Songs in Ursa Minor: Yes’ Rick Wakeman Performed a Private Show for 150 Rescue Bears

The prog-rock legend appeared at a Vietnamese animal sanctuary to raise awareness of bears kept forced to have their bile extracted for traditional Chinese medicines

Prog-rock legend and animal welfare booster Rick Wakeman treated 150 moon bears to a private concert at a sanctuary in Vietnam last week.

As The Guardian reports, the former Yes keyboardist and composer performed the show to raise awareness for bears that are caged in often cruel conditions and have their bile extracted — via a needle stuck into their gall bladder — for traditional Chinese medicines. The market for bear bile is one of the largest in the illegal wildlife trade in east Asia, and while so-called “bile farms” were recently outlawed in Vietnam, some bears remain in captivity.  

“We have 150 bears at the sanctuary, but there are 125 bears left in cages in the old bear bile farms, and there are four dying a month,” Wakeman said of the situation. “We have to get them out quick and into the sanctuary.”

The special show at the sanctuary found Wakeman sitting at a grand piano and performing a few new compositions written specifically for the bears. (He joked that he would not be performing the traditional nursery rhyme, “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic.”) He was hopeful his audience would enjoy the show, quipping, “They’ve not got much choice, really,” while also pointing out that animals do “react to music, especially gentle melodic music.” 

He continued, “So what I am going to do is piano music that is melodic, and I can only hope that they will come up to the perimeter of the sanctuary and have a listen.” (Video of the performance shows several bears doing exactly that.)

Wakeman has worked on numerous animal welfare causes over the years, and he’s been sponsoring rescue bears since 2016. One of his most recent adoptees was a 20-month-old bear in attendance at his concert. Of meeting the “big fella,” Wakeman said, “He came out right to the edge and stood on his back legs and just stared at me, it was brilliant.”

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The musician also praised the work going on at the bear sanctuary, saying, “To see the bears be rehabilitated, having a life they never had before, some have never put their feet on grass before. They are so wonderful, that we can do such horrendous things to animals is beyond belief. Before this, they were chained in cages sometimes for 10 or 20 years in conditions where they couldn’t even turn around.”

He added, “If you see them, you can’t help but be moved. They aren’t tame but they are very safe, very happy, they play, they romp. I witnessed two today jumping in a bubble bath and playing. They’ve got a life back.”