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Episode 167 – In The Present – Live From Lyon – Part 1

Live From Lyon
CD set purchased 2014

The one hundred and sixty-seventh episode of the Yes Music Podcast featuring the live album, ‘In The Present – Live From Lyon’.

  • What effect do Oliver Wakeman and Benoit David have?
  • Can this line-up perform the classics?
  • What works best?

Listen to the episode and then let me know if you agree!

Show links and notes

BBC4 Documentary featuring Rick Wakeman

Yes poster from 1971

Miguel Falcao Machine Messiah bass cover

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Theme music

The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org

6 replies on “Episode 167 – In The Present – Live From Lyon – Part 1”

2008-2011-era YES……although I don’t consider myself a fan of this period by any means, I have
perhaps become somewhat of a “connoisseur-by-default” of this era, purely by virtue of the large number
of excellent-sounding fan recordings (both audio and video) of the period in which Benoit David was vocalist.

The somewhat ironic fact of this period is that, alongside the great strides in the technology enabling
fans to make near-professional quality recordings, came also a decline in the YES touring budget,
which made it unfeasible for the band to make as many professional recordings of their shows as
they had in the past. As a result, the band has been faced with the dilemma of carefully choosing
which shows to record, a dilemma which has not always borne out the “best fruit on the vine”.

Although the Autumn of 2009 during which the Lyon show was recorded was a mostly-
fruitful time for the band (Benoit David’s vocal renditions of the YES classics were still mostly
excellent), there are in fact many shows from 2009 in which the band was in peak form. The
sporadic nature of the touring schedule during this period enabled plenty of rest days between
shows, which kept the band fresh, and as a result, there are many shows from this period which
are as exciting (to my ears) as anything from the previous era of the band.

Having seen, and viewed several shows from 2008-2011, I truly feel that this is a highly
under-rated period of YES history, and am quite grateful that a permanent document
of this lineup was released. Having viewed the film footage from the Deluxe Edition DVD
of this package, I can only hope that at some point the entire show (if the footage exists)
will be released in a proper video form ! (the 3-disc, “box set” edition of LIve From Lyon,
which includes the “Mini-Documentary” DVD of the tour is still readily available at several
online retailers !)

Well I must add to what you were talking about in the show and what Carl just noted above ..
I have not purchased this package only because of reviews that I had read online and the fact I was a little bit hesitant about Benoit David’s ability as a singer. However after hearing part one of the pod cast this is something that I will have to hear see and feel for myself..
I believe that Fly From Here is a fantastic album however when it first came out I do not believe I really cared for it I thought Like Jon Anderson had mentioned that it sounded a bit dated. Well that was so not true at all. Nothing like a 1 and & half hour drive each way to work to solve that issue after many listens I have come to Love FFH and think Benoit did a great job on that record!
So I will be purchasing this package to give a listen to because everything I have heard from the pod cast and what Carl has said this is something I must immerse myself into…

Well..where to start. I remember going to my local music store (HMV) and seeing the deluxe 3 disc version . I grabbed it and went to my car, where I do my best listening, and gave it a listen. First off I was surprised with this release in general as it wasn’t promoted at all here in Canada. But i was pleasantly surprised. The concert is very good. The set list is very strong especially since they were playing Drama material which hasn’t been played since 1980.Also I felt Benoit did a good job singing on this release. Oliver was also very strong..in fact I’ll go as far as saying that I prefer his playing over Geoff. I know that’s not a popular opinion with Yes fans but then my opinion on keyboard players was always a topic for discussion. To make a long story short my favorite YES keyboard player is Igor. Hands down. His performance on the House of blues dvd is proof enough. If Geoff can ever play Awaken as good as Igor did on that then I’ll be impressed. Anyways getting back to the Lyon show I think it a good show and a must have for all Yes fans.

Controversial! I can definitely see what you mean about the keyboard players. I too rated Igor highly. Such a shame he had to leave under a cloud.

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