Review: Rick Wakeman, Piano Odyssey, York Barbican Centre, September 30

TRY as I might, I can’t think of a more boring band than Yes. And, yes, here was the cloakless keyboard player, Mr Rick Wakeman. And he was utterly not boring and, of course, technically brilliant.

And he was very funny. The gag about the fear of dentists – pain, needles, gas and the alternative therapeutical solution using Viagra – was priceless.

Of course Sunday's show was brimming with pianistic, virtuoso wizardry, but Rick Wakeman the raconteur was equally important. It made the whole gig engaging.

Anyway, to the music. The fingers move very quickly, at times the playing sounded like Elton John on speed. What I loved was the way Wakeman reinvented, gave us a new window into the music he loved, such as The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby as a starting point for a set of "variations" with nods to Prokofiev, jazz and Bach.

David Bowie has been a serious part of Wakeman’s musical life. I love the story he tells about recording Oh! You Pretty Things (from the excellent Hunky Dory): "David wanted it to be very simple, but if I remember rightly he kept cocking up the little riff…"

His version of Bowie’s The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud was simply moving. His take on Cat Stevens’ Morning Is Broken was both very funny – having to repeat the well-known refrain to simply fill out the song – and entirely inventive.

I absolutely loved this mixture of (occasionally rude) insight, pianistic virtuosity and, yes, humanity.

Steve Crowther