How does staging affect Yes music? – 586

I didn’t see the ’76 tour unfortunately. Too young and too far away. I first saw photos of it in the Roger Dean book ‘Magnetic Storm’ in the mid-80s. I was amazed and it cemented my love of Yes. I guess because none of the shows were professionally filmed and released, that tour has gained mythic status amongst Yes fans. It still amazes me that they were unable to capture those shows for posterity. I know rumours abound about ‘Yessongs 2’ and stories about reams of film existing of the shows somewhere. I expect we’ll never see them in any form. Whilst it’s nice that there’s some Super8 up on YouTube, it’s a poor substitute.

I wonder did that tour hurt Yes financially? Thinking about ELP, the Works tour in ’77 basically bankrupted them and they never recovered. They were in decline anyway (as was prog) but that was the nail in the coffin for them.

The ’77 Yesshows tour was still visually arresting but definitely toned down from the previous year. The In The Round shows though were incredible. There’s something about Yes and revolving stages. It just fits! Thankfully for us fans, this tour did get captured on video professionally.

My first Yes live experience was ABWH and whilst the 3D staging was impressive, it wasn’t anywhere near ’76. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Union, OYE, Ladder, ’02, ’04 and beyond. I still have mixed feelings about the ’04 tour. It was trying hard to recapture something of the magic of ’76 but never really got there. Since then I guess staging has been a bit more conventional and conservative.

I am probably in a very small minority among Yes aficionados in actively preferring simplicity over elaborate stage sets. For me, the music is absolutely central, and anything visual should complement rather than distract from that, and especially from the ability to view the musicians. Therefore I appreciate lighting carefully calibrated to enhance the sound, the stage being as uncluttered as possible (apart from the instruments), and purity of line in preference to visual bombast. A simple outline Yes logo – so elegant – and white screens absorbing colour and abstract shape rather than reflecting images and pictures would be fine for me. I generally prefer the aesthetic of jazz and classical music to rock, where the visual aspect is watching musicians. In this context, everything else is left to the imagination, reserving theatrical design and visual intensity for opera, where it helps tell a story or set a magical scene; or psychedelically-oriented music, where the combination of sound and light/image effects is indispensable to the experience. But I appreciate that progressive rock has thrived on presentational drama and theatricality, and the enjoyment that brings to many. So if it’s your thing, great! (The 35th anniversary ‘blow up’ set was a curiously noble attempt to evoke the overload of the ’70s, but just ended up coming across as a bit wobbly and chintzy to me; the 2003 shiny silver drapings looked cheap and awful. I’m not a fan of spangly capes, dress-up costumes and furry boots, either, I’m afraid…. but, oh, the music!)