Rick Wakeman review – swept up by sheer, ludicrous ambition

"We used to have farting dinosaurs," begins Rick Wakeman, reeling off tales of prog-era silliness and inflatable stage props that released wind at inopportune moments. "So you'd be playing this beautifully gentle musical section and then … parp!"

We've become accustomed to the former prog-rock caped crusader in this reinvented role as raconteur and TV's Grumpy Old Man. However, this tour returns him to his original habitat: hair flowing behind a mindboggling array of keyboards, and being cheered to the rafters when he walks on in a flowing, diamond-encrusted number that makes him look like a glam-rock archbishop.

For the first time in 40 years, Wakeman is touring Journey to the Centre of the Earth, the 15m-selling concept album variously viewed as a genre-busting landmark or the epitome of prog pretension. However, he explains that he'd wanted to set a story to music – in this case Jules Verne's famous novel – since being taken to see Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf when he was eight.

Otherwise it's prog excess all areas, as Wakeman's 100mph twiddling fingers share the stage with a narrator, two singers, a rock band, choir and orchestra. Hearing a 1974 prog opus live in 2014 is a curious experience. Musical bravery happily coexists with epic folly. There are sonorous narratives, beautifully ethereal passages, classical crescendos and hard-rock noodling, not to mention important-sounding brassy bits that sound like something from the court of Henry VIII.

Ridiculous it may be, but it's hard to avoid being eventually swept up by the sheer, ludicrous ambition of it all. When the faithful give his youthful creation a standing ovation, the 64-year-old caped crusader looks emotional. Then again, having pushed the musical boat out for a less-than-full venue, his eyes might be watering at the bill.