Rick Wakeman to perform live with Jazz Sabbath in Birmingham

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Jazz Sabbath released their acclaimed Vol. 2 album earlier this year

Rick Wakeman
(Image credit: Sergione Infuso/Corbis - Getty)

Jazz Sabbath have announced that acclaimed progressive rock keyboard player Rick Wakeman will make a guest appearance with the band when they play the Crescent Theatre in Birmingham, November 26.

According to the Jazz Sabbath documentary, a catering mix up at the studio where they were recording their second album with Wakeman as guest musician in 1969 led to the band having to cancel the entire album. Wakeman walked out and his record label threatened to sue them if they tried to release it.

Four years later, Wakeman would even record Sabbra Cadabra, one of the songs from the album, with Black Sabbath on their 1973 album Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, claiming it was their own song.

For the record, Jazz Sabbath are the band who claim another band from Birmingham ripped off their material while a band member, Milton Keanes, was hospitalised and their debut album shelved, and whose 'original' album, Jazz Sabbath, surfaced in 2020.

Earlier this year, Jazz Sabbath could finally finish and release the album. Without using Wakeman's parts and by renaming the album Vol. 2. The album peaked at #6 in the Billboard Jazz chart.

Band leader Milton Keanes feels that 53 years is too long to hold a grudge and hopes that inviting Wakeman as special guest, will end the animosity. Wakeman agreed and stated: ''Milton and I, we won't exactly be cuddling each other, but it's all water under the bridge now."

Jazz Sabbath are currently on tour in support of Vol 2. They play:
Oct 27: NED Tilburg Paradox Jazz Club
Oct 29: NED Utrecht TivoliVredenberg
Oct 30: BEL Heist o/d Berg Hnita Jazz Club (afternoon show)
Nov 11: GER Leverkusen JazzTage
Nov 16: UK London PizzaExpress Jazz Club
Nov 18: UK Fletching Trading Boundaries
Nov 19: UK Cranleigh Arts Centre
Nov 20: UK Devizes Corn Exchange
Nov 21: UK Cardiff Acapela Studio
Nov 22: UK Dartmouth The Flavel
Nov 24: UK Milton Keynes Stables
Nov 26: UK Birmingham The Crescent Theatre

Get tickets.

Disclaimer: News and media persistently claiming Milton Keanes is actually Adam Wakeman continues to baffle Keanes. He says: "I just don't see it. He doesn't even look like me."

Jerry Ewing
Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.