Keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman to tell life story at Birmingham show

The performance, which will top the bill at Birmingham Town Hall on Monday, will combine spellbinding piano music with side splitting stories and revealing insights into the lengthy and varied career of one of music’s great talents – and characters.

Fans can expect an evening of superb musicianship, featuring music from Yes, Rick’s own solo epics and early Bowie hits, plus fantastic arrangements of Beatles’ tunes, and much, much more, interspersed with knockabout – and sometimes bawdy – humour.

A Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Wakeman made his presence felt with an hilarious speech at the ceremony.

“It was interesting because I was extremely proud that Yes got inducted,” he says, recalling the speech which included profanities and musings on life, family, and a recent prostate exam.

“I thought it was long overdue. I thought we should have been in long ago because there’s a few bands that have since come in very late and I think, personally, it’s too late, especially when an important member of the band has passed away.

“You look at Chris [Squire] with Yes and Jon Lord with Deep Purple and you think, ‘These guys deserved to be here. They deserved to receive that accolade, especially since many are founding members of those bands’.

“That was the only slight disappointment, but I was thrilled that the band got in.

“I have this thing — and I need to be brutally honest with you: I like watching award ceremonies. Like everyone in the U.K., we’re glued to the Golden Globes and the Oscars and to the Emmys and all that kind of thing.

“But the speeches! Give me strength. How many times can you thank “my mother and my father for buying my first guitar and my Uncle Henry who got my first strings…”