- A unique performance by Rick Wakeman, solo on the piano, in the ancient Lincoln Cathedral. The revered musician plays new arrangements of songs he has helped create, as well as a number of personnel favorites.
- This is a musical experience. The whole piano portraits musical experience was one of the most memorable Rick had done for five years, and midway through the second leg of the tour Rick decided that he really would like it filmed and recorded as a lasting memory, and also for his personnel satisfaction! From the outset Rick was lucky enough to have a great team around with friends from Universal, Erik Jordan and his talent as a recording engineer, Andrew Gillar and his wonderful Steinway Model D at the Granary, Brian Lane and his management team, Stuart Galbraith and Kilimanjaro as promotors and Joe Baxter doing PR. Add to this, Val Potter who toured managed, and Rob Ayling who arranged all of the wide-ranging merchandise and came out on the road with his lady Sandy and son Hunter, and you have a dream team.
Recording Piano Portraits album was a joy. Smiles every day from all concerned. The artwork was so perfect it just wasn't true and the tours were full of joy wherever Rick went with wonderful audiences everywhere. Perhaps you can understand why Rick wanted to try and capture Piano Portraits somehow forever.
Rick looked at various venues to record a concert, but from experience knew how distracting it could be from the actual performance and so decided on doing everything under filming and recording conditions, and that is what this film is all about. Lincoln Cathedral was chosen, as it was so beautiful and Rick had recorded the organ there some years ago and found everybody so welcoming. A date was secured and then Rick started putting the plan into action.
First off (and most importantly) was to secure the hire of the famous Steinway Grand from Andrew Gillar, and once that was ticked off a carefully chosen film crew (Skooch Media) were sourced who knew they had to be sympathetic to what Rick was trying to achieve. Erik Jordan was placed in charge of the sound recording of course and then a plan of how the day would be structured was put into place.
A very different live performance other than just filming Rick like a cheshire cat was most important. Leigh and his cameras were placed accordingly to capture the event in the majestic setting the Cathedral offered, and they captured a very natural vibe indeed. A few times Rick wanted a different start to a song or sometimes even a complete new section filmed again, so the audience witnessed the complete film production as a special live performance with added 'set ups' to make the evening complete with everyone satisfied they'd captured something special.
Rick always wanted to film this way and was so pleased that it has finally come to fruition as 'Live Portraits'. Enjoy this unique film, it's really something special.
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