Rick Wakeman's York odyssey from busking to Barbican and Bohemian Rhapsody

“That was my first time at the Barbican, which I loved,” says the 69-year-old London keyboardist. “I have a genuine love of York for many reasons. First of all my wife was at university in York, and she’s coming the day after her birthday to go to some of her favourite haunts and a bite to eat.

“Secondly, I played at [Countdown host] Richard Whiteley’s memorial service at the Minster, where there were thousands outside that day. I played a piece I’d written called Gone But Not Forgotten, which he loved. He’d said, ‘If I die before you, play it at my funeral’. I said, ‘I’m a rock’n’roller, you’re a celebrity TV presenter, the odds are stacked one way’, but it didn’t work out like that.”

The  late Richard Whiteley: Rick Wakeman played at his memorial service at York Minster

Then there was his notorious “busking” appearance in the city centre for the BBC’s Inside Out show, earlier that year in January 2005, wherein Wakeman investigated the world of York’s street musicians.

“I got completely stuffed by that show! They had me with my keyboard, putting me in a huge coat with the hat down and things covering my face, and a few yards further down the street, they placed a very pretty girl from college playing the trumpet, getting £50 quid in half an hour,” he recalls.

“Then this dear old lady came over, as I was hunched over my keyboard, gave me a few coins and said, ‘When are you next on Countdown?’!”

Wakeman is a notoriously good storyteller, an asset to his solo show this Sunday, whereas he kept quiet at the ‘Yes Featuring’ gig.

"Try not to think of them as rock pieces but as piano pieces," says Rick Wakeman, introducing his Piano Odyssey album

“The reason I don’t talk in Yes shows is that I have so much to do to prepare for the next number. There are still a lot of keyboards I play in those shows, though the most I ever had up there was 36, which was ridiculous but great fun,” he says.

“It was like living in a little house, thinking ‘where do I go now?’. Whereas when I do the piano shows, I can stand up, tell stories, have some banter, sit down and start playing again.”

Wakeman’s 14-date Piano Odyssey tour coincides with the October 12 release of the album of the same name after the success of 2017’s Piano Portraits album and tour, as he once more gives classic songs his piano treatment.

“In the footsteps of Piano Portraits, the new album Piano Odyssey features a collection of music old and new that includes some particular favourites of mine,” he says.

The album artwork for Rick Wakeman's Piano Odyssey, released on October 12

Piano Portraits made chart history by becoming the first solo piano album to enter the British top ten, peaking at number six, as Wakeman built on the public reaction to his cover of David Bowie’s Life On Mars on BBC Radio 2 a year earlier by recording instrumental versions of hits that featured Rick’s keyboards, such as Bowie’s Space Oddity and Cat Stevens’ Morning Has Broken.

“It did really well, so the record company said, ‘Do another one’, but I said, ‘I can’t; I’ve used all the best pieces that worked on the first one and I don’t want to do a second best’.”

Wakeman, nevertheless, hit on a solution as he tackled the likes of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, Simon and Garfunkel's The Boxer, The Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever and While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Bowie’s The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud, “the best song he ever wrote before Hunky Dory”.

“What I’ve done is try not to think of them as rock pieces but as piano pieces, so it‘s one step up the ladder from Piano Portraits.

“I said, ‘I’ll have a go, but it won’t work’, but it bl**dy well does!”

Rick Wakeman, Piano Odyssey Tour, York Barbican, Sunday, 7.30pm. Tickets update: still available on 0844 854 2757, at yorkbarbican.co.uk or in person from the Barbican box office.