Adam Wakeman

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Adam Wakeman bigraphy, stories - British musician

Adam Wakeman : biography

11 March 1974 –

Adam Wakeman (born 11 March 1974, Windsor, Berkshire, England) is the current keyboardist for Ozzy Osbourne’s band and also plays keyboards for Black Sabbath. Other musicians Wakeman has been involved with include Annie Lennox, Travis, Company of Snakes, Will Young, Victoria Beckham, Strawbs and Atomic Kitten.

He is the second son of long term Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman (who also played keyboards for Black Sabbath on their 1973 release "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath) and younger brother of Oliver Wakeman, who is also a former member of Yes. Adam and Rick have often collaborated together.

Discography

  • Scream – Ozzy Osbourne
  • I Am Anonymous – Headspace
  • Live at the Orange – Jeronimo Road
  • Neurasthenia – Adam Wakeman
  • Out of the Blue – Rick Wakeman and the E.R.E.
  • The Revealing Songs of Yes
  • Real World Trilogy – Adam Wakeman
  • Tapestries – Rick & Adam Wakeman
  • Vignettes – Rick & Adam Wakeman
  • Romance of the Victorian Age – Rick & Adam Wakeman
  • 100 Years Overtime – Adam Wakeman
  • The Official Bootleg – Wakeman with Wakeman
  • Soliloquy – Adam Wakeman
  • No Expense Spared – Wakeman with Wakeman
  • Wakeman With Wakeman – Wakeman with Wakeman

Biography

Adam Wakeman, the son of long term Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, was born into a musical family and started playing classical piano at the age of 8. By the age of seventeen he had obtained grade 8 from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and had recorded the first album with father Rick Wakeman. Father and son toured extensively, the two of them sitting at grand pianos to full scale rock performances with orchestra and choir. At the age of 24 Adam won the Keyboard Magazine Best New Talent award and promptly started a session career of his own in London.

In the mid-1990s, Wakeman formed Jeronimo Road with Fraser Thorneycroft-Smith. An album, Live at the Orange, was released after the band broke up on the label.

In 2000 and 2001 he toured with his father’s old band the Strawbs.

Adam released 4 solo albums, "Soliloquy", "100 Years Overtime", "Real World Trilogy" and "Neurasthenia".

In 2006, he put together the progressive rock band Headspace, with vocalist Damian Wilson, guitarist Pete Rinaldi, bass player Lee Pomeroy and drummer Richard Brook. Their EP entitled I am… was released in 2007 to coincide with support shows at Wembley Arena, Birmingham’s NIA and Dublin’s The Point with Ozzy Osbourne. They released their debut concept album I Am Anonymous worldwide on May 22, 2012 on the Inside Out / Century Media record label to critical acclaim.

He recorded six original albums with his father as Wakeman with Wakeman, and three live albums. He also participated in Wakeman’s tours from 1992, and he appeared in the DVD from the Gran Rex, Argentina as well as 2009’s Six Wives of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace. The 2010 release, Scream, from Ozzy Osbourne featured five songs co-written by Adam Wakeman, although an error in the liner notes means the track "I Want It More" was wrongly credited to only Osbourne and Kevin Churko.

On July 2, 2011, Adam started his own radio show on TotalRock radio in London along with fellow members of Headspace, where he (once a month, every first Saturday) will be playing "the best rock, metal and prog over the last 30 years" and also a track each show from Headspace’s debut album, expected in January 2012.

In November 2012 Adam rejoined the Strawbs on tour.