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Episodes

YesKit Part 4 – Jon Anderson Edition – 697

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

The Dark Days Of Yesterday – Projekt Gemineye – the new album by our own Mark Anthony K!

Mark says: “This is the 10th studio album! Wow…if you would have told me that id release 10 albums..I’m not sure if I would believe it.
This is a rather personal album for me….lyrically speaking. Its talks about some of the darker times in my life….i dont get too specific about things..not only because they are difficult memories…but also so that they can be relatable other people as well.
Musically and production wise.. I’m very pleased with it and i hope you enjoy it as well.”

https://projektgemineye.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-days-of-yesterday


From a tiny idea I had about Jon Anderson’s use of instruments live with Yes, Mark and I managed to bang on for ages again this week. Hopefully, you will find the discussion as interesting as we did, particularly as I noticed some definite links between the band’s sonic changes over the decades, Jon’s development as a musician and the instruments he used.

In order to create some kind of helpful structure to the conversation, I managed to find the earliest examples of each kind of instrument Jon uses live in the photos on the amazing Forgotten Yesterdays website and I have embedded them into the show notes here – do take a look at those and add a comment if you can think of any other Yeskit Jon used live with the band – or add a comment even if you can’t.

  • What are all the instruments Jon used live with Yes?
  • When did he start playing tuned instruments?
  • What can we glean about the band amd about Jon from his choice of instruments?

See if you agree with us and then leave a comment below.

All images from the wonderful Forgotten Yesterdays website:


Barry Plummer 2026 Calendar is now available!

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Enjoy 12 beautiful colour and black and white photographs of Yes in the studio and live, capturing the essence of the world’s greatest progressive rock band. With this limited-edition calendar on your wall throughout 2026, you’ll agree that Barry Plummer is, indeed, the Master of Images!

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Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide

Available now!

YesMusicBooks.com

YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Joseph Cottrell
  • Wayne Hall
  • Ken Fuller
  • Jeffrey Crecelius

Patrons:

Become a Patron!
Categories
Episodes

The Drama is Live – 693

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius


After the emergence online of another Drama Tour video – with sound – by James Ferrani on YouTube, Mark and I took a careful look at his 2 videos from consecutive days on the 1980 Drama Tour that featured Buggles men Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. There are at least 2 revelations contained in the videos that I don’t believe any Yes fans except those who attended the concerts in North America have experienced in the intervening 45 years. I knew they had happened but seeing them is quite remarkable. Stay tuned for our discussion, watch the videos below and leave us a comment while you are here.

  • What are the unique aspects of these videos?
  • Was Chris Squire a bit ‘under the weather’?
  • Who looked more comfortable – Downes or Horn?

See if you agree with us and then leave a comment below.


Steve Howe Press Release

Fans will be happy to know that to follow up the release of ‘Portraits Of Bob Dylan’ on 12th September, Steve Howe will issue ‘Signals Crossed’, an E.P including three previously unreleased interpretations of Bob Dylan songs. It will feature ‘I Want You’, ‘One Too Many Mornings’ and ‘Mama, You`ve Been On My Mind’. It will include appearances by Geoff Downes, Dylan Howe, Stephanie Sounds and Paul K Joyce.

The EP will be available as a white vinyl 10” – one sided and mirror backed – limited to 500 copies worldwide.   It will also be available as a download.   It will be released on 5th December 2025.   You can pre-order the vinyl here:  https://lnk.to/joLdy9

Steve Howe: “I recorded ‘I Want You’ before starting the released ‘Portraits Of Bob Dylan’ tracks, then I recorded two alternative versions of songs from the album in different styles. This version of ‘One Too Many Mornings’ wasn’t in the right key for Phoebe Snow, who sang beautifully to an acoustic version on the released album. This version gives it an electric setting, taking a little from Bob’s ‘Hard Rain’ version. I sang ‘Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind’ on the original release, slow and a little mournful but here has a more upbeat and optimistic flavour.  With the vocal harmonies and Dylan’s drumming, these tracks retain the mood of what I wanted to explore in 2000, songs about getting your Signals Crossed” 

Track Listing:

1.    I Want You

2.    One Too Many Mornings

3.    Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind.

Steve Howe: “What I loved about it was having the chance to arrange them as I wasn’t going to copy what Dylan had done; I wanted to bring a little bit more to it.” 

Steve Howe:  “The ‘Portraits’ idea was always a sort of pipe dream, and I originally
recorded one song to start the project, and I thought, this will be good, I’ll do lots of Bob”


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Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide

Available now!

YesMusicBooks.com

YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Joseph Cottrell
  • Wayne Hall
  • Ken Fuller
  • Jeffrey Crecelius

Patrons:

Become a Patron!
Categories
Episodes

Yes live in Birmingham PLUS new Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks music – 631

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

I’ve had no time to put together any news this week but I still managed to speak at length to Mark about both my experiences seeing Yes at Birmingham Symphony Hall. It was a wonderful experience and not just because of the quality of the concert itself.

We’ve also enjoyed listening to the new music from Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks that fans have captured from live concerts and posted on YouTube. There are many reasons to be excited in Yesworld at the moment.

  • How was the performance at Birmingham?
  • What is the venue like?
  • How was Roger Dean?

Let us know if you agree with us!

My Brum experience:
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Check out the progress on my other podcast – https://anthem52.com/

Yes – The Tormato Story

Available now!

TormatoBook.com


In Production:

Sign up to the e-newsletter updates!

TormatoBook.com


YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Joseph Cottrell
  • Ken Fuller
  • Jeffrey Crecelius

Patrons:

Jim Morrison Jon Pickles Declan Logue
Gary Betts Aaron SteelmanMichael Handerhan
Barry Gorsky Steve Perry Doug Curran
Martin Kjellberg Todd Dudley Rachel Hadaway
Lind  Paul Hailes Craig Estenes
Mark James Lang Steve Rode David
Bob Martilotta John Holden Stephen Lambe
Dem Fred Barringer Scott Colombo
Chris Bandini David Heyden John Thomson
Mark Baggs John Cowan John Parry
Dave Owen Simon Barrow Steve Scott
Terence Sadler Steve Dill Robert Nasir 
Fergus Cubbage William Hayes Geoff Bailie
Steven Roehr Lobate Scarp Geoffrey Mason
David Watkinson Tim Stannard Robert Vandiver
Brian Sullivan David Pannell Jamie McQuinn
Miguel Falcão Paul Tomei Michael O’Connor
Brian HarrisHogne Bø PettersenGuy DeRome
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Our Facebook YMP Discussion Group is open to anyone to join. 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/


Please follow/subscribe!

If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything:

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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

Categories
Episodes

What did the Talk songs sound like live? – 628

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I take our cue from the recent announcement of the Talk deluxe box set to be released at the end of this month. It contains a live recording of a 1994 concert in Canandaigua, New York (interestingly seemingly misspelt on the adverts) that includes 5 songs from the recently released album. So we were wondering how the latest songs sounded in 1994 in a live setting.

The best bootleg available up to now has been the TV broadcast from Santiago in Chile during the fairly short South American Tour of 1994. Mark owns a DVD of the show but it’s available to everyone, including me, on YouTube and the version I have included below is the whole of the broadcast version including interviews with the band and behind the scenes footage. It’s well worth a watch in full.

Mark and I focussed on just the Talk songs for this discussion, however, and there’s plenty to enjoy, as you might imagine. This lineup of the band included Billy Sherwood in his first stint and benefits from his singing, guitar playing, keyboards, bass and assorted percussion. He is, as I’m sure you know, a man of many parts. See if you agree with our assessment of the Talk songs from this performance.

  • Was it possible to replicate all the studio trickery live?
  • Are the band in synch?
  • How did the audience react?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Mark’s DVD:

Original TV broadcast (can only be viewed on YouTube):

https://youtu.be/x0-rv5_GAVU?si=OuAt1ujctnUB7PY9

Clive Ayer’s photos:

NO BARRIERS 2024


There are only 100 of these packs available, so buy yours now! (Opens in a new window)


Check out the progress on my other podcast – https://anthem52.com/

Yes – The Tormato Story

Available now!

TormatoBook.com


In Production:

Sign up to the e-newsletter updates!

TormatoBook.com


YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Joseph Cottrell
  • Ken Fuller
  • Jeffrey Crecelius

Patrons:

Jim Morrison Jon Pickles Declan Logue
Gary Betts Aaron SteelmanMichael Handerhan
Barry Gorsky Steve Perry Doug Curran
Martin Kjellberg Todd Dudley Rachel Hadaway
Lind  Paul Hailes Craig Estenes
Mark James Lang Steve Rode David
Bob Martilotta John Holden Stephen Lambe
Dem Fred Barringer Scott Colombo
Chris Bandini David Heyden John Thomson
Mark Baggs John Cowan John Parry
Dave Owen Simon Barrow Steve Scott
Terence Sadler Steve Dill Robert Nasir 
Fergus Cubbage William Hayes Geoff Bailie
Steven Roehr Lobate Scarp Geoffrey Mason
David Watkinson Tim Stannard Robert Vandiver
Brian Sullivan David Pannell Jamie McQuinn
Miguel Falcão Paul Tomei Michael O’Connor
Brian HarrisHogne Bø PettersenGuy DeRome
Become a Patron!

Our Facebook YMP Discussion Group is open to anyone to join. 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/


Please follow/subscribe!

If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything:

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Google Podcasts

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

Categories
Episodes

Yes Tour Time Machine – 627

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I climbed aboard our state of the art time machine to visit the past of the world’s greatest progressive rock band. We each chose 3 Yes tours we would love to be able to visit and gave each other clues to guess which ones we were thinking of. You’ll get the idea I’m sure.

Do play along yourself and see if you can guess the tours in question before Mark or I do – you probably will. Then, why not add your own to the show notes for this week – set a few clues and then see if anyone can guess in the comments. We had a lot of fun with this activity so join us to test your own knowledge. Set phasers to fun, as they say.

  • Where will our time machine take us?
  • Can you guess from our cryptic clues?
  • Do we show off our Yes knowledge or our Yes ignorance?

Let us know if you agree with us!

There are only 100 of these packs available, so buy yours now! (Opens in a new window)


Check out the progress on my other podcast – https://anthem52.com/

Yes – The Tormato Story

Available now!

TormatoBook.com


In Production:

Sign up to the e-newsletter updates!

TormatoBook.com


YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Joseph Cottrell
  • Ken Fuller
  • Jeffrey Crecelius

Patrons:

Jim Morrison Jon Pickles Declan Logue
Gary Betts Aaron SteelmanMichael Handerhan
Barry Gorsky Steve Perry Doug Curran
Martin Kjellberg Todd Dudley Rachel Hadaway
Lind  Paul Hailes Craig Estenes
Mark James Lang Steve Rode David
Bob Martilotta John Holden Stephen Lambe
Dem Fred Barringer Scott Colombo
Chris Bandini David Heyden John Thomson
Mark Baggs John Cowan John Parry
Dave Owen Simon Barrow Steve Scott
Terence Sadler Steve Dill Robert Nasir 
Fergus Cubbage William Hayes Geoff Bailie
Steven Roehr Lobate Scarp Geoffrey Mason
David Watkinson Tim Stannard Robert Vandiver
Brian Sullivan David Pannell Jamie McQuinn
Miguel Falcão Paul Tomei Michael O’Connor
Brian HarrisHogne Bø PettersenGuy DeRome
Become a Patron!

Our Facebook YMP Discussion Group is open to anyone to join. 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/


Please follow/subscribe!

If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything:

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Google Podcasts

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