That makes more sense. I hadn't thought there were any official Yes gigs without Chris before he passed. I managed to be at the last ABWH concert with T0ny. I believe it was in Bruford's book that I read he collapsed right after the Houston show was over.
You're probably thinking of Tony Levin getting sick and Jeff Berlin sitting in for the ABWH show that was the pay per view and live album. It was the Talk tour where Squire's participation was in doubt. Billy Sherwood was standing by to play bass, but moved to keyboards when Chris committed to the tour.
What does an onion have to do with being bored? Anyway, I always thought he hated the album but liked the tour.
Hmmm, so years after the primary creative force and true heart and soul of the band dies, the remaining organization starts releasing extensive archival live releases. This seems vaguely familiar to me; almost like I read about a similar thing in some 5000+ page thread on this very forum. Curiouser and curiouser.
No way this is from the Yes organization. Otherwise this would be similar to Progeny and be sourced from real tapes.
Per Progressive Ears, it's looking like this set was put together by one Larry Magid, who was part of the ARW camp and working mainly with Wakeman (who's done projects with this company before). It's not known whether the official Yes has authorized it, but it's possible that they haven't.
For the record, I was being facetious, I love both Yes and the Grateful Dead and am very, well um, grateful for anything they want to release. I collect it all! In fact, I just pre-ordered the vinyl set of this release. Which reminds me, time to hide my next credit card statement from the wife.
I mean, they haven't stopped it, but they haven't contributed to it either. Like, I've had most of these bootlegs at some point or another...I'm just baffled why this is getting released instead of an actual release from the Yes camp featuring the source material. Charging people for a bunch of (widely circulated) fan FM captures and audience tapes just seems so absurd. I mean, they'll make money off it regardless, but it just seems like such a scam. If there was a good, proper Union tour release, I don't think it'd bother me...if people want to dig deeper, that's cool, but I'd kill for one properly mixed, non-bootleg-sourced complete show from this tour that isn't Shoreline. It'd be like if they did a release of hissy fan Walkman Concertsonics capture from the Talk tour instead of just doing one proper soundboard release.
I saw the Union tour in Toronto. By all accounts, not their finest night, but I still had a blast. Thoroughly enjoyed it. 30 discs of this tour however... well... no.
That's the question. Maybe the already released Shoreline show is the only good source material they have, or maybe nobody in the Yes camp is that much into investing in high quality archival releases now that Squire is gone. Progeny appears to have been quite a project, and I wonder if we'll get anything else on that level.
Obviously can't confirm, but in theory Trevor might still have the Denver multitracks. Presumably the London show that was partially broadcast also exists in multitrack. I think the only reason Shoreline was ever released in the first place was a contractual obligation, it was just the easiest thing to put out. It's completely nuts that they didn't properly record and film a gig for video release given how momentous the occasion was. Surprised a live album wasn't in the Arista contract they signed for the studio album, honestly.
Isn't most of this stuff for trade for free on the net? If these were newly remastered board recordings, I might be tempted. But if these are just glorified official releases of bootlegs remastered by TheTooleman, well, the unofficial stuff is good enough for me.
Is this fact or speculation? Assuming that’s the case, is any of the non bootleg material new? I haven’t seen a track listing yet. I know there were some missing tracks from the 2011 release. Is this rectified here?
It's definite that audience tapes and FM tapes are used on the set. Not sure if every one is on the traders market, but most at least are. And yes, the missing Shoreline tracks are restored, but as noted, the new, four-LP edition of that show goes for $145.
from the press release (emphasis mine). "The main disc features a multi-camera shoot DVD, with accompanying soundtrack mixed by Trevor Rabin from the Shoreline Amphitheatre (8th August 1991) show. Also included in the box is a mixture of fan recordings, desk tapes and FM/Radio Broadcasts" So...a mixture of fact and speculation. The product description basically obscures the source material: "FM Broadcast" to me means the commonly traded bootlegs, otherwise the press release would specifically hype the improved source material, and the 1992 Yokohama show is a very common bootleg (under the title Masters Of Time) that's an excellent audience recording. The Penscaola show will be the same audience camcorder footage from here: Yes – Union Live (2011, CD) . I'm curious why Denver is absent from this set, unless (as I'm holding out hope for) it gets its own separate release, restored by Trevor. It's easily the best 1991 footage out there, I think for an MTV or VH1 broadcast? The complete show circulates but in significantly lesser quality.
Also worth a comparison to King Crimson, whose boxes are as extensive, better curated and cheaper. The 1969 Recordings box had 26 discs, was sonically upgraded wherever possible, included lots of previously unheard material, and beautiful packaging and a booklet with all the details. And it cost $100 less than the Yes box.
Some years back, Howe had floated the idea of a Progeny-style set from the Union tour, but this doesn't look like it. Audience tapes??? They recorded tons of gigs on that tour - I saw them in Buffalo, and Jon announced that they were taping. They also recorded a radio show outside Pittsburgh (excerpted on the 2011 set) that seems to be missing from here. I'm tempted but I really want to know the ratio of audience to board recordings. Wembley was a well-recorded show and I'm glad to see it there, but I wonder if it's the whole show or just what was broadcast. (They only broadcast the second half of "Awaken," for instance.) If this set contains well-recorded complete concerts, then it's a real possibility, but I'd like more information before dropping that kind of dough.
This does make me a little sadder still how they didn't get Peter Banks in on something for one night of this tour.
I also think if new unreleased sources were being used, they would be advertising it in the pre-order. If this really was a Progeny style box set, I'd really consider it. It's not Yes at their peak, but they were still pretty damn good in 1991. I had a great time at the show in Worcester. I have an audience tape of it and a crappy audience video as well. The audience recording is decent as far as bootlegs go, but if I paid $400 to have this set shipped to the US and found it was just the same audience tape, I'd be really unhappy.
So appears all songs played on the tour are present except for the lone time they tried close To the edge(and some Howe solos). Is there a recording of that? I recall someone saying it was a bit of a disaster and thus they never attempted it again that tour.
This set is very tempting but I will probably pass on it as I have all these shows and more from the various bootleg sites. If Close To The Edge from the Lake Placid show was included I would have definitely jumped on it. The Lake Placid show July 14 1991 NEEDS TO BE FOUND. I saw them the day before at the Spectrum.
