The first solo concerts of any note that Rick ever performed were at The Royal Festival Hall on January 18th 1974. It heralded the start of an amazing career that is still alive and well to this day.
Both performances that day were of the now legendary Journey to the Centre of the Earth and the second one was recorded live for posterity and has sold more than twelve million copies world-wide . What was unknown to those who were not fortunate to attend these two performances was that there was a first half to these concerts and the second performance was recorded mainly as a means to check that the recording equipment was working correctly.
The tapes were believed to have been wiped many years ago but in fact some very rough mixes found themselves "tagged on" to an erroneous piece of quarter inch tape that was used for recording "tones", (an aid to final mastering).
Whilst in appalling condition, it has been possible to make these pieces "listenable" and have a great historical interest in being the first performances ever of these works and even include the encore, the Pearl and dean Piano Concerto.
Also discovered was a very rare piece of history.
The narrator, David Hemmings, had become a very close friend of Rick's and they spent many a happy hour over a drink, (or seven), during the mixing of the live tapes.  For fun one evening, David went into the studio and recorded one of the classic narrations in various dialects.
Needless to say a tape was run for fun and recorded for the pair of them to listen back to, and howl with laughter over an eighth drink!
This tape has also amazingly survived and most of it now appears on this CD, although if the truth be known, one or two of the versions did not find their way onto the disc as they certainly wouldn't be considered "family entertainment!"
Completing this CD are some early mixes of King Arthur and also of Guinivere. These mixes are of interest as they show a stage just prior to the final orchestral and choir additives and with just rough vocals, which were always put on at an early stage in order to create a good guide as to the make-up of the piece as a whole.