Take a long, long look in that mirror Fraser...

Only joking - I'm just jealous because I couldn't get to the Birmingham show on Monday. Sounds like a great night out.

EDIT:
thinking about it, didn't Yes tour the 90125 album in 1984 not 83? Either way, neither of us is doing much to reduce the geek/prog stereotype are we?

on a bleak Wednesday morning- I can't remember the last time I saw a Venn Diagram!. I've had tickets for the Belfast show for months and regretted the purchase almost immediately, thinking this would be a limp self-tribute act. I'm quite excited now - although not always a good thing in a man of my years.

Did the Canadian opt for the tiny white microphone on a curly lead, plugged into the white trousers, or a more standard device?

is so very true. The thing that continues to amaze me about the earlier Yes albums is their breadth of ambition. They didn't always pull it off but, by the time of Close To The Edge they had the chops to play what they seemed to be hearing in their head.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - the thing that distinguished Yes from their contemporaries were the arrangements. Instrumentally they never sounded like 4 musicians fighting against each other; nor did they sound like a single 'instrumental hero' plus backing band - they wrote fully-realised arrangements which were complimented perfectly by the vocal arrangements - it was never just 'singer plus backing vocals'; the BVs were themselves musically sophisticated arrangements.

Formally arranging parts - both instrumentally and vocally - seems to be a skill that's just no longer valued.

Amazing they still bother - I'm sure the audience would far rather hear something rarely played off Relayer or Fragile. Owner of a Lonely Heart was largely bought by non-Yes fans who probably also bought Kayleigh, Money for Nothing and The Final Countdown. They've long since left the building chaps.

Rick Wakeman's eldest son is now the keyboard player in Yes? I cannot tell you how old that makes me feel.

I think the first thing I heard from them was their version of "Something's Coming" from West Side Story. There were no precedents really for a band playing in that style, although people like Vanilla Fudge and in Britain the Herd used to do extended versions of songs that were already familiar. If you're going to do something mad and challenging it always helps to take a well-known composition as the starting point.

You can get it from here:

http://concert-online.com/en/artist/20066/YES.html

In fact I reckon Tempus Fugit is up there with the classic stuff like Close to the Edge:

Yes have always been a fascinating band for me - I've seen them about 4 times, but never with Rick Wakeman. I first saw them in Edinburgh in the 1970s when they had the Roger Dean stage set. They had just released 'Yesterdays' (the one with the peeing kid on the cover) - Patrick Moraz was on keyboards. I didn't see them again until 25 years later in Vienna (with the Russian kid on keyboards) touring 'The Ladder' I saw them twice more in Vienna touring 'Open Your Eyes' and then 'Magnification' (playing with a full orchestra). Their music with orchestral accompaniment is extremely powerful.

They are a band who enjoy themselves on stage but who take their performance seriously. They don't do sloppy and their musicianship is awesome. They still play loads of stuff from their classic period ('The Yes Album', 'Fragile, 'Close To The Edge'). The last time I saw them they threw in 'The Gates of Delerium' from the excellent 'Relayer' album, as well as a track from 'Topographic Oceans'. The reception they got was fantastic, including standing ovations for 'Gates' and 'In The Presence Of' from 'Magnification'.

I was not a big fan of their '90125' period (although relished the success they enjoyed after a bit of a lull), but I loved 'Talk'. I was surprised at how good 'Drama' was too. I gave careful thought about going to see them in London this time around, but without Jon Anderson I felt it would be disappointing. I've not heard the stand-in, but for me there is only one Jon Anderson.

I recommend Yes to anyone interested in prog music or music in general. Their blend of rock and jazz has always been fascinating and they are a great band live. They are one of the bands that, on first hearing their music (it was 'The Yes Album'), I felt a real thrill and a hope that there were acts out there that could really inspire and push the envelope. Having said all that, I have never ever thought of drawing a Venn diagram to help clarify their make-up. Of course it's more complicated that presented, given the many musicians that have served time in their ranks. Still, the colours are nice.

The question of whether this was an average, a good or a great gig depended on your level of expectation. Was this the continuation of a historic band or just some key members playing in their own tribute act? Yes can probably be let off as they always had a high turnaround of members and have replaced Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman before. Although to replace Anderson with a singer from a tribute band may give rise to some cynicism.

The other thing that struck me was the dynamics of the band. Benoit David, who sang beautifully and did an excellent job as lead vocalist, but was clearly not the “front man”.
It quickly emerged that Chris Squire is the leader of the band and at times stomped around the stage in “The Way We Walk” style. Oliver Wakeman, did not really add anything in terms of stage presence although playing excellently. To be hyper-critical, Wakeman Jnr played like you would expect the keyboard player in one of the better Yes tribute bands.

For me to see Steve Howe play guitar is worth the price of admission on its own. So I was more than pleased that he was very top form. Even throwing a few guitar hero shapes at times and moving off his stage carpet! His playing and solo on Owner of Lonely Heart was veered towards heavy metal and stood out from his normal style of playing.

The set was largely based on the albums The Yes Album, Fragile and Close To The Edge. The oldest song was Astral Traveller which featured the obligatory Alan White drum solo, which was tight and concise. The newest was the previously mentioned Owner of a Lonely Heart. There were some surprises including Onward from Tormato and 2 tracks from Drama, which Squire announced as being from the last time the band had had 2 new members. To hear Tempus Fugit and Machine Messiah was a special treat, taking me all the way back to when I saw the band in 1980.

I was disappointed not to hear Awaken or anything else from Going For The One, perhaps that album is too closely associated with Anderson and Wakeman Snr. Also (the song) Close to The Edge was not included. However, these are minor quibbles compared the intense performances of South Side of the Sky and Heart of the Sunrise. Their performance of And You And I was absolutely phenomenal, leading to a deserved standing ovation. The finale (encore) of Starship Trooper was very good, but I didn’t get the feeling of the spaceship taking off at the end, that you sense on their best performances of the song.

I had decided to go to the gig largely on the basis that it might the last chance to see them live in concert . When you consider the age of Howe, White and Squire; the retirement of Bill Bruford (from live performances); and that Anderson and Wakeman Snr did not join the tour for health reasons; I don’t think this was an unreasonable assumption to make.

After the show, I now feel that Yes may still have some mileage left in them, particularly with the addition of the youthful energy of David and Wakeman Jnr. At very end the band appeared with a very young lad (whom I took to be either Squire’s grandson or maybe even his son) so there may still be yet another generation of Yes members in waiting!

Set list:

Firebird Suite/Siberian Khatru
Your Move/Seem All Good People
Tempus Fugit
Onward
Astral Traveller
Owner of a Lonely Heart
South Side of The Sky
Steve Howe - acoustic solos
Heart of the Sunrise
Machine Messiah
And You And I
Roundabout
Encore - Starship Trooper

From Wikipedia

Benoît David and Oliver Wakeman formally join Yes

In an interview on October 15, 2009 with Planet Rock radio (UK), Squire confirmed Oliver Wakeman and Benoît David as official members of the band, stating "this is now Yes," although he did not confirm Anderson's formal departure.

Squire has announced plans for a new Yes album after the band's European tour wraps up.

Where's Bill Bruford?

And hadn't returned by 1983. It'd be a fairly tortuous Venn diagram to take in Bruford, Patrick Moraz, the Buggles years etc sadly

I loved Yes in the 1970s - Chris Squire is the reason I'm a bass player (all right, one of the reasons). I saw them in Glasgow on the Going for the One tour in 1977 and they were transcendent - really!

I saw them again (still in Glasgow) on the Drama tour and they were merely excellent - apart from Squire's bass solo, which was just shameful (the "Amazing Grace" period). What was different? No Anderson or Wakeman Sr., I suppose....

1. Drama tour when their biggest problem was hecklers-actually sounded great and, as said above, some of those tracks esp Run Through the Light were pretty good as far as I recall

2. Birmingham a few years ago--immense exhilaration to hear Close to the Edge etc live at last--but felt the hard working string orchestra were rather drowned. Re:

What really strikes you is the incredible ambition these musicians had as young men. They weren't seasoned jazzers with decade's worth of craft behind them, but a youthful, fairly mainstream rock band. But boy, did they push the envelope.

I know what you mean, but wasn't the whole joy of that era that rock wasn't really yet "mainstream", and that a band like Yes could mix up a visionary Northern hippy who liked Bernstein and Simon and Garfunkel with an RCM-trained session veteran like Wakeman ?

One thing that has struck me is that the stuff of theirs that I listen to most nowadays is from the earliest albums, particularly "Something's Coming" and "Survival". In a way the vaulting ambition you mention is more obvious there, when they were novices, than a few years later on Topographic Oceans when they'd routinely win instrumentalist polls iirc.

Only managed to get as far as Siberian Khatru before it all got to much on a hot Sunday Afternoon.

My abiding memory is of John Peel stomping off muttering that he now remembered why he hated them so much - or some similar sentiment.

Saw Rick Wakeman recently at the RAH "Faces reunion" PRS thing. He was the best turn of the night. Shambled on in his long black frock coat, told a couple of off-colour jokes, sat down at the grand piano and treated us to seven sublime minutes of Eleanor Rigby done in the style of Prokoviev before sloping off in the midst of mega-appreciation.