Rick Wakeman hopes that the coronavirus pandemic lead to the end of wet markets.

The keyboardist believes the global health crisis will stop people from buying animal produce, as the deadly respiratory virus is said to have originated from a wet market in Wuhan, China.

Rick told Prog magazine: ''There's been nothing my lifetime even close to this. This crisis is the first ever that affects everybody worldwide. Bill Gates warned of this five or six years ago.

''With various health issues in our family, we've made very good friends with medical people. They always said if this got out of China, we could be in serious trouble.''

The 71-year-old musician believes that younger people need to be encouraged not to buy products from wet markets.

He said: ''You can't change the mentality of the older people, but the younger people are very supportive of getting wet markets stuff.

''It's similar to how in the 1950s every woman aspired to wear a fur coat, but now they wouldn't be seen dead in one.''

Rick admits that he and wife Rachel Kaufman - who previously underwent cancer treatment for 18 months - are worried about the threat of coronavirus with their medical problems.

He said: ''My medical history is not great. Of course my wife is worried, just as I am. We don't feel 'vulnerable' but we are in that category.

''I will certainly appreciate being able to see friends and go for all the walks that I like to do. There's so much that you take for granted.''

What's more, Rick admitted he has no idea how the entertainment industry will recover from the global health crisis.

He said: ''There's going to be massive job losses and companies going down. I truly don't know how the entertainment industry is going to recover.

''And we will have an anger period, because in this country people always look for someone to blame.''