“With my piano shows it’s just me, not lots of people in a band or crew. He’s also preparing for a solo piano tour of the US scheduled for October and his English Christmas shows. Nevertheless, having recently finalised The Red Planet, Wakeman is preparing for musical life after Covid-19, including discussing a potential setlist with his English Rock Ensemble for when touring can resume. And we will have an anger period, because in this country people always look for somebody to blame.” “I truly don’t know how the hell the entertainment industry is going to recover. “There’s going to be massive job losses and companies going down,” he laments. There’s so much that you take for granted.” However he is sceptical about other positives emerging from the coronavirus crisis. “I will certainly appreciate being able to see friends and go for all the walks that I like to do. Like everyone else, the keyboardist is looking forward to life returning to normal and cites a fresh perspective. We don’t feel ‘vulnerable’, but we are in that category.” His wife was recently treated for cancer for 18 months, enduring numerous operations and bouts of chemotherapy before receiving the all-clear last Christmas. “My medical history is not great,” Wakeman remarks drily. Wakeman and his wife are both technically classed as ‘vulnerable’ to Covid-19. It’s terrifying when it’s people you know.” At least another 30 friends were diagnosed but luckily seem to be coming out of it. And so difficult that you can’t go to see the families or attend the funerals. It’s similar to how in the 1950s every woman aspired to a fur coat, but now they wouldn’t be seen dead in one.”Ĭovid-19 has struck close to Wakeman, who has lost friends to the virus, including Tim Brooke-Taylor. “You can’t change the mentality of the older people, but the younger people are very supportive of getting wet markets stopped.
Wakeman is vehemently opposed to the wet markets in China and Indonesia and, as an ambassador for Animals Asia, he is involved in the fight to get them closed down. “We’ve shrunk the world and with that comes huge problems,” the musician sighs.
Whereas the Sars crisis of 2002/03 was primarily confined to Asia, Covid-19 swiftly became a global issue, expedited by the significant increase of mass air travel in the interim. They always said that if this got out of China, we could be in serious trouble.” With various health issues in our family, we’ve made very good friends with medical people. Bill Gates warned of this five or six years ago. This crisis is the first ever that affects everybody worldwide. “There’s been nothing in my lifetime even close to this. Having recently celebrated his 71st birthday, Wakeman has seen plenty of significant world events and disasters but is clear where the Covid-19 crisis ranks in terms of impact.
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