Jon Anderson has been touring with the Band Geeks for quite a while within the USA, but this is their first tour of the UK.
Last night they reached London and the Palladium: a wonderful old theatre with great acoustics and sight lines. I was up in the Royal Circle.
The evening was excellent.
The band were great, and Jon's voice was as True as ever... timbre, range, accuracy and emotion. They started with 'Close to the Edge' and added 'And You and I' and 'Awaken' and the twists and turns of 'Perpetual Change'.
I'd heard of "10 standing ovations"... which was a little performative from some people....
I'd previously seen Yes (with all the classic members), the Union shows at Wembley when various versions got together, Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe several times, 'Drama' era Yes and various other solo shows....
Here's a review from someone else who was there...
And here's an official live video of 'And You and I'...
I also appreciated the staff who were stopping people from videoing... just watch the show with your eyes... Public Service Broadcasting definitely have this right... I hope they go back to showing this.
In November 2024 I went down to the Barbican Hall to see Tangerine Dream perform their album 'Phaedra' live.
Or did I?
The band was founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese.
The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-1970s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann (who later formed the record label Private Music.) Froese has passed away, and the other two original members don't perform with the band.
I'm seeing them play in Norwich next year too.
How about Kraftwerk?
They have been touring all summer, but only Ralf Hütter is from the original band.
They were formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Wolfgang Flür joined in 1973 and Karl Bartos in 1975. Schneider passed away in 2020.
And Steve Howe's version of Yes is basically just him from the classic line-up from the 1970s - and they released a new album recently called Aurora - meanwhile, I have tickets to see Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks at the London Palladium - the closest you will get to seeing Yes today? I'm lucky to have seen the classic line up several times, plus the Union tour and various solo tours and other incarnations.
Here's Anderson and the Band Geeks playing "Counties and Countries".
How about Pink Floyd without Roger Waters?
They reunited for Live 8 in 2005, but Richard Wright has since passed away.
Genesis without Anthony Phillips or Hackett or Gabriel? Well, there's still a chance they might get together again I guess...
Rush without Neil?
Well, there's one that has plenty of fans talking... but the tour seems to be going very well with some epic shows, and they are heading for the O2 and Manchester next year.
Which other bands are still going despite having very few (or no) members from the original line-up?
An A-Z of bands suggested by the Spotify algorithm.
Coming to the end now... still chance to share yours.
I've been listening to YES's music since the late 1970s.
I've had the pleasure of seeing them play live quite a few times over the years too in various line-ups, and also seen some of the various incarnations of the band, and also some of the spin offs including Anderson, Wakeman, Bruford and Howe (with Tony Levin), the Buggles version, and solo sets as well, such as Steve Howe in a church in York and Rick Wakeman in a theatre in King's Lynn where Shakespeare also performed.
YES has had a number of line-ups over the years, but the classic line-up featured Steve Howe, Alan White, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson.
The last time I saw the band live was in Nottingham and it featured everyone apart from Rick Wakeman, who was replaced by Igor Khoroshev. I have my ticket stub from the gig which will feature on the blog too.
His parts are now played by Geoff Downes - which continues the Buggles influence.
The early albums included Tony Kaye and Bill Bruford.
For me, the classic album is 'Close to the Edge'. It features the most interesting musical arrangements of tracks, with real power and emotion.
Another great track is 'Soundchaser' from the album 'Relayer'. A great busy proggy song...
I'm a fan of the Rabin era albums with an 80s' feel... '90125' and 'Talk' (1994) - some good moments there. I remember playing it loud ...
Plus I like the fact that Eddie Jobson joined Yes. recorded the video for 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' and then left... and had to be edited out... although he can still be seen... Eddie will appear several times in the blog, as he's one of my favourite musicians.
One of their later albums which divides opinion with fans is 'Union', particularly as some of the playing was done by session musicians and not the band, and it had a lot of different producers and messing around, plus a lot of session musicians augmenting the sound. Rick Wakeman apparently referred to the album as 'Onion' because it made him cry.
Having said that, the tour they did to support the album was excellent. I remember their circular stage at Wembley - which is a bit of a shed. I had a decent seat and the sound wasn't too terrible - that was the only time I saw Trevor Rabin shredding - missing out on the later tour with Anderson and Wakeman.
Mid-song in fact. A chicken vindaloo, pilau rice, poppadoms, a stuffed paratha, Bombay aloo and a bhindi bhaji to be precise. All laid out atop the Hammond, keyboards and Mellotron in front of the audience and a band of vegetarians…
The central inspiration for Tales From Topographic Oceans was Paramahansa Yogananda’s (1893-1952) book Autobiography Of A Yogi.
Jon Anderson was deeply impressed by Yogi’s biography, which also inspired Apple’s Steve Jobs apparently.
This album was one of many that had Roger Dean's logo and artwork on the cover - often featuring 'impossible' topography, such as the classic cover for possibly their finest album - I played my vinyl copy of this album a lot:'Close to the Edge'. This was released in 1972.
They have had their geographical moments as well.
The album 'Tormato' , released in 1978, had an image of Yes Tor on its cover, and a map of the Tor and other landscapes nearby printed on the inner liner.
There's a disputed story about the creation of the cover:
Howe pitched the album's original title of Yes Tor, referring to Yes Tor, the second highest hill on Dartmoor, an area of moorland in Devon, England. During the development of the album, a tomato was thrown at the artwork resulting in its title and cover being changed accordingly. RickWakeman claimed to have done this as he recalled the band were disappointed with the initial artwork despite finding it expensive. Steve Howe claimed it was a Hipgnosis employee who threw the tomato, which insulted him. This was corroborated by Alan White, who stated that the band was unable to decide on a cover and the tomato was thrown by Hipgnosis designer Aubrey Powell - who I've already mentioned:
"I think Po ... put a picture of a guy with divining sticks on the front. Po took the artwork home one night and decided it wasn't working. So he threw a tomato at it".
More Yes-related posts to come as the year progresses.... such as the Trevor Horn / 'Buggles' era...
