Yes

[Slim]

Footage here of the current version of Yes, in Glasgow on Wednesday night. But click through to the YouTube page and read the comments:

"This seems like an unintended pub tribute band playing at a uni refectory at times"

"I think that Yes should call it a day, this is very sad and empty. This is no longer Yes"

"Steve, please stop. Thank you"

"Sherwood does a decent job, but the rest of the tribute act - jeez"

"I just sold my ticket as I've seen the awful shows on you tube, bullet dodged "

" Doesn't sound very good does it"


To call this Yes is a travesty, I'm sorry to say. It's Steve Howe's tribute to Yes at most. It's no more Yes than Steve Hackett's band is Genesis. But more importantly than that, they're poor.

[Nickslikk2112]

At least Steve Hackett isn't trading under the name of Genesis and what he does do he does very well indeed.

I never got to see Yes when they were properly in the affirmative and now they are a definite no.

[David L]

Never saw them with Anderson but at least caught them when Chris Squire, Alan White and Steve Howe were still there.

[Jonners]

Did they get a bigger changing room than the puppets?

[dom]

Saw the 90125 lineup so this will be the first time to see Howe.

I saw Hackett a couple of years back and he was brilliant. I fear the concert next week in the same venue won't be as good

[Matt2112]

Those Youtube comments strike me as very ungenerous, based as they are on footage shot on a phone and probably played through another.

And they stand in stark contrast to the audience reaction at the end of clip.

I saw them in Manchester from the second row two nights after that Glasgow show.  Their performance was masterful. Yet, as an entity Yes, it's fair to say, is not what it was - everyone knows that.

But still, while they have personnel that directly links the band to the glory days, and while they continue to record half-decent new material and play shows with a fair share of the classic stuff, they will - as miraculous as it seems - always be able to top-up the reservoirs of goodwill that gets them by.

In 2003 I was lucky enough to attend Yes's show during the Summer Pops gigs at King's Dock, Liverpool.  From the fourth row, I saw the lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Alan White give a performance that I later realised would never be touched by any permutation of subsequent Yes lineups.

So, I suppose it depends where an individual's threshold lies and what his or her demands and expectations of "Yes" are.

For me, the fact that nowadays I ensure I watch from Howe's side of the stage probably gives a clue where my line is.

[Red Lenses]

Fist saw them live as ABWH in 1989 for 2 both nights at the Edinburgh Playhouse, fantastic shows !!
Last saw them on the 35th Anniversary Tour at the SECC, still excellent live back then !!

Don't think I could go and see them without Anderson singing.

[dom]

I love Drama (the album, not being deliberately controversial 😉) and would have been delighted to have seen Yes when it was fronted by Trevor Horn.

[Pudders]

Only saw them the once, on the Union Tour (so I got several versions of the band all at the same time!) and really enjoyed it but, you'll gather from that I'm not the biggest fan. Have seen several comments from last nights show at the RAH which were all very positive? Not for me though.

As far as Hackett goes he's very honest about his approach re Genesis and undoubtedly delivers exactly what it says on the tin, plus plenty of his own stuff of course. Terrific live and will be seeing him later in the year for the upteenth time down in Hastings.

[Slim]

Since this is a general purpose Yes thread, here's my own, personal and subjective guide to the important Yes albums.

The Yes Album
Close To The Edge
Going For The One

That's it!

I'm sure some fun can be had out of the other ones. I like quirky / avant garde music and I like jazz, but despite this I don't like Relayer. Although oddly, I did once.

Drama must have something going for it as a lot of people like it, but not me.

Fragile is the Yes A Farewell To Kings, a clunker between two masterpieces.

There are some nice bits on Topographic Oceans and with a bit of will power, discipline and judicious editing, it could have made a decent single album.

90125 is eminently listenable mostly, although I haven't for years. But it's a very different proposition.

Tormato was a massive disappointment to me. It's like the soundtrack of the New Wave sweeping away the past, and making it irrelevant. It's the sound of a band becoming middle-aged and flaccid overnight. It's got none of the art, the grace, the drama of the best of what came before it.

[David L]

You've got that about right, IMHO

[dom]

Yes not far off my take too. I do like the group pieces on Fragile though. Roundabout, Long Distant Runaround, Heart of the Sunrise and South Side of the Sky are worthy of Yes at their finest.

I bought Yesterdays a long time ago and that was a great compilation of their first 2 albums with a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's America thrown in. Well worth a listen.

Tormato was the nadir for me. I'm not a big fan of Relayer or Tales but at least you could see they were being inventive and creative. Tormato was Yes by numbers, almost a parody of the real thing.

[R6GYY]

I saw Yes once. That was enough. That isn't a joke. I did see them once (in Liverpool) - in the late 90's, or possibly early 00's. Whenever they were touring The Ladder.

I was bored after about half an hour.

[R6GYY]

Having said that, Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe (surely Yes in all but name?) remains to this day one of my favourite albums.

[pxr5]

Some Yes I like, a lot I don't. Whilst I've always loved Geddy Lee's high-pitched singing I've never quite got to grips with Jon Anderson's. Weird that. I'd say Relayer is probably my favourite of theirs.