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Episode 700 – a celebration! – 700

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

Well, here we are – 14 years and 700 episodes of the Yes Music Podcast. Thank you to Miguel Falcão who has created the new jingles for 700 episodes and thank you to everyone who has sent messages of congratulation. I’ve inserted the audio ones fairly randomly throughout the show but I’ll start with a few written ones. Over on Twitter or X, Oliver Wakeman said, “A fantastic achievement. I’ve been fortunate to be a guest on a number of occasions. Congratulations!” Thank you Oliver. Julio Scissors (@captainjellico) said, “Congrats!  Love your show!” and Jon Anderson pic of the day (@JonAndersonpic1) also said, “Congrats!” Thank you both.

As you’ll hear, Mark and I had an enjoyable conversation about a particular Yes 700 topic and then there’s some actual music from Steve Howe. Stay tuned for that!

  • What Yes ‘700’ topic have we come up with?
  • Who has sent messages of congratulation?
  • What Steve Howe music do we play?

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

NFTE email, courtesy of Pete Whipple:
Advert for the 700th Yes show, from Forgotten Yesterdays:

Forgotten Yesterdays details about Yes’ 700th show


Barry Plummer 2026 Calendar is still available!

ORDER HERE

YMP Listener discount code – KVKBKC8Z

Enrich your Prog year with iconic images of Yes in the 1970s, taken by the legendary rock photographer, Barry Plummer.

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!

(A flat shipping fee will be added at checkout depending on your location.)

ORDER HERE


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!
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Episodes

Yes (sort-of) Unplugged – 696

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

As you will hear, I was looking at one of the amazing photos in the Barry Plummer Calendar (available now from YesMusicBooks.com) recently, when I noticed something peculiar about Chris Squire. I think what Barry has captured is a unique moment in Yes concert history. I don’t think Chris ever did this in any other situation than the shows on the 1975 Relayer tour – and maybe not all of those performances. I have watched the QPR video many times but I hadn’t realised exactly what was going on until I saw this photo and then re-watched the QPR performance.

After watching that QPR version, Mark and I also took a careful look at a much later version, from the Yes Acoustic video. It’s very different.

I’ve included a heavily watermarked version of the Squire photo below but if you want to enjoy the full-quality version, you know what to do. Order the calendar now while there’s still time to receive it before the New Year.

So, what do you think I’m on about? Stay tuned for the full rabbit hole exploration with Mark.

  • What’s unique about the QPR live situation?
  • What is that guitar?
  • Which is the ‘better’ version?

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


Barry Plummer 2026 Calendar is now available!

ORDER HERE

YMP Listener discount code – KVKBKC8Z

Enrich your Prog year with iconic images of Yes in the 1970s, taken by the legendary rock photographer, Barry Plummer.

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!

(A flat shipping fee will be added at checkout depending on your location.)

ORDER HERE


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!
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Episodes

Fragile Solo Songs Revisited – 683

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

This week, Mark and I discussed the ‘solo’ songs on Fragile. Each band member contributed an individual project, some with more success than others. The style and approaches used by Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe and Squire are very different and they certainly prompted an interesting discussion as you’ll hear.

Drama and Fragile Live!
Drama and Fragile Live!

With Yes soon to embark on playing the whole of Fragile live for the third time, we also touched on how these songs come over live – and if it’s even a good idea to include them alongside the 4 ‘proper’ songs.

  • Which of the solo songs is the best?
  • How do they differ in approach?
  • Should they be played live?

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!
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Episodes

Steve Howe on his new solo album, Guitarscape – 636

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

As always, it was a delight to welcome Yes guitarist Steve Howe back onto the show to talk about his new solo album, Guitarscape. It was a fun discussion during which Mark and I enjoyed asking some searching questions about the new record. Of course, we also slipped in a few questions about Yes and Tales from Topographic Oceans!

Steve and Dylan Howe:

Guitarscape is a little different to other Steve Howe solo albums and I’m sure you will enjoy it when it is released in September.

  • What’ did Igor bring to the Yes keyboard role’s different about this Steve Howe solo album?
  • How was it put together?
  • Who else worked on it?

Let us know if you agree with us!

16th July 2024: Guitarist Steve Howe releases his new solo album Guitarscape on 27th September on his own HoweSound label. The album will be available on CD, vinyl and digital downloads, including Dolby Atmos.  Pre-order the album here: https://lnk.to/hkKdov 

Guitarscape marks a new chapter for the YES and ASIA legend as he presents, what amounts to, a guitar masterclass. “What I’m doing,” said Steve, “is focusing on what I do well and what I love to do.” Guitarscape features 14 new instrumental tracks in a host of musical styles, from rock through to acoustic and classical, each bearing that unmistakable Steve Howe sound. Steve plays acoustic, electric, steel and bass guitars along with keyboards and is joined by his son Dylan on drums. Steve has written all of the tracks and produced the album. 

This album has given me the opportunity to do something different,” says Steve. “I bought a Novation Summit keyboard and found that it had a wealth of inspiring sounds. It gave me a golden opportunity to create my own keyboard structures – chordal movements and structures that I thought were a bit different.  I think differently on a keyboard, I don’t see the chords looking the same but then I had fun playing around with the guitar to see where that goes. 

I’ve utilised most of the colours, as I like to I think of my styles, and I’m always pleased when I hear them running through and it moves from a steel, maybe, to a Spanish guitar. Because it’s a different sort of album, I’m not using terribly conventional chord sequences but things that give me a fresh feeling and opportunities to improvise and stretch out as well as be melodic and make this a nice tuneful experience. 

I began feeding the tracks to Dylan. We get on great and he seems to know what to play around my guitar, it’s almost instinctive. Dylan and I fit together really beautifully. We’ve had the chance to do this together, so it’s wonderful. 

The bass parts and the keyboards are pretty interesting, everything had to be interesting but also work together. I like doing things that are super fresh and this album says what I am today.” 

Steve Howe – Guitarscape is released by HoweSound on 27th September 2024. 

Guitarscape – Track Listing 

1. Hail Storm (2.22) 

2. Spring Board (2.45) 

3. Distillations (1.48) 

4. Up Stream (3.17) 

5. Secret Mission (3.26) 

6. Passing Thoughts (2.36) 

7. Touch The Surface (3.21) 

8. Spring Rhyme (2.02) 

9. Equinox (3.04) 

10. Seesaw (2.12) 

11. Gone West (3.03) 

12. Suma (1.34) 

13. Spring Tide (2.41) 

14. Steel Breeze (2.57) 

All tracks written by Steve Howe 

Produced by Steve Howe 

Assembled and mixed by Curtis Schwartz 


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/

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Tales from Topographic Oceans
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  • Ken Fuller
  • Jeffrey Crecelius

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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.

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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

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Yes Album Listening Guides – Tales From Topographic Oceans Part 5 – Steve Howe’s guitars – 601

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I returned to Tales form topographic oceans to consider Steve Howe’s guitars, based on Mark’s expert knowledge and thanks to Geioff Bailie kindly sending us photos of the Steve Howe guitar collection book.

After recording I also heard from Nick Kokoshis that he has assembled a set of photos on Facebook all about the guitars on Tales so please see the link below to see what he has found out. You may need to join the Facebook group to view the photos.

  • What guitars did Steve Howe use for Tales and why?
  • How did he create consistency?
  • Did he use his ‘usual’ guitars?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Geoff Bailie’s photos:
Nick Kokoshis’ annotated Tales guitar photos (may require joining a Facebook group to view)

Support the Fundraiser!


Yes – The Tormato Story

Available now!

TormatoBook.com


YMP Patrons:

Producers:

  • Joseph Cottrell
  • Ken Fuller
  • Jeffrey Crecelius

Patrons:

Jim Morrison Jon Pickles Declan Logue
Gary Betts Alan Begg Michael 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 (not really) new Facebook YMP Discussion Group is open to anyone to join but I’ll be adding rules and joining requirements when I have time (one day…). 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