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59 60<!--Snow--> 61 62<title>RWCC > About This Site</title> 63<meta name="Description" content="Rick Wakeman - Background information about Rick Wakeman CBE's website" /> 64</head> 65 66<body> 67<!-- Navigation --> 68<div class="container"> 69 <nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg bg-body-tertiary sticky-top"> 70 <div class="container-fluid"> 71 <a class="navbar-brand" href="/index.php">RWCC</a> 72 <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarSupportedContent" aria-controls="navbarSupportedContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation"> 73 <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span> 74 </button> 75 <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarSupportedContent"> 76 <ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0"> 77 <li class="nav-item"> 78 <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="/index.php">Home</a> 79 </li> 80 81 <!-- Biography --> 82 <li class="nav-item dropdown"> 83 <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="/biography.php" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">Biography</a> 84 <ul class="dropdown-menu"> 85 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/biography.php">Rick's Biography</a></li> 86 <li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li> 87 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/books.php">Books</a></li> 88 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/grumpyoldrockstar.php">Grumpy Old Rockstar</a></li> 89 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/sayyes.php">Say Yes!</a></li> 90 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/wizardofprog.php">The Wizard of Prog</a></li> 91 <li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li> 92 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/gallery.php">Press & Photo Gallery</a></li> 93 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/memorabilia.php">Memorabilia</a></li> 94 <li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li> 95 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/rwccarchive.php">Old RWCC News Archive</a></li> 96 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/rrarchive.php">GORR & RR Archive</a></li> 97 </ul> 98 </li> 99 100 <!-- Discography --> 101 <li class="nav-item dropdown"> 102 <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="/discography.php" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">Discography</a> 103 <ul class="dropdown-menu"> 104 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/discography.php">Overview</a></li> 105 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/discography_list.php?list=A">Albums</a></li> 106 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/discography_list.php?list=P">Piano Recordings</a></li> 107 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/discography_list.php?list=V">DVD & Videos</a></li> 108 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/discography_list.php?list=L">Live</a></li> 109 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/discography_list.php?list=R">Compilations</a></li> 110 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/discography_list.php?list=S">Singles</a></li> 111 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/discography_list.php?list=C">Christian</a></li> 112 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/discography_list.php?list=E">Everything</a></li> 113 <li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li> 114 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/track.php">Find a Track</a></li> 115 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/artist.php">Find a Musician</a></li> 116 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/guest.php">Find a Session</a></li> 117 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/describe.php">Review an Album</a></li> 118 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/allreviews.php">All Reviews</a></li> 119 </ul> 120 </li> 121 122 <!-- Live --> 123 <li class="nav-item dropdown"> 124 <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="/live.php" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">Live</a> 125 <ul class="dropdown-menu"> 126 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/live.php">Tours & Concerts</a></li> 127 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/live.php#prev">Previous Tours</a></li> 128 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/live.php#prog">Tour Programmes</a></li> 129 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/liveall.php">All Future Concerts</a></li> 130 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/venues.php">Past Venues & Dates</a></li> 131 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/equipment.php">ARW Tour Rig</a></li> 132 </ul> 133 </li> 134 135 <!-- Contact --> 136 <li class="nav-item dropdown"> 137 <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="/message.php?who=rw" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">Contact</a> 138 <ul class="dropdown-menu"> 139 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/message.php?who=rw">Email Rick</a></li> 140 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/message.php?who=staff">Email RWCC Staff</a></li> 141 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="https://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/contact" target="_blank">Emporium Customer Service</a></li> 142 </ul> 143 </li> 144 145 <!-- Other Info --> 146 <li class="nav-item dropdown"> 147 <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="/about.php" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">Other Info</a> 148 <ul class="dropdown-menu"> 149 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="https://www.rickwakemansmusicemporium.com/" target="_blank">Wakeman Emporium</a></li> 150 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="https://www.rickwakemansmusicemporium.us/" target="_blank">Wakeman Emporium USA</a></li> 151 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/rr.php">Rick's Latest Ramblings</a></li> 152 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/notices.php">Old Site Notices</a></li> 153 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/faq.php">FAQs</a></li> 154 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="/about.php">About This Site</a></li> 155 <li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li> 156 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="http://www.facebook.com/RickWakemanMusic" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li> 157 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="http://www.instagram.com/rickwakemanmusic/" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li> 158 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="https://rick-wakeman.lnk.to/youtube" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li> 159 <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="https://www.rwcc.com/podcast.php" target="_self">Podcast</a></li> 160 </ul> 161 </li> 162 163 164 </ul> 165 166 <!-- Search --> 167 <form class="d-flex" name="cse" id="rwccsearch" action="/searchresult.php" method="get"> 168 <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search" name="q">
169 <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="010572715395663764927:v2ojvvj9poq"> 170 <input type="hidden" name="ie" value="utf-8"> 171 <input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en"> 172 <button class="btn btn-dark me-2" type="submit">Search</button> 173 <!--
173<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/cse/brand?form=rwccsearch"></script>
173--> 174 </form> 175 </div> 176 </div> 177 </nav> 178</div> 179<!-- Main Code to setup Page --> 180<div class="container"> 181 <header class="row mt-md-3 mb-md-3"> 182 <div class=" col-2 align-self-center"> 183 <img src="/graphics/misc/GOR150.png" alt="GOR" class="img-fluid"> 184 </div> 185 <div class="col-10" id="HeaderFont"> 186 187 <h1 class="h5 shadow d-block d-sm-none">About This Site</h1><h1 class="shadow d-none d-sm-block">About This Site</h1> 188 </div> 189 </header> <main class="row"> 190 <div class="col"> 191 192<!-- Custom Page Content --> 193 <a name="25"></a> 194<div class="card shadow p-3 mb-5 bg-body rounded"> 195 <div class="card-body"> 196 <h3 class="card-title">30th Anniversary Update</h3> 197 <div class="card-text"> 198 <p>We're still here!, June 19th 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of RWCC.COM being fully online. We can't really add much to the 25th update, because the technology has stayed the same - we have a nice stable platform and that's the way we like it!</p> 199 <p>The only major change has been a new staff member. Alana Richardson-Smith now handles a lot of the day to day updates both here and on Facebook and Instagram, and as anyone who manages a large online presence knows, it can be very time consuming keeping it all polite and troll free, so it's great to have the extra help. And yes, this is Rick holding Alana at her christening in 2002!</p> 200 <img class="img-fluid" src="graphics/news/rick_alana.jpg" alt="Rick and Alana in 2002"> 201 </div> 202 </div> 203</div> 204<h3>25th Anniversary Update</h3> 205 <p>It hardly seems possible but yes, June 19th 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of RWCC.COM being fully online. It has been an amazing twenty five years, during which the internet has changed beyond all recognition. Whether you consider the changes to be good, or in some cases bad, the fact remains that throughout those years the site has had to change and adapt to the changing technologies, and of course the changing expections on how a site should be built. Many of you have been with the site from the very beginning, especially those that were former members of the RWCC, from which the site gets its name. When news of the site was first mentioned in the written newsletter, more and more people came online and slowly the site's following grew, eventually replacing that newsletter, the achives of which are still on the site. So what have the recent changes been?</p> 206 <p>Well during the early part of 2021, we had another change to the underlying framework, with the site being re-written in Bootstrap 5. We also tried to make sure that we are conforming to the Web accessibility guidelines as much as possible. For those that don't deal with building websites, it basically means that the site is compatible with assistive technologies like screen readers, so the site can be enjoyed by those with disabilities. As part of the rebuild, we did a slight redesign, most notably on the discography pages, including a tiled view, adding filtering to make things easier to find and Spotify links where available. The site also works better on mobile devices.</p> 207 <p> Talking about design, we'd also like to acknowledge the feedback we get from time to time, which usually takes the form of "the site looks rubbish". As previously mentioned, the site replaced the written newsletter which Rick wrote to be as informational as possible, with few if any photographs. When the site started, we agreed that the website should also carry forward that ethos, informational, almost encyclopedic in nature. So yes, the site does not look like a lot of other musician websites, but for all the critics out there - that is by design!</p> 208 <p>Rick and the website staff thank you for your support and contributions through the past 25 years and finally, if you cannot remember what the web was like in 1996 (including young fans who may not have been born!), <a href="https://archive.org/embed/introduction-to-the-internet" target="_blank">here's an entertaining video</a> introducing people to the Web back then, courtesy of the Internet Archive… </p> 209<h3>2020 PHP/mySQL rewrite</h3> 210<p>With a site as old as RWCC.COM, it's inevitable that technology changes along the way. The first site in 1996 was completely static of course, because that's all that you could do. Because I was heavily into data driven desktop publishing (automatically building books in QuarkXPress from data), as soon as it was possible to build websites the same way, I did the same. The technology changed, but the site was built using classic ASP and driven by Microsoft Access databases. Over time, better things came along like ASP.NET but I just stuck with ASP and the databases because it worked and why fix something that isn't broken? Well of course, the main reason is that it does break! Service providers start to deprecate older technologies and you start to see the writing on the wall. So with a free weekend to
210spare, I completely rewrote the site in PHP and changed the database from 3 Access, to 1 mySQL instance. This meant I could also move from Adobe Dreamweaver CS6 to CC2020. I also took the time to upgrade to the latest version of the <a href="https://foundation.zurb.com/" target="_blank">Zurb's Foundation framework</a>. I realize none of this is of any interest to Rick's fans, but we do get the occasional question about the site!</p> 211<h3>2018 Responsive Site</h3> 212<p>2018 sees the relaunch of the site rebuilt using Zurb's Foundation framework. The new site has been extensively tested on a range of devices and browsers and we're fairly confident that it should work well everywhere. However this is 2018 and "everywhere" now implies modern browsers, so I'm afraid you will need to be on something reasonably up to date.</p> 213 <h3>20th Anniversary Update</h3> 214 <p>Well it hardly seems possible, but on the very day that Rick debuts the newly re-recorded Myths at the O2 in London, the website turns 20 years old. The web was a very different place back in 1996, social media wasn't a thing and when the site was launched, we had no idea that it would still be alive and well in 2016.</p> 215 <p>We certainly don't intend to make a big thing about it, but we certainly believe it's one of the longest running sites in support of a musician. But the very fact that it's survived is thanks to the support of all the loyal fans out there, so to you, each and every one of you, we send our thanks for your support!</p> 216 <p>Rick and Wayne</p> 217 <p><img src="graphics/misc/RWCC20.png" alt="RWCC turns 20" /></p> 218 <section> 219 <h3>About This Site</h3> 220 <p>This site has been created by <a href="http://www.wayne-smith.com/" target="_blank">Wayne Smith</a> as a thank you to Rick Wakeman for a lifetime of listening pleasure, and is now maintained by both Wayne and Rick's Goddaughter Alana Richardson-Smith. </p> 221 <p>I have been a fan of Rick since the early days, including the Strawbs 222 and have been fortunate to be present at a number of memorable occasions 223 along the way, including seeing "Journey" live at Crystal Palace, 224 The Old Grey Whistle Test recording at the Maltings in Farnham, and I've 225 done my fair share of queueing to get albums signed.</p> 226 <p>Nothing can repay the pleasure that Rick's music has given to me over 227 the years, but hopefully this site has taken a step down that road. Please 228 continue to support Rick's musical endeavours and ensure that the pleasure 229 goes on!. Thanks are due to many people who have contributed to its creation, 230 especially Rick himself, who I'm delighted to say has become a close 231 friend over the years and is Godfather to my youngest daughter Alana. </p> 232 I'd also like to thank the following people for 233 their valuable contributions over the years: 234 <ul> 235 <li>Sidônio Pacheco Alves </li> 236 <li>Paul Chapelhow </li> 237 <li>David Charlap </li> 238 <li>Ceri Davies </li> 239 <li>John Forster </li> 240 <li>Julia Rai </li> 241 <li>Jon Hinchliffe</li> 242 <li>Graham Johnson</li> 243 <li>Brian Neeson </li> 244 <li>Eugene Poliakov </li> 245 <li>Karl Sarkozi </li> 246 <li>Liz Shave </li> 247 <li>Arturo Toledo</li> 248 <li>Don Tyler </li> 249 <li>Eduardo Valle and his son Guilherme Sotto-Maior </li> 250 <li>Bill Verstege </li> 251 <li><a href="http://www.lwmultimedia.co.uk/LWMultimedia.html" target="_blank">Lee Wilkinson</a></li> 252 </ul> 253 <p>The RWCC site isn't finished though, and never 254 will be! If you have anything that you feel you can contribute, by way of 255 information, local press reviews of shows, anecdotes or photographs of your 256 meetings with Rick, please <a href="message.php?who=staff">contact the site</a>. </p> 257<!-- End Custom Content --> 258<!-- Main Code to end Page --> 259 </main> 260</div> 261<footer class="footer-basic"> 262 <div class="social"> 263 <a href="http://www.facebook.com/RickWakemanMusic" target="_blank"><iconify-icon icon="ic:baseline-facebook"></iconify-icon></a> 264 <a href="http://www.instagram.com/rickwakemanmusic/" target="_blank"><iconify-icon icon="mdi-instagram"></iconify-icon></a> 265 <a href="https://rick-wakeman.lnk.to/youtube" target="_blank"><iconify-icon icon="mdi:youtube"></iconify-icon></a> 266 <a href="https://shows.acast.com/the-myths-legends-of-rick-wakeman"><iconify-icon icon="ic:baseline-podcasts"></iconify-icon></a> 267 </div> 268 <ul class="list-inline"> 269 <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="/index.php">Home</a></li> 270 <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="/about.php">About</a></li> 271 <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="/privacy.php">Privacy</a></li> 272 <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="https://www.rickwakemansmusicemporium.com/" target="_blank">Store Worldwide</a></li> 273 <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="https://www.rickwakemansmusicemporium.us/" target="_blank">Store USA</a></li> 274 </ul> 275 <p class="copyright">© 1996-2026 Rick Wakeman CBE & Wayne Smith</p> 276</footer></body> 277</html>
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