Dan Wooding talks about his Rick Wakeman book

Release of my Rick Wakeman book, Update on my sister Ruth, and Front Page Radio
A Special Message from Dan Wooding

Norma and I send to your all our warmest greetings and thank you for all your kind prayers and support and we especially welcome our many new subscribers to ANS. We trust that you will be both blessed and challenged by the many stories that you are receiving into your inbox several times a day.

“Caped Crusader” book released

It has been an exciting week for me with the news that the Gonzo Media Group has just released “Caped Crusader, Rick Wakeman in the 1970s,” my latest book with a foreword by Elton John.

This is the authorized biography of my dear friend Rick Wakeman, who is arguably the world’s greatest rock keyboardist, and is lavishly illustrated with dozens of photos from Wakeman’s extraordinary career which includes the time it took off when he joined the folk group, Strawbs, in 1969, and played on three of their albums, and later rose to greater heights during his times with the British super group, Yes, and wowed the fans around the world with his incredible performances.

Wakeman has produced over 100 solo albums that have sold more than 50 million copies and you can an incredible solo by him by going to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDsvZGM1vD8

I was the first journalist to ever write a story about Rick Wakeman. It occurred more than 40 years ago while I was working on a local newspaper in Ealing, West London, the Middlesex County Times, at which my dear colleague, Michael Ireland, also worked as a reporter.

I was looking for stories for the paper and had just called in on a shop called the Musical Bargain Centre in South Ealing Road, and it was then that I heard someone playing amazing keyboards at the back of the store.I waited until he had finished and then talked with him. That person was Rick Wakeman and he told me that he was then a student at the Royal College of Music in London and was also doing sessions with different musicians. He told me had had just played piano on and arranged Morning Has Broken for Cat Stevens and also played Mellotron on Space Oddity for David Bowie. Both went on to become number 1 hits in both the UK and the USA.

Rick told me that he had never been interviewed before, so I wrote up the story for the paper and we became best friends. He invited me to his home in Northolt and I sat there spellbound as he played for me on his home piano. I had never heard anything like it.

I shared with him a little about my background, explaining to him that I was born of missionary parents in Nigeria, and it was then that Rick told me that he was also a Christian and had been baptized at South Harrow Baptist Church and, at that time, was also a Sunday School teacher there.

As his career blossomed, I went on to write his authorized biography, and this latest one, which contains some updates, has been reissued and slighly updated, along with Elton John’s foreword, and the three of us even had our picture taken together at Brentford F.C. for the back cover of the book.

Rick and I have remained close friends for all these years and he has also performed several concerts for ASSIST in the United States.

I have been asked about the title, well that comes from the fact that the blond figure of Wakeman would wrap his glittering shimmering cape around his giant frame and head on stage at arenas around the world to start another incredible performance on his battery of electronic keyboards.

And, even today, the “Caped Crusader” continues to push back the limits of music with his extraordinary talents.

The purchase a copy of “Caped Crusader” just go to: http://www.amazon.com/CAPED-CRUSADER-Rick-Wakeman-1970s/dp/1908728302/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335474883&sr=1-1

Update on my sister Ruth

So many of you have sent wonderful messages to me to forward to my sister Ruth Ross, who on Wednesday, April 11, 2012, suffered a severe break to her shin bone in an accident in Liverpool, England. I am now glad to report that on Tuesday of this week, she was released from a Liverpool hospital, where she had undergone two surgeries. It was also discovered during her two weeks stay that she had broken two bones in her right ankle when she fell during a visit to the Albert Dock in Liverpool. She has since called me to thank all of you who sent her messages while she was being treated. Our parents, Alf and Anne Wooding, were pioneer missionaries in Nigeria, where I was born.

In the Market with Janet Parshall

I was recently on “In the Market with Janet Parshall” on Moody Radio when I talked about the Rick Wakeman book and also my trip to Indonesia with Ambassadors for Peace (www.am4peace.com). If you would like to listen to it, just go to:http://podcasts.moodyradio.org/IntheMarketwithJanetParshall/2012-04-17_In_The_Market__hour_02.mp3

Front Page Radio

My special guests on this Sunday’s Front Page Radio (April 29, 2012) at 5:00 PM (Pacific Time) are Julie Hiramine, Katherine Lockhart and Kelsey Roberts from Generations of Virtue, a Colorado Springs, CO, a ministry that seeks to help bring purity to America’s children. It does so by holding seminars to raise up the next generation in purity of body, mind and heart.

If you don’t live in the area, just go to www.kwve.com or, to hear it in advance, go to: http://www.assist-ministries.com/FrontPageRadio/FPR04.29.12JulieHiramineMono.mp3

How you can join our support team

Finally, for those of you who would like to join the support team for Norma and myself, there is a way you can do this. As I have mentioned before, our personal support has recently been at an all-time low – that is since we began ASSIST back in 1988. In fact, Norma had shared with me that because of this, over the past two years, we have had to dip into our savings to the tune of $10,000.00 per year to just pay our bills. If we had continued in this way, we will have no more saving very soon.

When God called up to begin ASSIST, we took a joint decision to never take a fixed salary, but trust the Lord to touch the hearts of our supporters to get behind us with one-off or monthly gifts. For those of you who have been able to do this, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We are now both in our seventies and, at a time when many are in retirement, we are busier than ever, bringing you news from around the world through ANS. Norma and I, and our wonderful team of “Media Missionaries” count this as a great privilege, especially when we can bring you stories about our persecuted brothers and sisters from around the world, who so desperately need our prayers and support.

Many of you have so kindly since joined our support team and made kind and much appreciated gifts. A big thank you for this.

However, if you haven’t yet, and would like to, just go to:www.assistnews.net/assist/donations.htm and then scroll down to my name, where you can make a donation to help us continue. You can also sign up for make a monthly gift which would also be a wonderful blessing to us. If you prefer to send a check, just make it out to ASSIST with “For Dan and Norma Wooding” in the memo section, and mail it to: ASSIST, PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609, USA.

I hope that you don’t mind me sharing this situation with you, but as Norma and I have now been married for nearly 49 years, we want to make sure that we can carry on working as a team to bless so many that need their “voice” to be heard.

So if you can stand with us at this difficult time and make a one-off gift, or make a monthly donation towards our support, we say in advance, a huge “thank you” from both of us.

Yours sincerely in Christ, Dan Wooding

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Doug Van Pelt

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