Current YES tour (Steve Howe & Company)

Last night, I was watching the YES feat. ARW concert from Saratoga, CA (on YouTube) and I was looking forward to hearing, "I Am Waiting" but it didn't really deliver. It was OK. Wakeman brought nothing special to the song, and the drummer gave it zero momentum. He's got all "the tricks" apparently, but that's it. I've felt this way watching him in person (2016) and on YouTube (2017). I like the bass player, very solid, but I feel sorry that he doesn't get to play with a more driving the beat drummer. Maybe that's what the other guys in the band like at this point in their career. I don't know. Overall, a decent performance. Like the other YES, they're doing the name proud in the 21st century.

 

The bass player is amazing. He's been with Wakeman for ages. I'll see if I can find him doing some serious bass soloing on Youtube. He's also the bass player with ELO as well.

 

For sure, at his time he was very much celebrated. I just don't think he gets as much credit today. That's all I meant.

 

The released version is from the Fragile era, but they'd been doing it for awhile by then. The original BBC version was from 1970 and has Tony Kaye on keys.

 

Yes feat. ARW in Toronto this evening were indeed awesome. A few years ago I saw the Howe Yes when it still included Squire. They did CCTE, TYA and GFTO in their entirety - which was indeed thrilling to see and hear. Jon Davison did a respectable job on vocals but indeed the pace of the music was slowed - I would guess largely due to Alan White and Geoff Downes just not being able to keep up. However, the real thrill for me was seeing Howe and Squire and hearing some of my favourite albums being reproduced live.

I must say the musicianship was nothing compared to the ARW version of Yes. And now that Squire is gone there really is no reason to see Howe's Yes any more IMO. I would say if you want to see Yes that ARW is the way to go right now. It is a more authentic and energetic Yes experience. I would also say those who put down Trevor Rabin are completely misguided. Yes, he has a very different style than Steve Howe but being a guitarist myself and having seen them both play live I would say they are both great guitarists, just different. Rabin is more of a straight on hard rock type of guy whereas Howe has a style rooted more in classical and jazz. He is definitely the more versatile of the two but I wouldn't say he is necessarily BETTER. And when it comes to vocals - no contest Rabin wins. He of course took the lead for Changes and his voice was strong!

 

He did win best guitarist 5 years in a row for GP mag. They had such a hard time not choosing him again that they started their GP Hall of Fame so they could induct him and let someone else win the best guitarist award for a change!

Howe is amazing not just for his chops, but also for his versatility. Not only did he play an amazing variety of instruments, but he was also uncanny in his ability to get many different sounds from the same instrument. And he had a knack for choosing the right instrument/tones for a given piece.

I think he lost a lot of luster though when Prog became so vastly uncool. Virtuosity was seen as a negative as Punk ascended. But he was my fave guitarist for a long time and still is except for Garcia- but that's comparing apples to oranges; call them #1 and 1a in my book.

 

One could simply read the Wikipedia page before starting a thread ....

 

God, that's sad.... (minus the parts about Palmer and Rundgren)

 

Just wondering, Geoff Downes has never played music with Jon Anderson, correct ?
Have they ever even actually met ? seems like they must've .....

Oh wait, of course ... since Trevor HORN was producing 'em in the 80s I'd think it safe to say that Downes and Anderson met sometime then .... if not under other circumstances .

 

Wow, that was pretty interesting ... "Survival" from the debut album to start the show... not bad at all.
The irony though, that not one original YES-man is onstage for it, and same for "Time And A Word" ...

I'm only now clueing in to what they were doing last year in 2017 on the Yestival summer tour, 10 songs chronologically from the first 10 albums ...kinda neat ... plus no "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" either !

>>> Does Sherwood get to use any of Chris Squire's gear ?

 

"Died" is a bit strong of a word .... Perhaps the early-80s hiatus would have just gone on a bit longer .... and then .... who knows??
We're talking about many decades of history here, plenty of time where in an alternate universe any number of other developments might have come to pass ............. perhaps even one where Bruford came back and was still in the band ! ha.

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I notice Tony Kaye's name doesn't come up here at all (nor in some other threads) even as YES' history continues to be debated (still a dozen pages to go though)...
Nor do the "other two guys" in ARW -- at the moment I've forgotten their names ! but some here seem very enthusiastic about the energy and personality of ARW .... which is great, I'd love to see 'em.

 

The drummer was my only beef with the 2016 ARW performance. Entirely professional and in the pocket, but didn't really capture the original feel of the tracks. If the rest of the band was reinterpreting the songs, that'd be one thing but it was made so apparent when paired with Lee Pomeroy, who was an absolutely wonderful substitute for Squire, right down to his bass tone.

 

The cover "art" for this TALK album ..... Why oh why ? Why the self-sabotage ?? Who was pushing for this? still utterly baffling to me ...

 

Downes attended the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, along with Davison and Sherwood. According to Henry Potts, Prog magazine reported that the two lineups met up in the hotel the night before the induction for a cordial, but not warm, gathering.

 

Hey, thanks for the advice. You're the best.

 

wow. ...............I wish Kathie Lee had sung it She could've ....

 

Phil Collins too had to give up the drumming, that last Genesis tour in 2007 was hard for him .... (still got the voice though)

 

Surely one needs to be called "Maybe"...?!?

 

Me too, Honolulu in March 1988.

Good question, now that you've pointed that out .... so obvious.

My second YES show was the one after Concord, in Los Angeles 6-23-00 .... Very different from my first show 12 years earlier, a very different band ... Plus, reunited Kansas opened for them .... (Plus, I also saw both nights of Roger Waters in the same venue on the preceding nights.)

 

So funny that the second (and last) time I saw Yes was presumably on that same 2000 tour. I don't recall the date, but do recall Kansas opening for them!

 

May 18, 2018 : today is Rick Wakeman's 69th birthday

 

I like it...

 

As to the Talk cover art, my recollection was that Jon and maybe Trevor really wanted to use Peter Max and have him do something. it doesn't bother me

 

its not like big generator was a masterpiece in terms of covers... (ya I am skipping over union which had great art...)

 

Someone from the label probably convinced the band to go with it. I wonder if there were legal reasons they couldn't use a Roger Dean Yes logo or even any kind of allusion to the logo/designs of 90125. But it was a new decade, new label, new (old) lineup, etc...my guess is they were presented with a number of new logo/design options and someone at Victory Records convinced them that was the one that would play best in 1994.