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Produced by Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius
As always, it was sheer delight to welcome Stephen Lambe and David Watkinson back onto the show this week to talk about their latest collaboration, YES in the 1980s.
It’s a great book which goes into detail about the often tortuous journey of the band in the decade of excess. Solo albums and other groups closely associated with Yes are included in a volume which boasts 2 sets of full-colour photos as well as countless other illustrations, a lot of which are presented in printed format for the first time.
A must for all serious Yes fans (particularly the five per cent), the book is available now from Burning Shed at the link below.
- Why write a book about the decade which could – or should – have killed off progressive rock?
- What hidden stories are uncovered?
- What untaken paths would the authors like to have see Yes take in the 80s?
Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!

The best place to buy the book is the official Burning Shed online store:
https://burningshed.com/sonicbond/stephen-lambe_david-watkinson_yes-in-the-1980s_book
Bag yourself a fabulous piece of YMP history before it’s too late…
Head over to the YMP Emporium to…
- Order a YMP Trivia Card Game ‘The Answer Is Yes!’ – available now!
- Order the unique Full Union art print – available now


YMP Patrons:
Producers:
- Jeffrey Crecelius and
- Wayne Hall
Patrons:
Aaron Steelman | Dave Owen |
Mark James Lang | Paul Tomei |
Joost Maglev | David Heyden |
Martin Kjellberg | Paul Wilson |
Bob Martilotta | Lind |
Michael O’Connor | William Hayes |
Brian Sullivan | David Pannell |
Miguel Falcão | Lobate Scarp |
Chris Bandini | David Watkinson |
Neal Kaforey | Rachel Hadaway |
Craig Estenes | Dem |
Paul Hailes | Mark ‘Zarkol’ Baggs |
Doug Curran | Robert Nasir |
Fergus Cubbage | Scott Colombo |
Fred Barringer | Gary Betts |
Geoff Bailie | Simon Barrow |
Geoffrey Mason | Stephen Lambe |
Guy R DeRome | Steve Dill |
Henrik Antonsson | Steve Perry |
Hogne Bø Pettersen | Steve Rode |
IanNB | Steve Scott |
Jamie McQuinn | Steven Roehr |
Ken Fuller | Terence Sadler |
Michael Handerhan | Tim Stannard |
Jim | Todd Dudley |
John Cowan | Tony Handley |
John Holden | Joseph Cottrell |
John Parry | Keith Hoisington |
John Thomson | Barry Gorsky |
Alan Begg |
Robert and David
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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
3 replies on “Stephen Lambe and David Watkinson – YES in the 1980s – 509”
I’m currently reading the book and I’ve just started on 1984, and I really like it so far and have found some interesting tidbits. I didn’t know about the track sequencing on the original Friends of Mr Cairo, for instance.
However, I’m very curious about why the authors write that Tormato was a low selling album. It’s actually Yes’ third biggest seller, and was certified platinum just a few months after it was released. Close to the Edge didn’t go platinum before 1998! The Tormato tour was also very successful.
Drama on the other hand was a low seller, and the biggest certification was silver in the UK. And as the book states, the Drama tour wasn’t as successful as certain earlier released books would have you believe. . Which also explains why they didn’t to another Horn lead album. Money talks.
A nice chat with Dave & Stephen. My book is on its way to me, hope to have it any day now in Ohio.
Another terrific interview with Stephen and Dave, who have done us a real favour in turning the spotlight onto several well-known – and many less well-known – areas of Yes’s collective and solo endeavours in the 1980s. The book is an enjoyable read, with some great photos. Well done, guys (and YMP, of course)! I’ll pop a review of ‘Decades: Yes in the 1980s’ on https://yessolidmentalgrace.com shortly…