The first album I ever bought was
Close To The Edge. I was
14 years old, and when I first listened to that album, I was flabbergasted. I
played the album over and over again, until even my mother liked some parts of
And You And I,
and the title track. Since then I've been
Yes-addict and
|
Jon Davison |
have bought all the albums of my prog rock gods, with the exception of two albums of course, being
Drama (1980)
and
Fly From Here (2011). Because
Jon Anderson didn't contribute on
these, and for real Yes aficionados, like me, the golden rule is: Yes = Jon
Anderson and Jon Anderson = Yes. This band without Jon on vocals is like
Led Zeppelin without
Robert Plant
or
Pearl Jam without
Eddie Vedder, so I was really disappointed when I heard that Jon wouldn't be able
to join
Howe,
Squire,
White and
Downes on this anniversary tour.
I've even considered not going to this gig, but three 'original' Yes members were present, so I decided
to give it a shot... When the first notes of the
Firebird Suite
sounded through the 013 venue, it was as if I was
back in the seventies and the set list of this tour also contained songs from
the seventies only. Three notorious Yes albums were played in their entirety this evening, being:
The
Yes album (1971),
Close To The Edge (1972) and
Going For The One
(1977). Of course I knew all the 14 classic symphonic rock
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Chris Squire |
songs by heart and I really enjoyed the show. The vocals were being taken care of by
Glass Hammer frontman
Jon Davison and he did a decent job although, of course, he's no Jon Anderson. Highlights for me were the longer
epic tracks like
Awaken,
Close To The Edge (which sounded a bit chaotic at times),
Yours Is No Disgrace and
Perpetual Change. These songs all
stand the test of time, although they're all at least 35 years old! Howe,
Squire and White played top notch, at least, most of the time, and they played
these old songs as if they performed them for the very first time. So, a great
set list, although I could have done without the rather boring acoustic
Clap and the encore
Roundabout,
a song that Yes have played too many times in their
long career. Why not choose a more original encore instead of that redundant,
overkill track? But who am I to nag about this evening as, even without Jon. it
was a great gig. These old geezers still know how to rock and I hope to see you
all (again) during their fiftieth anniversary tour. Then, hopefully, with
Rick Wakeman
and Jon Anderson on stage as well. I know that this is wishful thinking, but what the hell.
Martien Koolen (edited by Esther Ladiges)