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Joe Cass and Total Mass Retain – 565

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.

    Not final artwork – just me messing about with one of my old photos



    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.

    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!!!!

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