An archetypal champion of 1970s prog-rock, Rick Wakeman is instantly
identifiable by his flowing blonde hair, banks of keyboards and grandiose
classical-jazz-rock fusions. He started playing electric keyboards at the age of
12 and studied piano, clarinet and orchestration at the Royal College of Music,
going on to become a session musician. He played Mellotron on David Bowie's A
Space Oddity and piano on several other Bowie and Cat Stevens hits before
becoming a regular member of the Strawbs in 1970. The following year he joined
Yes, working on three of their biggest-selling albu...