Categories
Episodes YMP Classic Feed

What did they do next – the final part – Benoit David – 520

Produced by Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius

Live From Lyon
CD set purchased 2014

Is this the last part of our What did they do next series? Probably…possibly…maybe not. In any event, we are going to stop for the moment after we have talked about what Benoit David did after leaving the band due to ill health in 2012. Apart from the tragic loss of Chris Squire and the resulting return of Billy Sherwood, the band has maintained the same lineup since Benoit left. While he was still touring with Yes, he was also working on an album for a different band – which one? Well, maybe it’s not much of a mystery but if you don’t know, just keep listening as Mark and I explain what happened leading up to Benoit’s departure and what he did next.

  • What did Benoit do next?
  • What other band did he contribute to?
  • Is it a MYSTERY?

Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!


Become a Patron!

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
Tony Kaye at the Cinema sessions
The Full Union! 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

Please 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

Subscribe on Android
Listen on Stitcher

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

4 replies on “What did they do next – the final part – Benoit David – 520”

Glad you covered Benoit. He’s such a nice man, and a great singer. I’ve loved Mystery since their first album, and met them on the 2013 Cruise to the Edge, where they attended as fans but did not perform. Attached is my copy of their 2012 cd signed by Benoit & Michel. Check out Benoit singing with Mystery on the song “Visions of Paradise” on the tribute album, ‘Higher and Higher: A Tribute to The Moody Blues’ in 2006. I wish he would resurface either solo or with another act, to share his voice and talent with the world.

Really good to hear you showing deep respect for Benoit, who stepped in and kept the band moving forward at a difficult time. His singing on ‘Fly From Here’ is excellent, and it’s disappointing that this seems to have been virtually excised from the catalogue by the re-recording, which is not nearly as good vocally.

While I think you’re right that constant touring can over-strain the voice of a singer with less experience of constant and lengthy concert performance, the difficulty that Benoit ended up having was perhaps the result of two related factors. One was his general health (not just his vocal health), as he notes in a number of interviews. The other is that, without any modulation down, some of the Yes catalogue was testing the very upper limits of Benoit’s range, and that is going to exact a price eventually. It’s unlikely to be sustainable over many years. (This was even more dramatically the case with Trevor Horn in live performance, of course).

It needs to be remembered that Jon Davison had not toured extensively at all before joining Yes, either. However, he has coped wonderfully. That’s partly because his range can absorb everything the music can throw at it (even some of the material Jon Anderson struggled with in later years), and partly because he has done the training and exercises necessary to keep his voice in top condition.

Props to both of them (Benoit and Jon D), and I shall look forward to re-acquainting myself with Mystery before next week. Mark clearly knows their output better than me, and if he reckons that this particular album is among their finest, that’s good news. I’m sure a number of us will listen with renewed interest!

Thanks for another excellent pod. I saw the tour with Benoit and Ollie in Chicago. Though I totally missed Jon (and still do!), I loved hearing Machine Messiah. And You And I was particularly wonderful and powerful that night. ✌

“What Did They Do Next?” is going out in style, spotlighting two of the band’s undoubted good eggs. The feature has maintained a irresistible journalistic balance between broadsheet explorations of the wider world of the musicians who’ve passed through the band, and lurid tabloid inspection of the dynamics of the people involved.

Between them, Benoit David and Jon Davison have brought much to the band, and before writing off one at the expense of the other, remember that although Benoit sang on “Mystery” tours, only Jon sang on “Mystery Tour”. I think I’d rather have the Benoit experience, there…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 300 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.