Enrich your Prog year with iconic images of Yes in the 1970s, taken by the legendary rock photographer, Barry Plummer.
Enjoy 12 beautiful colour and black and white photographs of Yes in the studio and live, capturing the essence of the world’s greatest progressive rock band. With this limited-edition calendar on your wall throughout 2026, you’ll agree that Barry Plummer is, indeed, the Master of Images!
(A flat shipping fee will be added at checkout depending on your location.)
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius
This week, Mark and I have been taking a somewhat forensic look at the newly-released Roosevelt Stadium Jersey City 17 June 1976 live set. We go rather deeply into the weeds around the quality, sources, presentation and packaging, all for your edification. Mark uncovers some surprising aspects of the (rather expensive) vinyl version of this release and we both enjoy the actual performances of the band which featured Patrick Moraz rather than Rick Wakeman at this time, during the Solo Albums Tour.
What does this recording sound like?
Where did it come from?
What are the troubling aspects of the vinyl version?
Vinyl and CD versionsHype sticker from CDSlightly spurious details?Rear of vinylThe puzzling expanse of dead wax…
Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius
This week, Mark and I were unable to get together so we both recorded separately, like we used to do years ago. Here we have ‘retro’ or ‘classic’ YMP I suppose. Anyway, we both enjoyed listening to/watching 2 different versions of And You And I – one from the brilliant Symphonic Live DVD and the other from the BBC Prog Prom event last week.
I have embedded both versions into the show notes for this week so do watch those and see what you think of our reactions.
Which version is ‘better’?
Is it fair to compare them?
What was the rest of the concert like?
Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius
This week Mark and I listened to 2 medleys – the Big Medley from the The Word Is Live box set, recorded on 5th October 1978 at The Forum, Inglewood and a recording of Jon Anderson and The New Life Band playing their Yes medley in 1980 at The Royal Albert Hall from a BBC recording broadcast the same year.
It was a very entertaining process and, as you’ll hear, Mark has a particularly interesting reaction to the rather different style of the New Life Band’s interpretations, on a tour that Jon Anderson arranged to promote his recently-released second solo album, Song of Seven. Having just left Yes for the first time, he ended up being out on tour at the same time as the Yeggles version of Yes, who boasted Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn as part of their (fairly hastily assembled) lineup. For his part, Anderson collected together brilliant musicians but with a rather different instrumentation to the classic rock band arrangement.
The Big Medley wasn’t played on The Drama Tour (unfortunately, some would say) so we can’t compare these two performances directly, but they are very close in time.
What songs were included in each medley?
How does the New Life Band instrumentation work?
Which ends up being a better Yes medley (and do we even make a decision on that)?
Do take a listen to the recordings I have embedded into the show notes for this week and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Mark Lang’s photos:
Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius
It’s the 50th Anniversary of Jon Anderson’s masterpiece, Olias of Sunhillow this month, so it was highly appropriate that we spoke to the album’s biggest fan, David Watkinson, this week. Dave helps us plot the musical development of Yes’ co-founder to the point at which he felt able to create his first solo album – entirely on his own. We also discuss the amazing packaging and the album’s influence on Anderson and Yes.
Do watch Dave’s interview with artist, Jeff Cummins, which is embedded into the show notes below and check out the photos of my copies of the album and a small selection of Dave’s memorabilia collection.
Was Jon Anderson ready to create Olias?
Did he play everything on the record?
Why isn’t Roger Dean the artist?
Please do add your own comments below.
Kevin’s LP and CD
Some items from Dave’s Olias collection
Those involved in the recordCD8-track, cassette, badgeThe teamOriginal Olias drum stick, cuttingsYes solos poster with Olias pendentSigned Olias promo card
Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius
This week, we return to our occasional series on YesKit, this time featuring the instrument Tony Kaye used, briefly, in 1968 before he upgraded to a Hammond M100. It was the 1960s iconic keyboard, the British-made Vox Continental. The story of this revolutionary instrument is fascinating and we are indebted to the undisputed expert in the field, Chris Dale, for a great overview I read out at the end of the episode. It was huge fun to both research and then chat about the Vox Continental and I’m sure you will enjoy Mark’s demonstrations as much as I did.
How did it become the most iconic keyboard of the 1960s?
What was the keyboard Tony Kaye had when he joined Yes?
Why did he disguise it?
Please do add your own comments below.
Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide