His early sessions included "Space Oddity", among other tracks, for David Bowie, and songs by Elton John, Marc Bolan, Cat Stevens, and Lou Reed.

[9] Lessons with Symes lasted for eleven years; she recalled Wakeman "passed everything with a distinction", was an "enjoyable pupil to teach, full of fun and with a good sense of humour", but lacked discipline when it came to practising.

[8] The band were unpaid after Wakeman lost control of his car and drove across the headmaster's rose garden at the front of the school, thereby forfeiting their performance fee to pay for the damage.

[8] Around this time, Wakeman frequented the Red Lion pub in Brentford where he took part in jam sessions with several known musicians including John Entwistle, James Royal, Nick Simper, and Mitch Mitchell.

[23] Wakeman entered the college on a performer's course with the piano as his first study, clarinet his second, and orchestration and modern music his third, but quickly found out that "everyone else there was at least as good as me; and a lot of them much better", and switched to a teacher's course.

[25] Wakeman's first booking as a session musician, and his first time in a recording studio, occurred when guitarist Chas Cronk entered the shop in need of an organist and brass arranger for members of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.

[26] The shop owner suggested Wakeman, who attended the session at Olympic Studios where he met producers Denny Cordell, Gus Dudgeon, and Tony Visconti, and engineer Keith Grant.

Wakeman accepted the additional income to compensate the small grant he had received to study, and began skipping classes in favour of the more lucrative sessions which was frowned upon at the college.

[30] Among his first sessions were playing on Battersea Power Station by Junior's Eyes and, in June 1969, the Mellotron on "Space Oddity" by David Bowie for a £9 fee after Dudgeon needed a player, as neither knew much about the instrument.

[35] After a short return stint in the Ronnie Smith group, Wakeman spotted an advertisement in the Melody Maker for an organist in the Spinning Wheel, a pub band at The Greyhound in Chadwell Heath, for seven nights a week.

"[39][40] The Strawbs' first major concert, on 11 July 1970 at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, was recorded and released as Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios, both of which brought Wakeman's virtuosity into the national spotlight.

[53] Wakeman decided that Yes presented more favourable opportunities and declined Bowie's offer; his arrival into the band in August 1971 made the front page news in Melody Maker, his second cover feature in a year.

[63] Yes's double concept album Tales from Topographic Oceans was released in November 1973, containing four side long pieces based on ideas from Hindu scriptures in Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda.

[73] After working on the music with Lou Reizner, David Measham, Wil Malone, and Danny Beckerman, which features an orchestra, choir, and a rock band, Wakeman chose to record the piece in concert due to the high costs of a studio.

[82] By this time, his excessive smoking and alcohol consumption, a lack of sleep five days prior to the show, and a wrist injury from a fall, took a toll on his health, and he needed morphine injections to get through the performance.

Initially it was to be about mythological gods, but its lyrical subject matter changed after he witnessed a flying object one night which inspired him to read up on the origins of man and mysterious phenomena such as the Bermuda Triangle, Stonehenge, and the pyramids.

Wakeman was a key figure in getting American punk band The Tubes their first record deal, having suggested to George Daly that he contact A&M executive Kip Cohen, who signed the group.

[106] Later that year he came close to forming a band with drummer Carl Palmer, bassist John Wetton, and guitarist Trevor Rabin, but opted out "on a matter of principle" as the record company was prepared to sign them without hearing any of the group's music.

[115] He then released a second album for Charisma, Cost of Living, a mixture of instrumental and rock tracks with Rice on vocals, which failed to impact the chart and "did nothing" to improve his finances.

[115] Wakeman took up work by recording the soundtrack to the official 1982 FIFA World Cup documentary film G'olé!, which was released around the same time as Cost of Living which hampered potential sales.

[115] Wakeman also spent early 1983 writing the score to the ballet Killing Games, but problems during its development led to the project being shelved, along with a potential double album of its music.

[120] In March 1985, Wakeman finished work on his part of the soundtrack to the comedy film Playing for Keeps, which was followed by a tour of the UK, North America, and Australia to promote Silent Nights.

In 1993, Wakeman's financial situation took an unexpected turn when he was demanded to pay almost £70,000 to the Inland Revenue for interest charges and unpaid penalties related to tax he had paid for the preceding six years.

"[143] Wakeman credits his 1993 appearance on the evening talk show Danny Baker After All as a turning point in his television career, after he told a story about being arrested in Moscow for smuggling a KGB uniform out of the country.

[144] In mid-1995, Wakeman became involved with Phillip Gandey's family circus entertainment project Cirque Surreal, writing and recording "timeless" pieces to enhance the show's various characters.

[148] After a deal with EMI Classics was made, a story based on three unnamed travellers and their attempt to follow the original route was finalised, and recording began in 1998 with a band, the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Choir, Patrick Stewart as the narrator, and guest performances from Trevor Rabin, Ozzy Osbourne, and Bonnie Tyler.

[168] The re-recording of Journey became the catalyst for a new and expanded version of King Arthur, following a request from a South American concert promoter, for which Wakeman wrote new music based on additional Arthurian legends.

[171] In June 2015 he announced Wakemanfest, a three-day music festival at the Gliderdrome in Boston, Lincolnshire that October, featuring performances from himself and the English Rock Ensemble, the Strawbs, The Cadbury Sisters, and Chrissie Hammond.

The strong reception from listeners and viewers of the YouTube video led Wakeman to release a single of the track with a piano version of "Space Oddity" and an original song, "Always Together", in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

[175] The reception from the single and YouTube video inspired Wakeman to produce a solo piano album of tracks that he had played on in his career, plus original tunes and adaptations of classical pieces.