Rick Wakeman says ARW shows will cover as many YES eras as possible

Former YES members Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Wakeman are heading out on a nine-date UK tour in March 2017 and Rick says preparations are going better than they could ever have imagined.

In a blog post on his official website, Rick says the trio spent the last few months preparing “ideas... music, staging and aspirations” for the tour and they convened in Los Angeles on 7th August for seven days of rehearsals.

He writes: “One thing that became abundantly clear was that Lee Pomeroy (bass) and Lou Molino III (drums) are much more than added ‘sidemen’. Their contributions to all that went on were immense and ARW is truly a 5-piece band of tremendous future potential. There truly can’t be a better bass player or drummer out there for ARW.

“We tried out lots of the classic YES pieces and also played around with some of the arrangements which in most case, really worked fantastically, and in the cases where the changes didn’t work, we laughed out loud and ditched them!

“We now have a two hour+ set that we all think covers as many YES eras as possible and with a line up of former YES members that has not been seen before. What was very pleasing was the number of musicians who popped into rehearsals to say hello and said how fantastic it sounded - and I was only using one keyboard as my rig is in the process of being put together here in England.

“The atmosphere throughout the rehearsals was incredible and the two dinners we all had together were a bundle of laughs from start to finish. Everybody is so enthused about what is happening that it just puts a permanent smile on all our faces.

“Jon is singing so well and Mr Rabin is one astonishing player. Why we haven’t done this before is beyond me!!!”

He adds: “The stage set design looks brilliant and all I need is some anti ageing cream and I’ll look half decent on stage!!!

“The keyboard rig will see a few changes and when it’s done we’ll take a photo and put it up on the site as I know some of the keyboardists amongst you are genuinely interested in rig.”

Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman play the following shows:

MARCH 2017
Cardiff Motorpoint Arena - Sun 12th
Birmingham Symphony Hall - Mon 13th
Brighton Dome - Wed 15th
Bournemouth International Centre - Thu 16th
London Hammersmith Eventim Apollo - Sun 19th
Nottingham Royal Concert Hall - Tue 21st
Edinburgh Usher Hall - Wed 22nd
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall - Fri 24th
Manchester Apollo - Sat 25th

Tickets are on sale from Planet Rock Tickets now.