Label: Eagle Rock Entertainment
Release date: 7. 9. 2018
Album length: 125 min (2CD)
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rating: 10/10
It’s true. This live document came out back in 2018, but it’s still seriously interesting and deserves “a few” lines. In 2010, three former Yes members joined forces (the emphasis being on: sadly, three former ones): vocalist Jon Anderson, guitarist Trevor Rabin and keyboardist Rick Wakeman. It was their first collaboration since 1992, that is, since the era of the Yes album “Union” and the end of the tour that followed. The original plan was to record a studio album of their own, but it never happened. You have to keep in mind that at the time Yes, under the leadership of the late Yes bassist Chris Squire, were still going at it with full fire and recording new material too.
There was always a bridge of trust and respect between Anderson and Squire, and the understanding was that the name Yes could only ever be used by the lineup united around Chris Squire. So the three musicians initially set up their project under the name A\R\W (Anderson, Rabin, Wakeman), which brought back memories of the A\B\W\H project (Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe). Soon after Chris passed away, in June 2015, his wife Scotland herself suggested to Anderson that he, too, should from now on use the name Yes. And so we ended up with two Yeses again. On one side, those who carried on down Squire’s path, with the most prominent members Steve Howe, Alan White and Geoff Downes, and on the other the “new Yes” with Rabin, Anderson and Wakeman, who renamed themselves “Yes featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin And Rick Wakeman”.
The trio decided to hit the road on a tour celebrating fifty years of Yes music, and on 25. 3. 2017 they played Manchester in the UK, where they completely sold out the local Apollo, which is also where this recording comes from. The famous threesome were joined on stage by a rhythm section made up of bassist Lee Pomeroy (who has played with the well-known pop golden boys Take That, as well as Jeff Lynne’s Electric Light Orchestra, It Bites, Steve Hackett, Rick Wakeman,…) and drummer Louis Molino III (known for his work with Rabin, the Yoso project and the band Cock Robin).
Since Rabin is basically the definition of Yes artistry in the eighties, and of the album “Talk” (1994) too, which we’ll leave aside this time, the three musicians cleverly put the repertoire together so that the tour also featured eighties classics, that is, from the albums “90125” and “Big Generator”. The first of the two in particular is still considered one of the greatest art rock / pop gems of all time in rock ‘n’ roll.
With filigree attentiveness, Rabin came within a whisker of the guitar sound of both eighties Yes records, and he also slyly got close to the sonic foundations of Steve Howe, although, unlike Howe’s organic “jazz meets Chet Atkins” purism, he gave the guitar tone more grease and distorted, wide-eyed grit. The guitar sounds deliberately a bit more pouty and ruffled on the seventies Yes classics. And Rabin is also a mile better guitarist than Howe, and those of you who are “sensitive” about this topic will now jump out of your seats and would rather settle for the verdict “a mile different”, although both hold true (different and better). Rabin’s exceptional layered musical craftsmanship, broad understanding and expressive range, combined with the keyboard wizard Wakeman, also click together far more playfully! The artistic daring is hugely intensified in the pairing of these two musicians.
You don’t need to be Einstein to figure out that this is, from head to toe, a thoroughbred live Yes album. Not only do the songs follow the originals phenomenally, but Rabin and Wakeman deliver a heap of virtuosic tricks at every single step along the way, through the language of improvisation that actually defines the style of both musicians. That way, every single song has grown in artistic and sonic stature, and when you compare them with all the officially released live documents by Yes, they stand totally on their own in these versions, as a manifestation of the unique and singular magic that only the Wakeman and Rabin pairing can create. In terms of virtuosic daring, the reinterpretation of the classics at times even steals the spotlight from the most notorious live albums by Yes, led by “Yessongs” and “Yesshows”. Pomeroy and Molino also contribute the lion’s share to this special magic that was born that evening in the Apollo.
But none of this could be called Yes in any way, shape or form without the one and only on vocals. Jon Anderson. His voice is preserved as if it were 1968 and the man was barely twenty. Over all these years he hasn’t lost a single speck of his towering vocal charisma, accompanied by a unique, mile-recognizable character engraving that breathes life into the songs until they become “biblical Yes orthodoxy”. So, backed by a top-notch rhythm section, three legendary musicians have blossomed again in all their glory and are enjoying a new spring!
This live document is thrilling from head to toe. Playful, spirited, “tense”, bursting with boundless dynamics, brilliant antics in the solo spots, coherence and consistency. A live document you can’t get enough of, one that begs you to hit “play” again and again when it ends. There’s a pile of details in the quintet’s playing that you can keep discovering for a good while, revelling in the live magic. From the eighties classics, headed by one of the best Rabin-era Yes songs, Changes, to that craftily smuggled metal riff in the pop aura of Owner of a Lonely Heart, and on to Rhythm of Love, Lift me Up (a surprise from the album “Union”) and Hold On. Of course, Rabin and Anderson swap lead vocals in them, just like on the studio versions of the songs. The performance of the seventies classics is especially breathtaking, because you can feel that Wakeman wanted to loosen up the arrangements a little, without straying an inch from the essence of the originals. He did it by making use of Rabin’s musical breadth and, as already mentioned, clicking with him brilliantly. The biggest charm of this release is precisely the reinterpretations of the seventies classics, headed by the brilliant epic suite Awaken, the torn-from-the-sky progressive epic Heart of the Sunrise and the progressive-turned-folk-anthem Roundabout, which as expected delivers the final crescendo. Special mention goes to the dedication to Chris Squire in the highly witty performance of the “Fragile” classic Schindleria Praematurus, which in 1972 in many ways charted the course for the development of bass guitar playing in rock music.
It’s a shame this version of Yes didn’t manage to put together a studio album, although Wakeman didn’t rule out the possibility in future in interviews. That’s unlikely, though, since Rabin’s current stance on the idea is dismissive. That’s hardly surprising, as Rabin has for years been writing music only for film scores. The band did plan a tour for this year, but it never happened. We know why. So for now, all we’re left with as consolation is this superb live document. Yes fans have had it at home for a good while, and for the rest of you who don’t know the band, this document can serve as an excellent introduction to the lives and work of these progressive rock titans.
Track list:
CD1
1. Intro / Cinema / Perpetual Change (Medley) (11:20)
2. Hold On (8:00)
3. I’ve Seen All Good People (7:43):
(I) Your Move
(II) All Good People
4. Lift Me Up (7:11)
5. And You & I (10:40):
(I) Cord Of Life
(II) Eclipse
(III) The Preacher, The Teacher
(IV) Apocalypse
6. Rhythm Of Love (4:55)
7. Heart Of The Sunrise (11:26)
CD2:
1. Changes (6:59)
2. Long Distance Runaround / The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) (Medley)(6:17)
3. Awaken (22:40)
4. Make It Easy / Owner Of A Lonely Heart (Medley) (9:46)
5. Roundabout (7:34)
Line-up:
Jon Anderson – vocals, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Trevor Rabin – guitar, vocals, backing vocals
Rick Wakeman – keyboards
Lee Pomeroy – bass guitar, backing vocals
Louis Molino III – drums, percussion
