Categories
Blog posts

YES Announces UK Tour The Album Series 2020

9th October 2019:

YES, one of the most innovative of all prog-rock bands, and true legends of the genre, have announced a 8-date UK tour for May and June of 2020. The Album Series 2020 Tour will feature their 1974 Relayer album in its entirety together with a selection of other classic YES favourites. An extensive European tour will be announced soon.


This tour follows their 2018 highly successful #YES50 Anniversary tour and again features the line-up of Steve Howe (guitars), Alan White (drums), Geoff Downes (keyboards), Billy Sherwood (bass guitar and backing vocals), Jon Davison (vocals) and Jay Schellen (additional drums and percussion).

The show will comprise two sets by the band with full production and a high definition video wall. The first will feature favourite classic tracks from YES’ extensive catalogue. The second will feature
Relayer, the seventh studio album by YES, and one of the band’s most distinctive. Relayer marked a slight change in direction as Patrick Moraz replaced Rick Wakeman on keyboards bringing an edgier, avant-garde feel to the album. This was perfect for the opening track Gates Of Delirium, almost 22 minutes in length, with its battle scene featuring the keyboard of Moraz and Steve Howe’s guitar. The battle gives way to the beautiful closing ballad Soon, a prayer for peace and hope.

The album continues with Sound Chaser, a prog-rock-jazz fusion experiment heavily influenced by Moraz’s style and To Be Over, a calm and gentle conclusion to the album, based on a melody by Steve Howe.
Released in late 1974 on Atlantic Records, Relayer continued YES’ success reaching number 4 in the UK album chart and number 5 in the US Billboard chart.

“We are really looking forward to playing ALL of the Relayer album” says Steve Howe. “Having premiered The Gates Of Delirium this year, we continue by expanding our Album Series with all the tracks: The Gates Of Delirium, Sound Chaser and To Be Over.” Howe goes on to say: “During the first half of the evening we’ll be performing a refined selection from Yes’ enormous 50 year + repertoire.” See you there!” Alan White comments: “I always enjoy coming home to England so I’m especially looking forward to Yes’ upcoming “Album Series 2020” tour. “Relayer” I believe, is one of the most creative and interesting musical compilations in the bands repertoire. Challenging and extremely enjoyable to play, I’m happy to be bringing this music back to live stages throughout Europe. I hope all who attend our shows will enjoy these cuts as much as we like performing them for our audiences.”

  • UK dates are as follows:
  • Tuesday 26 May Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
  • Wednesday 27 May Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
  • Friday 29 May York Barbican
  • Saturday 30 May Gateshead The Sage
  • Sunday 31 May Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
  • Tuesday 2 June Birmingham Symphony Hall
  • Wednesday 3 June Manchester Bridgewater Hall
  • Friday 5 June London Royal Albert Hall

Tickets go onsale at 10.00am Friday 11th October and are available from: 24hr Ticket Hotline: 0844 249 2222 bookingsdirect.com Meet & Greet packages available, for info go to yesworld.com Showtime is 8pm.
Roger Dean will attend every show on the UK and European dates, and will have an exhibition of his iconic art, will be available to chat with fans front of house and sign merch, plus will be in the VIP meet and greets.

10 replies on “YES Announces UK Tour The Album Series 2020”

At last! The tour we’ve all been waiting for. (Or just me anyway) I am very hopeful Relayer will continue into the US. Perhaps there will also be some guest appearances by Patrick Moraz.

At last I will get to hear “Sound Chaser” and “To Be Over” live.
I just missed out on the 1975 Relayer Tour (too young). Can’t wait!!

My first Yes concert was on their solo albums tour in 1976. They performed Gates and Soundchaser. To Be Over will complete the trifecta of my favorite Yes album!

My first Yes concert was on their solo albums tour in 1976. They performed Gates and Soundchaser. To Be Over will complete the trifecta of my favorite Yes album!

DOH!!!!!!!!!!

Sure….they come to Canada in 2019 for the Royal Affair tour. ..which was great ..don’t get me wrong. .but of course they announce an album series tour doing my favorite album and it’s a UK only tour…..grrrrrrrrrr. ..Ok Kevin…time to get the guest bedroom ready.

I see no reason to believe they won’t will bring it to Toronto or Hamilton

Best venue would be Massey Hall but whether the renovation is complete by then is another thing

To be over live with the full band

Even I’m interested in this one! Thanks for the heads up Kevin. Pity the Birmingham gig is on a Tuesday, not much chance of a meet up as it’ll be a dash there after work.

My wish list for the next UK tour has long been headed by the idea of a Yesterdays/ Relayer double header with Tony K playing the first half and Patrick Moraz the second. Hopefully the first half includes a tune or three from the first two albums. I’ll be buying *all* the merch and I’ll be in Birmingham (and London) for sure.

Just looking at the poster for this 2020 run is giving me goose bumps and takes me right back to my first Yes experience (gulp) 45 years ago. I remember QPR being announced in Melody Maker and not knowing until the day before whether I would be allowed to go or not. Was truly an out of body experience and I didn’t need TM or mushrooms to get me there.

Really looking forward to the tour next year, but I’m wondering what they mean by classic cuts? Do you think they might be playing just part of some songs? A medley might be interesting, but I think I’d rather have the songs in full.
Just one more thing….. who’s Tod Handley?

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.