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Tales from Topographic Oceans
Listening guide
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Mark and I had a great conversation with the legendary Michael Tait this week. Here is what the biography on his Mickey’s Black Box website says:
“Michael “Mickey” Tait landed in London from his native Australia in 1967. It was his third stop, after Hong Kong and Tehran, in what was meant to be a 3 month “Visit the Motherland” working vacation. His first job was bartending at the Speakeasy, a private club frequented by the who’s who of the music business. Rubbing shoulders with rock stars led to his second job: Road Manager for the newly formed progressive rock band YES.
During his 12 years on the road with YES he advanced the art of stage production and was a driving force in the new field of tour lighting.
He is credited with building the first pedalboard for guitar, the double Mellotron, the flat mirror ball, the 400-watt Leslie speaker box, and one of the first pin matrix lighting consoles. Next came self-contained lighting units consisting of genie lifts in large road cases with integral 4 cell par 64 lamps. These became known as “Tait Towers,” hence the name of his soon-to-be lighting rental company.
Perhaps one of his most important innovations was the portable rotating stage used by Yes in the 1970’s. Inspiration struck Tait while delivering a can of 35mm film to Morgan studios, where YES were recording. The concept, initially met with skepticism, was soon embraced as it gave everyone in the house a better view of the band and also increased the ticket gross dramatically.”
Despite recovering from COVID, Michael was generous and open about his recollections of working with Yes, particularly around the time of Tales from Topographic Oceans.
- Was the Tales Tour a turning point for the Yes live production?
- How did Michael get from Yes roadie/van driver to establishing the most successful live production company in the world?
- What about Jon’s bathroom at Morgan Studios?
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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
7 replies on “Yes Album Listening Guides – Tales From Topographic Oceans Part 11 – Michael Tait’s Tales – 641”
A real pleasure to hear you. Generator
Great chat with Mickey. I met him many times with the band on the Yes tours from ’75-’84. We caught up at the Yes 50 convention in Philly in July ’18, with Roy Clair. I hope he’s enjoying his (somewhat) retirement!
A Yes legend and how lucky were Yes that each other met. An amazingly bit of good fortune they connected so well, Yes just wouldn’t have progressed as fast without him.
Always a pleasure to interview on the mind boggling array of goodies built.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Michael Tait interview. It was both informative and engaging. I reside near Rock Lititz and occasionally drive by his house, which locals affectionately call the castle for obvious reasons. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him a few times as I frequent Mickey’s Black Box. He’s undoubtedly a talented and gifted man with an extraordinary story to tell.
Great interview, guys. I recall Jon talking about Mike in interviews in the ‘70’s. It wasn’t until years later that I learned Yes would rehearse for tours in Lititz, about an hour drive from where I live. I was blown away that they were hanging out in the vicinity and I never knew it. It was great to hear all the stories from an insider like Mike who was a key player in Yes’ development of sound and staging. Thanks!
The ballet video was, of course, for the 1977 GftO tour.
Outstanding interview with Mike, I very much enjoyed that. No mention of the Relayer tour Lasers, or did I miss that? The lasers were mind blowing then.