A video of Rick Wakeman and astronaut Chris Hadfield covering David Bowie’s Space Oddity has been released.
The performance was filmed at the science and arts-based Starmus Festival in Tenerife – which dedicated this year’s gathering to Professor Stephen Hawking.
It saw keyboard icon Wakeman, who played mellotron on the original 1969 track, take the stage with the former International Space Station commander on guitar duties. Hadfield’s own rendition of the song from the facility went viral in 2014 – with Bowie describing it as “possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created.”
Wakeman says: “It’s a real honour to have played on probably the two most iconic versions of Space Oddity – the brilliant original with David of course and now this very special version with Chris, that was born 300 miles from planet earth.”
It was recently confirmed that Wakeman will enter the studio next year to work on new music with his former Yes bandmates, Jon Anderson and Trevor Rabin. The trio will tour the UK in March next year.
Anderson said: “It’s gonna be great fun for us, and the fans. We just want to have a good time, re-creating the wonderful music of Yes over the years.
“There’s a lot of jokes about life, talking about our love for music, and what we will be up to in the next couple of years. We have some songs based on music from all of us really – very intense to very ethereal. It’s really typical Yes energy.
“We’ll probably release EPs, but we will wait until the new year to record them. For now, it’s putting on a show that works.”
Further release details will be revealed in due course.
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Anderson, Rabin & Wakeman UK tour 2017
Mar 12: Cardiff Arena
Mar 13: Birmingham Symphony Hall
Mar 15: Brighton Dome
Mar 16: Bournemouth International Centre
Mar 19: London Hammersmith Apollo
Mar 21: Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
Mar 22: Edinburgh Usher Hall
Mar 24: Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Mar 25: Manchester Apollo
