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Produced by Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius
This week we have the chance to talk about Yes live in concert for the first time in 3 years. Mark and I give our reactions to the setlist choices and then our roving reporter, Simon Barrow has sent in the first of his audio diary entries. He will be attending every show on the tour (apart from the warm up gig) and will be keeping us up-to-date as he goes.
- What have the first concerts been like?
- What is the setlist like?
- Will fans be able to get to the concerts next week?
Take a listen to the episode and then let us know what you think below!
Pete Hopkins’ song in tribute to Alan White and featuring Alan on drums
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 | Declan Logue |
Robert and David
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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
5 replies on “Yes Live again in 2022 – 538”
Hi Guys, I’ve just listened to this week’s podcast and having attended the Glasgow show on 15th I thought Simon Barrow summed it up well. I would like to underline a couple of things he mentioned.
1. Roger Dean’s intro really needs attention. How can he hope to do a Q&A when he can’t hear the audience member? Nor could we in the audience catch what was being asked, for that matter. Wait till they get to the Royal Albert Hall!
2. Billy Sherwood was the best thing of the evening. He has morphed into Chris Squire. He sounds like Chris, moves like him and dresses like him. What a treat.
3. I’m sure the technical glitches will get straightened out with future shows but I’m just glad I’m not Steve Howe’s guitar tech. I thought Rick Wakeman is supposed to be the Grumpy Old Man.
I have to mention the tour book and here’s an idea, why don’t you do an episode on the Gottlieb brothers who have put together a thing of beauty and a great souvenir. I’d be interested to hear their back story and how they became involved with Yes. Note it’s a UK only edition btw. At £30 it’s not cheap. I passed on purchasing a signed one costing £100. That’s just greedy.
Yes do an episode on the Gottlieb brothers and yes I too think Billy is even more Chris like as you say. Steve is the key to it all and shines all he does.
I have loved my first show in ages.
So far I have attended two shows Manchester and Liverpool. What has struck me is how good Billy and Jay are . They really are very very good.
Nice to see some of the usual suspects once again at a Yes gig. Hopefully I will be at Birmingham later this week .
Another cracking show guys, including Simon. I’m looking forward to the US tour, in October I’m told, and hope to attend at least 1 show. The same with the planned Asia tour. I’m very happy to see they are doing “Silent Wings” after all these years, but like many wish it was the full song. It’s been since, what, the ’79 tour, which saw several times?
Still reeling slightly from the Royal Albert Hall show. Can’t comment on the first three tunes as the venue’s usually pin accurate show timings had the band going on at 8.45 with no interval. We were in our seats well before the start time and they were already half way into Does It Really Happen? Virtually everyone else seemed to have got the memo so our bad. I was particularly sad not to hear them tackle No Opportunity again as I still think this line up is best suited to recreating the sound of the first three albums rather than the 71-77 period but hey ho.
I actually can’t quite believe it has been over four years since the Palladium shows and that we’ve moved, thanks to Covid, straight from celebrating the band’s 50th to the 50th anniversary of their fourth album. Which is a shame as the first two albums in particular are still well deserving of their own focus gigs.
The good news from last night is that if anything the break has elevated Steve’s playing to a new level with far fewer missed notes than I remember from 2018 . Also Billy Sherwood is now truly inhabiting the dominant musical role in the band – driving the whole enterprise rather than “just” playing the parts. His low end was a bit “boomy” for my taste and I miss the characteristic trebly ring of the Rick at times but overall it was a bravura performance. The overall live mix is also much improved from four years ago with that dreaded snare drum pitched at a much a more appropriate level though on the other side of the coin Downes’ keyboards seemed slightly buried to the point of being less of a feature and more of a texture. The vocal harmonies were generally strong. and Jon D delivers the old songs far more convincingly and with less irony than Jon A has in years. So all good. A great team effort and no passengers.
The only negative for me is that although the performances were completely credible – powerful, spirited and taken at refreshingly vigorous tempi – there wasn’t a lot there that was what I would call musically transcendent. Hard to put my finger precisely on the issue but I wasn’t at any point transported by the majesty of the music. Especially in the CTTE section of the show. Whether it was because they were pushing through the music I am not sure but I was begging for a bit more Celibidache and a bit less Toscanini. Wonderous Stories and parts of Dare To Know were the main exceptions.
Anyway, highly recommend this line-up in this form and perhaps the special moments I am looking for will emerge as they get bedded-in with this set list. Hopefully the next time London hosts them will be considerably sooner than 2026 when Steve will be (gulp) 79 and I will be about to start collecting my state pension!