Yes are an English
progressive rock band formed in London in
1968 and generally regarded as one of
the archetypal bands of the genre. Despite a great many lineup
changes, occasional splits within the group and the ever-changing
trends in popular music, the band has continued on for over forty
years and still retains a large following.
The band's music blends symphonic and other 'classical' structures
with their own brand of rock music, which is marked by sharp
dynamic contrasts, extended song lengths, abstract lyrics, and a
general showcasing of instrumental prowess. Although the band's
sole consistent member has been bass player
Chris Squire (noted for his highly melodic and
discursive playing as well as his early use of electronic effects),
Yes is also generally noted for the distinctive high-register
vocals of lead singer
Jon Anderson and
the eclectic musical stylings of a succession of guitarists
(
Peter Banks,
Steve Howe,
Trevor Rabin,
Billy
Sherwood), keyboard players (
Tony Kaye,
Rick
Wakeman,
Patrick Moraz,
Geoff Downes,
Igor
Khoroshev) and drummers (
Bill
Bruford and
Alan
White). Several band members became celebrated musicians and/or
bandleaders in their own right, and a 1980 lineup of the band was
briefly fronted by future
production
star
Trevor Horn.
Long-term band members Squire, Howe and White have most recently
been touring (on the
In The Present Tour of late 2008 and
early 2009) with a Yes lineup featuring vocalist
Benoît David and keyboardist
Oliver Wakeman.
History
Early days
Formation
Yes was formed in 1968 by vocalist
Jon
Anderson and bassist
Chris Squire.
Anderson had already recorded a single in 1964 as a member of The
Warriors, a beat band formed by his brother Tony, and later sang on
a couple of 45s for Parlophone Records under the pseudonym Hans
Christian. He was also briefly a member of the group
The Gun. Squire had been a member of
The Syn, a flower-pop outfit that recorded a couple
of singles for Deram Records (one,
"14-Hour Technicolour
Dream", celebrating the "happening" held at Alexandra Palace
on April 29/April 30, 1967). After the breakup of The Syn, Squire
spent a year developing his bass-playing technique, strongly
influenced by
The Who's bassist,
John Entwistle. In May 1968, he met Anderson
in a Soho nightclub, La Chasse, where Anderson was working. The two
had a common interest in vocal harmony and began working together
soon afterwards.
At the time, Squire was in a band called
Mabel Greer's Toyshop with guitarist
Clive Bailey and drummer Bob Hagger, and invited Anderson to begin
singing with the group. Hagger was soon replaced by
Bill Bruford, a jazz aficionado who had played
just three gigs with Blues revivalists
Savoy
Brown before leaving, and who was recruited from an ad he had
placed in
Melody Maker. An earlier lineup of Mabel Greer's
Toyshop had featured guitarist
Peter
Banks who'd previously worked with Squire in
The Syn and who now returned to replace Bailey.
Finally, the band also expanded to include an organist and
occasional piano player,
Tony
Kaye, a classically-trained musician who'd abandoned his
studies to pursue rock and roll and had already been in a series of
unsuccessful groups (Johnny Taylor's Star Combo, The Federals, and
Jimmy Winston and His Reflections).
In search of a more commercially useful bandname, Mabel Greer's
Toyshop soon became Yes. Banks came up with the three letter name,
with the rationale that it would stand out on posters.
The newly-rechristened Yes played their first show at East Mersea
Youth Camp in England on August 4, 1968. Soon after this, they
opened for
Cream at their 1968 Farewell
Concert from The Royal Albert Hall. Early on, influenced by bands
like 1-2-3 (later
Clouds),
the group earned a reputation for taking other people's songs and
drastically changing them into expanded, progressive
compositions.
In
September 1968, Yes subbed for an absent Sly and The Family Stone at
Blaise's and as a result of that appearance gained a residency at
The
Marquee
club. Soon after that, they made their first
radio appearance on
John Peel's programme.
When Melody Maker columnist Tony Wilson selected them and
Led Zeppelin as the two bands "Most Likely To
Succeed" (as he states on the liner notes of the band's debut LP),
it appeared that their future was assured.
The first two albums
Yes's eponymous
debut album was
released on July 25, 1969. The harmony vocals of Anderson and
Squire were an immediate trademark of the Yes sound. The band's
optimistic, vaguely futuristic outlook on the world was delivered
with a combination of melody and virtuosity. Standout tracks were a
jazzy take on
The Byrds' "I See You" and
the album closer, "Survival", which displayed the band's vocal
harmonies and deft song-construction. There was also a cover of
The Beatles' "
Every Little Thing". Notably, the
album was given a favourable review by
Lester Bangs in
Rolling Stone
magazine, which described the band as promising, the album
displaying a "sense of style, taste and subtlety"
In 1970, the band released their second album, this time
accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra.
Time and a Word featured mostly
original compositions and two cover songs - "Everydays" by
Stephen Stills (originally recorded by
Buffalo Springfield) and
Richie Havens' "No Opportunity
Necessary, No Experience Needed" (in a reworked version including
excerpts from the theme song of the movie
The Big Country. Although musically
exceptional in terms of melody delivery, the orchestra (and
keyboardist Tony Kaye) overpowered Banks and much of the vocal
work, leaving
Time and a Word somewhat uneven.
Steve Howe replaces Peter Banks
Banks was particularly dissatisfied with the album, as well as with
the sacking of Yes' first manager Roy Flynn later in the year.
Tensions developed in the band, resulting in Banks' ousting by
Anderson and Squire before the release of
Time And A Word
(he would subsequently play briefly in
Blodwyn Pig before launching his own progressive
rock band
Flash). Former
Tomorrow guitarist
Steve Howe replaced Banks in Yes, and
was included in the front cover photo of the American release of
the album despite not having played on it.
Into the Yes style (The Yes Album and departure of
Tony Kaye)
Vocalist Jon Anderson performing in
concert with Yes in 1977
The group's emerging style coalesced on their next LP, the
critically acclaimed
The Yes
Album. This was the first Yes record to be entirely made
up of original band compositions, which were noticeably longer and
more ambitious than those on the two previous albums. Howe had
quickly established himself as an integral part of the Yes sound,
adding to compositions and expanding the band's guitar influences
to include classical and country stylings as well as playing a
wider variety of instruments such as the 12-string Portuguese
vihuela.
The
Yes Album also united Yes with their long-serving producer
and engineer
Eddie Offord, whose studio
expertise was a key factor in creating the Yes sound.
Steve Howe, lead guitarist for Yes, in
1977
In 1971, Tony Kaye left the band. Although some reports attest that
he was fired, others indicate that he left voluntarily. It is
typically reported that the decision had to do with his
unwillingness to use the emergent Moog synthesizer and other modern
keyboard technology, as he considered himself to be simply an
organist. Kaye later formed the group
Badger and would rejoin Yes in the early
1980s: in between, he would guest in Peter Banks'
Flash (a band sometimes accused of stealing
Yes's musical sound – a sound Banks and Kaye themselves had been
instrumental in creating).
Arriving at symphonic rock
Rick Wakeman joins band; Fragile and Close to the
Edge)
Kaye was replaced by another classically-trained musician, the
rising keyboard star
Rick Wakeman who
had just left
Strawbs and was already a
noted studio musician with credits including
T. Rex,
David Bowie and
Lou
Reed. Wakeman brought the band's keyboard playing up to a much
higher level of technical skill (as well as becoming the band's
unofficial musical arranger) and proved to be the perfect foil for
Steve Howe both as soloist and ensemble player. As well as
embracing the use of the
Minimoog
synthesizer (which Kaye had only played with reluctance), he
brought another vital addition to the group's instrumentation: the
Mellotron. With his flowing blond hair and
sequined cape, and surrounded by keyboards, Wakeman also provided a
strong visual focus on stage.
The first album released with the new lineup was 1971's
Fragile (a Top Ten
album in America), Musically, the album continued to develop Yes'
growing interest in the sounds and structures of classical music,
notably the work of
Sibelius and
Stravinsky (although Wakeman also
contributed an electric keyboard arrangement of the third movement
of a
Brahms symphony). The album was
also notable for presenting the work of each member in a series of
solo (or near-solo) showcases such as Howe's classical guitar
composition "Mood For A Day" and Squire's multiple-overdub bass
guitar piece "The Fish".
Fragile also marked the beginning
of the band's long collaboration with artist
Roger Dean, who designed the group's
logo and their album covers, as well as (with brother Martin Dean)
their stage sets.
In February 1972 Yes recorded a non-album track, their dynamic
ten-minute interpretation of
Paul Simon's
"
America" (which
subsequently appeared on the 1972 album
The New Age of Atlantic, a
compilation with several acts from the roster of Atlantic Records).
This song had been a staple of Yes gigs since the band's early days
(a version featuring Kaye appears on the
Word Is Live box
set). While Wakeman played most of the keyboard parts on the
recording, he was not particularly enthusiastic about it and the
Mellotron part on the end of the track was actually played by Bill
Bruford.
The next Yes album, 1972's
Close
to the Edge was recorded following a lengthy studio stint
and solidified the template for Yes music for the rest of the
decade. It was by far the band's most ambitious effort to date,
consisting of three lengthy compositions. The title track took up
an entire side of the album and was constructed in classical sonata
form although it drew on combined elements of classical music,
psychedelic rock, pop, jazz and field recordings to create the
final sound. Like its predecessor,
Close To The Edge was a
Top Ten record in the United States. Some listeners consider the
album to be the high point of the whole progressive rock
genre.
Alan White replaces Bill Bruford
The growing critical and commercial success of the band was not
enough to retain Bruford, who left Yes after the
Close to the Edge sessions but before
the album release, in order to join
King
Crimson. He was replaced by former
Plastic Ono Band drummer
Alan White, who brought a similar
level of technical skill but also provided a more conventional rock
approach (a distinct contrast to the jazz-influenced drumming of
Bruford). A friend of Anderson's and Offord's, White had sat in
with the band once during the weeks before Bruford's departure, and
was brought into Yes several months before the September 1972
release of
Close to the
Edge. (After trying each other out for three months,
Squire threatened to throw White out the window if he did not
join.) White learned the band's ambitious repertoire in a matter of
three days before embarking on the tour. He has since remained with
the band for over thirty years and has maintained a reputation for
having a collaborative and "down to earth attitude".
A growing live draw (Yessongs)
By this point, Yes were beginning to enjoy enormous commercial and
critical success around the world. They were also becoming one of
the most popular concert attractions of the day, benefitting from
the tremendous advances in live music technology that were taking
place at that time. Yes were particularly keen and quick to embrace
and develop this technology, and were renowned for the high quality
of both their sound and lighting.
The band's early touring with White was featured on their next
release, the three-record live collection
Yessongs (recorded on their US and UK tours in
November-December 1972). The album also included several earlier
recordings with Bruford - the songs "Long Distance Runaround" and
"Perpetual Change" (the latter with an extended Bruford drum solo),
and an extended Bruford-backed Chris Squire solo on "The Fish".
Yessongs was a hugely ambitious project and undoubtedly a
major gamble for their label, Atlantic Records. It was one of the
first rock triple-album sets, featuring live versions of
all-original material from the previous three studio albums.
Presented in one of the most lavish album packages to date, Roger
Dean's artwork spread across a triple gatefold cover and continued
the cosmic-organic design concepts of the two previous albums. The
album was another bestseller and was recently voted among the top
twenty live records of all time.
A video of the tour, released under the same name, featured concert
footage (with Howe garnering a large amount of the focus because
his brother-in-law was the editor) intermixed with psychedelic
visual effects.
Uncharted waters (Tales from Topographic Oceans)
Yes' next studio album, 1973's two-disc
Tales from Topographic
Oceans, marked a change in the band's fortunes and
polarised fans and critics alike. Coming after extensive touring,
the album was later described by Jon Anderson as "the meeting point
of high ideals and low energy." Based on Anderson's interpretation
of the
Shastric scriptures, as based on a
footnote within
Paramahansa
Yogananda's book
Autobiography of a Yogi),
Tales from Topographic
Oceans was Yes' most technically ambitious effort to date.
Although extended compositions were by now a Yes hallmark, each of
the four compositions on the new album lasted for roughly 20
minutes and took up an entire side.
Tales from Topographic
Oceans earned mixed reviews and left many feeling that the
band was beginning to overreach itself. It was another chart
success, becoming the band's fourth consecutive
gold album, topping the UK album charts and
reaching
#6 in the U.S. (buoyed by enthusiastic
fan pre-orders). More significantly, Rick Wakeman was not pleased
with the album, and to this day is critical of much of it. Fans
have credited the elaborately-staged album tour as the inspiration
for the 'mockumentary' film,
This
Is Spinal Tap, which appears to imitate some incidents on
the
Tales tour with fairly minimal comedic
alterations.
Departure of Rick Wakeman
By this time, Wakeman was also developing a burgeoning solo career
on the strength of his Yes work and his status as "celebrity
keyboard player". His skepticism over the album (as well as
differences in politics, outlook and lifestyle between himself and
the rest of the band) led him to quit Yes at the end of the
Tales tour in 1974. Wakeman has subsequently had a long,
productive solo career including film scores, projects with his
English Rock Ensemble and collaborations with other artists, and
has rejoined Yes on several occasions. (In 1976, he was involved in
an attempt to form a new trio -
British Bulldog -
with his former Yes bandmate Bill Bruford and with Bruford' fellow
King Crimson alumni
John Wetton but the project failed to get off
the ground, although it subsequently led to the formation of the
second-wave progressive rock band
UK.
)
The fusion period
Keyboard player changes (Vangelis auditions, Patrick Moraz
stays)
Yes auditioned several musicians to take over from Wakeman,
including Roxy Music's
Eddie Jobson and
former Atlantis/
Cat Stevens keyboard
player Jean Roussel. For several weeks, they rehearsed with
multi-instrumentalist Vangelis Papathanassiou — previously of
Aphrodite's Child and later to
find fame under his own name as
Vangelis —
which proved to be musically interesting but ultimately
unsuccessful. (Vangelis would keep in touch with Jon Anderson,
tapping the latter's vocal talents for his 1976 album
Heaven
And Hell and later teaming with him in 1979 as
Jon and Vangelis.)
Wakeman's eventual replacement was the Swiss keyboard player
Patrick Moraz, a distinctive
electric-jazz musician who'd previously been part of the trio
Refugee (alongside two former members of
The Nice).
Relayer and solo break
Moraz arrived in Yes fairly late during the sessions for the band's
next album,
Relayer, which was
being recorded at Chris Squire's own home studio. He initially
fitted in well with the jazz-fusion influenced direction which Yes
were pursuing with the album, influenced by time on the road during
which their paths had crossed those of fusion bands such as
Return to Forever and
Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Released in 1974,
Relayer continued
certain traditions in featuring a side-long track, a cosmic battle
epic initially inspired by Tolstoy's
War And Peace) and called "
The Gates of Delirium" (from which the
"Soon" section was put out as a limited single release). The album
was considerably more energetic than
Tales from Topographic
Oceans, featuring powerful ensemble playing and new musical
ingredients such as electric flamenco and additional emphasis on
bizarre percussion (including found automobile parts).
Following an extended tour through 1975–1976, the band took a break
while each member of the group released his own solo album. At the
same time, the compilation album
Yesterdays was released,
containing tracks from the first two albums as well as the 1972 Yes
version of "America".
The first classic revival
Going for the One and the return of Wakeman
Late in 1976, Yes began working on sessions for a new album, to be
titled
Going for the One.
There is some confusion about the chain of events which followed,
which eventually resulted in Moraz being dismissed from the band to
be replaced by a returning Rick Wakeman. There are suggestions that
the band had become disillusioned with Moraz's jazz-inspired
approach when applied to the pre-
Relayer repertoire (including his extensive use
of pitch-bending) and that he did not fit in easily with the band's
way of working and communicating. Moraz is on record as saying he
feels he deserves credit for much of the music on
Going for the One, and Howe has
commented that the group "tried to remove as much of Patrick from
the songs as possible", so it would appear that Moraz did
contribute to the initial sessions. Ultimately, Moraz ended up at
the top of the ambiguous "thanks to..." list on the album sleeve.
Moraz would go on to have additional success by joining
The Moody Blues soon after his departure
from Yes.
At the time Wakeman shared management with Yes, and it has been
suggested that this may have played a strong role in engineering
his return. After a considerable amount of negotiation, he rejoined
the band on a "session musician" basis. Wakeman became a permanent
band member after hearing and being impressed by the new material,
which he considered to be more energetic and interesting than
Tales from Topographic
Oceans. Apart from the 15-minute track "
Awaken", most of the album's songs were
relatively short, including the madrigalesque "Wonderous Stories"
(which was released as a single in the UK in 1977 and reached the
top ten).
Going for the
One was also the first album not to feature Roger Dean's
artwork since
The Yes Album,
although it does display the Yes logo that Dean designed. (Instead,
the artwork was handled by design firm
Hipgnosis).
Going for the One and its
follow-up,1978's
Tormato, were
released at the height of the
punk rock
era in Britain, during which Yes were often criticised by the music
press as representing the most bloated excesses of early 1970s
progressive rock. Ironically, both albums were highly successful
commercially, and Yes eventually outlasted almost all the groups of
that era.
Uncertainty (Tormato)
1978's
Tormato album saw the band continuing their
movement towards shorter songs, played with a tighter rock feel
that at points approached New Wave styling. There was evidence of
Yes beginning to change aspects of their sound, with Wakeman
replacing his Mellotrons with another tape-driven keyboard (the
ill-fated
Birotron) and Squire
experimenting more with harmoniser and Mu-tron pedals. The band
members themselves have subsequently said that they were not sure
of some of the material on the album. This extended to the
production style, which was handled collectively by the band and
saw disagreements at the mixing stage.
The album artwork would see large changes as well, with
Hipgnosis taking a turn once again with their
combination of manipulated photography and graphical elements in
lieu of the traditional Roger Dean approach. For many fans, this
artwork did not properly capture the iconic "Yes" look, though it
was arguably as much of a visual departure as that of the music.
Despite internal and external criticisms of this latest album, the
band enjoyed successful tours supporting it in 1978 and 1979.
Upheaval (the failed Paris sessions and departure of Anderson
and Wakeman)
In October 1979, Yes convened in Paris with
Queen/
The Cars producer
Roy Thomas Baker. There are a
number of statements by band members and rumours as to why the
sessions did not produce a formal album. Dissatisfaction with
Baker's approach is often cited (with the release of some of the
session demos on the
Drama remaster confirming that Baker
seemed intent on applying the tightly-compressed and deliberately
artificial sound which had led to great commercial success with
The Cars).
More significantly, there was now a musical gap in the band between
Anderson and Wakeman on one side and Howe, Squire, and White on the
other, with the latter three now favouring a heavier rock sound and
the former two preferring a more fantastical and delicate approach.
In particular, Howe, Squire, and White said later in 1980 that none
of the three of them had liked the music which Anderson had been
offering the band, claiming it was too lightweight and lacking in a
heaviness that the trio felt they were generating during their own
time together. Bootlegs of these sessions and contemporary would
suggest that Howe
et al. were correct in their
descriptions of Anderson's music, some of which had been played by
Yes on tour but never recorded, and some of which appeared on his
1980 solo album
Song of
Seven.
In December 1979, the Paris sessions ended when White broke his
foot, and recordings were abandoned. When the band reconvened to
consider their next move, musical differences plus internal
dissension (primarily between Anderson and the rest of the band,
with Wakeman abstaining) obstructed progress. There is also strong
speculation that there was a falling-out over financial issues,
predominantly involving Anderson spending more than his fair share
of group monies. Claims and counterclaims followed: by May 1980,
the situation reached a conclusion with Anderson departing Yes, as
no agreement could be reached over musical direction and financial
remuneration.
With Anderson leaving, Rick Wakeman followed suit, thinking that
Yes could not continue without its primary voice.
New-wave Yes
Merger with The Buggles
At Yes manager Brian Lane's suggestion, Squire invited the
synth-pop duo
The Buggles -
Geoffrey Downes (keyboards) and
Trevor Horn (vocals) - to help out on a new Yes
album. As The Buggles, Downes and Horn had recently enjoyed success
of their own, including a worldwide hit with their single "
Video Killed the Radio Star",
and the initial idea was for them to help in writing new material;
they already had a song called "We Can Fly From Here" which had
been written with Yes in mind. To their surprise, they were invited
to join Yes as full-time members. They accepted the invitation and
performed on the
Drama
album in 1980 (on which "We Can Fly From Here" was not
included).
Drama
Drama clearly displayed a heavier, harder sound than the
material Yes recorded with Anderson in 1979, opening with the hard
rock, lengthy track "
Machine
Messiah". While
Drama was well received by many fans,
and often regarded as one of the finest moments for the trio of
Squire, Howe, and White, despite the Horn/Downes contribution, many
other Yes followers missed Anderson's unique lyrics and vocal
style. The album's artwork (the album was nicknamed "Panthers" by
some fans after the black cats featured in the Roger Dean cover)
raised eyebrows as the inside cover also displayed a bit of a
horror-house style in photo and graphic design, an anomaly that
perplexed some fans.
The band undertook a North American tour in September 1980. The
general consensus is that Horn performed the vocals for their new
material on tour well (although he had no experience fronting a
band that performed on the scale of Yes shows) but that he
struggled on the classic Yes material as it was not in his range.
When the band returned to England later in 1980, the English press
heaped great criticism on Horn and Yes.
1981 - band split (and posthumous releases)
After the
Drama tour, Yes reconvened in England to decide
the band’s next step. Ultimately, Trevor Horn left to pursue music
production.
Alan White and Chris Squire left Yes but continued working
together, beginning sessions with former
Led Zeppelin guitarist
Jimmy Page. The band was to be called
XYZ, short for "ex-Yes-and-Zeppelin," but nothing
came of the sessions when ex-Zeppelin vocalist
Robert Plant failed to get interested. XYZ
produced a few demo tracks, elements of which would appear in later
Yes music (most notably "Mind Drive" from
Keys to Ascension 2, and "Can You
Imagine", from
Magnification). Later in 1981,
Squire and White released the Christmas single "Run With the
Fox".
Downes and Howe, who were left holding the bag of Yes as it were,
opted not to continue Yes. Instead, they went on to form
"supergroup"
Asia with former
King Crimson and
UK
bassist/vocalist
John Wetton and
Carl Palmer from Emerson, Lake &
Palmer on drums.
Two more albums were released to apparently close Yes' career: the
live album
Yesshows (covering the pre-
Drama tours
supporting
Relayer,
Going for the One and
Tormato) and the
Classic Yes compilation.
Reinventing Yes for the 1980s
A band called Cinema
In 1982, over a year after the breakup of Yes, Chris Squire and
Alan White linked up with South African rock guitarist and singer
Trevor Rabin (ex-
Rabbitt) to form a new band called
Cinema. Since leaving Rabbitt, Rabin had
released three solo albums, developed a parallel career as a record
producer (including work with
Manfred
Mann) and been briefly considered as a member of
Asia). He was also a prolific songwriter, with a
strong understanding of how popular music needed to be made to fit
the MTV era. All of these factors fitted Squire's concept for the
new band, which was not initially intended as a continuation of
Yes, although Squire and White's personal music styling did ensure
that certain aspects of Yes' original style remained (particularly
in terms of vocal harmonies and the roots of songwriting). Original
Yes organist Tony Kaye was invited to participate as Squire felt
that Kaye's textural approach to keyboards would suit the
band.
Demos were recorded, and the band subsequently entered the studio
to record a complete album. The initial material was promising, and
included a catchy riff-oriented song called "
Owner of a Lonely Heart". At this
point Rabin played most of the keyboards in the studio as well as
playing guitar. Initially the lead vocals were shared between Rabin
and Squire, but it soon became clear that Rabin was not yet ready
to sing lead in a band that was likely to operate at Cinema's
level. Another former Yes member, Trevor Horn, became involved with
the project as a potential replacement lead singer but eventually
opted to produce the sessions instead. The band remained under
pressure to find an acceptable frontman.
Meanwhile, Jon Anderson had been continuing with his solo career,
having recorded two solo albums (
Song
of Seven and
Animation) since leaving the band.
He had achieved greater success with the "
Jon and Vangelis" project which
reunited him with
Vangelis Papathanassiou
in 1979 to produce two albums - 1979's
Short Stories
(which generated the UK hit single "I Hear You Now") and 1981's
The Friends of Mr Cairo (which in turn had produced the
North American FM hit "Friends of Mr. Cairo" and another U.K. hits
"I'll Find My Way Home"). Despite this success, Anderson later
confessed that he had been "missing the band terribly". In early
1983, he met Chris Squire at a party in Los Angeles. Squire took
the opportunity to play him some of Cinema's demos. Seeing that
Anderson was impressed with the band's new approach in songs like
"Leave It," Squire invited him to add his vocals to the new
project.
Anderson's involvement with Cinema was initially comparatively
minor, involving re-singing vocals in the last few weeks of
production. As he became integrated into the band, he also re-wrote
lyrics. At this point, the record company decided it made more
commercial sense to market the album under the name Yes, against
the protestations of guitarist Trevor Rabin. At this point the band
contained three of the previous band's founder members and its
longest serving drummer.
Many fans call this lineup "Yes West," because of the band's
relocation to Los Angeles and the more American, radio-friendly
sound that introduced Yes to a massive fan-base and a reinterest in
their older material. Yes made many new and younger fans over the
next years with the
90125 album. To distinguish them from
fans who prefer the classic Yes (sometimes called "Troopers"), fans
of this lineup were often called "Generators," taken from this
lineup's second album,
Big
Generator. However, it should be noted that many Yes fans
enjoy both periods of the group's music.
90125 and 9012 Live
The Cinema recordings, with Anderson's involvement - were issued as
the Yes reunion album,
90125, which
quickly established itself as a radical departure from their
earlier sound. Although it featured the trademark Yes harmonies,
these were now applied to shorter, punchier songs with distinct pop
hooks and allied to Rabin's more hard-rock oriented guitar
approach. Rabin also brought in a dense, multi-tracked arrangement
style more akin to
Les Paul's work and far
more attuned to contemporary pop expectations. As producer, Trevor
Horn layered the album with modern electronic effects and digital
sampling tricks via the then-new
Fairlight
CMI, and also played a prominent role in vocal arrangement
(even contributing his own vocals at various points on the record,
most notably on the predominantly a-cappella showcase "Leave It").
The album's music varied from deftly-arranged power pop ("
Owner of a Lonely Heart") and
near-heavy-metal ("City Of Love") to energetic minimalist riffs
("Changes") and a more classic Yes-styled finale in the shape of
"Hearts".
Yes' most commercially successful album by far,
90125
eventually sold over six million copies and secured a new lease on
life for Yes, who toured over a year to support it. The album's
lead song, "
Owner of a Lonely
Heart", was a number 1 hit on the main charts and even crossed
over to become a top hit on the R&B and disco charts. Sampled
countless times since, it remains a defining song of 80's-era
pop.
The video clip for "
Owner of a
Lonely Heart" also reveals a brief Yes personnel shuffle.
During the promotional period for the song, a sidelined Tony Kaye
had temporarily left the band and had been replaced by
Eddie Jobson, with the result that Jobson
appeared in the video. Jobson has reported on his own website that
he was first asked to replace Kaye and then (as relations were
mended between Yes and Kaye) to share the keyboard duties. Jobson
declined, and left the band as Kaye returned.
Yes also scored significant hit singles with "Leave It" and "It Can
Happen," and garnered a Grammy award for Best Rock Instrumental
("Cinema," a short, highly compressed and complex track recorded
live in the studio), suggesting that the group had not totally
abandoned their musicianship in favour of commercial success – as
some fans allege.
90125 also spawned a concert video,
directed by
Steven Soderbergh,
9012Live, and a live
mini-album,
9012Live: The Solos, which featured two full
band songs ("Hold On" and "Changes") and a set of solo performances
(Anderson performing "Soon" from "The Gates of Delerium", Squire
performing a solo version of "
Amazing
Grace" and Rabin performing the McLaughlin-esque acoustic
guitar piece "Solly's Beard"). The album also featured a lengthy
drums-and-basse duet called "Whitefish" in which Squire and White
performed a medley of music from "The Fish", "Tempus Fugit" and
"Sound Chaser".
Struggling for momentum (Big Generator)
In 1986, Yes began recording
Big
Generator. Unfortunately, interpersonal problems (chiefly
between Rabin and Anderson) kept the album from timely completion,
and ultimately Trevor Rabin took a hand in its final production.
Although 1987's
Big Generator
did not fare as well as
90125, it
still sold well over two million copies. Some Yes fans have
considered
Big Generator more
faithful to the vintage Yes sound than its predecessor because of a
concentrated effort to record longer songs such as "I'm Running"
and "
Shoot High, Aim Low" in
addition to the more poppy tunes. Trevor Rabin's radio-friendly
"Love Will Find a Way" charted moderately well, with the Beach
Boys-inspired "Rhythm of Love" barely scraping the Top 40.
The 1988
tour ended with a gig at Madison Square Garden
as part of Atlantic Records's 40th anniversary
celebrations, but left Yes members exhausted and frustrated with
one another.
The years of two Yeses
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe
Jon Anderson grew tired of the musical direction of the "new" Yes
line-up and wanted the band to return to its classic sound.
Following the 1988 tour, Anderson, asserting that he would never
stay in the band purely for the money, began working with former
Yes members Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, and Bill Bruford. Some in the
group (particularly Bill Bruford) wanted to distance themselves
from the "Yes" name.
As it turned out, the former Yes members were contractually unable
to use the name, as Squire, White, Kaye, Rabin (and, ironically,
Anderson) held the rights, dating back to the
90125
contract . Subsequently, the new group called themselves
Anderson Bruford
Wakeman Howe, or simply
ABWH. The project
included
Tony Levin on bass, brought in
by Bruford after the two had worked together in King Crimson.
Appealing to old and new Yes fans, their eponymous 1989 album
featured "Brother of Mine", a popular MTV video in its own right,
and went gold in the United States. However, they did not all
record together as in the early 70s and instead their parts were
slotted into place on the album by Anderson. Howe has stated
publicly that he was unhappy with the mix of his guitars on the
album (a version of "Fist of Fire" with more of Howe's guitars left
intact eventually appeared on the
In a Word box set in 2001). It
is also worth noting that according to Bruford, the four-way
writing credit does not reflect the actual writing process and was
instead an incentive to have the ex-Yes men take part in the
recording sessions.
After the album's release, legal battles (sparked by Atlantic
Records) soon followed over the title of ABWH's tour,
An Evening of Yes Music
Plus, the live recording of which featured Bruford
colleague
Jeff Berlin in Levin's bassist
spot, who was forced to sit out for two weeks because of illness.
In addition, the live sessions were augmented by second keyboardist
Julian Colbeck and guitarist Milton McDonald. The tour alternated
between music from AWBH and vintage Yes classics, and each night
opened with short solo stints from all four Yes members.
"Union" and reunion
Meanwhile Yes were working on their follow-up to
Big
Generator. The band had been shopping around for a new singer.
Ex-
Supertramp vocalist
Roger Hodgson had rejected the post. Hodgson
enjoyed working with the group but thought it unwise to attempt to
pass off the music as Yes. The band had been working with
songwriter
Billy Sherwood of
World Trade. Arista, ABWH's new label,
encouraged ABWH to seek outside songwriters, and Trevor Rabin
ultimately sent a demo.
Predictably, Arista sensed the commercial possibility of a Yes
re-union. This would lead to the end of Yes having new albums
released by Atlantic Records after more than 20 years of their
initial recording contract. Throughout early 1991, phone calls were
made, lawyers soothed, and agreements were struck, with Yes West
joining ABWH for the
Union album. Each group did its own
songs, with Jon Anderson singing on all tracks. Chris Squire sang
background vocals on a few of the ABWH tracks (with Tony Levin
doing all the bass on those songs).
A world tour united all eight members on one stage in a short-lived
"Mega-Yes" line-up of Anderson, Squire, Howe, Rabin, Kaye, Wakeman,
Bruford, and White. The album was clearly a somewhat forced
combination of the music from the two line-ups, since none of the
songs on
Union featured all eight members at once;
two-thirds were actually ABWH compositions, while Trevor Rabin and
Chris Squire contributed four songs (including a Billy Sherwood
collaboration). Nearly the entire band have publicly stated their
disliking for the finished product because of producer
Jonathan Elias's secret involvement of
session musicians after the initial sessions. (Bruford has disowned
the album entirely, and Wakeman was reportedly unable to recognise
any of his keyboard work in the final edit, and amusingly threw his
copy of the album out of his limousine. He has gone on record as
referring to the entire venture as "Onion" because it makes him cry
when he thinks about it.) Producer Jonathan Elias later stated
publicly in an interview that Jon Anderson as the associate
producer knew of the session musicians and even initiated their
contributions, because of the hostility between some of the band
members at the time (notably between Anderson and Howe and Wakeman)
and none of the work getting done.
The Union tour itself featured tracks spanning the band's entire
career, and it was one of the highest grossing concert tours of
1991 and 1992. The album itself fared well, with approximately 1.5
million sold worldwide.
When the
Union tour was over in 1992, Bill Bruford and
Steve Howe recorded an album of Yes instrumental music
reinterpreted by an orchestra for RCA Victor, which featured Jon
Anderson's vocals on two of the songs. Entitled
Symphonic Music of Yes, the
album offered new presentations of Yes songs. String arrangements
were done by
David Palmer, and the record
was produced by
Alan Parsons. After the
release of this album, Bill Bruford chose not to remain involved in
future Yes possibilities.
90125 lineup renewed
Talk
Jon Anderson began writing with both Howe and Rabin separately, but
eventually the former was not asked to be on the next album by the
record label (Victory Music), which had approached Rabin with a
proposal to produce an album solely with the
90125 lineup,
to which Rabin initially countered by requesting Wakeman be
included. By 1993, Wakeman's refusal to leave his long-serving
management meant he also could not play on the new album, which by
then was well into production (Rabin and Wakeman have both
expressed regret that they never played together on a Yes album -
excepting the patchwork of
Union - although Rabin did
guest on Wakeman's
Return to the Centre of the
Earth album in 1999).
Yes were back to their popular 1980s lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris
Squire, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye, and Alan White. In 1994, Yes
released
Talk on Victory
Music, one of the group's poorest selling releases. Neither the
record label nor US radio stations provided much promotion for "The
Calling", perhaps their strongest single since "Owner of a Lonely
Heart." (
David Letterman heard the
song while driving and immediately sought to find the "new band"
and have them appear on the Late Show, which they did on June 20,
1994, just days into their Talk tour, performing "Walls" from
Talk). Some of the fruits of the band's work with
Roger Hodgson also appears on the album.
On the 1994 tour, guitarist/vocalist
Billy Sherwood, who co-authored Union's "The
More We Live" with Squire, joined as a sixth member. The Talk tour
featured an innovative sound system via which fans at a concert
could listen on their portable FM radios turned to a specific
frequency to hear greater dynamic range and stereo effects during
the concerts.
Final split of 90125 lineup
By the end of 1994, Tony Kaye, Trevor Rabin, and Billy Sherwood
left, with Rabin going on to become a highly successful film score
composer and Kaye retiring (he subsequently came back out of
retirement, providing Hammond organ on several tracks on the
Sherwood-produced
Return to the Dark Side of
the Moon in 2006 and then working on further projects with
Sherwood).
The second classic revival
Keys To Ascension
The band reformed the 1970s lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire,
Alan White, Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman for a three-night live
performance in the California town of San Luis Obispo in 1996. As
the band formed a brief contract with
CMC International Records, the
resulting live recordings were released, together with new music,
on the
Keys to Ascension
albums.
Keys to Ascension
2, in particular, featured 48 minutes of new music. The
band was disappointed that the new material was not released as a
single studio album, which had the working title of 'Know.' The new
studio cuts from those two albums were later reissued on a single
CD called
Keystudio. Wakeman left
the group yet again before the release of
Keys to Ascension
2 after a Yes tour was planned without his input, and because
of his frustration over the decision to bury the
Keystudio
studio tracks on redundant live albums.
Bridging the styles (the Sherwood/Khoroshev years, Open
Your Eyes and The Ladder)
Yes live performance June 1998.
Billy Sherwood immediately rejoined Yes on keyboards and guitar.
Open Your Eyes
was released in 1997 and used some material originally intended for
a project by Squire-Sherwood that was subsequently called
Conspiracy. The band would release this
and future releases on the Beyond Music label to ensure they have
more of a say in packaging and titling the albums. Only the title
track and one other, "
New State of
Mind", received any radio airplay. The tour that followed
featured only a few pieces from the new album, and mostly
concentrated on the revival of early Yes material such as "
Siberian Khatru". The return of Steve Howe
to the touring Yes, along with a heavier emphasis on 1970s-era Yes
music, was considered an exciting development by many fans. The
tour also featured keyboards from Russian keyboard player
Igor Khoroshev, who had played on a few of
the
Open Your Eyes tracks.
Khoroshev continued to work with the band for the following album
The Ladder. This would be the
last album that record producer
Bruce
Fairbairn would work on before an untimely death. Many fans
were reminded of the band's 1970s sound, largely because of
Khoroshev's keyboards. His work was classically-oriented and also
included sampling large sections of music by British techno group
The Prodigy. Sherwood's live role was
limited to backup vocals and backup guitar, with a few notable
spotlight moments for guitar solos in Rabin-era songs. Howe refused
to duplicate Rabin's solos, citing that his style would not fit
those solos. The 1999 tour resulted in a live DVD of the
performance at the Las Vegas House of Blues.
"Homeworld (The Ladder)", a track from
The Ladder, was
written for Relic Entertainment's
Homeworld real-time strategy computer game and was
used as the credits and outro theme. It is interesting to note that
the band stated that they wrote the song not because they were
requested by the game's developers, but because they liked several
aspects of the game itself.
Sherwood, finding Yes's internal politics uncomfortable , left the
band before the 2000 Masterworks tour, which featured a revival of
the Moraz-period extended piece "The Gates of Delirium" (from the
album
Relayer). Shortly before the scheduled recording of
Yes' next album, Khoroshev was fired from the band amidst a cloud
of controversy over his backstage conduct including a sexual
assault charge.
Orchestral Yes (Magnification)
Yes' following studio album, 2001's
Magnification, was recorded
without a keyboard player in the band. Instead, Yes was backed by a
60-piece orchestra performing specific parts and arrangements
written by notable film composer
Larry
Groupé (and filling the dynamic range and arrangement space
usually filled by a keyboard player). The band took an orchestra on
tour with them to promote the album, although they also hired
keyboardist
Tom Brislin in order to
reproduce some of the classic Yes keyboard material more
faithfully.
Third return of Rick Wakeman
Fans who felt they were short-changed in 1996 were delighted as
Rick Wakeman announced his return to the group on April 20, 2002,
and a world tour for Yes followed, including a return to Australia
after more than 30 years. The lineup enjoyed a somewhat revitalised
presence in the public consciousness, especially during the
celebration of their 35th anniversary in 2004. This revitalisation
showed itself during a show in New York's Madison Square Garden.
Near the end of the song "And You and I" where Howe finishes his
pedal steel part, before the last few acoustic notes, the band was
overwhelmed with thunderous applause. It lasted so long that by the
time it subsided, the roadies had already removed Howe's guitar -
Wakeman then had to play the last bit with Anderson singing.
Reacting to an online survey of popular Yes songs to play, the band
added "
South Side of the Sky"
to the touring set list, a surprise given that it had rarely been
played before (even on the original Fragile tour). In later legs of
the tour, the band performed some songs in acoustic style, after
doing a live-via-satellite concert as part of the
Yesspeak documentary premiere.
Hiatus and side projects (2004-2008)
Following the 35th Anniversary tour, Yes went on hiatus. In lieu of
releasing new albums, they formed deals with
Image Entertainment and other video
firms to release past concert performances, music videos, and
interviews on DVD. Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White had all
expressed an interest in recording and touring, but Anderson had
been firmly opposed because of personal health concerns. During the
hiatus, band members pursued a variety of solo projects.
In 2004, Squire joined a reformed version of
The
Syn, one of his pre-Yes groups from the 1960s. The reunited
group also included original singer Steve Nardelli and original
Syn/Yes guitarist Peter Banks, augmented by new musicians.
On November 11, 2004, for one night only, Trevor Rabin, Steve Howe,
Chris Squire, Alan White, and Geoff Downes performed "Cinema", and
"Owner of a Lonely Heart" at the
Prince's
Trust concert at Wembley Arena, which was a tribute to former
Yes vocalist/producer Trevor Horn. It remains somewhat unclear why
Anderson did not perform that night, although since Horn was being
honoured that night (the other acts that played that night were all
produced by Horn), there may have been a desire to emphasise Horn's
role rather than Anderson's. One report said that Anderson needed
time to rest, under doctors' orders, and that Wakeman declined to
join in because of Anderson's absence. Whatever the exact reason,
fans of the
90125 era were delighted to see Rabin perform
with the group for the first time in ten years, and, as on the
Union tour, the audience was treated to guitar solos by
both Rabin and Howe.
White formed a new Seattle-based group,
White,
featuring Downes. Their debut album, also called
White,
was released on April 18, 2006. Plans for a joint tour by White,
The Syn, and Steve Howe (which would have included the Yes members,
augmented by White singer Kevin Currie, performing songs from
Drama) were canceled. Instead, White toured separately in
2006.
On May 16, 2006, Squire announced that he had left The Syn. Banks
had previously departed the reformed group in the early stages of
the reunion. (The group would continue for a few more years around
the nucleus of Nardelli, with a variety of musicians including
Francis Dunnery and members of
Echolyn.)
Also on May 16, 2006 the original members of Asia - including Howe
and Downes -
announced that they would be reuniting for a 25th
anniversary tour, which commenced in September. Anderson and
Wakeman toured together in October 2006, and the set list for most
shows featured Yes material along with songs from both their solo
careers, and at least one ABWH song.
In March 2007 Billy Sherwood, Tony Kaye, Alan White and guitarist
Jimmy Haun (who'd played many of the guitar parts on
Union) formally announced the formation of the Yes-related
supergroup Circa, which they had been rehearsing since the
previous year. On July 30, 2007, the band self-released on Internet
their debut album,
Circa 2007.
Their debut live performance was held on August 23, 2007, at The
Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, at which time the band
performed its entire debut album followed by an hour-long medley of
Yes songs.
Anderson has also composed some new music with Trevor Rabin . How
this music will reach the public has yet to be seen.
In the first half of 2008, Anderson toured North America solo, Howe
toured with
Asia, and White toured with
Circa.
Cancellations and health scares
In honour of the band's 40th Anniversary, Yes had announced a 2008
world tour, entitled
Close to the Edge and Back. The tour
was cancelled on June 4 due to Anderson's health problems. Per the
press release, "Yes frontman and founding member Jon Anderson was
admitted to the hospital last month after suffering a severe asthma
attack. He has now been diagnosed with acute respiratory failure
and was told by doctors this weekend that he needs to rest and not
work for a period of at least six months or suffer further health
complications. Upon receiving this news the band has determined
that their tour plans need to be put on hold." The tour had been
planned to feature Anderson, Squire, Howe, and White, and to also
include
Oliver Wakeman sitting in on
keyboards, in lieu of his father, Rick (who bowed out on the advice
of his doctors).
Anderson said the band was preparing four new "lengthy,
multi-movement compositions" for the tour which are "very, very
different," however, after the weak sales of 2001's
Magnification, Anderson has said that "putting together an
album really isn't logical anymore" and no announcement has been
made as to a release of recordings of this new material in any
form.
A new lineup
The In the Present Tour (featuring Benoît David and Oliver
Wakeman)
On stage in Columbus, Ohio.
A separate, North American tour entitled "In The Present" began on
November 4, 2008 in Ontario, Canada, featuring Howe, Squire &
White, along with Oliver Wakeman on keyboards. For the tour,
Anderson's place as lead vocalist was taken by Canadian singer
Benoît David,, who was previously
best known for fronting the progressive rock band Mystery and a Yes
tribute band called Close to the Edge. The tour saw the return to
the live set of material from the
Drama album ("Tempus
Fugit" and "Machine Messiah"), "Astral Traveler" from the
Time
and a word album (not played live since 1971), as well as one
new Chris Squire composition, "Aliens (Are Only Us From the
Future)".
David's position as lead singer on the tour led many to question
Anderson's ongoing role in the band, and even whether Anderson
remained a member of Yes. The issue was complicated by the fact
that the shows were formally billed as "Howe, Squire and White of
Yes," although many reports and outlets simply referred to the band
as "Yes".
In the official press release, Squire clarified the issue by
stating "this isn't an attempt to replace Jon Anderson, because as
we all know, that would be impossible. With Benoît, we are bringing
in a talented singer so that we can go out and honour the music of
Yes for the fans who have waited for the past four years to see us
perform." Squire also stated to the Associated Press that he was
hopeful that Anderson would be well enough to do shows in
2009.
Anderson's own public reaction was less positive. Initially he
stated on his website that he felt "disappointed" and
"disrespected" by the move and by the lack of contact the other
members had had with him since his illness. Later, this
announcement was removed from his website, and Squire has since
said that the tour has Anderson's "blessings".
On February 9, 2009, Squire was rushed to a hospital with an
unspecified "medical emergency" that required a operation on his
leg on February 11, 2009. He required at least a month to
recuperate, which resulted in the postponement of the remainder of
the scheduled "In the Present" shows, mostly in the Western USA.
Howe took advantage of the postponed tour to fit in some more work
with
Asia.
Following Squire's recovery - and similarly taking advantage of the
gap in Yes' tour schedule, Squire and White reunited with Trevor
Rabin at a benefit reception on 18 April 2009 in Snoqualmie,
Washington, playing the music of
John
Lennon.
The Yes tour resumed in the summer of 2009, with the same "In the
Present" band, simply billed as "Yes". This tour featured Asia as
an opening act, with Steve Howe playing with both bands. The
24-date schedule began in Indio, California on June 26, and ended
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on August 2. Meanwhile, Jon Anderson is
doing a European solo tour.
Yes announced a European tour scheduled in fall and winter 2009
(from Olomouc, Czech Republic on October 29 up to Gothenburg,
Sweden on December 12).
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.
[7254]
Discography
Personnel
Miscellaneous
- In 2005, DJ Max Graham sampled and
remixed Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart", credited to Max Graham Vs.
Yes. The song reached the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart.
- Two characters in the movie The
Break-Up sing "Owner of
a Lonely Heart" at a dinner. The song is included on an album
of music from the movie.
Notes
- YES music, discography, MP3, videos and reviews
- In The Present Tour
- Jon Anderson out of Yes, replaced by tribute-band
singer
- Rock band Yes to tour with replacement singer
- Yesgigs 1966-1980
- Mojo Magazine November 1994 '1-2-3 and the Birth of Prog'; The
Illustrated History of Rock ' Clouds by Ed Ward'
- Yes: Yes: Music Reviews: Rolling Stone
- http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Alan_White.html
- ScoreMagacine.com - Web dedicada a la Música de
Cine y Bandas Sonoras
- http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/iv/jeinterview.htm
- http://chrissquire.com/cs_newsmain.html
- Yes Tour Planned
for 2008
- Yes Reveals 'Very Different' New Material
-
http://creatives.as4x.tmcs.net/ticketmaster/tours/YESskyscraperNEW_160x600_v2.jpg
-
http://www.ticketmaster.com/Howe-Squire-White-of-Yes-tickets/artist/1261256
- http://www.ticketmaster.com/Yes-tickets/artist/736506
-
http://www.ticketmaster.com/Howe-Squire-White-of-Yes-tickets/artist/1261437
- http://www.jonanderson.com/news.html
- Yes preps for tour without ailing frontman
- http://yesworld.com/ywtour.html
- Yes They Can! press release
- Tour dates
- http://jonanderson.com/news.html
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