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Jon Hinchliffe
Rick Wakeman - Winter Gardens, Ventnor, Isle Of Wight - 15 December 2000
Last Modified On 07/11/2004
Rick has the greatest of luck. Nothing seemed to go smoothly for him. The weather was fine crossing to the Island which is good as it was very bad early in the week and was expected to be bad again over the weekend. (Personally I wish it was I love watching rough weather and the spray from the sea was apparently reaching to top of the Winter Gardens which is quite a way up.)
The B&B was next door to the venue so that was handy. I also got to the gig very early and since Mike Holden knew me and that I had travelled a long way he allowed me past the crowd control to see Rick and a junior string group being interviewed by the BBC South Today Program. About 7.20 the crowd were about to be let in and Bang! out went the lights. Not just for the venue but most of Ventnor!
We had a bonus warm up act which was handy as they were completely acoustic and the power cut lasted for 35 minutes. I am sure a lot of people got quite frustrated. They were waiting in a crowded dark area. Not great for the atmosphere but the venue weren't too sure about letting the crowd in the hall due to the amount of electrical equipment. Eventually someone made the decision and the crowd were allowed in.
New Forest Junior Strings had been going to play a concert for the Auschwitz survivors in London on the 10th December. Unfortunately their venue pulled out and they had no where to play. The BBC got involved and someone there got in touch with Mike Holden and it was arranged for them to play here. Just a little way into their set the lights returned thus allowing the BBC Cameras to start filming them again. Unfortunately there was no introduction to them so they just started playing the the crowd kept talking. I couldn't work out if they were warming up or playing for real. It turned out they were playing for real so I felt sorry for them that the audience didn't keep quite for them. The did applaud at the end of most tunes though.
They had 5 Violin type instruments. Some looked a bit smaller actually. And 2 Viola's(?)
The string section finished with the Womble theme and it has to be said they were very good for their age. It made me think back to my time in wind band when I was in secondary school. They were a lot younger though the youngest being 8 and with exclusion of the teacher the oldest probably being 11. Rick came on and thanked them. And was about to introduce the first number and Bang. The Power went again! Rick crawled around on stage as Mike Holden shown a flash light at him and then he started to tell Jokes without the power. Luckily this was a quick one but it still took a few minutes to reset all the systems. Thankfully the power remained OK from then on.
The Night was in aid of Cancer Research and Care and Friends of the Animals. The Venue was an old Musical Hall type place holding about 400 people and to my relief was close to capacity. I was very worried when my ticket arrived and it was only No. 16. I hadn't exactly been quick off the mark booking it.
The First track was by the Ventnor Middle School Choir and was sung while the PA played the Christmas Variations version of Silent Night.
Then it was time for the first audience participation, Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer. It took ages for Rick to get the House lights turned up again. He copes with this very amusingly though. It wasn't a straight Rudolph though as there were lots of silly interjections from a subsection of the choir. After a run through with everyone singing just the interjections. Their was a whole performance.
At this point I will mention there were quiet a few video cameras in the theatre. None on the stage though so I can't work out what was being filmed and for that purpose. I do know most of the songs were covered though.
We then relapsed into church tour mode for the intro of Ramon Remedios. He was introduced as a prima donna and then came on speaking with a foreign accent until Rick reminded him he was Liverpudlian. He also mentioned Ramon had been misspelt on the Posters as Rambo again.
We then got Welcome A Star complete with Choir backing which was nice. The choir did seem to loose confidence on the words occasionally and then they would loose their way a bit. It happened a couple of times during the night. So I wonder why they weren't allowed to used crib sheets. It was nice to hear again all the same.
Rick then moaned about the lack of a Christmas tree on stage and a farther Christmas bought one out. A very poor one though.
The Choir was commonly referred to as VMS and Rick commented it sound like some kind of disease you catch. He then added that so does Ramon Remedios. You just imagine a doctor saying "I am sorry you have a bad case of The Ramon Remedios".
Next was the 12 days of Christmas with actions. First by the choir and then with the theatre split down the middle one half on Father Christmas' side and the half on Ramon's. This required standing up and doing the actions and it completely disabled my brain and made me rather Giddy. Luckily I saw a teenager refusing to take part on the first row and Rick wasn't hassling him so I decided it was safe to opt out. It was a close call though as Rick was commenting about the man to me during the actions. People not doing the actions were threatened with being taken on stage.
No Not a Nazi Party rally! They are at the Five Gold Rings action in 12 days of Christmas
The Choir and Rick then did Frosty The Snowman.
Next James Pellow was introduced then did a kind of spoof sermon on Christmas. It was done in a Vicar type voice but contained amusing reference to eating turkey for days and playstations etc.
Good King Wenceslas and Ding Dong Merrily On High were then performed by Rick, Ramon and Choir. The Audience were supposed to join in. They didn't so Rick stopped and threatened the non singers with going on stage. Father Christmas was then called on to spot the poor singers. He found about 5.
To finish the first half it was back to the church tour for Nessun Dorma intro and performance. Again it was good to see.
During the interval we were given free wine and Mince Pies. I was interesting to hear the comments. One woman was very unhappy. She found it boring and wished "He would stop messing around and get on with it". I think most people were very much enjoying things though. I must admit I was enjoying it a lot more than I would expect to if you told me I was going to this sort of thing.
The 2nd Half was started like the first with the Choir singing to a Rick Christmas Variations track. This time Once In Royal David's City. This I thought was disappointing as it was just too slow for the Choir to be singing. It is fine as an Instrumental but I really wanted to wind it up for the choir sake.
Ramon then came back on for the Barber of Wigan again the intro and performance were as per the church tour. Let hope the video recording for this sees the light of day! Again it was good to see Rick really laughing during this performance. I am still very intrigued that Rick needs read music for some of his songs but not others. This was another example.
James Pellow was next and he did an amazing performance of Nicholas Nocks of Nottingham a great tongue Twister performed without mistake as far as I could spot. Apparently it doesn't always go as well. I am reasonably certain this was performed from Memory. I guess it was a classic Two Ronnies' Ronnie Barker type monologue.
Rick was still moaning about the state of the Christmas tree and said Santa could at least go and get a fairy for it. The Fairy turned out to be Mike Holden.
Rick and Ramon then put on some antlers and very seriously performed White Christmas.
The crowd joined in for the 2nd time round. Rick having a large head had trouble keeping his Antlers on. Eventually as he was stuffing his face on Mince Pies and trying talk it fell down so he just wore it as a beard.
We were then expected to sing O'Little Town of Bethlehem and O Come All Ye Faithful. I must say Rick did look extremely serious and bored during this. It might just be that I am not used to watching him playing with his eyes open. This is so rare unless he is reading music/chords. A raffled was then drawn with the fairy drawing the first number and amusingly it was his wife's ticket.
Finally the evening ended on Jingle Bells/We Wish you a Merry Christmas/Auld Lang Syne and the crowd again being pulled onto the stage if they weren't singing. The lady next but one to me was pulled out despite singing and I was amused at how loud her husband suddenly started singing but he then got pulled up to! I was now on the end of the row and extremely worried! Luckily the songs ended before they got me though.
After the gig it was most unusual to see Rick making sure he had some personal photos of the night to remember.
Overall the night was great fun and I would make the effort to go again. It is nice to see Rick mucking about and generally having a good time in aid of charity. It wasn't a night for serious Rick music fans but I don't suppose to many would have expected it to be. I guess it was a bit like a Christmas version of the Caring At Clatterbridge concert Rick did in Liverpool in 1998.
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