Rick Wakeman Return to the Red Planet reaches its scheduled release date October 16 through Madfish Music. The new progressive-rock album follows 2020’s The Red Planet and returns to Mars as a source of musical imagination. This is release-day coverage, not a claim that the project was announced overnight or that a keyboard player has obtained clearance to land on another planet.
Wakeman’s official announcement credits his English Rock Ensemble: Lee Pomeroy on bass, Dave Colquhoun on guitar, Adam Falkner on drums and Mollie Marriott on vocals. The sessions took place between August 2025 and January 2026, with the musicians working together at Decoy Studios. The official account emphasizes a band recording rather than simply a stack of overdubbed keyboards.
The project draws inspiration from Martian landscapes and research, according to the artist’s materials. Those influences include the planet’s ancient lakes, canyons and dust storms. Musical inspiration is not a scientific finding, and an album’s dramatic title is not evidence of habitation. The record can be interested in Mars without being assigned to the alien-confirmation desk.
One track, Bowie’s Vision, links the theme to David Bowie. Wakeman played piano on Bowie’s Life on Mars?, making the tribute more specific than an artist noticing that another artist once mentioned space. The official release information lists CD, vinyl and expanded audio editions. Availability can differ by format and seller; a release date is not a guarantee that every parcel arrives together.
Analysis: progressive rock has always had room for an idea larger than the standard radio slot. Whether that feels expansive or excessive depends on the music and the listener, not on whether a song can be condensed into a notification sound. There is something refreshing about a record whose ambitions cannot fit neatly into a caption beside a sponsored water bottle.
This notice is not a listening review. The official pages establish the release plan, personnel and concept; Prog’s October 15 review supplies a separate critical response. Readers can sample the available material and decide whether the journey appeals. Publicity describes what a project intends to do. Listening determines what it actually does for you.
The new occasion is the October 16 release. Wakeman has returned to a subject that still interests him rather than treating his back catalogue as a permanent ceiling. You do not need to endorse every flourish to appreciate the principle. Sometimes an established musician is allowed to make something new without first asking permission from the museum gift shop.
Sources and photograph
Rick Wakeman official album announcement and credits. Madfish official album page. Prog, October 15 review.
File photograph of the stage at Rick Wakeman’s Cambridge concert in 2021; not the new album’s recording sessions or a 2026 concert. Photo: kitmasterbloke; CC BY 2.0. Display copy resized. Original photograph and rights record. Image-use terms.
More from this Daily Junk Food section.
Facts first. Side-eye included.
DJF separates what is confirmed from what is claimed—and tells you why this particular mess is worth your time.
Max Rewind
Gen X Files & Pop-Culture ArchaeologyMax remembers when television ended at midnight, concert tickets were affordable, and nobody called a reboot “content.” He digs through the culture we survived.
“Rewind it, verify it, and please stop remaking everything.”