Yes Shows

Yes - Fly From Here (2011)

2011-05-27T03:16:00.003+01:00

Yes is soon releasing new album!! Let's hope it's as nice as Roger Dean's cover :)

When:
22 Jun (Japan), 1 Jul (Europe), 12 Jul (US)

Who:
Chris Squire: bass
Steve Howe: guitars
Alan White: drums
Benoît David: lead vocals
Geoff Downes: keyboards
Trevor Horn: producer

What:
side A:
1. Fly From Here - Overture (1:54)
2. Fly From Here Pt I - We Can Fly (6:01)
3. Fly From Here Pt II - Sad Night at the Airfield (6:42)
4. Fly From Here Pt III - Madman at the Screens (5:17)
5. Fly From Here Pt IV - Bumpy Ride (2:15)
6. Fly From Here Pt V - We Can Fly Reprise (1:49)

side B:
7. The Man You Always Wanted Me to Be (5:18)
8. Life on a Film Set (5:12)
9. Hour of Need (3:08)
10. Solitaire (3:30)
11. Into the Storm (6:54)

"Fly from Here" is based on the 1980 Buggles/Yes song "We Can Fly from Here". At 23:58 in total length, this is the longest studio recording Yes have ever released. "Solitaire" is an acoustic solo piece by Howe. Material mostly written by Squire/Howe/Horn, with contributions from the others. Squire described the writing as "very collaborative".

source: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wnyesm.htm

Rick Wakeman - Sheets

2010-12-22T19:00:00.003Z

On a blog called Wakemaniac I found sheets for Wakeman's most famous albums.
I'll share them with you:

The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and The Knights of The Round Table

Journey To The Centre of The Earth

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

Catherine Of Aragon
Anne Of Cleves
Catherine Howard
Jane Seymour
Anne Boleyn
Catherine Parr

Machine Messiah (Caracas, 2010-11-17)

2010-11-18T18:49:00.001Z

Yes in South America - Updated tour dates

2010-11-12T20:13:00.003Z

At Yes World we read:
November 10, 2010 - Yes will be touring South America over the coming weeks. All final dates are now on the Tour page.

NOVEMBER
17 WED Caracas, Venezuela - Sambil
19 FRI Buenos Aires, Argentina - Luna Park
21 SUN Rosario, Argentina - Teatro Broadway
23 TUES Cordoba, Argentina - Superdomo Orfeo
25 THURS Santiago, Chile - Teatro Caopolican
27 SAT Florianópolis, Brazil - Floripa Music Hall
28 SUN São Paulo, Brazil - HSBC Hall
DECEMBER
1 WED Asuncion, Paraguay - Teatro BCP
3 FRI Buenos Aires, Argentina - Teatro Gran Rex
4 SAT Mendoza, Argentina - Auditorio Angel Bustelo

Current line-up (in case someone still doesn't know) of Yes is: Chris Squire (bass), Steve Howe (guitars), Alan White (drums), Oliver Wakeman (keyboards), Benoit David (vocal)

Yes in South America - November 2010

2010-11-05T16:52:00.006Z

Yes is going to quickly tour South America this month. There are shows already booked in:
Venezuela (17/11)
Argentina (Benos Aires 19/11, Rosário 21/11, Córdoba 23/11)
Chile (25/11)
Brasil (São Paulo 28/11)

Yes fans from South America haven't seen the band since 1999 so I'm sure they're going to have a great time!
PS: Before/After the tour the band is supposed to be working on a new album. So only good news today :)
PS2: My sources were the sites of the respective venues.
Only yesterday, 06/11/2010, (11 days before the first show!) the tour was mentioned on Yes World (the official site) and they even say new dates may be added!
I've never seen a tour in my life that was so carelessly organized as this.

November 10 update: two more shows, in Brazil (Florianópolis, 27/11) and another in Buenos Aires (3/12)

Rare video on Youtube!

2010-09-28T01:02:00.002+01:00

You probably know Youtube can surprise us now and then... So today a friend sent me this link to a video of Yes at about 1970, with Bruford on drums and Kaye on keys, playing live in what seems an instrumental part of I See You, Then, or Yours is no disgrace... or none of them!

But I'm amazed at this short video, as almost all video footage of Yes pre-Yessongs is on playback and here they're playing live and wild.

At Youtube they say Howe is on the guitar, but I have my doubts. Do you think it's Howe or Banks? Please write a comment with your reasons.

PS: Another rarity I've recently seen on Youtube is another video of young Bill Bruford, this time with King Crimson playing Starless. Red (the last album of KC in the 70s) had no tour, but Starless was played in the band's tours from 1974, with different lyrics, with fiddle and without sax. Stunning video:

Other Bootleg Blogs

2010-07-14T22:34:00.004+01:00

This blog will be on a summer break for a month, while I'll be in UK to (among other things) watch ELP :)

So I leave you with some of the new blogs of bootlegs I found recently, and also some older ones that keep posting tons of boots of prog-rock, classic rock, jazz, heavy metal, there's music to all tastes! They're all on the right, named under "Other blogs you should check"

Anti Leech is a new blog with Flac archives of rock and jazz, including pretty rare stuff.

Progboot is specialized in Camel and Marillion, if you want something from these bands don't go anywhere else.

Soundaboard has old (Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix) and new (Faith no More, White Stripes) rock

The Ultimate Bootleg Experience (TUBE) is always being closed and reopening with a different number, now number 3 closed and they're back to 2 and keep posting several bootlegs a day.

These are some tips, but all the blogs on the list are recommended!

Martini

2001 - Here Comes The Sun

2010-07-08T03:32:00.003+01:00

Peter, who watched the concert, can say better than me:

[Here Comes The Sun] was a short tribute to the late, great George Harrison. A nice touch, I thought. Jon sang it (well) to light accompaniment from Steve. They didn't play any silly games with it (as, for example, with America), just a straight version.

2001-12-1, Brighton, two days after Harrison's death

Links in comments!

Steve Howe Trio

2010-06-02T01:15:00.005+01:00

(From Steve Howe's site)

"Travelling" is the Steve Howe Trio's next release, which will be available from HoweSound on or near March 1. The album consists of live performances recorded in the UK and Canada.

(buy here)

1. Blue Bash

2. Dream River

3. Travelin'

4. The Haunted Melody

5. Tune Up

6. Siberian Khatru

7. Mood for a Day

8. He Ain't Heavy, He's my Brother

9. Momenta

10. Kenny's Sound

11. Laughing with Larry

12. Close to the Edge

Highly Recommended!

Ps: I'll watch Asia and ELP in London on July 24-25 (High Voltage Festival) :) I hope Steve's Trio also plays a London gig by this week, as his schedule doesn't seem busy then. Anyone willing to have a beer after the festival (lol), just add a comment

2010 - Jon Anderson and Cleveland Contemporary Youth Orchestra

2010-05-30T22:03:00.002+01:00

Watching these videos I wouldn't think Jon's health is that bad as some may say.

It seems this show from May 24 2010 will eventually be realeased on DVD.

I wonder who wrote the orchestral arrangement, as it's surprisingly good.

2008 - Atlanta

2010-02-17T16:10:00.002Z

2008-12-07 - The Tabernacle, Atlanta GA USA

Excepts from the show

1. Astral Traveller

2. J's Theme

3. Intersection Blues

Links on comments!

Guitar Songbook - The Best of

2010-02-01T02:47:00.002Z

Now something different. A book with sheet music for the following songs:

I've seen all good people

Roundabout

Long Distance Runaround

And You and I

Wonderous Stories

Don't Kill the Whale

Owner of a Lonely Heart

Leave It

Arranged by Doug Freuler

Links on comments!

Rick and Adam Wakeman - Silent Night (Christmas Concert, 2009)

2009-12-28T23:04:00.003Z

It may be a bit late for Christmas, but I won't wait until the end of 2010 to post this!

Happy new year for you all!

1987 - Philadelphia (DVD)

2009-12-09T15:23:00.003Z

From T.U.B.E

-Source VHS > DVD

-Menu: No, chapters every 5 minutes

-Audio: AC3

-Video Format: MPEG 2

-Resolution: 704 x 480 / NTSC

-Frames Per Second : 29.970

-Aspect Ratio: 4:3

-Approx Running Time: 1 Hour 53 Minutes

-Total Size: 4.03GB

01 - Almost Like Love

02 - Hold On

03 - Heart Of The Sunrise

04 - Changes

05 - Shoot High Aim Low

06 - Holy Lamb

07 - Tony Kaye Solo

08 - Solly's Beard

09 - Make It Easy

10 - Owner Of A Lonely Heart

11 - Yours Is No Disgrace

12 - And You And I

13 - Würm

14 - Love Will Find A Way

15 - I've Seen All Good People

16 - Roundabout

Links on comments (yes, it's split in 42 parts! Only for patient fans...)

1977 - Making for the one

2009-11-13T22:59:00.006Z

The sessions that originated Going For The One were recorded in details, as we can see in videos from Youtube:

The audio has appeared in many bootlegs, that come from various tape of varying sound quality. This bootleg here, Making for the one (actually one of the few with this name...) seems to me the most complete.

Of course only die-hard fans will want to hear 14 tracks (mostly with less than a minute) showing how Parallels was developed. But some surprises are also here, such as Steve and Chris singing two songs by Bob Dylan, as well as Steve playing free-form music on the electric guitar.

01- History Intro

02- Parallels #01

03- Parallels #02

04- Parallels #03

05- Parallels #04

06- Parallels #06

07- Parallels #07

08- Parallels #08

09- Parallels #09

10- Parallels #10

11- Parallels #11

12- Parallels #12

13- Parallels #13 Almost Ready

14- Parallels #14 With Vocals

15- Turn Of The Century #2

16- Going For The One #2

17- Going For The One #3

18- Going For The One #5

19- Steve's Acoustic Solo #2 (Positively 4th Street, by Bob Dylan)

20- Steve's Electric Solo #2

21- Steve's Acoustic Solo #2 (Positively 4th Street (end) and Knockin' on Heaven's Door, by Bob Dylan)

22- Steve's Electric Solo #2

23- Rick's Solo #1

24- Rick's Solo #2

25- Awaken #4

26- Turn Of The Century #2

27- Turn Of The Century #3

28- Parallels #12

29- Turn Of The Century #1

30- Steve's Acoustic Solo #2

31- Going For The One #2

32- Jam #3

33- Steve's electric solo #2

34- Jam #4

35- Awaken #2

36- Going For The One #3

37- Awaken #4

38- Awaken #5

39- Awaken #6

40- Wonderous Stories

41- Comments On The End

42- On The Alternate Wings Of Freedom

Songs in colours are identical, but must come from different tapes, because the red ones have much worse sound quality than the purple ones. I'm sorry, but I'm not the one who created this bootleg, so don't ask me why the two jams are numbered 3 and 4, or what is "On the alternate wings of freedom" doing here!

Link on comments!

1994 - New York (first show of the tour)

2009-10-09T03:49:00.001+01:00

June 18, 1994
Binghamton, NY
Soundboard (taken from T.U.B.E , once more)

Another show from the Talk tour, this one was the first. So you notice lack of rehearsal, for example in And You And I, when Jon had two false starts.
On the other hand, you listen to some more songs from Rabin era (City of Love and Cinema).

Frank, from Forgotten Yesterdays, recollects some chat he had with Yes members after the show:
Alan comes out and doesn't give us a second (or first) glance. So...then we began to beg. "Tony! Please!" He came over. Whew. As he signed a few things, I asked a few questions, gave a few compliments. "Tony, how come Trevor played all those keyboard parts. Surely, you could've handled them." The reply: "Well... we've decided to show Trevor off this time around. Well...he decided."

"It looked like you were working hard out there, Tony. You were sweating more than all of them!" The reply: "Actually, I was closer to the lights." (:

Next victim. Trevor walks over as Tony leaves. "Hey Trevor, I didn't know you played keyboards so well." Reply: "Well it's the first time I've played them ever...on stage."

01 - Intro/Perpetual Change
02 - The Calling
03 - I Am Waiting
04 - Rhythm Of Love
05 - Hearts
06 - Real Love
07 - Changes
08 - Heart Of The Sunrise
09 - Cinema
10 - City Of Love/Make It Easy
11 - Owner Of A Lonely Heart
12 - Where Will You Be?
13 - Rabin Piano Solo/ And You And I
14 - I've Seen All Good People
15 - Walls
16 - Endless Dream
17 - Roundabout

Links on comments!

Rick Wakeman - Hampton Court, 2009

2009-10-05T00:10:00.002+01:00

Rick Wakeman's show at Hampton Court (first time Six Wives was entirely played, including also new songs, orchestrations, etc) is being release as CD, DVD and Blu-Ray.

Support him!

(or at least see these amazing concerts at Youtube)

1994 - Philadelphia

2009-09-16T18:22:00.003+01:00

Spectrum Arena, Philadelphia, PA, USA

August 26, 1994

Finally we have a show from the Talk tour here. I admit I have never cared much about their last album with Rabin, but when I listened to this show I really understood why so many people say The Endless Dream is an overlooked masterpiece.

And they don't play just this song from Talk, actually 6 of the album's 7 songs are played in this concert, showing the band really thought this material was indeed valuable (compare, for example, with the two new songs they played o

n Open Your Eyes tour).

So Endless Dream was a big surprise to me, I hope it is for you all as well. And Rabin's piano solo also exceeds expectations.

Setlist :

Intro-Perpetual Change

The Calling

I Am Waiting

Rhythm Of Love

Real Love

Changes

Heart Of The Sunrise

Make It Easy

Owner Of A Lonely Heart

Rabin Piano Solo

And You And I

Where Will You Be?

I've Seen All Good People

Walls

Endless Dream

Roundabout

Purple Haze

Links on comments!

From left to right: Billy Sherwood, Alan, Trevor, Jon, Chris. Poor Tony Kaye was left behind, as usual.

1998 - Poland

2009-09-14T04:42:00.010+01:00

March 27, 1998

Katowice, Poland

Taken from the blog T.U.B.E. (The ultimate bootleg experience, which by the way was recently deleted by google but they quickly created a T.U.B.E. 2) where you read the text:

This is a complete show radio broadcast from the Open Your Eyes tour.

Like the Warsaw show, this one also featured the Jon & Igor performance

of Polonaise. There are a few blips throughout, and the beginning

of Open Your Eyes” is missing

In the show from the night before, Jon commented the song he recorded with Vangelis in the album Private Collection) this way:

I had a dream 16 years ago, I did. And I, I wrote this song with a friend of mine. Because, uh.. Gdansk, Solidarity, they changed the world, really, changed the world. So I'll sing this song.

01 - Firebird suite-Siberian khatru (10:17)

02 - Rhythm of love (6:40)

03 - America (10:22)

04 - Open your eyes (5:02)

05 - And you and I (12:14)

06 - Heart of the sunrise (11:27)

07 - Mood for a day-Diary of a man who vanished-Clap (10:24)

08 - From the balcony (4:39)

09 - Wonderous stories (4:24)

10 - Polonaise (4:39)

11 - Long distance runaround (4:09)

12 - Whitefish (10:37)

13 - Owner of a lonely heart (6:13)

14 - The revealing science of God (20:58)

15 - I've seen all good people (8:49)

16 - Roundabout (9:03)

17 - Starship trooper (13:45)

Links on comments!

1977 - Paris (Last show from tour)

2009-09-12T15:58:00.003+01:00

Paris, France, December 6, 1977

The last concert promoting Going for the one, this is also one of the better audience tapes of that great tour that had no soundboard record. Synthesizer patches and guitar effects are awesomely clear, while the bass makes your head tremble. Listen to And You And I, for example, Rick's moog has rarely sounded so full in a live record.

Disc One:

01. Opening

02. Parallels

03. I've Seen Good People

04. Close to the Edge

05. Wonderous Stories

06. Colors of the Rainbow

07 Turn of the Century

08. The Tour Song

09. And You And I

10. Cosmic Mind (Jam)

Disc Two:

01. Prelude Awaken

02. Awaken

03. Roundabout

04. Nous Sommes du Soliel

05. Starship Trooper

December 5, 1977:

06. Nous Sommes du Soliel

07. Yours is no Disgrace

08. Roundabout

Links on comments!

1997 - Revealing Science of San Diego

2009-09-10T00:23:00.002+01:00

December 9th, 1997 - Open Your Eyes Tour
San Diego, CA, USA

This is a stereo soundboard recording taken from a radio braodcast. About half of the show was broadcast, I don't have an idea about why they chose these songs, but it's a reasonably representative set (though I'd like to hear America, Fish, Starship Trooper etc).

It's almost a commonplace among Yes fans that Steve Howe plays Rabin-era songs like he doesn't care, but I disagree. Rhythm of love and Owner of a Lonely Heart aren't the best songs ever, but Steve is doing his best and both songs are pretty listenable. More than Open Your Eyes (the song), I should say.

Revealing Science of God and Heart of the Sunrise are the only long ones here, both faultless.

From the Balcony is another highlight, a nice simple tune. Though the crowd used this song to find the bathrooms, as one reviewer from Forgotten Yesterdays said.

1.Rhythm Of Love
2.Open Your Eyes
3.Heart Of The Sunrise
4.From The Balcony
5.Children Of Light
6.Long Distance Runaround
7.Owner Of A Lonely Heart
8.Revealing Science Of God
9.I've Seen All Good People

Link on comments!

Rare old video - Time and a word!

2009-09-09T02:13:00.002+01:00

It seems a new DVD will be released with rare footage from very early Yes, some of it never seen before.

The first video on Youtube is surprising for the good quality of image. They're doing playback but you see they're enjoying!
Two other surprises:
-I didn't think Chris Squire had ever been so skinny!
-Has Bill ever done backing vocals or was he just having fun knowing it was playback?

1971 - It's Love

2009-08-01T03:09:00.008+01:00

Gaelic Park, New York, USA

July 23, 1971

It's Love is a song by The Young Rascals, much redone by Yes (in the style of America, No Opportunity Necessary, etc).

Yes didn't release it officially until recently, in their box The Word is Live. This version here is as good as that one, and we also have the regular short set from Yes Album tour, with a long drum solo on Perpetual Change, and Steve also taking some liberties in that one.

Now let's read Brennan Zerbe, who was there:

This show by Yes, at Gaelic Park, was a seminal moment for rock music in New York, because it brought a new style of music into the City.

Gaelic Park, which is a sand lot baseball field in the South Bronx, had been a venue for rock bands for several summers. We all sat on blankets or the grass and watched the various shows, which featured big name as well as rising talent. There was always the headline act and a warm up band, and sometimes local bands played as an early warm up. Tickets that summer were $4.
On this date, Scott Mooney of WNEW-FM came on stage and introduced Yes as the "new band from England". They had not been scheduled to play here and were stopping by at the end of their tour. In fact, they had to borrow instruments to play their songs. Scott announced that Yes had just signed a new Tour contract and that they were on their way somewhere else and could only play a few songs.

As the band began to play, we looked around at each other and commented to each other that these guys were good. Before the end of their short set, everyone was on their feet cheering. We shouted out "Yes" to show our satisfaction.

The odd thing about this show was that as we enjoyed subsequent bands, Humble Pie and Mountain, everyone shouted "YES" after their great songs. The show ended before Mountain, and the audience, was satisfied (despite other reviews), which led to some bottle throwing at the stage set.
But we all knew that we had seen something very special. I went home that night, told my brother Bob, and have been a Yes fan ever since. Seen a lot of bands since then, and I've seen Yes several times since then...but never something as electric as that late afternoon outdoor performance by Yes. Absolutely wonderful.

Probably the second best bootleg from Yes Album tour (the show from the day after this, at New Haven, is unsurpassable)

Now I was listening again to this boot, and noticed Jon seems to be confused, or maybe totally stoned... Listen to him speaking, for example describing the vachalia Steve plays as like a Portuguese monstrosity for thrashing with your bare hands. But they still sing and play as well as we're used to.

Set List:

Introduction / Yours Is No Disgrace

I've Seen All Good People

Clap / Classical Gas

Perpetual Change

It's Love

Link on comments!

Reuploaded: 2001 – Sacred Ground

2009-07-10T05:00:00.002+01:00

Vancouver, Canada, August 2, 2001

The Magnification tour was the first one in which Yes performed with an orchestra. This brought some new colour to old songs and made them play some old songs they hadn't played for a long time.
This bootleg is from the beginning of the tour. It's from three months before the show in Amsterdam which was recorded and became the DVD Symphonic Live. So the set list was slightly different. They didn't play Magnification or Owner of a Lonely Heart, but played Perpetual Change and Wonderous Stories. The orchestra left the stage during these two songs, but they were great anyway, with a tight band, improvising a little.
The tour was beginning, and at some moments it's clear they're not so familiar with some songs. Howe has a clear error in Ritual, which he transforms in a great short improvisation.

I was very pleased to hear Steve playing Solar Winds, from his good instrumental album Natural Timbre.

Audio quality is very good at most times, with all instruments loud and clear. But at a few moments the tape probably had some problem, so there are short cuts on And You And I and Perpetual Change.

Set list:

Disc 1
Close to the Edge
Long Distance Runaround
Don't Go
In The Presence Of
The Gates of Delirium

Disc 2
Solar Winds
Mood for a Day
Wonderous Stories
Perpetual Change
And You And I
Ritual
I've Seen All Good People

Disc 3
Starship Trooper
Roundabout

Links on comments!

2008 - Steve Howe Trio

2009-06-27T18:15:00.005+01:00

Steve Howe Trio

2008-10-04

Mod Clud, Toronto

After releasing the album The Haunted Melody, the Steve Howe Trio toured Canada, in the brief moments Steve had between his tours with Asia and Yes.

Similar to the 2007 show, but featuring new songs: He ain't heavy, he's my brother, Tune up (by Miles Davis), Laughing with Larry (Steve's acoustic solo), A Venture.

The funny moment of the show is when Ross Stanley plays the theme from The Flintstones during his solo on Kenny's Sound.

Set 1:

01 - Sweet Thunder

02 - Dream River

03 - Chatter and Band Introduction

04 - Travelin'

05 - The Haunted Melody

06 - Tune Up

07 - Siberian Khatru

Set 2:

08 - Mood For A Day

09 - Blue Bash

10 - He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

11 - Momenta

12 - Kenny's Sound

13 - Crowd

14 - Laughing With Larry

15 - A Venture/Close To The Edge

Steve Howe: electric and acoustic guitar

Ross Stanley: hammond organ

Dylan Howe: Drums

Link on comments!

Bruford - Beelzebub (1979)

2009-06-14T23:53:00.004+01:00

Line-up:

Bill Bruford - drums

Dave Stewart - keyboards

Jeff Berlin - bass

Alan Holdsworth - guitar

The tune is a real mover, and it’s definitely Yes-like in its structure since it’s made up of a few different time signatures and a wonderfully busy progressive tempo. "Beelzebub" starts and halts suddenly, then shifts from frantic to smooth and soft to hard in an instant, illustrating Bruford’s rhythmic control and musical imagination. There’s plenty of energy spawned by Bruford’s use of the cymbals as well, and the transition from a busy state to a relaxed one works its way effortlessly through the other instruments, which do their bit at handing the track its jazzy surface.

(from allmusic.com)

Coming soon: a bootleg from a complete show of Bruford's self-titled band in 1980.

1979 - Vancouver

2009-05-27T03:16:00.003+01:00

May 05, 1979, Vancouver, Canada

An anonymous reader brought us a present. Link and comments by him/her:

This is a soundboard recording from Yes’ Tormato tour. I don’t know why this was recorded so well (perhaps for a radio broadcast?) but the sound quality and mixing goes well beyond what any reasonable person would expect from a bootleg.
This recording was originally available on a three LP bootleg named Seventh Age Imagination. That artwork is included in the ID3 tags, just for shits and giggles.
This is the entire concert minus the “Firebird Suite” intro and the “I’ve Seen All Good People” > “Roundabout” encore. If you’re at all familiar with Yes you’ve heard those two songs about a bazillion time already, so no great loss.

What appeals most to me are the liberties Yes took with their own music. For example, long songs are short—short songs are long.
Also, most of the songs segue into the next, and not just the usual “Long Distance Runaround “> “The Fish” transition, which shouldn’t really count anyhow. Speaking of “The Fish,” Squires Bass solo morph’s in a Tales from Topographic Oceans suite at its end.

How suite is that? Very, or I wouldn’t have posted it.

This is the Classic Yes lineup at their peak, rocking their ass off right before the birth of punk rock and at the peak of disco, thumbing their noses at all of it with heaping helpings of pure, unadulterated talent.

01 Siberian Khatru
02 Heart of the Sunrise
03 Future Times Rejoice
04 Circus of Heaven
05 Time and a Word
06 Long Distance Runaround
07 The Fish (with Tale’s Medley)
08 Perpetual Change
09 Soon
10 The Clap
11 And You and I
12 Rick Wakeman Solo
13 Starship Trooper
14 Awaken

Enjoy Yes-heads!

Links on comments!

Reuploaded: 2004 Live at Jazz Lugano

2009-05-26T03:58:00.001+01:00

July 08, 2004

Lugano Jazz Festival, Switzerland

This show, one of the best bootlegs from 2004, was already available here, but now you can also download the video!
It was broadcast on Swiss/Italian TV and starts with an interview with Rick Wakeman.

Enjoy!

Disc one
1-Firebird Suite
2-Going for the one
3-Sweet Dreams
4-I've seen all good people
5-Mind Drive part 1
6-South Side of the Sky
7-Footprints
8-Mind Drive part 2
9-Yours is no disgrace
10-Steve Howe solo
11-Rick Wakeman solo

Disc two
1-Long distance runaround
2-The fish
3-Whitefish
4-Owner of a lonely heart
5-Rhythm of love
6-And you and I
7-Starship Trooper
8-Roundabout

Links on comments!

Reuploaded: 1974 - King Biscuit Flower Hour

2009-05-25T02:18:00.004+01:00

December 11th, 1974
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

This show was recorded for the famous radio show King Biscuit Flower Hour, and it presents Yes at the very beginning of Relayer tour. The whole album is played, and all the arrangements are quite similar to the studio ones.
Sound Chaser opens the concert like a thunderstorm, and we can't help but get amazed when they really can play all the complex sections with no difficulty!
Close to the Edge shows us that Moraz, being an awesome keyboardist in hiw own style, is one of the worse copycats they could find for Rick Wakeman. His solo near the end is almost ridiculous, and all through the song he's very low on the mix - luckily!
But on To be Over he shows us his best, rivalling Rick when it comes to the number of keyboards used. He once said his synth solo in the end of the song was improvised in the studio, but it was so complex that he had to write it down to play live. That's my favourite live performance of the song (ok, there weren't many others...)

The Gates of Delirium has an awesome stereo sound here, perhaps even better than the one in Yesshows, the mix is perfect, alll instruments are loud and Squire's powerful bass is very clear (especially his counterpoints inSoon).

Setlist:
Firebird Suite
Sound Chaser
Close To The Edge
To Be Over
The Gates Of Delirium
And You And I
Roundabout

This show has been released in many different bootlegs: Close To The Edge, The Affirmery, The Gates Of Boston Garden and others.

(according to ForgottenYesterdays Ritual was played, but there's no known version of this)

Links on comments!

On the Silent Wings of Freedom

2009-05-01T15:34:00.001+01:00

This is a much cleaner copy, too bad they didn't include this video when they released the Greatest Video Hits back in the 90's...

(notice that this version is different from the one on Tormato, and arguably better)

Jon Anderson - 1980

2009-04-28T11:17:00.003+01:00

Jon Anderson

Royal Albert Hall

London

December 1, 1980

Source: Radio Broadcast

In late 1979 Jon Anderson left Yes for a solo career. He recorded the album Song of Seven and subsequently embarked on an extensive tour in support of the album with a large band that went under the name The New Life Band. The Sheffield Concert was a gig from The Song of Seven Tour in the UK 1980. The nine piece line-up provides a generous set list including a number of key Yes songs, a medley with his work in collaboration with Vangelis, as well as most songs from Jon's solo album Song of Seven.

Very different from his music with Yes, most songs from Song of Seven are short and simple. The exception is the long progressive piece homonimous to the album, which is its pièce-de-resistance, especially for Yes fans.

1) Intro (1:46)

2) Yes Medley (25:03)

To Be Over

Perpetual Change

The Prophet

Long Distance Runaround

Wonderous Stories

Rejoice

I've Seen All Good People (Pt 1)

Revealing Science Of God

I've Seen All Good People (Pt 2)

The Remembering (High The Memory)

Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil)

3) Some Are Born (4:06)

4) Don't Forget (Nostalgia) (3:17)

5) Petrushka (8:57) (composed by Stravinsky)

6) Far Away In Baagad / Bird Song / One More Time (13:41) (originally appeared on the album Short Stories, by Jon and Vangelis)

7) Hear It (2:43)

8) Take Your Time (3:36)

9) Song Of Seven (10:50)

On the official release "Live in Sheffield" recorded 2 days later, the following are credited as musicians:

- Barry DeSouza / drums

- Jo Partridge / guitars

- Ronnie Leahy / keyboards

- John Giblin / bass

- Morris Pert / drums, percussion

- Christopher Rainbow / vocals

- Dick Morrisay / saxophone

Links on comments!

1975 - NJF Festival - Reading

2009-04-16T03:38:00.006+01:00

Reading, England, UK
August 23, 1975

This is the last show from Relayer tour, after which the band would stop playing for eight months so that every member would record his solo album.

Ritual is powerful, Sound Chaser is stunning, but two short songs steal the scene here:

Leaves of Green, the last section of The Ancient, was played separated from the original song for the first time in this show.

High Vibration is what you're thinking: a really early version of Awaken! As Pete Whipple says on Forgotten Yesterdays:

It's still just the opening to 'Awaken' but Moraz and Howe have definate parts now. It's in a different key with White giving it a rock beat! This is about as close as you'll get to the legendary Moraz 'Awaken' everybody wants to hear.

Moraz also shines in his solo, this time on the electric piano (unlike the mellotron/orchestron solos of 1976). His playing is a pleasure to hear all through the show, but on the other hand the keys' loud sound makes Steve's guitar sound low on the mix, especially on Gates of Delirium (which has a couple of minutes lacking, between the "battle scene" and "Soon". Well, that's an alternative way of listening to this epic song, surely better than the QPR DVD, when Jon's guitar was louder than Steve's!

Disc 1
01. Opening
02. Sound Chaser
03. Close To The Edge
04. And You And I
05. High Vibration
06. The Gates Of Delirium

Disc 2
01. I've Seen All Good People
02. Leaves of Green
03. Long Distance Runaround / Moraz Solo
04. Ritual
05. Roundabout

Links on comments!

Steve Howe - Sharp on Attack (1988)

2009-04-08T04:58:00.001+01:00

In 1988, the IRS No Speak label began releasing albums in the "Guitar Speak" trilogy. In this project, various guitarists were called upon to provide new material for compilation releases.

The excellence of Steve Howe's piece wasn't surprising to me. "Sharp On Attack" (which has since resurfaced in an alternate form on Homebrew) is an excellent display of Howe's talents. Steve uses more guitars on his piece than anyone else on this album (five, to be precise), and the internal diversity which results makes it well worth it. The acoustic opening provides excellent flavouring, and the middle section of the piece ranks among Howe's better melodies of recent years. This piece must be considered as the second official installment in Howe's redemption for the early 1980s (with "Sketches In The Sun" being the first), and it does its job well.

(quoted from the excellent blog jazz-rock-fusion-guitar - find the link to it on your right)

In this video, Steve plays his song, now with just one guitar, and, as my friend says, he shows us he was alive and well in the 80s!

1996 - Rehearsal (Roundabout)

2009-03-07T17:53:00.001Z

This is a rare video of Yes rehearsing for the shows in San Luis Obispo.
Enjoy!

Reuploaded: 2004 - Yes and Dream Theater

2009-02-28T22:00:00.010Z

19 September 2004, Universal City, California, USA

During 2004, Yes did a small tour with Dream Theater, having around 20 concerts opened by this band. No, they didn't play together. But Dream Theater played a good cover of Machine Messiah, so I'm putting here also their show.

This one was the last night of the tour. An amazing night by both bands. It's an audience recording, but of high quality. The place's mix was really good. Except for some seconds cut on Awaken (the bootlegger didn't expect such a long song and he was short on tape...), the complete concert is here.
Yes had a really changing set-list at this tour... This particular show has the acoustic set, with new arrangements to Long Distance Runaround, Wonderous Stories, Roundabout and Owner of a Lonwely Heart. But my favourite performances here are Awaken and Starship Trooper, both featuring perfect musicianship.
Oh, and here you'll also listen to Jon performing Singin' in the Rain... it's kind of weird in his voice, but I bet you'll want to listen!

Disc one - Dream Theater
01 - Overture (1:37)
02 - About To Crash (5:14)
03 - Learning To Live (10:17)
04 - Machine Messiah (3:19)
05 - Trial Of Tears (13:12)
06 - Stream Of Consciousness (10:35)
07 - The Spirit Carries On (6:56)
08 - Solitary Shell (5:39)
09 - About To Crash (reprise) (4:10)
10 - Losing Time – Grand Finale (6:12)

Disc two - Yes

01 - Firebird Suite (2:51)
02 - Going For The One (5:25)
03 - Sweet Dreams (7:27)
04 - I’ve Seen All Good People (8:11)
05 - America (10:35)
06 - South Side Of The Sky (11:56)
07 - Yours Is No Disgrace (13:21)

Disc three - Yes
01 - Clap - Singin' in the rain (5:33)
02 - Long Distance Runaround (acoustic) (5:16)
03 - Wonderous Stories (acoustic) (7:21)
04 - Roundabout (acoustic) (5:51)
05 - Owner Of A Lonely Heart (acoustic) (6:46)
06 - And You And I (13:29)
07 - Awaken (19:13)
08 - Starship Trooper (13:55)

Links on comments!

Rick Wakeman - Moogfest 2004 - Catherine Parr

2009-02-10T15:49:00.004Z

B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, New York, USA
Tue, May 18, 2004

Catherine Parr is a song with lots of room for improvisation and different arrangements: Rick has already played it with a horn section (in the 70s), with choir, with long guitar solos.
But to me the definitive version is this one, from Moogfest.
Rick writes on his site:
Sometime way back at the beginning of the year, I had been asked to perform at Moogfest, a celebration of 50 years of the Moog Synthesizer in the honoured presence of Dr. Bob Moog at a club called Ben E Kings on 42 nd Street in New York. By pure coincidence the show was to take place on my birthday and, as I had nothing else planned for my birthday, (well when you reach 55 you start trying to forget how old you are) , it seemed like a really good idea.....and so it turned out to be as well.
The world and his uncle seem to be taking part in the evening and it was brilliantly organized as well. There was a wonderful party atmosphere and the camaraderie was amazing. I was playing just the one piece, (a very long version of Catherine Parr), and had a pretty amazing band performing with me containing some of the top New York session boys and to say they were “good” would be the understatement of the year! Jason from Dream Theater joined me as well to play the parts that Adam used to play years ago and all went swimmingly well. Korg were amazing in sorting out keyboards for me to go with the mini-moog and my great friend, ex NYPD detective Billy Burns, was on hand to “look after me” and keep me out of trouble, which he certainly did!
As I went on stage I was unexpectedly followed by Bob Moog and Keith Emerson, the latter playing Happy Birthday on the Moog synthesizer and then in front of a very enthusiastic crowd I was presented with a huge cake on a huge stand by a very pretty scantily dressed young lady with huge........well, some things are best left to your imagination I think!

Jordan Rudess, from Dream Theater, played keyboards with him, and I suppose the other musicians were the backing band for Moogfest (James Genus on Bass and Gene Lake on Drums). But the important here are Rick's fast fingers, doing some of the best moog improvisations I've ever heard.
This live record was sent to me by a keyboardist friend, who calls attention to Rick's "fan fingers", that is, the ultra-fast hand whose fingers open and close like a fan, a technique common in Bach.

No need to say the audience to Moogfest was crazy during Rick's performance. One review says: "Until Bob Moog came along, we (keyboard players) were hidden in the background. He gave us an instrument that can cut through concrete and frighten guitarists to death," growled Rick Wakeman, the hulking, platinum-blonde keyboard player for the progressive rock band Yes.

The following video shows Rick's conversation with Bob Moog (recently dead) and some seconds of Catherine Parr, where we can see Jordan Ruddess's bald head behind Rick. But don't forget to download the complete song!

Link on comments!

1996 - Key to Chris' Birthday

2009-02-08T23:27:00.009Z

1996-03-05
San Luis Obispo, US
(second show of three)

In the three shows at San Luis Obispo, Yes declared every kind of audience recording was authorized.
This bootleg is from the second show. Eight songs from this show went to Keys to Ascension (the other five songs from Keys are from the other two shows).
It's interesting to listen to it for some reasons:
- Different performances of the instrumental jams on America and Starship Trooper. I'm crazy about what they did to Würm in these concerts.
- Long speeches by Jon before and after songs.
And the main reason: to notice the huge amount of overdubs that Keys to Ascension suffered. The vocal harmonies in Revealing Science of God, for example, are weak (normal for a song not played for 20 years, as there was little rehearsal for that show), but in Keys to Ascension the voices are perfect.
Going for the one (indeed a hard song to sing) Jon loses his breath and skips words, but guess what, they appear in the album.

So Keys to Ascension may be a great album, but it surely isn't an honest live one.

Set list:
Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru
Close To The Edge
I've Seen All Good People
Time And A Word
Happy Birthday To Squire
And You And I
The Revealing Science Of God
Going For The One
Turn Of The Century
America
Onward
Awaken
Roundabout
Starship Trooper
Songs in boldface are the ones which were used for the two official live albums, Keys to Ascension 1 and 2.

Links on comments!

1974 - Tales at Nassau Coliseum

2009-02-07T15:27:00.004Z

1974-02-14
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Uniondale
New York
Another show featuring the complete Tales, originally posted at the blog The clock that went backwards again.
Remastered by Tooleman.
Small segments of Revealing Science of God and The Ancient are missing... But overall the sound is good for audience bootleg (there was no soundboard record of this tour)

101 Firebird Suite
102 Siberian Khatru
103 And You And I
104 Close To The Edge
105 Album Introduction by Jon Anderson
106 The Revealing Science Of God (part 1) (tape flip)
107 The Revealing Science Of God (part 2)

201 Comments by Jon Anderson
202 The Remembering
203 The Ancient (part 1) (tape flip)
204 The Ancient (part 2)
205 Ritual
206 Roundabout

Links on comments!

1969 - In the Beginning

2009-01-22T19:09:00.002Z

This is a bootleg that puts together three small conserts from 1969.
The first one has the worst sound quality, and features different versions of songs that can be better heard live on the BBC Sessions (Beyond and Before).
From the second show, only Eleanor Rigby survived. Their rendition of that Beatles' tune was as original as everything they did at this time, featuring loud organ and Squire's distinctive bass sound. Peter Banks said about it:
People were bemused because we didn't do the 'covers' like the original tunes. We went down pretty good in London, but outside of town we had a lot of very puzzled faces when Jon would say , 'we're now gonna do a Beatles' tune.' And we'd kind of do Eleanor Rigby at 150 beats per minute It wasn't quite what they expected. We didn't want to sound like The Beatles. The whole point was 'let's do it our way'
The third concert features another version of Eleanor Rigby, this time with the beginning cut.
The last song is probably the biggest surprise: a 21 minutes version of I See You.
Peter's long solo starts at 3 minutes, with a violin-like guitar sound that was very new at the time. At 4 mins, he quotes Bach's "Jesu, joy of men's desire". At 6 mins he's with a more jazzy guitar sound, accompanied by Bill's soft jazz drumming (Bill plays with him for the whole 21 mins, while the rest of the band has a break during most of the time) . At 7 mins he shows us he knows what is wah-wah. At 8:50 Peter quotes Bizet's Arlésienne Suites, a famous classical melody that would be played later by Wakeman in Catherine Howard. By 10 mins Peter seems to go on for further improvisation, and at 16 mins the dialogues between loud drums and distorted guitar ressemble some things that Bill would do years later in King Crimson. At 20 mins the rest of the band (which must be mad at Peter) comes in to finish the song.

Peter himself has a lot to say about I See You:
It was certainly spontaneous and I tried to make it different every night. We had good nights and bad nights and sometimes if it wasn't happening on a gig, I'd go on longer and longer out of frustration and take all my aggression out on the guitar. (...) I did some kind of fugue line but none of it was really worked out for the recorded version. On stage I'd end the piece by throwing my guitar in the air and catching it. (...) This was my post-Townshend angst period and to be honest, it did go on too long. The band used to complain about it and that just used to make me go on even longer." I was an experimental player and not all that would fit in with the concept of Yes. Bill was the same. (...) I can remember him saying, "I'm going to play everything different tonight" just before we went on stage. It was the sign of a very inventive drummer but of course I'd think, "Well, so will I!" Poor old Jon would be going, "What the hell is going on?" We were like misbehaving kids, really.

Peter Banks' quotes were taken from the book Close to the Edge, the story of Yes, by Chris Welch. Very recommended book, buy it if you can:
http://www.amazon.com/Close-Edge-Story-Chris-Welch/dp/0711995095

October 09, 1969 - Essen, Grugahalle, Germany:
1. Introduction
2. No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed
3. Dear Father
4. Every Little Thing
5. Something's Coming
---------------------------------------------------------------
August 20, 1969 - Hamburg, Star Club, Germany:
6. Eleanor Rigby
---------------------------------------------------------------
December 21, 1969 - Sheffield, Kingston Hotel, England, UK:
7. Dear Father
8. Eleanor Rigby
9. I See You

Links on comments!

1984 - I'm Down (featuring Jimmy Page)

2009-01-11T19:04:00.006Z

June 24, 1984
Dortmund, Germany

This show from 90125 tour had Si, Solly's Beard and Soon recorded for 9012Live: the solos.
But what I bring you today is the unexpected encore: I'm Down (that Beatles' song they played in 1976 as well) with Jimmy Page (from Led Zeppelin) joining them to play guitar.
Jon is slightly out of tune in the beginning, but later, when the guitars of Trevor Rabin and Jimmy Page start duelling, we have one of the band's best moments from the 80s.

Link on comments!

Reuploaded: 2002 - Acoustic at XM Radio

2009-01-01T23:43:00.002Z

2002-08-10

This is not a typical Yes show.
In 2002, soon after Rick's return to the band, Yes did this small concert broadcast by XM Radio. The result is a very different band, not the typical "Yes Acoustic" show you may expect hearing, as it was done before the officially released acoustic concert, so it's really worth the listen. Here Yes is not at all the ambitious and complex-sounding band we're used to, but just five talented musicians having fun.
They talk about many interest subject, such as why South Side of the Sky wasn't played for so long, and how was Alan's experience substituting Bill.
Walk Don't Run is hilarious, with Rick passing an uncomfortable moment as he doesn't know the chords... And the Awaken workshop is essential to anybody who likes this song, giving a unique perspective of how it was created.

Set list:
XM Radio Intro
Band's Introduction
South Side of the Sky/ And You And I
Interview I
The Ancient Excerpts
Walk Don't Run
Intervies II
I'Ve Seen All Good People
Interview III
Show Me
Interview IV
Awaken Composition I
Awaken Composition II

Links on comments!

Steve Howe - Solo show, 2008 in Canada

2008-12-24T14:27:00.004Z

Steve Howe

2008-10-02
Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto, Canada

Setlist:
Set 1:
01 - Masquerade
02 - Australia
03 - The Ancient
04 - Corkscrew
05 - J's Theme
06 - Pyramidology
07 - Classical Gas
08 - Concerto In D, second movement
09 - Little Galliard
10 - Mood For A Day
Set 2:
Sadly could not be recorded.

Encore:
11 - Soon (with steel guitar)

In 2008, besides touring with Yes and Asia, Steve Howe played gigs both with his Steve Howe Trio and alone, playing wonderful tunes mostly on acoustic guitar, doing a real one-man show, with tunes from Yes (including the sometimes forgotten Masquerade, from Union) and various solo albums (Beginnings, Natural Timbre, Turbulence).
Little Galliard is a lute piece from 17th century that he recorded on Natural Timbre.
Enjoy!

Links on comments!

Reuploaded: 1978 - Wembley Arena

2008-12-19T17:33:00.006Z

10/28/1978 Wembley, UK
Wembley Arena (evening show)

This is probably the most bootlegged show in Yes history. There were multiple radio broadcasts, and portions of this show were released on various compilations. So check out before downloading, you're very likely to already have this bootleg.

It was really one of the best shows the band ever did. All of the band members has his moments in this great concert, and they sound incredibly tight, a group completely united together. This can be heard in Heart of the Sunrise and especially in the big medley they created for this tour, perhaps to commemorate their 10th anniversary, which begun on their second album, Time and a Word (with a great arrangement of the title song, featuring Steve and Rick making us glad that they replaced Tony and Peter), went for Fragile, came back to Yes, passed quickly by Tales, came to The Yes Album and finished with Relayer. I really love this arrangement, The Fish sounds terrific with the whole band playing, and they change it to Perpetual Change and then to Soon in exciting ways. This was the band's fifth concert in three days, but they're not even slightly tired!

After two songs from Tormato that I prefer live than on the original, and a powerful rendition of Starship Trooper, comes my favourite part of the concert.

These versions of Awaken and I've Seen All Good People are the best live ones I've ever listened. Awaken features a stunning work by Mr. Squire, his bass is very loud and much more present than on the original version. His backing vocals are also very good, his voice sounds more natural than on Going For The One. But I really lose myself listening to his slide bass lines accompanying Anderson. The rest of the band sounds very good too, Howe with burning guitar solos, and Wakeman with his grandious middle section

I've Seen All Good People is another killer. Alan White plays with a great energy, the whole band sound so together... and what makes me love this version better than any other is the last part, where Jon presents the band and each member plays a short 4-bars solo, all of them sounding amazing and very representative of the musicians' styles.
There's still Roundabout to give a perfect end to a perfect concert.

Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Siberian Khatru
Heart Of The Sunrise
Future Times/Rejoice (Yes played it but no tape with this survived)
Circus Of Heaven
Time And A Word/Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)/Survival/The Ancient/Perpetual Change/Soon
Don't Kill The Whale
Clap
Starship Trooper
Madrigal - On The Silent Wings Of Freedom
Rick Wakeman solo (Six Wives & Journey)
Awaken
I've Seen All Good People
Roundabout

If you'll download just one Yes bootleg, this is the one to pick!

Links on comments!

Reuploaded: 1976 - Roosevelt Stadium (Definitive Edition)

2008-12-17T18:38:00.010Z

June 17, 1976
Roosevelt Stadium
Jersey City, New Jersey

This is one of Yes most famous bootlegs, and several different versions float around, with different names: Open the Gates, The Story of Relayer Live, etc. It's a radio broadcast, so you can expect the best sound quality amongst all 75/76 shows. This version here is by far the best one. Remastered by Tooleman, a great fan of Yes, it really has a stunning sound.
Yes had their biggest venues in this tour from 1976, and Roosevelt Stadium was one of their best moments. Luckily, this concert was broadcast by a radio station.
Some songs that didn't work well with Moraz were droped from this tour's set list: And You And I and Close to the Edge most notably.
The whole show is a great listening experience, but my favourite parts are the most epic version of The Gates of Delirium; Long Distance Runaround, in its new and beautiful acoustic arrangement, that floated to the solos of Patrick, Steve and Jon.
Roundabout is another killer. The song begins with a great intro with Alan White shining. Later, Steve Howe uses a Relayer-like guitar, and Moraz organ solo is awesome, maintaining the original lines by Rick, but with Patrick's unique jazzy style.
Oh, and check out their cover for I'm Down, by The Beatles! They really rock on this one! Jon reminds me of both Robert Plant and Ian Gillan in this upbeat tune.

Tracks:
Part 1:
WNEW/WMMR DJ's
Apocalypse Intro
Siberian Khatru
Sound Chaser
I've Seen All Good People
The Gates of Delirium

Part 2:
Long Distance Runaround
Patrick Moraz Solo
Steve Howe - Clap
Jon Anderson - Olias Solo
Heart of the Sunrise
Ritual
DJ Chatter #1
Roundabout
DJ Chatter #2
I'm Down
DJ Outro

2008 - Rick Wakeman and Orchestra - Merlin the magician

2008-12-12T01:15:00.002Z

Rick Wakeman did a couple of concerts in Chile, playing only piano with orchestra and choir. Several videos can be found at Youtube. This one is from December 6.

2008 - In the Present - Bloomington, 11-30-08

2008-12-07T01:34:00.008Z

November 30, 2008
Bloomington, Illinois, USA

Chris Squire - bass, vocals, harmonica
Steve Howe - guitar, vocals
Alan White - drums, vocals
Benoit David - vocals, percussion, guitar
Oliver Wakeman - keyboards

After two weeks playing together, this new Yes seems better rehearsaled as they get to know each other well. Tempus Fugit is again fresh as it was in 1980, while Aliens remains a good moment to go to the bathroom.
Notice that Steve Howe plays different solo numbers at each concert.

Setlist was a bit shortened, maybe due to the weather, and features:
01. Firebird Suite
02. Siberian Khatru
03. I've Seen All Good People
04. Tempus Fugit
05. Onward
06. Astral Traveller
07. Close to the Edge
08. All's a Chord
09. Laughing With Larry
10. And You And I
11. Long Distance Runaround >
12. The Fish >
13. Aliens (Are Only Us From The Future)
14. Machine Messiah
15. Starship Trooper
16. Roundabout

Links at comments!

In The Present Tour - Hampton, New Hampshire, USA Friday, November 07, 2008

2008-12-05T12:30:00.007Z

Here is a bootleg from one of the first shows of the new tour. Surprisingly good audio for an audience record, this one captures a band having some problems to play their song (have the rehearsals been enough?).
I can't stand people who say this band is not Yes. If Banks, Kaye, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe, Rabin can be substituted by other musicians, why can't Jon Anderson? Is he a deity or what?
So this is Yes. Good Yes? Perhaps.
Oliver Wakeman seems uncomfortable here, but I'm sure this will be solved with time, as he'll get used to the band. A friend of mine was mad at him for spoiling Heart of the Sunrise (listen to the 9th minute and you'll get what he means). Benoit may not be Jon, but he hasn't disappointed most people who watched their shows.
Good surprises: Astral Traveller (I already commented it on another post) , Machine Messiah (wonderful to hear it again) and Close to the Edge (Oliver delivers his father's solo perfectly, and Benoit's voice really fits this song)
Bad surprise: Tempus Fugit (The band seems unfamiliar with this song, after 28 years without playing it. It lacks energy and feeling), Aliens (new song, doesn't deserve the names of Chris Squire and Steve Hackett)

Setlist
Disc 1:
1. Firebird Suite (2:52)
2. Siberian Khatru (10:00)
3. I've Seen All Good People (7:29)
4. Heart Of The Sunrise (12:34)
5. Tempus Fugit (6:15)
6. Onward (5:29)
7. Astral Traveler (7:32)
8. Close To The Edge (20:45)
Disc 2:
9. Parallels (6:47)
10. And You And I (12:10)
11. Steve Howe Solo: Mood For A Day (aborted) / The Clap (5:38)
12. Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) (7:25)
13. Aliens (Are Only Us From The Future) (6:02)
14. Machine Messiah (10:55)
15. Soon (7:25)
16. Starship Trooper (13:40)
17. Owner Of A Lonely Heart (6:12)
18. Roundabout (9:28)

Links on comments!

Astral Traveller - Now and Then

2008-12-02T14:59:00.004Z

Steve Howe said, to a magazine from Argentina, in 1999:
A fan once gave me as a present a tape of us playing Astral Traveller, back in 1971... I ran to Jon and Chris and said: "Let's play this!" This song has nothing to do with me, but I started listening to Time and a Word (the album), and loved it, I admire Peter Banks a lot. He helped to design Yes' guitar style, in which I entered as it had been meant for me. It helped a lot that the guy before me wasn't a heavy metal guitarrist, but Peter, a clever man with different ideas.

After waiting 9 years, Howe finally had the chance of playing Astral Traveller again, in their new tour! He's clearly happy when he announces the song. And the new version also features a short and awesome drum solo! (good to hear Alan White playing faster again...)

Howe's approach to Astral Traveller from 1971 shouldn't be missed either. The Yes Album line-up played this song live not many times, and this is the only good record of Astral Traveller, including Bill's frantic drumming and Howe improvising very well. Link to the 71 Astral Traveller on comments!

Mood for a day - Montreux, 19 july 1979

2008-09-20T14:55:00.000+01:00

Is there a complete video of this gig?

Two Yes guitars in Atlanta

2008-08-25T01:31:00.004+01:00

Our feature today is part of a Yes concert in Atlanta, August 13, 2002.
First track is Steve Howe playing, on the acoustic guitar, Georgia's Theme, a song from Steve's album The Grand Scheme of Things (1993). This simple and beautiful piece was very rarely played live.
Second track is Chris Squire's solo spot, featuring all we like about his bass guitar style. He adds to The Fish small parts of Tempus Fugit, On The Silent Wings Of Freedom and Sound Chaser.

Links on comments!

Steve Howe Trio - Mood for a day & Travelin'

2008-08-08T20:31:00.003+01:00

Finally I could put my hands on Steve Howe's latest album, his deep dive into the world of jazz.

After thinking it through, I decided I shouldn't put the whole album in the blog, as it would disencourage people from buying it (by the way, you can buy here) so I'll upload two songs that show how interesting this album is.

Mood for a day is played on electric guitar, and that's already a huge change! Besides, the hammond organ does really creative basslines (as on the whole album). If Jimi Hendrix used to play as if he were having sex with his guitar, Steve plays here as if his guitar were made of gold and he couldn't spoil it. His improvisations are careful in every note and timbre.

Travelin' is a song by Kenny Burrell, a guitarist that really inspired him to do this album. Her the Hammond is also at the forefront, as well as the drums. If you start hearing, you can't stop until it ends.

Link on comments and keep on jazzin', Steve!

Jon Anderson - London, 2005

2008-06-23T20:05:00.003+01:00

Shepherds Bush Empire - 10th October 2005

While we have Jon in our thoughts, hoping he gets better soon, it's a good time to remember his solo shows, always much simpler than Yes ones but nonetheless sophisticated.
This one is noteworthy because Jon briefly quotes Sound Out The Galleon on the way into Soon, which makes it very special for admirers of Olias Of Sunhillow.
Quoting a review of another concert from the same tour:
Aside from a screen projecting visual sceneries and a mostly acoustic Anderson (who only plugged in for one quick keyboard set and occasionally had piped in loops or accompaniment) it was an intimate session packed with nearly two dozen songs. From the get go he set out to please, settling extremely early into the readily familiar "Long Distance Runaround" and dusting off the deeper cut "Yours Is No Disgrace."
The first half also saw him turn to other bodies of work such as his solo cannon for "You Lift Me Up." During this selection, Anderson relied heavily on a pre-recorded reggae beat, which despite sounding artificial, brought the chilled out chord strums to more vibrant life. Another key area of his career came from the albums he made with acclaimed instrumentalist Vangelis, which reached a mainstream peak the States via "State of Independence" (once covered by Donna Summer). Though lacking the disco dance grind in this setting, Anderson allowed room for some groove while still remaining in character. Additional attention came from that collaboration with "I'll Find My Way Home," a new aged styled track examining religious tolerance.
Anderson also dabbled with the keyboard for a handful of old timers that came across so personal he could've very well been in the audience's living rooms. Paring the solo delicacy of "Set Sail" with the Yes staple "Close To the Edge" was intriguing, while "The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn)" came across as downright chilling. Even though it was clearly the commercial apex of his career, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" was the one track that simply didn't work in this environment, trading it its slick synth-pop for an abridged and unplugged version. But come the encore "Your Move" all the lighters came out and the otherwise quiet and attentive crowd let loose like a packed karaoke bar. Paired with an acapella finale of "O'er," it made for an introspective and enlightening send-off die-hards will be desperate to see again.

Circa - rest of the show

2008-06-21T13:09:00.004+01:00

Here is the rest of the show, consisting on their whole album played live and a surprising encore.
The bass is very loud, as if Billy Sherwood wanted to show us all that he learned with Squire. And indeed he learned it quite well.

1. Cut The Ties
2. Don't Let Go
3. Together We Are
4. Information Overload
5. Trust In Something
6. Keeper Of The Flame
7. Life Going By
8. Look Inside
9. Brotherhood Of Man
10. band intros
11. Yes Medley (on a separate link)
12. Encore: Let Go (Yes:Union)

Links on comments!

2008 - Circa

2008-06-14T12:17:00.008+01:00

CIRCA is a progressive rock supergroup founded by four musicians associated with Yes: current Yes member Alan White (drums), former Yes members Tony Kaye (Hammond, keyboards) and Billy Sherwood (bass, vocals), and guitarist Jimmy Haun, who played on the album Union. (from wikipedia)

After releasing an album in 2007, Circa hit the road with their tour, where the first half is the whole album, and second half was a superb Yes instrumental medley of 39 minutes, including a track from almost every Yes album, including several songs that haven't been played for ages (Looking Around, Something's Coming, Parallels, Tempus Fugit, Lightning Strikes, etc)

In addition to the players listed above, Billy Sherwood's brother Michael Sherwood was playing keys, vocoder and backing vocals. (bringing the question: was Kaye in a good moment or was Michael playing most parts?) Jimmy Haun, a guitarist who says Steve Howe was his main influence, is a good surprise. Alan White is brilliant in the songs originally played by Bruford.

From this show - Rosfest, Glenside, PA, US May 3, 2008 - I uploaded just the Yes medley. If there's interest and I can, I'll upload the rest.
You can know more about Circa on their long interview to Notes from the Edge. (part 1 and part 2)
Now the medley:
Looking Around; The Prophet; Every Little Thing; Harold Land; No Opportunity Necessary, no Experience Needed; Something's Coming; Yours is No Disgrace; Heart of the Sunrise; South Side of the Sky; Roundabout; Close to the Edge; And you and I; Ritual; Sound Chaser; Parallels; Arriving UFO; On the Silent Wings of Freedom; Tempus Fugit; Changes; Owner of a Lonely Heart; Cinema; Rhythm of Love; Lift Me Up; Endless Dream; Loveshine; Mind Drive; Open Your Eyes; Lightning Strikes.
Links on comments!

YES Cancels 40th Anniversary Tour

2008-06-07T13:53:00.001+01:00

NEW YORK, NY, JUNE 4, 2008 -– Legendary rock band Yes announced today that the group will unfortunately be canceling their 2008 40th Anniversary Tour. The 26-city tour was scheduled to kick off in Quebec next month and run through the summer.

Said Jon Anderson, “In the wake of my recent respiratory attack, doctors have advised me to spend the coming months resting and recovering. Unfortunately, this means I won't be able to tour with Yes this summer as originally planned. I'd like everyone to know how deeply disappointed I am by this turn of events. I was looking forward to celebrating our music with the amazing family of Yes fans once again; but as we all know, health must come before anything else. Wishing you all the very best...”

Said Chris Squire, “We were all looking forward to performing for our fans after a prolonged leave of absence from touring. I am especially regretful of the fact that I know many of our fans and friends have probably laid out non-refundable airfares and hotels, etc. in order to enjoy the Yes shows this summer. Please join me in wishing Jon a speedy return to health, which at this point in time is our main concern.”

Yes frontman and founding member Jon Anderson was admitted to the hospital last month after suffering a severe asthma attack. He has now been diagnosed with acute respiratory failure and was told by doctors this weekend that he needs to rest and not work for a period of at least six months or suffer further health complications. Upon receiving this news the band has determined that their tour plans need to be put on hold.

Ticket refunds will be available at the point of purchase.

(from Yesworld.com)

1984 - Milano

2008-05-11T11:48:00.005+01:00

This show was uploaded by the friend Tadreamer62.
It's an audience recording with very good sound. See the original notes:
It was strange to see one of the dinosaurs of the 70's to play and acting like a typical
80's band, in the vain of Spandau Ballet or Tears for Fears! But the music was sooo good and the audience was looking
forward to see them after a 10 years absence from italian territory.

I remember hearing people describing the time they had
seen the band more than 10 years before in Milano, with PFM opening. The sound of the hall was quite good, despite the fact
this sports hall was not really designed for music events. Eventually, it was shut down and then destroyed one year later,
when a big snow in winter resulted in collapsing the venue's roof. This version comes from a direct copy from the master
I had in the early 90's from the taper himself, I big german guy who used to go around Europe and tape many shows with his
Sony Pro (thanks Robert L.!). It sounds amazing if you consider it's almost 23 years ago. I reduced a little bit basses
and enhanced trebles to sound it more clear, balanced the volume of the two channels and eliminated tape flips.
It's a very good sounding show, a real improvement from the master.
ldb

01 Intro / Cinema
02 Leave It
03 Yours Is No Disgrace
04 Alan White drums solo /
05 Hold On
06 Hearts
07 I've Seen All Good People
08 Si (Tony Kaye solo)
09 Solley's Beard
10 Changes
11 And You And I
12 Soon
13 Make It Easy/Owner Of A Lonely Heart
14 It Can Happen
15 Long Distance Runaround/
16 Whitefish/Amazing Grace
17 City Of Love
18 Starship Trooper
19 Roundabout
20 Applause / Outro music

Links on comments!

Steve's busy year

2008-05-08T23:02:00.004+01:00

After touring with Asia and releasing their new album, Phoenix (some fans really liked it, check here) Steve Howe announced on his website a new tour from his Steve Howe Trio and a studio album by the group, to be released on June 4 on Steve's label Howesound.
The new album will be called The Haunted Melody (name of a flute piece by Roland Kirk, rearranged by Howe) and my expectations are high, as the shows from the trio, last year were probably the most original thing Steve has done since the 70s. In these concerts, Steve showed his jazz influences and also rearranged completely a few Yes classics. If you still haven't heard it, click here right now. Probably a great albums is to be released.

1976 - Memphis

2008-04-06T20:10:00.002+01:00

June 04, 1976 - Memphis, Tenessee, USA
Yes's solo album tour didn't work as expected and the set-list was ever-changing. Quoting Circus Magazine from September 13, 1976:
At a concert in Memphis' Mid-South Coliseum, when Yes was still performing various solo material, Chris Squire got his turn with "Hold Out Your Hand," the opening track from his own Fish Out Of Water album, and some ten thousand people responded to the Squire tune with a standing ovation. "We were still experimenting with the show at that stage, and we were playing different songs every night, and I think that one night we just happened to play my song," says the too-modest bassist.

Indeed the best thing about this show was Squire's great song. He sings so well, and then in the end there's an instrumental rendition of You by my side, with Howe on steel guitar. Not to be missed.
Other high points are Sweet Dreams, with all the band playing intensely and freely that early song, and Moraz's solo, this time not on mellotron but on a bluesy piano.
The tape was from audience and sound quality is not the best.

Set-list:
Apocalypse
Siberian Khatru
Sound Chaser
I've Seen All Good People
Song Of Innocence
Hold Out Your Hand/You By My Side
Leaves Of Green
Clap
Long Distance Runaround/Moraz Solo
Harp Solo
Heart Of The Sunrise
Gates Of Delirium
Roundabout
Sweet Dreams

Links on comments!

1974 - The Tooleman presents Yessongs 2

2008-04-04T00:54:00.007+01:00

Live at Madison Square Garden, New York City, Feb 18, 1974

Some Yes fans have commented on the blog thanking for the "full Tales experience" or, in other words, the chance of hearing the full Tales from Topographic Oceans played live on stage. To those, this bootleg is the holy grail.
Tooleman, one of the greatest Yes aficionados in the world, managed to get a tape with the full Tales played live in New York, in a very good sound quality. Bad news is the tape didn't contain the rest of the show (the whole Close to the Edge album and Roundabout). He did a wonderful job remastering the tapes, and they sound fresh and lively. You can hear the moog as if it were beside you!
It might be just my imagination, but they sound so interested in this evening... The Ancient is simply dazzling: Howe plays with all his soul, and Rick has a more important role than in the studio version.
Links on comments!

New Tour: Close to the Edge and Back

2008-03-29T14:21:00.002Z

As most of you must know, Yes is coming back in 2008, for a two months tour in North America. Jon gave a long inetrview about it, very interesting, commenting Yes's retirement time, his role in the band (not just singing, he says), the setlist for the next shows and much more.

Well, we had been on the road for three years with Rick, and we hadn't made any new music, which really bummed me out. With a band, you should be making music at least every year together, and we'd never found time to create, as a band. I kept saying we should spend time with Rick in the studio and do some recording. It wasn't that I mentioned it a lot of times; it just wasn't collectively understood.
(...)
I'm very excited about working with young people. Oliver Wakeman will be playing in the band, because Rick can't tour anymore. His doctors have told him that you can't do it. He can do small tours, but he can't do the big work, you know. He's excited that his son's playing.

The whole interview is on Notes From The Edge

For the ones that will be able to see Yes playing this yer, I hope you have the best time!

REUPLOADED: Steve Howe and Dream Theater

2008-03-14T20:23:00.003Z

This is a bootleg from a Dream Theater concert that had as a very special guest Mr. Steve Howe. I think the year of this concert is 1995, but I'm not sure...
Set list is a medley of Yes classics, all of them instrumental:
Machine Messiah
Heart of the Sunrise
Close to the Edge
Siberian Kathru
Starship Trooper

The guys from Dream Theater do a very good job, and Steve really shines, especially on Machine Messiah, a song he hasn't played with Yes since 1980. Audio quality is excellent.

Ps: I'm very busy this year, I won't be able to post more than once a week.

Links on comments!

2003 - Full Circle in Berlin

2008-02-16T16:32:00.010Z

In 2003 Rick Wakeman joined the band once more. This would be his fourth and hopefully final time becoming a member. The newly reformed Yes classic line up proceeded through 2002 and right into 2003 with a tour known as “Full Circle”. Unexpected at this time was the inclusion of songs such as “We Have Heaven” and “South Side Of The Sky” in the set list, songs that were only rarely performed live at the time that they were composed. The “Full Circle” tour provided Rick Wakeman with an opportunity to put his own stamp on a couple of songs from the MAGNIFICATION album as both the title track and “In The Presence Of” were performed this time. It also marked the unexpected return of the song “Don’t Kill The Whale”, from the much underrated TORMATO album. This performance in Berlin on June 11th 2003 is a good example of the sound of Yes at the time. Those who were there describe a few mistakes, a bit of humour, but most of all a classic Yes performance by classic Yes musicians. Now that is NOT unexpected!
(from the inner notes of the bootleg from PRRP #024)

1.1 Opening: Firebird Suite 2:45
1.2 Siberian Khatru 10:20
1.3 Magnification 7:02
1.4 Don't Kill The Whale 4:51
1.5 In The Presence Of 12:23
1.6 We Have Heaven/South Side Of The Sky 12:51
1.7 And You And I 12:07
1.8 To Be Over (Acoustic) 5:14
1.9 Second Initial 3:30
2.1 Show Me 4:52
2.2 Rick Wakeman Solo 5:09
2.3 Heart Of The Sunrise 11:46
2.4 Long Distance Runaround 3:49
2.5 The Fish/Whitefish/Silent Wings Of Freedom 9:06
2.6 Awaken 17:54
2.7 Encore Applause 2:58
2.8 Roundabout 6:07
2.9 Starship Trooper 13:29

Links on comments!

1980 - Los Angeles

2008-02-05T03:41:00.000Z

Another boot from Drama tour, showing the encarnation of Yes that showed a new sound, belonging in the 80's but still undoubtedly with the Yes signature.
This one is from the very nice blog All the World's a Bootleg

Setlist:
CD 1
1.Young Persons Guide To The Orchestra/Apocalypse
2.Does It Really Happen?
3.Yours Is No Disgrace
4.Into The Lens
5.Clap
6.And You And I
7.Go Through This
8.Man In The White Car Suite
9.We Can Fly From Here

CD 2
1.Tempus Fugit
2.Amazing Grace/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
3.Machine Messiah
4.Starship Trooper
5.Roundabout

Links in comments!

1998 - Unplugged in Paris and in Philadelphia

2008-01-21T18:57:00.000Z

In March 7, 1998, one day after playing at the Palais Des Congrès De Paris, Yes did a signing event in Fnac by the afternoon, including questions and answers, and also playing music, actually more than they expected to play.
A detailed description of this event can be seen here, on forgottenyesterdays, in the story told by Yann Clochec. The funniest moment was when someone told them to play Turn of the Century, then Jon said that it was "not a spinning wheel where you can quote any song and we'll play it, especially 'Turn of the century' which needs just a little bit of rehearsal, you know, it's a tricky cookie". Steve Howe ignored him and started playing the song, but Jon didn't remember more than two verses... So they asked for more suggestions. Awaken was their next try, but Igor Koroshev hadn't learnt the song properly...
Another curious moment is when Alain le Blanc (Alan White) tries to speak french but doesn't understand the most simple question (Comment allez-vous célébrer votre trentième anniversaire? - How will you celebrate your 30th anniversary?)

The second half of this bootleg is from a show in the Tower Theater, Pennsylvania. It's just the part of it that could be called acoustic or almost.
Sound quality is excellent.

Set list
01 Band Introduction
02 Yes Jam
03 Owner Of A Lonely Heart
04 Children Of Light
05 Turn Of The Century & Awaken
06 Alan White Discussing With The Fans
07 Open Your Eyes
08 Jon Anderson Discussing With The Fans
09 I've Seen All Good People
10 Corkscrew
11 Masquerade
12 Clap
13 Leaves Of Green
14 Children Of Light
15 Soon
16 Happy Birthday Jon Anderson

Thanks for the anonymous commentary who gave us the link, I'm glad to see more people contributing...

Links on comments!

REUPLOAD: 1976 - Vancouver

2008-01-17T22:48:00.000Z

By 1976, Yes had Patrick Moraz, a keyboardist loved by many, and hated by perhaps even more. The band was at the peak of their success, making enormous shows, often on stadiums.
This one is from July 22, and features two epicss with astounding musicianship from the whole band: Ritual and The Gates of Delirium. Sound Chaser is another special moment. In spite of the song's complexity, it worked sso well live!
Very interesting as well are the solo sections, with a good mellotronesque solo by Moraz, Steve playing Clap and his arrangement of Vivaldi's Winter (which would be recorded much later on his solo album Natural Timbre) and Jon doing an harp solo, joined by Steve's steel guitar.
Audio quality is good (not excellent), but worse in some moments. Alas, the tape probably ran out before the end of the show, and Roundabout is cut.

Setlist:
Apocalypse
Siberian Khatru
Sound Chaser
I've Seen All Good People
The Gates Of Delirium
Long Distance Runaround
Moraz solo
Steve Howe solo
Jon solo
Heart Of The Sunrise
Ritual
Roundabout (end cut)

Recommended for:
Those who like Relayer and Patrick Moraz.

Links on comments!

REUPLOADED: 1977 - Best of Wembley

2008-01-17T20:04:00.005Z

October (from 24 to 29), 1977
During their tour for Going for the One, Yes had a week-long stand in Wembley Arena, UK. Mick Dillingham and Steve Darton recorded all of the shows in their cassete tapes. Later, TheTooleMan (a great Yesfan who mastered countless bootlegs) had access to these tapes, made some noise reductions, and chose the best songs from each day, to give us the best. The result is an astonishing bootleg, with powerful performances of the band, in their homeland. Audio quality is good, and you can hear the crowd only between the songs.
Close to the Edge is slightly different: Steve Howe changed very much the introduction, giving us a rougher and rocking guitar playing. Rick also changed his awesome organ solo near the end, with results not so good. And the church organ's sound is not the best (neither it is in Parallels)
Turn of the Century is very beautiful here, the song's tender feel is recreated very well on stage.
Awaken features, again, astonishing work from Chris Squire. It looks like he gets better when playing this song in Wembley. I'll quote Simon Barrow's opinion in Forgottenyesterdays: "What really turned me inside out was ‘Awaken’. To some it’s an overblown cycle of fifths, I know. But to me, that evening, it was simply transcendent. The organ solo building to a tremendous delayed climax, then tapering off into the haunting vocal refrain and Howe’s brief, whimsical acoustic coda: it all left me drained and elated."
But the encore is the best. At this tour, the band started to play a very long version of Starship Trooper, which can be listened here at its best. The long jam of minimoog and guitar (changing frantically from one to the other) is so exciting, with Chris and Alan doing a steady accompaniment for Steve and Rick's long musical extravagance. Here, it is an extravagance of perfection.

CD1 Tracks:
Firebird Suite (10/29)
Parallels (10/29)
All Good People (10/26)
Close to the Edge (10/28)
Wonderous Stories (10/29)
Colours of the Rainbow (10/28)
Turn of the Century (10/27)
Tour Song (10/29)
And You And I (10/28)

CD2 Tracks:
Intro Comments (10/26)
Going for the One (10/26)
Flight Jam (10/27)
Awaken (10/27)
Starship Trooper (10/24)
Roundabout (10/24)

Lins on comments!

Interviews - Delicious Agony

2008-01-11T20:33:00.000Z

Delicious Agony is a very good online radio specialized on progressive rock. Since 2003 they have interviewed some of the best musicians from the genre, and Yes members were interviewed quite many times!
Today I give you a first lot of interviews, where you can hear (separatedly) Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe.

Chris talks about his excitement with the reformation of The Syn (band that he would leave some months after the interview), and also praises his recently dead friend Andrew Jackman, former keyboardist of Syn and responsible for the orchestral arrangements in Fish out of Water.

Rick Wakeman tells us that he's becoming such a famous comediant that there are kids that get surprised when they find out he plays piano. Rick also says there's a weird thelepathy between him and Steve Howe, because on every show they do any improvisation of one is perfectly followed by the other, in a way he never saw with another guitarist.
When the interviewer says "I've been talking to the legendary keyboardist Rick Wakeman..." Rick corrects him "You know, legendary means old"
He also talks about his (then) new album Out There how difficult are his one-man shows, when he has to entertain people, alone, for two hours.

Steve, on the other hand, is interviewed after a solo show in New York, and says there's something fascinating about doing a gig alone, being able to change everything as his mind pleases, and he feels much closer to the audience. He comments his album Spectrum and how nice it is to play with a new generation of Yes-related musicians (his son Dylan Howe and Rick's son Oliver Wakeman).

No downloads this time, only streaming audio. Any problems, contact me.

Links on comments!

In the studio - The Yes Album

2008-01-06T14:29:00.000Z

The Yes Album was also featured on this radio show. This time, the interviews are with Jon Anderson, Chris Squire and Tony Kaye.

We can hear from Jon that Yours is no Discgrace was their first very extended piece, and once they had done that, each song they did, in that time, would be divided into parts. He admits having learned this kind of structure from classical music.

Chris praises Bill Bruford: "Initially, any band is only as active, criative and as good as its drummer. (...) He was a particularly good influence on me"

Jon's opinion on what made Yes different from other 70s bands is revealing:
The idea of strong melody came from Stravinsky. He made music very avant-garde, but he retained what the others didn't, and that was the melodies. (...) He holds it all together with melody. And I never wanted to lose that. (...) I realised that, if we didn't go that way, we'd have a Mahavishnu.

But the most amusing is when Jon admits they admired, with some jealousy, the early King Crimson:
In 68, (...) we heard this band was playing called King Crimson, and we said "Ok, let's check them out, see how good they are". And they were great! (...) For about a week, we tried to get over the fact that they were better than us. (...) Very similar attitude to music, but more... well organized. And that pushed the group on, it made us work harder.

Links on comments!

In the studio - Fragile

2008-01-03T17:17:00.000Z

In this month of January, I'll dedicate the blog to interviews and radio programs about Yes.
The first one will be the "In the Studio" series, a radio show in the USA, presented by Redbeard, which focuses each time on a different classic album.
The Fragile program featured interviews with Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman. I cut the songs from the album.
Amongst the most interesting moments are Jon's unexpected explanations to Roundabout's lyrics: "Roundabout was actually formulated in Scotland, we were travelling from Aberdeen through Glasgow, and we started the song by the time we were in Aberdeen, me and Steve were singing in the back of the van (...) and the mountains are sheer from both sides of the road, they just climb up to the sky, and because it was a cloudy day we couldn't see the top of the muntains, we could only see the clouds, 'cause it went straight up (...) and I remember me saying "Look, they're coming out of the sky!" (...) Just before you get to Glasgow there's a lake, a very famous one, Loch Ness, so we were driving "in and around the lake, mountains come out of the sky and they stand there"
Jon also states that one melody in the wordless sung part in the end of the song is actually "Three Bilnd Mice"
Jon talks about Long Distance Runaround: "It was how religion have seemed to confuse me totally. It was such a game that had to be played, and I was going round in circles, looking for the sound of reality, the sound of God.

Rick gives a great inside view of his musician life, in statements such as "We were convinced that music and musicians of the so-called rock age, or some of them, at least, should be taken seriously" and "What we would like to happen is in twenty years time, that a joker on the radio somewhere could pull a track off and play it, and it would not sound out of place"

Links on comments!

A Wonderful 2008!

2007-12-26T11:03:00.000Z

I desire a new year full of happiness to all Yes fans!
A tour by Yes wouldn't be a bad present...

Thanks for all the support, the nice commentaries and the many downloads...

1989 - Anderson, Bruford,Wakeman & Howe - Birmingham

2007-12-20T04:27:00.000Z

October 24th, 1989 - Birmingham, England
Venue/City: National Exhibition Centre,
Source: Soundboard

In the late 80s, Jon Anderson was pretty tired of the Trevor Rabin dominated Yes. As described Steve:
Jon called and asked me if I thought it was the right time to start working together again. Speaking to him, I felt pretty instantly that something good could be gotten out of it. Certainly, that's what I'd hoped for, since Jon and I had always had a lot of fun writing together. (...) Jon's creative powers and imagination are quite enormous, so they need to be listened to like everybody else's ideas. When Jon spoke to me, he was calling Wakeman and Bruford as well. He got the same feedback from them that we could do it. At the first meeting we just talked about it, then we took it to the next stage by collaborating on the songs.
This way, ABWH was born. They released an album with new material (described by Bill: They're essentially Jon's songs. I had very little to do with them. I thought that Jon was on strong form for that album, yes, I thought he was on strong form.) and then they started touring.
To replace Mr. Squire on bass, the famous Tony Levin (who played with King Crimson, Peter Gabriel and more hundreds of people) was chosen. Steve says: He was a very logical and wonderful choice because of his association with Bill. We'd all admired im tremendously. The bass department was vacant, and Tony was a marvelous choice.
Did Tony replace Chris well? Many say yes, I have to say no. He's an accomplished and respected bassist, but he's not suited to Yes style. This concert here, from 1989, shows many things, and one of them is Squire's decisive role in Yes music, more evident when he's not around. Other complaints I do are about Rick's and Bill's modern timbres... Some keyboards have a rather new-age feeling that doesn't fit well in songs like Starship Trooper. I'm glad Rick would return to his moog in the 90s! Bill uses some electronic drums in Close to the Edge that spoilthe experience of finally hearing him playing this song live...
Sorry but I can't help being critic about ABWH. To counterbalance my opinion, I'll quote a review by Prosciutto, in Progarchives:
The performances on most of the songs are great specially on the ABWH numbers which are the highlights (...) About the Yes songs, the standout is without doubt Close to the Edge, this epic never had sounded so bombastic and powerful before, in addition the vocal performance of Jon Anderson is incredibly inspired, I think this is the definitive version of Close to the Edge. The rest of the Yes numbers are just OK.

ABWH are:
Jon Anderson > Vocals
Bill Bruford > Drums
Steve Howe > Guitars
Rick Wakeman > Keyboards
Julian Colbeck > Keyboards
Tony Levin > Bass
Milton McDonald > Guitars

Setlist:
Disc 1:
1. Time and a word / Owner of a lonely heart / Teakbois
2. Clap
3. Mood for a day
4. Wakeman Solo
5. Long distance runaround/Drum Solo
6. Birthright
7. And you and I
8. All good people
9. Close to the Edge
Disc 2:
1. Themes / Bruford-Levin duet
2. Brother of mine
3. The meeting
4. Heart of the sunrise
5. Order of the universe
6. Roundabout
7. Starship trooper

(some interviews quoted from Notes From The Edge)
Links on comments!

2006 - Steve Howe in New York

2007-12-19T15:45:00.001Z

BB King's Blues Club
NYC
14 de Abril, 2006

In 2006, with Yes inactive, Steve Howe did some small shows, only he and his guitars.
This one here shows well the intimity feeling between him and the public. He talks a lot, about his blues influences, his limited ability to write lyrics, etc.
Besides, he plays some rare tunes, like songs from Natural Timbre and also Nine Voices (from The Ladder)

Kohno Spanish classical guitar:
01 Pre-show music 10:26
02 Applause 00:48
03 Surface Tension 04:37
04 The Ancient excerpt 04:39
05 The Little Galliard (Dowland) 01:48
06 Corkscrew 03:58
07 Classical Gas 03:37
08 Talking points 01:51
09 J's Theme 04:08
10 Concerto In D 2nd Mvt (Vivaldi) 02:28
11 Mood For A Day 03:52

Scharpach custom 12-string:
12 Winter from 4 Seasons (Vivaldi) 03:15
13 Masquerade 02:25
14 And You And I intro > Turn Of The Century outro 03:21
15 more stories 02:05
16 Sketches In The Sun 04:25

Portuguese 12-string:
17 Nine Voices 04:02

(intermission)

Martin 6-string steel cutaway:
01 Intro 02:09
02 In The Course Of The Day 04:30
03 To Be Over 07:18
04 Ram 04:01
05 Goin' Down This Road (Broonzy) 03:22
06 Intersection Blues 02:35
07 Merl Travis quotes 02:06
08 Second Initial 03:41

Line 6 Variax electric:
09 A Drop In The Ocean 02:42
10 variax demos 02:16
11 Whispering (Coburn, Rose & Schoenberger; arrangement: Atkins) 02:48
12 Dorothy 02:55
13 Meadow Rag 03:32

Fender lap steel:
14 Soon 08:25

Portuguese 12-string:
15 Your Move 03:35

encore:
Martin 6-string steel cutaway:
16 Clap 05:10

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REUPLOADED: 1969 – Live at Belgium

2007-12-09T09:57:00.000Z

27 October 1969 – Amougies Festival

Bootlegs of Yes in their original formation are rare and few. This is one of those.

First, with the exception of "Then", they only play covers, including the rarely played "It's Love" from The Rascals which extensively features Chris Squire on vocals and bass (there is a version from Yes Album tour on the box The Word Is Live).

The show has the only live version I know of I See You, containing Pater Banks' long guitar solo that has been so much commented and considered by Jon one of the reasons he was fired from the band (Jon thought the solo was too long... I don't think he could dream of “Tales” at the time...).

Of course, Yes went on to make great music, arguably better and more accomplished, but there's a wildness and freedom to their early incarnation that was never seen later.

Lastly, the usual reminder about the sound quality - the tape recorder used was way below modern standards and the sound is nowhere near "professional" quality. This reservation aside, however, this is an unbelievable document of a legendary festival!

1-No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (Havens) (4:53)
2-Tuning problems (4:43)
3-Then (Anderson) (5:32)
4-It's Love (Cavaliere/Brigati) (14:39)
5-Everydays (Stills) (5:43)
6-I See You (McGuinn/Crosby) (14:24)
7-Something's Coming (Bernstein/Sondheim) (10:19)

Recommended for fans of early Yes

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1978 - UK

2007-12-06T12:30:00.001Z

Out of the Blue - Live in Riviera Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA
20th July, 1978
Soundboard Recording

Lineup:
Eddie Jobson: Electric Violin, Keyboards and Electronics
Allan Holdsworth: Guitar
Bill Bruford: Drums & Percussion
John Wetton: Vocals & Bass

This band started in late 1976 when Wetton called Bruford to play in a band with Rick Wakeman. They rehearsed for 6 weeks before Wakeman left the projected band and re-joined YES for the "Going for the One" album.Bruford and Wetton wanted to carry on playing together, so Wetton invited Jobson, who was playing with Frank Zappa.He didn`t join them very soon because he had some work to do with Zappa`s band. Bruford recorded his first solo album "Feels Good to Me" in mid 1977, with Holdsworth (who had played with Soft Machine, Gong and Jean Luc Ponty) on guitar. When Wetton, Jobson and Bruford finally were rehearsing together, Bruford invited Holdsworth to the new band called "U.K.". They recorded this first album between December 1977 and January 1978. They toured during 1978, until they started to have problems due to different ideas about the musical style for the band: Bruford and Holdsworth wanted a more jazz- rock style for the band, while Wetton and Jobson wanted a more Pop-Rock (in the case of Wetton) and Prog Rock (in the case of Jobson) style for the band.
I think that the most interesting thing in this band, apart of the music played by these four very good musicians, is Bruford`s drums and percussion playing, with a lot of changes in time signatures and very good technique.Holdsworth has his most interesting playing in the songs "In the Dead of Night", "Thirty Years", "Nevermore" and "Mental Medication". He is a superb virtuoso guitarrist, who doesn't have many places to shine here, but when he's on the spotlight he's excellent. For the most part, Jobson is the main musician with his keyboards. Wetton plays his bass as good as usual, singing very good too.
(Parts quoted from Guillermo Vázquez, in http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=1360)

Setlist:
01: The Only Thing She Needs
02: Carrying No Cross
03: The Sahara Of Snow
04: Thirty Years
05: By The Light Of Day
06: Presto Vivace
07: In Dead Of Night
08: Caesar's Palace Blues

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2007 - Fragile & Steve Howe

2007-12-02T13:22:00.001Z

Live at Tilburg (2007-10-30)

Howe has been collaborating again with Yes tribute band Fragile. He was with them for Oct 2007 dates in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium on their 10th anniversary tour. Jon's voice is hard to match, but musically this is a great act. My favourite here is the medley "A Venture-South Side of the Sky", as A Venture was never played live by Yes.

Fragile opened with a set (including "The Revealing Science of God"), followed by a solo acoustic set from Howe, and then a joint set. The joint set included "A Venture", "South Side of the Sky" and "Gates of Delirium" (end section and into "Soon").

Setlist:
Fragile
01 - Intro and opening firebird
02 - Perpetual change
03 - Revealing science of god
04 - Owner of a lonely heart
05 - Close to the edge
06 - Introduction to Steve howe

Steve Howe
07 - Howe solo - Second Initial
08 - Howe solo - In The Course Of The Day
09 - Howe solo - Intersection Blues
10 - Howe solo - Masquerade
11 - Howe solo - Ram
12 - Howe solo - Clap
(change the names of the songs, they are all named simply "Howe solo")

Steve Howe and Fragile
13 - Siberian Khatru
14 - A Venture - South side of the sky
15 - Soon solo
16 - Starship Trooper
17 - Roundabout

(partially quoted from http://www.bondegezou.demon.co.uk/wnsh.htm )

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1975 - Long Beach

2007-11-25T22:34:00.000Z

June 23, 1975 Long Beach, California, US

The idea that Relayer formation was short-lived is wrong. Though they recorded only an album, they did many shows, in 1974, 75 and 76. The shows in 74 usually featured the entire Relayer and the entire Close to the Edge, leaving space only for a couple of other songs. The 75 shows were more variated, featuring solo spots, Ritual and a completely different, acoustic version of Long Distance Runaround. In 76, the set list would be similar, but without Close to the Edge, as Moraz playing this song was at least uninteresting, and without To Be Over, which the band was not that fond of.

This show, in 1975, has my favourite live version of To Be Over. Although the band stopped playing this soon after this show, Howe loves it and said, recently: “To Be Over” was so unplayed and unsung. It was like this song has just been forgotten about, or by Yes themselves, we had not played that song.
Another highlight is Sweet Dreams, in a completely new arrengement, very "Relayer-esque", with stunning solos of Moraz and Howe, and powerful drumming.
Moraz liked to change the songs, and this went well with simpler music, like Sweet Dreams. But in a complex suite like Close to the Edge, his improvisations are often disastrous. He should be forbidden to play it!
Ritual in this show has Moraz also giving his particular view to this song, using timbres and melodies similar to those he used in Relayer. The mellotron parts, for example, ressemble those in Sound Chaser. And in this tour Ritual included a quote from The Remembering.
In 1976 this song would get an arrangement with less freedom to Moraz, and he would play more similarly to Rick.

Set List:
Firebird Suite
Sound Chaser
Close To The Edge
To Be Over
Gates Of Delirium
Your Move/Mood For A Day
Long Distance Runaround/Moraz Solo
Clap
And You And I
Ritual
Roundabout
Sweet Dreams

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1971 - Newcastle

2007-11-25T03:06:00.000Z

October 16, 1971
Newcastle City Hall, UK

The Fragile tour began before the actual album was released, and this show is from the very beginning of the tour. It starts with Roundabout, which will surprise most of us, used to hear it at the end...
This concert was unique, because there were problems with Rick's organ that made them change the songs and make a nice instrumental jam. Read the transcription:
Jon Anderson : We'd like to do another song, a new song from Fragile, which should be out in a couple weeks time we hope. And uh, The song is about ??? and the fact of living in the city. Uh, generally people work in the cities, get out of the city, which is a strange way of doing things, uh..that's the way it happens. The song is called Heart Of The Sunrise. Are we alright?hold on. I say, hold on, just a minute. Whatcha doing? Can't play this. Organ is not working
Steve Howe : We got a new member since we last came here.
Jon Anderson : it'll be ready in about 20 minutes, so we'll just..
Steve Howe : 20 minutes? ??? [band plays a jam] Its really great to ???
Rick Wakeman : ???
Steve Howe : Now we lost our drummer.
Jon Anderson : Plug it in. We're going to do something else then. We'll do a good tap dance. We're going to do another song from the album. ??? can't start without the organ happening. This is Lou. Lou? There he is. We're going to do a few things. Actually, the first part is a song, the second part is an instrumental featuring Chris, on bass guitar, and uh... its called "The Fish" and uh we've nicknamed him the fish ever since, well ever since I've known him I always called him The Fish cause he spends, uh.. at least ten hours a day in the bath soaking himself and rejuvenating himself. Yeah alright, here we go with Long Distance Runaround and The Fish.
Funny how Jon's explanations for Heart of the Sunrise changed... In 1978 he would say it was a song about the sun, and in 2000 he said it was about the sharp and distance feeling of recording music.
Then, after The Fish (which was a great rendition):
Jon Anderson : Chris!
Steve Howe : Chris Squire, ladies and gentlemen.
Jon Anderson : Thank you. The organ. This is a good joke. One of the best jokes in the business. ??? We're going to do without organ. You can't hear it anyway
Rick Wakeman : Glad you mention that.
Jon Anderson : We're going to do a song called Heart Of The Sunrise, with or... with or without him. He can mime. Imagine there is an organ playing, you know?
Rick had to improvise new parts to Heart of the Sunrise, in some of his keyboards that were working. And it's an awesome improvisation!
Another difference is in Rick's solo spot. He was still composing Six Wives, so the solo almost doesn't feature this album. I don't know if it's Rick's early compositions, classical tunes or whatever it might be, but it's surely a good solo. What I recognize is a melody from Bizet's Arlésienne Suites, around the third minute, a melody that would be played in Catherine Howard. But here he does an incredible derivational job with this section.

Set list:
Roundabout
I've seen all good people
Mood for a day
Clap
Jam
Long distance runaround
The Fish
Heart of the sunrise
Wakeman solo
Perpetual change
Yours is no disgrace

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1970/71 - BBC Sessions EDITED

2007-11-22T00:35:00.002Z

BBC Studios, London
1970-04-07 (For Everyone), 1970-10-20(America), 1971-04-12(Clap)

+
America
June 05, 1971
Sportpalast, Berlin, Germany

There was some confusion here. The America I posted, believing to be from BBC, was actually from a show in Berlin, June1971. So I'm posting the actual America from BBC now.

(these are not the BBC Sessions (with Peter Banks) released on Beyond & Before: BBC Recordings 1969-1970)

Today I present three sessions from BBC, when Yes played one song in each.

For Everyone, with their original formation, is a longer arrangement than the one featured in Beyond and Before. It has 9 minutes, with a bass/organ solo of 3. The song was not released in a studio album, but part of it would become the Disillusion part of Starship Trooper (we can notice, in the difference of the arrangements, that this encarnation of Yes was very nice and powerful, but Yes with Howe would be much more original, which is shown in Disillusion, so different than everything they made).

America was perhaps played by Yes for the first time in this BBC session. It has a drums intro, and a very different and adventurous arrangement. Bill's drums are never what you'd expect them to be in this song! The original Simon and Garfunkel version included a verse that began "Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat" and ends "and the moon rose over an open field." Yes included that verse in this arrangement but excised it in 72.
Quoting a review from a show in November, 1970: "The climax of their show was a dramatic arrangement for Simon & Garfunkel's America that opened with a strange 1930's Berlin style intro played by Tony Kaye on organ and Steve leading into Jon's simple emotive vocals. Bill Bruford was a tower of strength throughout."

Clap is predictable as always, but has a great portion of Classical Gas in its middle. Steve said, back in 1970: "Clap is slightly influenced by Chet Atkins. It's a simple tune I used to play and expanded by putting in stop time breaks and bits from Mason Williams' 'Classical Gas' which I've always loved. Down in Devon the boys said they wanted to find a solo for me and this came up. I started playing it on a couple of gigs and it always goes down well. People don't know what to associate my guitar style with, blues or the underground. I want to do a solo album one day, but there is no hurry."
According to Mick D: "Theres a story behind... Yes wanted to do Starship Trooper but after five hours they had still not nailed it so with just a few minutes left howe recorded Clap so at least the session wasn't a complete waste" Later, in 1971, Starship Trooper would be broadcast at BBC, wchich said they were playing it live, but it's clearly the studio version! So don't be fooled: there's no BBC broadcast of Starship Trooper!

Sound quality: For Everyone is a radio broadcast, but BBC kept no record of it. This version was recorded from FM. America is the best version that can be found. Clap has a good guitar sound, but some constant noise behind.

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REUPLOADED: 1974 Detroit

2007-11-19T15:16:00.000Z

28 February 1974

This concert is from the tour of Tales From Topographic Oceans. The band played all that album, and all of Close to the Edge, leaving space left only to Roundabout.
Soon after this concert, the band would drop The Remembering out of the set list, probably because it really didn't work well on stage. So this is one of the few times they played it live.
Highlights to me are Ritual and Roundabout, both featuring a band full of energy.
Sound quality is not the best, but all the instruments are very clear (and there's not Tales bootleg much better than this).

Set list:
Part one:
Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru
And You And I
Close to the Edge
The Revealing Science of God

Part two:
The Remembering
The Ancient
Ritual
Roundabout

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2007 - Rick Wakeman Live in Toronto

2007-11-15T20:17:00.001Z

Rick Wakeman and the English Rock Ensemble
2007-08-19, Danforth Music Hall, Toronto, Canada

Rick's plan for this year's second semester was doing small tours with orchestra, playing The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Kinghts of the Round Table and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. For reasons unknown, it didn't work, so he did only a couple of normal shows with his English Rock Ensemble.
But the most interesting about this recent show are exactly the long parts of these two records that were played. Without the orchestra, he still played most of the albums, in arrangements for his rock group. And these new arrangements really rock!
The singer is Ashley Holt, whose voice is far away from what it was in the 70s. But the rest of the band is very good, and Rick does what only he knows to do, with dozens of keyboards (including playing backwards, as you see below!)

Disc 1:
Journey-Recollection-The Battle
The Forest
The Spaceman
Catherine Parr
The Visit

Disc 2:
Jane Seymour
Sea Horses
Wendy House
King Arthur
The Last Battle
Lancelot and the Black Knight
Merlin the Magician
Crowd Noise
Starship Trooper

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2002 - Las Vegas

2007-11-11T13:05:00.003Z

Las Vegas Nevada USA 2002-08-25

This is a superb quality soundboard.
Probably a leak from the Westwood One archives, as WWO aired a 60 minutes edit of this show.
So this is not your typical stereo soundboard feed, but a multi track mix.
As you probably know, this show was right after Rick rejoined the band, so we can hear some minor errors in his playing, especially in the songs from Magnification. Jon is not familiar with South Side Of The Sky, which becomes very funny.
The setlist was interesting, including America and Yours Is No Disgrace. Chris and Rick are very prominent on the mix.
Curiosity: there's a law in Las Vegas that prohibits live concerts of during more than two hours, so they had to drop And You And I and the solo songs (To be over, Fish, etc).

Disc 1
01 Firebird suite
02 Siberian Khatru
03 America
04 In the presence of
05 We have heaven
06 South side of the sky
07 Heart of the sunrise

Disc 2
01 Magnification
02 Don't kill the whale
03 Awaken
04 Roundabout
05 Yours is no disgrace

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1977 - Northern Flight (Gothenburg)

2007-11-07T23:35:00.000Z

1977-11-12 Gothenburg, Sweden PRRP017
(For those who don't know, PPRP means Progressive Rock Remaster Project, and is a project with some dozens of bootlegs of concerts by the 70s best known prog bands, like ELP and Genesis, most of the times remastered and with good sound quality. And nice artwork! Their bootlegs are free for sharing but should not be sold!)

Exactly 30 years ago, Yes was doing this show, in the end of their Going for the one tour. In this tour, they had a lot of fun. Rick was so happy to rejoin Yes, the band was also happy to have him back (they got rather tired of Moraz...), and they were enjoying doing shows.
You can feel this good vibrations here. They were satisfied with their new album, so they played it all. The title track and Parallels, especially, work wonderfully on stage, even better than on studio, in my opinion. Awaken was good, but would get better in their following tour (of Tormato).
Their last number was either Starship Trooper or Yours Is No Disgrace (here it's the latter), and they were much extended, achieving 14+ minutes. Expect something in the style of Yessongs' version, but at the same time in a different way. Howe's solos seem endless (which can be regarded as good or bad...)
1-1. Firebird Suite 1:54
1-2. Parallels 5:53
1-3. I've Seen All Good People 7:11
1-4. Close To The Edge 19:15
1-5. Wonderous Stories 4:16
1-6. The Colours Of The Rainbow 1:18
1-7. Turn Of The Century 7:59
1-8. And You And I 10:10

2-1. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto 1:322-2. Going for the One 5:332-3. 'Flight' Jam 4:292-4. Awaken 15:352-5. Roundabout8:46 2-6 Yours Is No Disgrace 14:00

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1970 - Every Little Thing

2007-11-01T00:59:00.000Z

April 3, 1970. Cologne, Germany

This is one of the last shows with Peter Banks. The sound quality is better than the 1969 show in Belgium I posted here before. But not so good. The voice doesn't sound very clear, but guitars and keys are very good.
The show's repertoire is all from Yes and Time and a Word. Only 5 songs, as it was a big festival with Deep Purple, Soft Machine and others.
An exciting performance, you can see the band is having lots of fun. Bill's playing is awesome. Due to time restrictions, they couldn't jam too much, and that brought good and down-to-earth performances of No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed and Everydays.

Set list:
No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed
Then
Every Little Thing
Astral Traveller
Everydays

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2006 - Jon and Rick

2007-10-29T20:05:00.001Z

Saturday 14 October 2006

Jon Anderson has been doing many solo shows in these last years, always with a very simple approach, simple one-man show with simple instrumentation. A show of 2004 can be seen here. Then, in 2006, he noticed that Rick was also fond of this approach lately (after touring with orchestras and big bands, he seems to have got somewhat tired of that), and they decided to do a short tour in England. The result was a unique show, more interesting than Jon's solo ones (in my opinion), as it combines Jon's beautiful - and, here, not laid back at all - voice, his most simple acoustic guitar, and Rick's well known style accompanying, here using only a grand piano.
I really miss the guitars, basss and drums on most songs, but if you regard them as new and surprising arrangements, it's a very interesting concert.
Simpler songs, such as Your Move and Roundabout, became better than some more complex, like Ritual. Rick's solo section is so good, I'm sure their fans will love it. Oh, and of course his talent as a raconteur and joker are as entertaining as his piano playing!
Leap of Faith (Part 1)
Yours Is No Disgrace
Leap of Faith (Part 2)
Wonderous Stories
Anyway and Always
All Good People
South Side of the Sky
Time and a Word
The Garden
Awaken
Piano Medley: -Set Sail - Close to the Edge - Who could Imagine? - Mary Me Again - The Revealing Science of God
Give Love Each Day
Nous Sommes Du Soleil
Nursery Rhyme Concerto
Catherine Howard
Eleanor Rigby
And You And I
Turn of the Century
Owner of a Lonely Heart
Sweet Dreams
Deeper Love
Roundabout
The Meeting

An excerpt of Turn of the Century:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7daPeAYiHI

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2007 - Steve Howe Trio

2007-10-25T23:44:00.002+01:00

19 May, 2007 Morecambe, The Platform, UK
In 2007, momentarily free from Yes, Steve Howe decided to tour with a jazz-blues-rock-country (summing up, all the music he likes) trio, formed by:
Steve Howe - Guitars
Dylan Howe - Drums
Ross Stanley - Hammond Organ

They reworked some Yes classics, and songs from Steve's solo career, with little respect to the original arrangements. The result is a very original concert, with a jazzy feel recreating completely some well-known songs, some less commented pieces, and a couple of jazz/blues standards from a guitarrist he admires, Kenny Burrell.
Mood For A Day has to be heard to be believed, it was transformed in an exciting 8 minutes long jazz number, with a steady 9/8 meter.
As usual, there's an acoustic session, with less original but perfectly played versions of Cactus Boogie(from Steve Howe Album), Sketches in the Sun (from GTR) and Intersection Blues (from Natural Timbre.)
I must admit some songs get too long and rather loose, like Momenta, originally a 3 minutes long in Quantum Guitar, here it almost achieves 11 minutes, without having so much to say. But except this one, most extended jams are very well delivered.
If you want to hear Steve improvisating, here's a holy grail for you.

Some videos of the trio can be seen at Dylan Howe's Youtube page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DylanHowe

Here is the group's myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/stevehowetrio
where they say they're going to record a studio album in October (sady they seem to have postponed it...) and say their influences are:
Kenny Burrell
Wes Montgomery
Tal Farlow
Elvin Jones
Philly-Jo Jones
Roy Haynes
Jimmy Smith
Larry Young
Larry Goldings

Setlist:
DISC ONE
Travelin'
Dream River,
Chitlins Con Carne
Mood for a Day
Blue Bash!
Close to the Edge

DISC TWO
Bareback
Medley – Freight Trane/Whispering/Trambone
Cactus Boogie
Sketches in the Sun
Intersection Blues
Kenny's Sound
Momenta
The Haunted Melody
Sweet Thunder
Clap
Siberian Khatru

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1972 - Suite Distance

2007-10-20T01:43:00.000+01:00

August 13, 1972 - Columbia, Maryland, USA

One of the best known bootlegs from Close to the Edge tour. In this show, they didn't play Close to the Edge yet, the song was so complex and they lasted a while to have courage to take it to the stages. But And You And I and Siberian Khatru are there, in fresh versions.
Yours Is No Disgrace is very extended, similar to the one on Yessongs, and with some vocals by Jon in the introduction.
And hearing Jon say things like "Uh.. that was a song from the new album we, we finished about a few weeks ago. It will be out in about 3 weeks. It's called 'Siberian Khatru'" is wonderful.
Worth checking.
Sound quality is A-

Setlist :
Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru
I've Seen All Good People
Mood For A Day
Clap
Heart Of The Sunrise
And You And I
Wakeman Solo
Roundabout
Yours Is No Disgrace

Lins on comments!

2000 - Legendary Works

2007-10-17T20:44:00.001+01:00

June 21, 2000
Concord, California, USA
Masterworks Tour

By 2000, Yes had lost Billy (who had seemed increasingly unneeded anyway), but didn't have a new album out. Therefore my expectation was for a retread tour of old material (as OYE had largely been), with Kansas as freebie opener. This turned out to be more-or-less the case, but I would not have guessed they'd choose this particular material!
(...)
And what songs! "Close to the Edge" to start! And "Starship Trooper" to follow! What could be next? Not -- "Gates of Delirium"! This wasn't a concert; this was a 'take no prisoners' blitzkrieg; I remember thinking the performance was mostly convincing -- not bad at all for the second day of the tour. "Leaves of Green" and "Heart of the Sunrise" were this show's equivalent of taking it easy before plunging into "Ritual", which built into a huge climax. Talk about stamina!
After all that, "Roundabout" and "All Good People" were familiar relief. Very much a four-star show, and I wouldn't doubt they managed five later in the tour :-)
(quoted from JPrisco)

Opener was "CTTE..." only on a tour featuring "Gates" could this be construed as an opening song! Jon had been sick and cracked a little during "I Get Up," but otherwise a fine, slightly relaxed version. An amusing quasi-recitation of "Starship Trooper" lyrics pre-tune by Jon...as often with him, seemingly delivered with a knowing wink and not too seriously. "Gates," was not as raw and anarchic as the album sounds (to me), but Jon's voice has improved tremendously. As everyone knows, this piece is as challenging as most symphonies and requires the utmost concentration; I would say Squire and Howe were flawless, with White solid but having cut down the more baroque fills almost completely.

I was actually more impressed by "Ritual," which surprised me...the lengthy, mainly wordless vocal section preceding the first verse seemed to wax and wane naturally. Squire, a narrow (from that distance) giant in black spandex, took over the stage mid - "Ritual" - he'd made pleasingly, exaggerated strides across the stage during the subsonic bass notes in "Trooper," and now seemed determined to shatter his instrument , so hard did he play it.

After that, the standard encores (ISAGP in the Jon-strummed YesWest version) may have seemed anticlimactic, but it was worth listening for Igor's interpretation of the solo in "Roundabout" - he substitutes a wild, almost Tony Kaye-esque flailing for Rick's surgical precision, to pleasing effect - and one might also find space to praise "Heart Of The Sunrise," as it is so often taken for granted. The song is much better live, and evokes a world of differing timbres and moods in 10 min... almost a precis of Yescography in one number, and a spectacular rendition this evening. I see too that I have not mentioned Steve, and it's never fair to take him for granted...he's the glue that holds it all together, especially on steel guitar.
(quoted from Alexander Jones)

Setlist
Young Persons Guide To The Orchestra
Close To The Edge
Starship Trooper
Gates Of Delirium
Leaves Of Green
Heart Of The Sunrise
Ritual
I've Seen All Good People
Roundabout

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1973 - Cans and Brahms

2007-10-17T01:03:00.000+01:00

1973-03-21 - Live in Adelaide, Australia

This one is from the end of Close to the Edge tour.

While its not a complete show (some songs are missing and there is no crowd noise between songs) and the sound quality is about a B+, it has a few features which fans will find very interesting:
- During Siberian Khatru Steve Howe's pedal steel doesn't work so we get to hear his steel solo on regular guitar
- Also during Siberian Khatru Rick's mellotron sound for strings is not used during one section and we get to hear the choir sound instead; and later on he uses the organ instead of the mellotron until finally, I guess, it gets fixed during the end section.
- The band loses the PA during I've Seen All Good People except for the bass which continues on like nothing ever happened; the PA comes back on and the the band picks up awkwardly and starts the song over.
- Rick's solo spot pretty much mirrors the Yessongs version, but he adds Cans And Brahms in the middle

Set list:
Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru
I've Seen All Good People
Heart Of The Sunrise
And You And I
Close To The Edge
Wakeman Solo/Cans And Brahms
Roundabout
Starship Trooper

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1991 - Mountain View

2007-10-12T18:04:00.000+01:00

August 8, 1991, Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA, USA

Union Tour is loved by many. The idea of getting 8 musicians together playing Yes music makes some people go over the moon. But to me it's not the best, actually. How can you add a second guitar in complexly structured songs such as And You And I and Heart of the Sunrise? Or play Your Is No Disgrace with two drummers? It just doesn't work that well, in my opinion.
But there are interesting points, of course. Awaken is long, and its interlude is fantastic. The solo moments are all good: Steve, Trevor, Rick and Chris can do wonders alone... but when they're all together things don't work that well.
This is from soundboard, and the quality is so good that it's often called Yesshows 1991

Set List:
Firebird Suite
Yours Is No Disgrace
Rhythm Of Love
Shock To The System
Heart Of The Sunrise
Clap
Make It Easy/Owner Of A Lonely Heart
And You And I
Drum Duet
Changes
I've Seen All Good People
Solly's Beard
Saving My Heart/Whitefish/Amazing Grace
Lift Me Up
Wakeman Solo
Awaken
Roundabout

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1974 Long Beach

2007-10-06T03:16:00.001+01:00

Long BeachArena, California, USA March 19, 1974

Another Tales Tour bootleg, this one has clear strenghts and weaknesses.

Strenghts
One of the few Tales Tour boots of good sound quality.
Steve is in a great day and his guitar is very high on the mix.
Starship Trooper (not such a common song in that tour) is played very dinamically.

Weaknesses
Siberian Khatru, And You And I and Ritual were played but don't feature in this bootleg. Were they ever recorded? I don't know.
In some moments sound quality is not that good.

Disc one
Close To The Edge
The Revealing Science Of God
The Ancient

Disc two
Roundabout
Starship Trooper

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2001 - Symphonic Live

2007-09-30T14:09:00.001+01:00

Amsterdam, 22-11-2001
Many thanks to the blog where it was originally posted and whose review was the base for mine.
http://newprogshine.blogspot.com

This is the audio of the magnific DVD Symphonic Live, released in 2002. Nothing more than 2 hours and 50 minutes in 14 songs. Relax and enjoy, this is for dreaming.
Close to the Edge starts mind-boggling, what is Steve Howe in his guitar? No answer, just open mouths. Tom Brislim does all the keyboard parts very similarly to Rick's style, and the orchestra makes this one the only really different arrangement for this song since 1972!
Long Distance Runaround is good but nothing very different. They give it a soft approach, very different than, for example, the faster and more rocking they gave in 1978/9.
In the Presence of is divine, with the orchestra, elegant timbres, vocal harmonies, overall, Yes. One of the few recent Yes songs that are really quintessentially Yes.
The Gates of Delirium is one of the favourites of Yesfans, with the orchestra giving a new colour to the epic, and Jon singing with such a dedication, which can be called love. I must say I don't appreciate this version so much, because Steve Howe seems a little dull to me here, it seems to me as if he's not comfortable playing. But here I'm on the minority, all my Yes-friends love it so much.
Steve Howe shows, in his solo, his versatile guitar style, with reanascentism, lirism, folk and rock'n'roll. Great!
Starship Trooper is good but not essential. Magnification is another of the good songs they released on the most recent album.
And You And I gets very beautiful with the orchestra, here it does most of Rick's parts in the grandious symphonic sections, while Howe is perfect in the steel guitar.
Ritual is impressive. They play it with a lot of excitment (the contrast with "The Gates" is obvious to me) and Chris' solo is the best ever in this song! Only if the percussion solo was shorter...
Owner of a Lonely Heart is the only Yes-West song here, with its well-known riff. I must say in my opinion this arrangement is way much better than the original one, with its weird robot-like voices.
Roundabout is the last one. Steve came up with a new and good introduction, but later on they cut some parts of the song, which I don't like.

Buy the DVD if you can, but this bootleg, FORGOD'SSAKE!

Disc 1
01. Overture (Give Love Each Day) - 2'52
02. Close To The Edge - 20'30
03. Long Distance Runaround - 5'45
04. Don't Go - 5'57
05. In The Presence Of - 11'09

Disc 2
01. Gates Of Delirium - 25'33
02. Steve Howe's Solo - 7'26
a)Concerto In D Minor
b)Mood For A Day
03. Starship Trooper - 13'26
a)Life Seeker
b)Disillusion
c)Würm
04. Magnification - 7'26

Disc 3
01. And You And I - 14'00
02. Ritual - 30'08
03. I've Seen All Good People - 9'19
a)Your Move
b)All Good People
04. Owner Of A Lonely Heart - 6'04
05. Roundabout - 8'01

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1972 - The White Yes Album

2007-09-24T19:12:00.000+01:00

21st January, 1972
This is one of the best bootlegs from Fragile tour. Best in sound quality and performance, because sadly "Heart of the Sunrise" lacks the first verse (but retains most of the introduction), "The Fish" is also truncated and some of the "Yours Is No Disgrace" solo has been cut out. Presumably these edits were made to fit it onto vinyl back in the day, although it's not that long - just under forty minutes in total!
Maybe Jon Anderson, song-writer and singer supreme, is responsible for that, but all YES members are brilliant on their instruments. For instance: Rick Wakeman. When you hear his solo, which is the first track on side 2, you want to buy the record without even hearing the rest of it. He plays piano, moog, organ and mellotron at the same time!
Beside that, you'll find all the best parts of the concert, such as 'I've seen all good people', 'Hearts of the sunrise' on side 1 and the Anderson composition 'Long Distance' and the wonderful 'Yours is no disgrace' on side 2.
The album is a full-music album, no long boaring talks or endless applaus, but very well (on the best equipment there is) recorded hi-fi stereo YES music.
YES made already 4 fantastic albums, this is the first 'absolutely life' album, enjoy it!

Tracks:
1) I'VE SEEN ALL GOOD PEOPLE - Anderson/Squire - 7.46
2) HEART OF THE SUNRISE - Anderson/Squire/Bruford - 9.50
3) RICK WAKEMAN SOLO - Wakeman - 7.38
4) LONG DISTANCE RUNAROUND - Anderson - 3.17
5) THE FISH (SCHINDLERIA PRAEMATURUS) - Squire - 1.22
6) YOURS IS NO DISGRACE - Anderson/Squire/Bruford/Kaye/Howe - 8.05

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1978 - Live at Cleveland (Richfield)

2007-09-20T02:24:00.001+01:00

1978-09-19 Cleveland (Richfield) Ohio USA
(Radio Soundboard)

Hearing this bootleg and the one from Wembley, I'm convinced that the Tormato tour was the best one in Yes history... set list is perfect (perhaps just too many Tormato songs, but they're short), and the Medley is unbeliavable! Long Distance faster, Fish with all the band playing awesome, quoting Survival and The Ancient, Perpetual Change very dynamic and Soon giving a beautiful end...
In this particular show, the best ones are On the Silent Wings of Freedom, in a slightly shorter and better version, and Starship Trooper, with a great job by Rick, with some new and good solos in the Disillusion part. Wurm is not as long as it was in 1977.
Take a look at the beutiful way how Madrigal moves into Clap. This is one of the very few times Madrigal was played live.

Disc 1
1 Close Encounters / Siberian Khatru
2 Heart Of The Sunrise
3 Future Times / Rejoice
4 Circus Of Heaven
5 Time And A Word / Long Distance Runaround / The Fish / The Ancient / Survival / Perpetual Change / Soon
6 Don't Kill The Whale
7 Madrigal / The Clap

Disc 2
1 Starship Trooper
2 On The Silent Wings Of Freedom
3 The Six Wives Of Henry The 8th
4 Awaken
5 I've Seen All Good People
6 Roundabout

Ps: Geoff Dunn, on Forgotten Yesterdays, says: In the Medley, as "The Gates of Delirium" goes into "Soon", Jon Anderson misses his cue! The rest of the band cover the faux pas extremely professionally and Jon comes in on the next bar. Most in the audience probably didn't even notice the mistake!

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1988 - Live in Houston

2007-09-15T12:17:00.000+01:00

Houston, Texas, USA
February 19, 1988

This is one of the best bootlegs from Rabin era. The show must have been great, and the acoustics of the place too, because some songs were used in the box The Word is Love and the bootleg was pressed many times, under different names (Live USA, Yesshows'88, etc). The one here is called Big Generator Show & Rare Tracks and has a cover I'm not putting here as it's horribly ugly.
The show was good, with good renditions of songs from 90125 and Big Generator, but also good playing on old songs, such as And You And I and Heart of the Sunrise. I think Rabin was much
better playing Howe songs here than in 90125 tour.
My personal favourites are Rabin solo, Solly's Beard, here simply called "Instrumental" and Yours is no Disgrace, with a good rock'n'roll energy from the whole band.

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Steve Howe solo carreer

2007-09-13T23:46:00.000+01:00

Today I'm posting some recent albums from Steve Howe solo career. Most of his compositions are instrumental and guitar-based. That's wise, as his voice as a solo singer is not good...
My focus is on Yes material and not on released albums, but as all of these albums are pretty hard to find on stores or on the internet (I had to upload Skylines, and the other links were not easy to get) I'll put them here. Hope you like.

Skyline (2002)

- Steve Howe / guitars, bass, keyboards
- Paul Sutin / keyboards, percussion

Steve Howe is a world-renowned guitar virtuoso with the great progressive rock group Yes. Probably only the most devoted fans realize that there is much more to him than just being a guitar player for that band. He is a venerated solo artist as well. On his latest effort "Skyline", HOWE proves to be an adept six-string maestro by combining jazz, rock, and strong Latin influences into intricate and dazzling instrumental compositions.
If you want to relax in front of the open fireplace (or the central heating for the less wealthy), this CD is yours: sensitive guitarplay (electric and acoustic, often with a jazzy feel) and soaring keyboards, sometimes evoking Mike Oldfield.
(taken from progarchives)

Natural Timbre (2001)
- Steve Howe / guitar (acoustic), banjo, bass, dobro, guitar, mandolin, percussion, autoharp, guitar (bass), guitar (12 String), koto, mandola, mandocello, Hawaiian Lap Steel guitar
- Andrew Jackman / piano, Glockenspiel
- Anna Palm / violin
- Dylan Howe / drums

Here's probably the best Howe album... All the songs are acoustic, but he can make them very different one from another, using Mandolin, Banjo, several acoustic guitars, violin(played by Anna Palm). The whole album is very calm, perfect for reading, and he makes blues (Intersection Blues, to me the best track), Jazz (Dream River), and ambient music ( Distant Seas)... The disc has songs for all my moods. The Yes songs, in my opinion are all excelent: Your Move's extremely beautiful melody is made better, and the recorders are so calm and soft; Disillusin (from Starship Trooper) is outstanding, very emotive; To Be Over is a masterpiece, with amazing Glockenspiel, and a totally different atmosphere from the original. They are all as good as the originals.

Pulling Strings (1999) (Live)
- Steve Howe / acoustic guitars (1,7,13,15,16), electric guitars (13,16), string pad (7), hi hat (7), lute (9), keyboards (9,13,15), bass (9,13,16), tambourine (9), drum machine
- Phil Spalding / bass on track 1
- Stuart Elliott / drums on track 1

(...)One of those Beginnings tunes, "Pleasure stole the night", appears on PULLING STRINGS, unplugged (like most of the material here), and although its lyrics still don't make sense, it's heartwarming, it really makes you feel as if you just got to know Steve a little better.
Same with the Yes tunes. Once again, you'll have to forgive Steve his well-known limitations, but even so, I feel he makes a decent job of "Soon", "Turn of the Century" and the slow bit from "Close to the Edge". It certainly casts a totally new light on the pieces to hear them performed by someone who was intimately involved in their conception. If Steve played them the way he does here in MY local bar, I'd weep - and not even with frustration.
Steve's instrumental bits, I trust, won't cause anyone any trouble; they're fun as usual. But then, at the end of the programme, Steve suddenly grabs an electric guitar and lets rip with "My white bicycle", a Tomorrow classic I'd never heard before. Judging from its performance here, people, it's a TREMENDOUS tune!
(taken from progarchives)

Spectrum (2005)
- Steve Howe / guitars
- Tony Levin / bass
- Dylan Howe / drums
- Oliver Wakeman / keyboards
- Virgil Howe / keyboards

Steve Howe is the master of diversity on the six-string. With his new CD he covers the entire musical "Spectrum" and beyond. The entire album is instrumental and he certainly makes an immense statement without any vocals added to each track. There is no need for his YES band mates Anderson and Squire to add any vocals to this mix; it is a complete masterpiece without that element present. Rick Wakeman’s son Oliver and his own two talented offspring, Dylan and Virgil, join Howe, which is a stunning combination of the old guard and the new blood emerging from the YES family. Howe is one smart cookie, he has bass player supreme Tony Levin is in the studio for the sessions to round out his resonating guitar oriented compositions. God knows how Levin finds the time to play on all of the projects he does. He is simply incredible.
(...) Songs like “Tigers Den” and “Realm Thirteen” have irresistible hooks and rhythms that are as unique as they are inviting. (...)
Howe is equally adept with the acoustic or electric guitar, hence his ability to rock and play softer more jazz Latin inflected numbers to enhance your listening experience and make it an all around instrumental voyage through several different styles. I have a fondness for prog-rock and jazz fusion, whether it is acoustic or electric it does not really matter to me, I simply love it all. You hear will jazz, rock, country, blues, or combinations of them all in electric and acoustic settings during the course of Howe’s brilliant compositions. This is guitar 101. If you are an avid listener of the Howe repertoire or wish to study one of the more diverse and incredible guitar players on the face of the earth today, check out "Spectrum" now.
(from progarchives)

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1998 - Live in Santiago

2007-09-12T01:51:00.001+01:00

You like Chris Squire? So this show is for you. Similar to the Budapest show recently posted here, this one has a mix that privileges the bass. It is very loud, and Chris's performance is astonishing.

So this show has my favourite ever live version of Heart of the Sunrise. I just can't explain the sound of the bass in this song here. It has to be heard to be believed.

Other good moments are Rhythm of Love, which, amazingly, became a very good song in this tour, and Roundabout, with Chris's classic bass lines played very loud.

Audio is good, though Steve and Igor are sometimes not very audible for the bass's loudness. The only recording flaw is in Steve's acoustic solo, some seconds are missing. A pity, for he was doing a great solo.

Set list:

Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru
Rhythm Of Love
America
Open Your Eyes
And You And I
Heart Of The Sunrise
Mood For A Day/Winter/Guitar Boogie/Clap
From The Balcony
Wonderous Stories
Khoroshev Solo
Long Distance Runaround/Whitefish/Alan White Solo/Sound Chaser
Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Santiago Jam
I've Seen All Good People
Roundabout
Starship Trooper

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2003 - Special Requests Night

2007-09-11T17:25:00.001+01:00

Live At The International Forum, Tokyo, Japan
September 15, 2003

This bootleg is very similar to Live at Montreux. Rick Wakeman shows us what he would have done if he had recorded Magnification, and they really make In the Presence Of become a new classic song. But the second half of the show is better, with the band more excited and playing with more emotion. On the Silent Wings of Freedom shows a perfect groove and combination between Chris Squire and Alan White. Awaken is really uplifting, and after that, they played Owner of a Lonely Heart, for the first time in the tour, as a respected Japanese promoter requested that song. They play really tight in this one, with very good keyboard solos from Rick.

set list:
Disc 1:
01 - Opening (Firebird Suite)
02 - Siberian Khatru
03 - Magnification
04 - Don't Kill The Whale
05 - In The Presence Of
06 - We Have Heaven
07 - South Side Of The Sky
08 - And You And I
09 - To Be Over
10 - Clap

Disc 2:
01 - Second Half Opening
02 - Tulip
03 - Show Me
04 - Wakeman Solo
05 - Heart Of The Sunrise
06 - Long Distance Runaround
07 - Whitefish
08 - On The Silent Wings Of Freedom
09 - Awaken
10 - Owner Of A Lonely Heart
11 - Roundabout

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Close to the Edge and The Gates of Delirium - Studio Run-throughs

2007-09-08T06:05:00.000+01:00

In the last years, many re-releases of Yes albums have featured as bonus tracks studio run-throughs, former versions of the songs that would still be modified before being released. Today I'll put here two studio run-throughs, of Close to the Edge and The Gates of Delirium.
Close to the Edge is generally the same, but there are many missing points. Since the beginning, for the first introduction, with the sounds of nature and birds, is inexistant! later, there are a few changes in lyrics and instrumentation, but the song is mostly the one we're accustomed with.
The version of The Gates of Delirium is much more distant from the final arrangement. Jon was still writing the lyrics, so he sung some "la-na-nas" and there's an amusing part where he improvises: "instant call that soils the sandwich (...) and we fight all to the devil, in regardness of the cats". If some critics say Jon often has no idea what he's singing about, I imagine what they'll say of that!
The song is overall very different, with louder drums(!) and less keyboards. The last part, Soon, is absolutely another one, with drums, electric rhythm guitar and almost no steel guitar. It lacks the calm and beauty of the one we know so well.
Listening these two studio run-throughs is very interesting, first to give us an idea of the band's process of composition, and also to remind us how both songs were so well and carefully produced, and sometimes a slight detail missing can spoil its greatness.

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1998 - Live in Budapest

2007-09-04T23:19:00.002+01:00

March 31, 1998
Soundboard bootleg (there was a television broadcast, but I could never find it)
The keyboards are very loud on the mix, so here we can hear well the work of Igor Koroshev, and man, he rocks! His playing in songs such as The Revealing Science of God and America is much better than everything he did on studio with Yes.
My personal favourites here are Heart of the Sunrise and America. Both had, in my opinion, their best ever live renditions on this tour. Heart of the Sunrise with Chris at his absolute best, doing and awesome and more improvised bass "solo" and also Alan playing fantastically, doing the odd and variating drum beats as well as Bill on the original from Fragile. America is my second favourite, with Koroshev shining in the organ and occasional piano and mellotron. The whole band plays very tightly here.
Also keep an eye open for Long Distance Runaround, with good piano, and Whitefish, with Chris and Alan playing The Fish, Tempus Fugit and Sound Chaser (these two are better here than on th Montreux DVD)

Set list
Part 1
Firebird Suite
Siberian Khatru
Rhythm Of Love
America
Open Your Eyes
And You And I
Heart Of The Sunrise

Part 2
Mood For A Day
Diary Of A Man Who Vanished
Clap
From The Balcony
Wonderous Stories
Khoroshev Solo
Long Distance Runaround
Whitefish

Part 3
Owner Of A Lonely Heart
The Revealing Science Of God
I've Seen All Good People

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Update on July 2009: I found out the whole show is at Youtube!
The first video below (brought to me by an anonymous visitor of the blog) has a good image, while the second has worse image but links to the whole show)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqEX8sTPsdQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNw7G2DFQ7U&feature=PlayList&p=C94D187B2CD86C8A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=3

1980 – Live in Boston

2007-08-28T00:11:00.000+01:00

09/09/1980 – Boston Garden, MA, USA

In 1980 Yes did their only album without Jon Anderson. Many people hate this album and many people love it. Both with good reasons.
After Drama, Yes went to tour with this line-up. First, in North America, they found an enthusiastic and receptitive audience. Later, in Europe, they would often find audiences that hated the concerts and screamed they wanted to see the real Yes, with Jon and Rick. Incidentally, Yes would even meet a provisory end due to this.
But this show is from the beginning of North-American tour. The band was playing for just two weeks, and eager to show their new music to the audience. Boston is particularly known for its loud audience, and surely it encouraged the band to put up a better show.
About the show. Trevor Horn did a great job on Drama, in my opinion, singing well and doing things Jon wouldn't do. But he definitely wasn't the right person to sing Jon's songs live. It's so clear here. Yours is no disgrace, the first old song they perform, is rather pathetic. Some other songs, like Parallels and Roundabout, are ok with his vocals, but nothing fantastic.
Highlights are the Drama songs, particularly Machine Messiah and Tempus Fugit, with powerful and tight renditions, close to the studio ones. Another great moment is Chris's solo, featuring the religious song Amazing Grace. He takes all the feeling he can from his Rickenbacker.
Take a look also on the new songs, We Can Fly From Here and Go Through This.

Setlist:
Young Persons Guide To The Orchestra
Apocalypse
Does It Really Happen?
Yours Is No Disgrace
Into The Lens
Clap
And You And I
Go Through This
Man In The White Car Suite
Parallels
We Can Fly From Here
Tempus Fugit
Amazing Grace/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
Machine Messiah
Starship Trooper
Roundabout

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