DAN WOODING: The secret picture

BRENTFORD, LONDON, UK (ANS) -- It was a rather extraordinary situation for me when, back in 1978, I had just completed Rick Wakeman, the Caped Crusader, the official biography of my old friend, Rick Wakeman, the former keyboardist with YES, and a talented musician who has been named by many critics as the “world’s greatest rock keyboard player.”

The book has since just been reissued with the new title of Caped Crusader – Rick Wakeman in the 1970s by the Gonzo Media Group in the UK.

At Rick’s request, I had approached Elton John’s publicist to see if Elton would write the foreword. To start with, the request was turned down by the publicist, but then to my great relief, I got a call from her that Elton (now Sir Elton) had agreed to do so.

Now came the tricky part. The publisher wanted a picture of Rick, Elton and I, to go on the back cover of the book and a photographer was hired to take some photos before a soccer game between Brentford FC and Watford FC.

Rick was then a big fan of Brentford and Elton was, at the time, chairman of Watford.

Read on...