New Tour: Close to the Edge and Back

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

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

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

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1980 - Los Angeles

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

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

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

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

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

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.


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In the studio - Fragile

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!

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

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)
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2006 - Steve Howe in New York

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

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

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

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

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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1970/71 - BBC Sessions EDITED

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

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

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

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)

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 1:32
2-2. Going for the One 5:33
2-3. 'Flight' Jam 4:29
2-4. Awaken 15:35
2-5. Roundabout 8:46
2-6 Yours Is No Disgrace 14:00

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1970 - Every Little Thing

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

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

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

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

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2000 - Legendary Works

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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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