes of ‘The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table’, ‘The Six Wives Of Henry VII’, ‘Journey To The Centre Of The Earth’ and more, what is there here not to love. A nice addition to the collection.