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Produced by Ken Fuller, Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius
As I’m sure you know we lost another giant of the rock world this week. Jeff Beck was one of the most influential guitarists of all time and I’m sure Yes music would sound very different – or possibly wouldn’t exist without the influence of the great man. Rest in Peace.
This week we had a great conversation with Joe Cass who you may well know is the drummer for Yes Tribute Total Mass Retain. He told us stories of his connections with Yes members and the aims of his band who have confirmed two 2023 concerts so far – visit https://www.totalmassretainband.com/ for all the information – they put on an amazing evening of Yes music and if you haven’t met Joe yet, you’ll hear just what a generous and thoughtful musician he is from our chat.
- What are Yes Tribute Band Total Mass Retain trying to achieve?
- Who is in the band?
- What are some of Joe’s fondest memories of Yes?
Take a listen to the episode and then let us know what you think below!
Facebook has just changed how pages work which means that I’ve had to establish a new place for us to post and discuss Yes-related happenings. It’s a new group entitled, rather creatively, YMP Discussion Group. For the moment it’s open to anyone to join but I’ll be adding rules and joining requirements when I have time. One of the advantages of the new format is that all members of the group have the same ability to post content, so it’s a bit more egalitarian, or somesuch. Please do search for the group and join in.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3216603008606331/
If you haven’t already done so, please sign up at tormatobook.com to the email newsletter. PRESALE IS UNDERWAY! If you sign up now, for free, you can have access to the newsletters you’ve missed. It really helps to know people are looking forward to reading the culmination of my decades of Tormato obsession.
YMP Patrons:
Producers:
- Ken Fuller
- Jeffrey Crecelius and
- Wayne Hall
Patrons:
| Aaron Steelman | Dave Owen | Mark James Lang | Paul Tomei |
| Joost Maglev | David Heyden | Paul Wilson | Martin Kjellberg |
| Bob Martilotta | Lind | Michael O’Connor | William Hayes |
| Brian Sullivan | David Pannell | Lobate Scarp | Miguel Falcão |
| Chris Bandini | David Watkinson | Neal Kaforey | Rachel Hadaway |
| Craig Estenes | Dem | Mark ‘Zarkol’ Baggs | Paul Hailes |
| Doug Curran | Robert Nasir | Fergus Cubbage | Scott Colombo |
| Fred Barringer | David | Geoff Bailie | Simon Barrow |
| Geoffrey Mason | Stephen Lambe | Guy R DeRome | Steve Dill |
| Henrik Antonsson | Steve Perry | Hogne Bø Pettersen | Steve Rode |
| Declan Logue | Steve Scott | Todd Dudley | Jim |
| Jamie McQuinn | Steven Roehr | John Parry | Keith Hoisington |
| Alan Begg | Terence Sadler | John Holden | Barry Gorsky |
| Michael Handerhan | Tim Stannard | Joseph Cottrell | John Thomson |
| John Cowan | Tony Handley | Robert | Gary Betts |
| Jon Pickles |
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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: archive.org
6 replies on “Joe Cass and Total Mass Retain – 565”
Always great to hear from Joey about his marvelous band. I strongly encourage anyone who can get to one of their gigs to do so! I was at the Yes 50 fanfest in Philly, standing near Patrick Moraz, and they blew everyone away.
Great interview Joe!
Another great interview. All power to your musical and Yes elbow, Joe. I think 2011 was when we first met… I remember chatting in a line with you and Henry Potts, anyway.
I really appreciate the way TMR have covered music that Yes themselves haven’t played much or at all – “I’m Running” (one of my favourites from the ’80s, which was dropped after a few shows), “The More We Live”, and “Subway Walls”, in particular. I try to fly as little as possible for climate reasons these days, but if you guys did the whole of ‘Tales’, I’d be more than sorely tempted… my favourite Yes album all told, and I adore ‘The Remembering’ and ‘The Ancient’, but have never heard them live. That would be a dream.
Personally I’ve always disliked the ‘lookalike’ element in tribute bands… it’s difficult not to come across as a cheap imitation. It’s the music that matters, and TMR are among those who can really pull it off. I love the online clips of you with Patrick too, Joe. Some monstrously good playing going down there.
Lastly, I appreciated the heartwarming comments on Tony Kaye, and your thoughtful and balanced observations about recent/current Yes. Well done for asking, Mark. A little more ‘push’ to the sound (live and in the studio) would indeed be good; and Billy, Jay and Jon can undoubtedly take Yes in refreshing directions if given greater scope. I hope we see (or rather, hear) a little more of that on the forthcoming album.
Meantime, we’ll all look forward to seeing you in the UK again for ‘Relayer’, if you and your fiancé can make it, Joe.
I enjoyed TMR with my son in Philly. It was wonderful to watch JonD as they played Subway Walls. Thanks to them
This episode really celebrated what it is to be a fan. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Joe at the Drama/Fragile show at Newcastle a few years ago and his passion for the music, and in particular what Alan was doing was exuberantly evident.
This week I really enjoyed hearing more about his journey through listening to the music of Yes to actually performing it, along a path that shows how the boundary between the band and its fans can be flexible and permeable in joyful ways.
I have known Joe’s father, Mike, for many years and remember Joe at 6-7 years old being brought to Yes concerts by his Dad. I witnessed his excitement about Yes music way back then and observed the growth that took place, up until the point of him forming a fine Yes tribute band! I now look at him performing in this great Yes tribute band and feel nothing but pride and excitement for him in this venture. For reasons I will not mention here, I feel like I was a small part of the very beginning of the relationship he and his father formed with our beloved band Yes! GREAT interview, gentlemen!!!!