Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius
This week, Mark and I begin a mini-series in which we will explore The Syn, the band that is deeply-connected with the origins of Yes. The story will evolve as we go but, to set the scene, we had a conversation about our 2018 interview with The Syn’s lead singer, Steve Nardelli. Once we have finished talking about the parts of the interview that were the most interesting for us, I play the whole interview so you can make your own mind up.
In future weeks, we will be listening to all sorts of The Syn music, so if you’d like to follow along, just search YouTube – almost all the music we will be talking about is there.
- When were The Syn active?
- In what ways were The Syn important in the early development of Yes?
- What are the Yes connections across the decades?
Yes – The Tormato Story & Tales from Topographic Oceans – Yes Album Listening Guide
Available now!
YMP Patrons:
Producers:
- Joseph Cottrell
- Wayne Hall
- Jeffrey Crecelius
- Doug Curran
Patrons:
| Robert Nasir | Declan Logue | John Thomson |
| John Holden | Jamie McQuinn | Stephen Lambe |
| Chip Palmer | Brian Husvar | Michael O’Connor |
| Geoff Bailie | Lobate Scarp | Ronnie Neeley |
| Hogne Bø Pettersen | Chris Bandini | Michael Handerhan |
| Peter Hearnden | Scott Colombo | John Viola |
| Mark Slater | Robert Vandiver | Paul Tomei |
| Brian Sullivan | Todd Dudley | David Watkinson |
| Simon Barrow | Steve Scott | Geoffrey Mason |
| Steve Dill | Tim Stannard | David Pannell |
| Thomas DeVries | Bob Martilotta | Brian Harris |
| Brian Harris | Paul Hailes | Ray Riethmeier |
| Henrik Antonsson | P.T. Wilson | Terence Sadler |
| Steve Luzietti | Barry Gorsky | Steven Roehr |
| Craig Estenes | Martin Kjellberg | Gary Betts |
| Fergus Cubbage | Bill Whittaker | Aaron Steelman |
| Lind | Mark James Lang | Steve Rode |
| John Parry | John Cowan | Miguelbass |
| Fred Barringer | Rachel Hadaway | Dem |
| Steve Moss | Douglas Caldwell | Steve Perry |
| David Phyrillas |
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6 replies on “The Syn Deep Dive Part 1 – 740”
Check out Moon Safari, who support Nardelli on The Syn album Trustworks, with Jonas Reingold. I saw them perform twice on Cruise to the Edge, so far. Amazing vocal harmonies, great music & playing. Beach Boys meet Genesis, Beatles, Yes and others.
I agree, Moon Safari is great – their harmonies are incredible! I think Syndestructible is a great album, but I don’t really know The Syn’s back catalogue, so I am looking forward to this mini-series!
Very interesting to listen again to this 2018 interview with Steve Nardelli, filled with so much early history and many Yes references. I especially enjoyed these:
– As always, anecdotes about Chris Squire are intriguing.
– Chris had asked Nardelli to join Yes three times; and the drummer from The Syn was actually “in line to join Yes” after Bill Bruford left.
– The Syn were the first band ever to create rock operas. Thanks, Mark, for asking about Gangster and the Flowerman; and Kevin, for your question about these being possible forerunners of the longform epics of Yes.
-The creation of the operas owed much to Andrew Pryce Jackman’s considerable talents; and there are considerable Jackman ties musically linking Fish Out of Water and Syndestructible. (BTW, thanks to your original 2018 podcast for first introducing me to the excellent Syndestructible.)
-The planned “More Drama” tour (Aug 2005), and the reasons it never happened.
Looking forward to the rest of the mini-series!
I totally disagree with the conclusion that The Syn created the first rock opera.
The Syn presented their two rock operas, Gangster and Flowerman, live during their 1967 residency at The Marquee Club in London. These two rock operas did indeed predate The Who’s 1969 Tommy.
However, on December 9, 1966, The Who released their second album “A Quick One.” The album included the 9:10 opus “A Quick One, While He’s Away.” The song is divided into six movements.
From Wikipedia: In the performance on their Live at Leeds album Townshend calls the nine-minute “epic” track a “mini-opera” and introduces it as “Tommy’s parents”.
The Who released the first rock opera on vinyl on December 9, 1966.
Thanks for this new information!
Hi Guys,
Another very interesting episode. In regard to The Syn , I did buy Armistice Day and Syndestructible when they were first released, but have only play both once or twice since so I must listen to them again .
I was very intrigued by Simon Barrow’s comments regarding the Jon and Band Geeks performances in comparison to current Yes. Of course Jon was in excellent voice and the musical presentations were very good indeed. I went to three of the shows , Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. I was very close to the stage at Birmingham, but at the side two tries above the stalls so I could see Jon’s prompt monitor. I couldn’t read it clearly, but it was showing lyrics and other “choreographic” prompts…I have no problem with that. I wasn’t aware of the other click tracks/ prompts the Band Geeks used, but I think that is fine too and they all sounded excellent.
The Band Geeks are great, however they are NOT Yes .
What did strike me and this is no insult to the Band Geeks , was the absence of the characteristic personalities of Steve, Chris and/ or Billy not only musically, but also physically on stage. I have seen many Yes gigs over the years and my main memory is of constantly looking across the stage watching the mannerisms, quirkiness and stage personae of the band members . That didn’t really happen with these shows , I just kept watching Jon.
I also think Simon raised a good point about future Yes tours being augmented by an extra player or two.
Billy Sherwood was the 6 th member on the Talk tour, I won’t go into why, but it happened, then Billy also played on the Open Your Eyes and The Ladder tours . Casey Young was also the unofficial 6th member on the 90125 tour.
I think it maybe a good idea for any future Yes tours to employ perhaps a harmony singing , keyboard, guitar playing extra musician (s) to just help out, particularly if Steve is still not quite recovered .
Anyway what do I know ?!