Editing Rick Wakeman (section)

==Early life==
Richard Christopher Wakeman was born in [[Perivale]], Middlesex on 18 May 1949. The only child of Cyril and Mildred Wakeman (née Eastment), the three lived in Wood End Gardens in nearby [[Northolt]].{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=23}}{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=46}} Cyril worked at a [[Building material|building suppliers]] which he joined as an office boy at age fourteen, and worked his way up to become one of its directors.<ref name=telegraph2014/> He was a pianist in [[Ted Heath (bandleader)|Ted Heath]]'s big band while he was in the [[British Army]].{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=23}} Mildred worked at a removals firm.<ref name=telegraph2014>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/10804471/Rick-Wakeman-David-Bowies-advice-made-me-millions.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140504203826/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/fameandfortune/10804471/Rick-Wakeman-David-Bowies-advice-made-me-millions.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 May 2014|title=Rick Wakeman: 'David Bowie's advice made me millions'|first=Lorraine|last=McBride|date=4 May 2014|work=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=22 November 2016}}</ref> Wakeman attended [[Drayton Manor High School|Drayton Manor Grammar School]] in [[Hanwell]], in 1959. The family spent their summer holidays in [[Exmouth]].<ref name=1991tourbook>{{cite book|url=http://www.rwcc.com/programmes/1992ClassicalConnection2.pdf|title=Rick Wakeman: The Classical Connections II Tour|type=Tour programme|date=1991|publisher=Unknown|access-date=15 December 2016}}</ref>

As a youngster Wakeman heard his parents, uncle, and aunts play the piano and sing songs from his upstairs bedroom, which made him want to take up the instrument.<ref name=UG2019>{{cite web|url=https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/yes_rick_wakeman_nearly_half_my_dads_income_went_on_paying_for_my_piano_lessons.html|title=Yes' Rick Wakeman: Nearly Half My Dad's Income Went on Paying for My Piano Lessons|date=27 December 2019|website=Ultimate Guitar|access-date=27 August 2024}}</ref> His father took him to a concert performance of [[Sergei Prokofiev]]{{'s}} ''[[Peter and the Wolf]]'', which greatly influenced him and has since named Prokofiev as a musical hero.<ref name=Pianist2017/> At seven, Wakeman began weekly piano lessons with Dorothy Symes paid for by his father, who spent almost half of his income on tuition.<ref name=UG2019/> Lessons with Symes lasted for eleven years; she recalled Wakeman "passed everything with a distinction", was an "enjoyable pupil to teach, full of fun and with a good sense of humour", but lacked discipline when it came to practising.{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=24}} Wakeman's first ever recital was "See a Monkey on a Stick", a piece of thirteen notes that he performed on stage in adult life.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/leisure/reviews/11794375.rick-wakeman-lighthouse-poole/|title=Rick Wakeman - Lighthouse, Poole|first=Cliff|last=Moore|date=14 February 2015|website=Bournemouth Echo|access-date=26 August 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/10733922.quartz-arts-fest-review-intimate-evening-rick-wakeman/|title=Quartz Arts Fest Review: A Very Intimate Evening with Rick Wakeman|first=Daisy|last=Blacklock|date=11 October 2013|website=Somerset County Gazette|access-date=26 August 2024}}</ref> In 1960, Symes entered Wakeman in his first music competition and he went on to win many awards, certificates, and cups in contests around London.<ref name=1991tourbook/>{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=25}}{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=28}} Wakeman's first keyboard was a reed organ from [[Woolworths (United Kingdom)|Woolworths]] that he said cost £4.<ref name=LouderQA2014>{{cite web|url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/q-a-rick-wakeman|title=Q&A: Rick Wakeman|date=9 May 2014|first=Jerry|last=Ewing|publisher=Loudersound|access-date=24 August 2024}}</ref> At twelve he took up the clarinet.<ref name=1991tourbook/> In his teenage years, he learned to play the [[church organ]], became a [[Sunday school]] teacher, and chose to be baptised at eighteen.{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=26}}<ref name=contemporarykeyboard1976>{{Cite journal|journal=Contemporary Keyboard|title=Rick Wakeman: Rock Powerhouse|date=March 1976|first=Dominic|last=Milano|url=http://zenponies.com/yitp/1976/mar/marxx_76.html}}</ref>

Wakeman described himself at school as "a horror ... I worked hard in the first year, then eased up".{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=29}} In 1961, during his time at Drayton Manor school, Wakeman played in his first band, the [[trad jazz]] outfit Brother Wakeman and the Clergymen,<ref name=chorleyguardian2015>{{Cite news|url=http://www.chorley-guardian.co.uk/what-s-on/music/the-interview-rick-wakeman-1-7442858|title=The interview: Rick Wakeman|date=3 September 2015|first=Malcolm|last=Wyatt|publisher=Chorley Guardian|access-date=13 January 2016}}</ref> with a uniform of the school shirt put on the wrong way round.<ref name=1991tourbook/> In 1963, at fourteen, Wakeman joined the Atlantic Blues, a local blues group that secured a year's residency at a mental health rehabilitation club in [[Neasden]].<ref name=1991tourbook/>{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=27}} Two years later, Wakeman passed his [[GCE Ordinary Level|O Levels]] in English, maths, art and music, and went on to study music, art, and British constitution at [[GCE Advanced Level (United Kingdom)|A-level]].<ref name=1991tourbook/> In 1966, he joined the Concordes, later known as the Concorde Quartet, playing dance and pop songs at local events with his cousin [[Alan Wakeman]] on saxophone and clarinet.{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=28}} Wakeman used the money earned from their gigs to buy a [[Hohner Pianet]], his first electronic keyboard.{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=28}}

That year he also formed a dance band called the Green Dolphin Trio, spending a year's residency at a social club in [[Alperton]], and Curdled Milk, a joke on "[[Strange Brew (song)|Strange Brew]]" by [[Cream (band)|Cream]], to play at the annual school dance.<ref name=1991tourbook/> The band were unpaid after Wakeman lost control of his car and drove across the headmaster's rose garden at the front of the school, thereby forfeiting their performance fee to pay for the damage.{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=27}} In 1967, Wakeman began a tenure with the Ronnie Smith Band, a dance group based at the [[Top Rank Suite|Top Rank]] ballroom in [[Watford]]. He was sacked in the following year for not taking the dance music seriously enough, but was soon reinstated at the ballroom in [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]]. Here he met singer Ashley Holt, who later sang on many of Wakeman's future albums and tours.<ref name=1991tourbook/> Around this time, Wakeman frequented the Red Lion pub in [[Brentford]] where he took part in jam sessions with several known musicians including [[John Entwistle]], [[James Royal]], [[Nick Simper]], and [[Mitch Mitchell]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://geirmykl.wordpress.com/2017/11/29/article-about-rick-wakeman-from-sounds-august-28-1971/|title=Just another Yes man...|date=28 August 1971|work=Sounds|first=Penny|last=Valentine|access-date=28 August 2024}}</ref>

[[File:Royal College of Music - April 2007.jpg|thumb|left|Wakeman quit the Royal College of Music to become a full-time session musician]]
In 1968, Wakeman acquired a scholarship at the [[Royal College of Music]] in London with the intention of becoming a concert pianist. To enter he needed to pass eight music exams to earn his [[A-level]] in the subject, which required him, as his mother remembered, "to do two years' work in ten months".{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=29}} He put in the effort following a ten [[shilling]] bet with his music teacher who believed he would not succeed,{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=29}} and refusing his father's offer to work with him at the building suppliers.{{sfn|Wooding|1979|p=30}} Wakeman entered the college on a performer's course with the piano as his first study, clarinet his second, and [[orchestration]] and modern music his third, but quickly found out that "everyone else there was at least as good as me; and a lot of them much better", and switched to a teacher's course.<ref name=1976tourbook/> His orchestration professor, [[Philip Cannon (composer)|Philip Cannon]], had a long-lasting influence on his compositional skills.<ref name=Odyssey2018>{{cite web|url=https://www.rwcc.com/programmes/2018PianoOdyssey.pdf|title=Rick Wakeman: Piano Odyssey Tour – 2018 Programme|website=Rick Wakeman's Communication Centre|year=2018|access-date=27 August 2024}}</ref>

He adopted a more relaxed attitude to his studies, spending much of his time drinking in pubs and hanging out with the staff at the Musical Bargain Centre, a music shop in [[Ealing]].{{sfn|Wakeman|1995|p=61}} Wakeman's first booking as a [[session musician]], and his first time in a recording studio, occurred when guitarist [[Chas Cronk]] entered the shop in need of an organist and brass arranger for members of the [[Ike & Tina Turner|Ike & Tina Turner Revue]].{{sfn|Wakeman|1995|p=62}} The shop owner suggested Wakeman, who attended the session at [[Olympic Studios]] where he met producers [[Denny Cordell]], [[Gus Dudgeon]], and [[Tony Visconti]], and engineer [[Keith Grant]].{{sfn|Wakeman|1995|p=64, 66}} Cordell was impressed with Wakeman's skills and offered him more session work for artists at [[Regal Zonophone Records]]. Wakeman accepted the additional income to compensate the small grant he had received to study, and began skipping classes in favour of the more lucrative sessions which was frowned upon at the college.{{sfn|Wakeman|1995|p=69}}<ref name=1976tourbook/><ref name=MS2019>{{cite web|url=https://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2019/10/09/a-session-with-the-session-man-rick-wakeman-part-two/|title=A Session with the Session Man: Rick Wakeman (Part Two)|first=Bill|last=Kopp|date=9 October 2019|publisher=MUSOscribe|access-date=28 August 2024}}</ref> After a year Wakeman dropped out with the encouragement from his clarinet professor Basil Tschaikov.<ref name=Pianist2017>{{cite magazine|url=http://forgotten-yesterdays.com/_graphics/memorabilia/first_love_-_rick_wakeman_interview_-_erica_worth_-_piano_-_aprilmay_2017_34607.pdf|magazine=Pianist|issue=95|title=First Love|first=Erica|last=Love|date=April 2017|pages=12–14}}</ref>