by Eileen Cannon, Laurel Springs, NJ

Rick Wakeman performed a solo concert at the Spectrum to promote his “Journey to the Center of the Earth” album. It was quite the production — the first set was Rick w/ a rock ensemble, doing all of the “6 Wives of Henry the 8th” and some other stuff. Then Rick and the rock ensemble were joined by classical orchestra and a choir and they performed the entire “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”

Brilliant performances from all, and for the encore, Rick came out solo and played another half hour doing a variety of bits, including some Wakeman interpretations of current TV commercial jingles. Awesome, but… you know Philly crowds, when we love you, we REALLY love you. The cheering went on for a while… then Wakeman came out and said, “You know, with the band, the orchestra, and the choir, we’ve run out of material. So we’ll play the second half of Journey to the Center of the earth AGAIN!”

And they did. And I will always love Rick Wakeman for doing so.