Mood for a day - Montreux, 19 july 1979

Is there a complete video of this gig?

Two Yes guitars in Atlanta

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'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Links on comments!

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.


Links on comments!

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)
Links on comments!

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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