Venue:
Royal Albert Hall
Date: 21/06/2022
I bought the ticket for this gig on 10th October 2019. I had completely forgotten what a good seat I managed to get. The original tour was to feature the band’s Relayer album but, by the time the tour could finally take place, it was the 50th anniversary of Close To The Edge, so the band featured that instead.
CTTE is in my Top 5 albums of all time, by anyone. It is so important to me and I still play it regularly.
The show started with a quick chat from Roger Dean who introduced the band, and was ‘in the foyer’ signing his eye-wateringly priced works. I settled for a T-shirt instead.
The show began with a beautiful tribute to the band’s drummer, Alan White, who passed away 4 weeks ago. He had been ill for sometime and it had already been announced that he would not be on this tour. His able sub was Jay Schellen from Hurricane and Asia. The tribute was a lovely video played over Alan’s song, Turn of the Century.
The traditional Yes fanfare of The Firebird Suite heralded the arrival of Howe, Downes, Davison, Sherwood and Schellen who launched into On The Silent Wings of Freedom and Yours Is No Disgrace. The sound was excellent and the band were in great form, obviously enjoying the setlist selection which revealed a Richie Havens song next – No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed.
Towards the end of the first set, they even snuck in my two favourite songs from last year’s decent new album, Quest, The Ice Bridge and Dare To Know, before a tremendous Heart of the Sunrise.
The second half was CTTE, straight through. It was thrilling, daring, adventurous and exciting – everything it was when I was 16, in 1972. I shed a tear at And You And I and roared with the rest of the packed house at the end of Siberian Khatru.
Roundabout and Starship Trooper closed the show and the noise from the audience was deafening. I walked the mile back to where I had parked the car, grinning the whole way.
The audience:
A bunch of well behaved people of my age who didn’t talk during the music, were respectful when taking photos and sang every word of CTTE.
My people.
It made me think..
I have loved Yes for 5/6ths of my life. Their music still has the power to thrill me, to transport me and to lift me up. It’s the songs, not who is or isn’t there. The songs, played like they were last night, like their lives depended on it, that deserve to be heard, in that beautiful setting.
No one will persuade me otherwise.
Colour me green – with an airbrush!
Seriously I am envious – I wish I’d been there.
Woulda, shoulda, didna. Darn it. Glad it was as great as I guess I know it was always going to be.
I saw the tour in Nottingham on Saturday, and these were exactly my feelings too, NiallB. I thought they were firing on all cylinders, tighter than they’ve been since 2004, and it’s not about the line-up, its the songs and arrangements. TBH, I through Billy Sherwood channelled Chris Squire perfectly, and the new drummer played the songs at the right pace. I don’t enjoy Rick Wakeman’s rinky-tink keyboard sounds he uses these days, so Geoff Downes did a good job, and vocals and harmonies were celestial enough (as were visuals). I enjoyed it greatly.
Great review and Close to the edge is perhaps their best album because of And you and I.
Agree with the ‘perhaps’.
I chose not to see them in Glasgow the other night (expensive, doubts about the ability of the band, lack of key members) but I’m now regretting it a bit! Would have liked to see Roger Dean as well.
Merch pricing at the event was keen; a £30 programme, anyone? It looked nice, but who would look at it more than once or twice? Roger Dean’s prints, lovely as they are, and redolent of afternoons in attics “skinning-up” on gatefolds (or looking at with admiration and wondering if they can be used as part of one’s O level art submission) were expensive; a big one for over the fireplace in the living room would be £5000. Dinky little ‘uns were £850. I can’t but suspect when a chap gets one as an artistic investment, many a GLW would want it in his safe space (if not the attic) within the week.
Thanks for the review, niallb. Good stuff.
And what an extraordinary band Yes were … and maybe still are.
As a little aside, can I just say that I’ve always liked the Roger Dean “Yes” logo. You know the one, don’t you? That’s right: the one where the tail of the Y sort of curls back on itself, snakes through the middle of the letter ‘e’ and ends up as the tail of the ‘s’ at the end. Brilliant!
They tried a few others – but they never bettered it. Hours wasted trying to draw it on the cover of school jotters…usually during lessons…
@duco01 Roger Dean did talk about that. He said he’s done about 50 variations over the years but has never bettered the original. In fact, when he mentioned the logo, it got a round of applause. This maybe a unique accolade, but well deserved.
Could well be the greatest band logo of all time!
And the second greatest could well be the one they had before that, the “speech bubble” one! I love that as well.
Niall, I’m hesitant to post this and honestly I’m not looking for a fight, but just wondered. I’m on a couple of Yes forums and there’s lots of heated arguments at the moment among hardcore Yes fans that:
(1) This lot shouldn’t be calling themselves “Yes” – it’s a glorified tribute band with Steve Howe
(2) Steve Howe is getting a bit rusty
Just wondered what you thought! I’m interested in some measured views on this – most online discussion elsewhere does get a bit too heated to be honest. There’s definitely a debate to be had about when a band should draw the line and how reasonable it is to augment the lineup with other musicians and still call it the same band.
As I said above, I had considered seeing them in Glasgow but the cost put me off, for what it was. If Jon had been singing I would definitely have been there, so that’s the line I draw there.
Is it one original member who wasn’t even the singer? They should have a different name I would say, Ringo doesn’t go out as “The Beatles” 😉
You rascal! I nearly went off on one, then I spotted the wee winky face…
I have a prog-loving chum whose review of this gig was somewhat more luke-warm: “Better than last time.”
@fentonsteve *shrugs* Yes, it was better than last time but I’m not sure what people want. It is never going to be the band of Fragile or CTTE because Chris is dead and Bill and Rick aren’t interested. It is never going to be the band of later years because Alan is dead. So Steve is doing the best with what he has to get those songs out there for the fans who want to come and see/hear them played.
Damn’ right! More power to his elbow!
I have no skin in the game – I’ve never seen Yes, nor knowingly listened to a Yes LP, nor have any intention of doing so.
It’s in the eye of the beholder, isn’t it? You had a marvellous time, he didn’t so much. I don’t have an opinion either way. No offence meant.
I wonder how few original members of New Order could go out still under the original banner? Gillian plus some Marionblokes?
Out of interest: how many would you need, for you to be comfortable with them going out as New Order?
I’m going to see them in September, there will be no Peter Hook. Personally I think that devalues them a bit. I think they can just about call themselves New Order as long as Bernard and Stephen are in the band, Gillian has not been ever present so she is expendable (in a manner of speaking). But they will contain 3 members of the “classic” line-up.
Peter Hook plays gigs (with “the Light”), doing full New Order and Joy Division albums, he does not use either band name except in promotional material.
Oh crikey, my dull aside seems to have taken on a life of its own while I’ve been undercoating doors. Sorry.
To answer the question, um… the original three – Bernard, Stephen and Hooky. Gillian is a bonus. Without Hooky though, even with added Gillian, they are Bernard’s NO tribute act. I speak with some authority on this, as someone who bought the Bad Lieutenant album, which I very soon came to, ahem, regret.
Michael Clarke shamefully played in a band calling itself The Byrds towards to end of his life. If he hadn’t been the only replaceable member of the original Mr Tambourine Man line-up that would have been marginally more forgiveable.
What about all those post Sweetheart variations with only McGuinn? Wonder why the later McGuinn/Clark/Hillman albums weren’t credited to “The Byrds”?
Think Gene Clark was involved in the Michael Clark version and they were initially billed as “Flying Byrds” or something, but the promoters decided to leave off the first word. It anyway forced a very brief reunion of McGuinn, Crosby and Hillman in order for them to have a legal claim to the name.
That’s the difference between gigging and recording – I think McGuinn/Clark/Hillman didn’t use the name for records, because they couldn’t (see also Anderson/Bruford/Wakeman/Howe). Perhaps they didn’t want to either – the 1973 reunion album had hardly set the world on fire.
Because of the later Byrds albums I assumed McGuinn owned the name. Will have to read Johnny Rogan’s magnum opus again to get all the details.
The current line-up of “Gong” does not have a single original member and make a glorious noise completely in tradition with the best parts of the band (OK, they need some spacey synths back).
Maybe the notion of a band depends on how important the personalities or the music are central to the group. In the a few decades, nobody will be alive to play music from bands active in the 1960s and 70s, then either the act as a performance ends and one relies on the records and video, or there will be people playing the music as a simulacrum, or creating more in the style of that artist or genre.
It ends up as whether you want purism, tribute acts, or Abbatars. Pink Floyd tributes seem to be accepted. I think it has to become Abbatars as a form of entertainment, and surely a Roger Dean-themed Yes Abbatar show would look and sound great if you like that sort of thing. TBH, I doubt there will be a great enough interest in 20 years for this to happen. But it might be the way for Kate Bush, Bowie, or Prince to exist into perpetuity.
“Maybe the notion of a band depends on how important the personalities or the music are central to the group.”
I think that’s spot on. In terms of the personality, watching the Blockheads without Ian D seemed pretty flat to me. I also thought Dweezil Zappa captures the essence of Frank’s music. I think Blue Oyster Cult are getting by just fine with 40% of the original band as it’s the two that have been most central to the band’s music over those years.
Thanks! I agree about Dweezil capturing his old man’s music excellently – but IMHO he didn’t have the personality for it, so it depended on if it’s a music or a personality, and FZ was a personality with music The hologram show had the right spirit – maybe a mix of the Dweez and the hologram?
Was this before he took up the iconoclastic ballet and radical dance?
Oh, very high-brow. Well done.
Huzzah! Sky is black with Aberdonian ballet hats…
@Arthur-Cowslip
1. I could not care less. It’s the songs, the songs, the songs. Howe has as much right to call the band Yes as anyone. Of course I’d love to see Jon Anderson back but that looks unlikely and, as he reminded us, Jon Davison has been in the band for ten years now. He sings beautifully and embodies the spirit of JA better than anyone else. No one objects to Andy Powell calling his band Wishbone Ash, (including the Courts,) because he IS the sound of Wishbone Ash. Well, for me, Steve Howe IS the sound of Yes.
2. Yes, I’m afraid that age is catching up with one of my favourite English guitarists ever to pick up the instrument. He is often a fraction behind the beat and doesn’t have the dexterity he once did. Yet, suddenly, you’ll get a flash of his genius, (a solo on CTTE was heavenly,) and his mastery of that static semi-acoustic on And You and I will make me forgive him anything. Look, it doesn’t spoil anything. The power of the current rhythm section is astonishing, Geoff Downes is a tremendous ensemble player, (nine keyboards and all,) and Davison does a fantastic job. Steve Howe handles a lot of the stage chat and seems to be having the time of his life, so all power to him. I think he has earned the right to decide when it’s time to go but I do wonder how many tours he has left in him.
Thanks Niall, certainly interesting.
I do think it’s great to see older musicians – even if their skill is not what it once was, there’s nothing like seeing them in the flesh to watch (in the case of guitarists) how they move their fingers and handle the guitar. You can really see and feel the technique that is uniquely theirs. I have had a couple of “wow – I am not worthy” moments like that: Paul McCartney was one, when I saw him play Blackbird solo on acoustic guitar, Bert Jansch was another, playing Black Waterside. In each case, objectively speaking neither was anything more than a shade of what they used to be, and yet it was those same fingers playing those same tunes with the same unique qualities and quirks from decades earlier.
I’ve looked up a bit of the current Yes on youtube videos, and Steve’s Starship Trooper seems to be close to what I am describing.
And yes, he’s a lovely, talented chap, one of the lovable geeks of the rock world, so long may he continue!
Absolutely.
Agreed – I saw Bert Jansch support Alison Moyet towards his end, and he was still Bert Jansch.
In fact, sometimes seeing an old guitarist is MORE satisfying – like someone slowing down their technique to let you see more clearly how they do it!
On a side note, I’ve long been a fan of McCartney’s playing on Blackbird (and Mother Nature’s Son for that matter), that kind of half-strummed, half-picked style. It’s very subtle (and unshowy to untrained ears) but phenomenally difficult to get the rhythm and lightness of touch to do properly.
You need to thank DONOVAN for that!
…and everthing else.
Looking at their biogs most of the members of the present incarnation of Yes have been with the band on and off for well over a decade. There is a continuity of membership which I think makes it entirely legitimate for them to continue to tour – and record – as Yes.
As it happens I saw this in Liverpool. I’m not a fan at all, but went with a friend who is. The vast majority of the audience (largely white, male, 60s or older, thickening of girth and thinning of hair, so basically The Afterword) clearly absolutely loved hearing music which meant a great deal to them played with care and vigour. As someone not invested in the music or the band, I thought it was an enjoyable show and was impressed that they delivered over 2 and a quarter hours of music – this certainly wasn’t a band just delivering the bare minimum. I did feel Howe’s playing felt slightly clumsy at times – he’s clearly a fine player, but his 75 years were showing at times. But, as Niall says there were some flashes of brilliance. My only criticism would be disappointment in the slight loss of nerve in recruiting a lead singer who basically sounded like a Jon Anderson tribute act. I understand completely why they did that but it would have been great to have heard someone with his own voice and musical personality bringing his style to the music, more as Queen have done with Adam Lambert.
But, for anyone who wants to hear this music played live, this struck me as a great show, and my Yes loving friend certainly thought so.
@Blue-Boy Excellent response, thanks.
I’ve never “got” prog so Yes and CTTE don’t mean a great deal to me, but I’m posting this (with some hesitation) as it features Richie Castellano from the current Blue Oyster Cult line up, who is a massive Yes fan (as well as a really nice guy) and looks set to tour with Jon Anderson in 2023 (along with drummer Andy Ascolese who also happens to be part of BOC’s tour crew as well as multi instrumentalist). I’m hoping it might find a few fans.
Ooooooh I hope this happens. That sounds excellent.
I love the use of the running tap at the start of this clip! 😀