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JUNE 1984
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Source: Relayer Magazine (UK), Issue 14
http://www.yessng.net/90125.html
Floating Giraffes and Carnations
By Roxi Cook
[NOTE: Editing marks below were made by the author in 1998.]
When the most popular lineup in Yes history dispersed in 1980, there seemed
little likelihood that the band would get back together. However, after a
few years and several less-than-successful solo projects, a reunion of
Chris Squire, Alan White and Tony Kaye during mid-1982, along with South
African guitarist Trevor Rabin, began to rehearse new material under the
name of Cinema. When the sound that developed needed vocal augmentation,
Chris called upon Jon Anderson, and the rest of the story is history.
It was only a matter of a press release to confirm that Yes was indeed back
for the 1980s.
The “90125” album, released in November 1983, was hailed as
up-to-the-minute music, proving that this lineup could indeed invent fresh
and commercially popular arrangements without sacrificing their reputation
as tight, technical musicians in a progressive mode. The question that
remained then was whether they could take it on the road, and prove that
they could still reproduce the older songs to the satisfaction of long-time
followers, as well as draw in new fans with the live performance of the
most recently released material.
This year’s Yes concert performances promised to be something completely
new and different. Thousands grouped together to discover a re-creation of
sound and stage design, to see the old and the new blended into energy and
magic.
This newness was delayed when instead of a prompt performance, we were
entertained with Bugs Bunny cartoons. The first was of a bullfight with the
determined rabbit, and the second cartoon was of Bugs (“Rabbit Hood”) and
the sheriff of Sherwood Forest, with a cameo by Errol Flynn. However, as
the tour progressed, the latter cartoon was replaced with a more relevant
flick of modern meaning - Bugs vs. the Mad Scientist. The highlight of this
one (“Water, Water Every Hare”) was the depiction of the featured
characters under the influence of ether. This delighted audiences
everywhere, as young people cheered their approval.
It was at least another twenty minutes before the taped filler music ended
and the first sounds of the “Hello Goodbye/Leave It” mix were broadcast
over the P.A. As this remix single had not yet been released in most of the
areas they toured, the fans were seemingly unaware that this music signaled
the beginning of the show. It wasn’t until the song was well underway that
the house lights went off, and the usual mighty cheer arose. People stood
up in anticipation; the coliseum glowed with flickering matchlights. In the
semi-darkness, the players took their places on the stage.
At once, the stage was flooded with red and pink light while Yes dove into
“Cinema.” The sound was excellent, the band full of energetic instrumental
mastery.
The people who came to see them these cool evenings were quite young, and,
for most, this was the first time they’d seen this band. The entire “90125”
album was performed during the course of the shows at the beginning of the
tour. However, after the Columbus and Toledo shows, “Our Song” (and also a
vintage “Perpetual Change”) were eliminated to make the shows a touch shorter.
After “Cinema,” they directly proceeded to “Leave It.” As the live sound
echoed the recorded version rather well, I suspect that those five voices
were being supplemented via tape. After all, the “90125” version contained
twenty-seven harmonies on this particular track. And it was quite plain
that Jon’s distinctive voice was harmonizing with itself. Nevertheless, it
sounded very, very good. It was also obvious that they knew how to enjoy
themselves.
The stage was somewhat round, reflecting the new Yes logo. Onto the usual
rectangular flat stage was added a rounded, downward-sloping, front piece,
and the back of the stage was an elevated angle, so that the drums were
above the regular stage. During “Leave It,” Alan White played electronic
drums off and up to the side of the kit. Jon also had a small Korg keyboard
set up to the left of the drums, to which he retreated when his part called
for supplementation of Tony Kaye’s complex keyboard parts. But for most of
the show, Jon was front and center, between Trevor Rabin and Chris Squire
with Tony off to the extreme left.
Mobility was a key factor in their performance; the guitars were cordless.
Jon also had a wireless microphone held in place by a neck brace during the
first few weeks of the tour, eventually abandoning that to a small
hand-held microphone. In this way, they could travel to all parts of the
oval, to sing or even play to the watchers behind the stage where in some
cities tickets to those seats were sold.
Ah yes. We should mention that this group is also very modern––employing a
video screen. At the beginning of the show, the screen was lowered at the
back of the stage and graphics involving the new logo were utilized, not
too vividly, perhaps because this new band does not intend to be
collectively over-flashy. They leave that aspect of the show to the main
man - Mr. Chris Squire.
You will really have to see Chris’ costume(s) to fully appreciate his
dedication in maintaining his flashy stage reputation. Chris is obviously
most comfortable in his leadership, performing to perfection and happily
supporting new member Trevor.
There were several changes made during the first part of the tour. For the
first few shows, “Our Song” followed “Leave It.” However, after “Our Song”
was dropped from the set, the next song became “Yours is no Disgrace,” much
to the jubilation of the older fans. The audience’s recognition of the
classic material was varied from place to place. The larger cities had more
long-time loyal fans, while the smaller venues responded with more vitality
to the 1983 version of Yes. Without any coaxing, many a hall echoed the
lyrics ... “Death defying, mutilated armies gather the earth...” It was a
tribute that fans all over America tossed up to Yes.
It should be noted too that acceptance of Trevor in place of Steve Howe or
Peter Banks was universally positive. He added a freshness to the sound of
the 1970s works, which otherwise might not have changed a note. The song
structures remained true to the originals, and no one was disappointed with
what small changes were made. In fact, Trevor gained a self-confidence in
playing these songs that became very apparent. From the first show, the
lead on the older material was somewhat improvised, but as the tour went
on, his solos progressed with flash and conviction.
However, not to be outshone, the brilliant mastery of percussionist Alan
White was demonstrated prior to the band’s playing of “Hold On.” Jon
proclaimed ‘Mister Alan White (!!!),’ and they launched into the song. This
was indeed a vigorous and brightly lit set, alive with sound and color.
They were tight and together where they needed to be, a standing Yes
trademark. Jon’s vocals were as clear and strong as ever. Trevor’s playing
can only be said to augment the simple basic leads that were recorded for
the album. .
However, as a smoky mist settled over the stage, we noticed that we
couldn’t really hear the keyboards very well.
Tony Kaye is very much alive and well and playing with Yes. He appeared
distinguished and yet all the while handled his contributions with bravado
while not indulging in attention grabbing. Tony adds the sophistication and
class that Yes always aspired to include in its image.
After the final gasp for breath following the last note of “Hold On,” they
returned softer and slower with “Hearts.” Green, heart-shaped
laser-graphics floated interlocking on the side walls of the arenas during
the course of this ditty. While this is a nice gentle song, it was not one
of their strengths. If Yes were aiming for magic, beauty and technical
perfection, they should have gone with one of their most flawless
masterpieces in this area, namely “Awaken.” Needless to say, that may have
been asking too much. “Hearts” placement on the setlist at the beginning of
the tour was at the end, but found its way after only a few playings into
the middle, lest the audience become too melancholy at the end of the show
and not be able to rise to the performance’s climax.
While Jon’s instrumental prowess may be limited, we do know that he can
play a very nice acoustic guitar as well as the keyboards, as we in America
witnessed during the Animation tour in 1982, and you in Europe may have
seen with the 1980 New Life Band. Still, Jon did nothing much
instrumentally with this 1984 Yes tour.
After a few weeks, it became apparent that the verbal communication lacing
the songs together would have to be improved, as next to nothing was spoken
between the performers and the spectators. It was put upon Jon to provide
this link, and he decided at this point, about three weeks into the tour,
to tell a story prior to the playing of the next song.
It seems that the acoustic guitar that he then held up was obtained from a
dusty pawnshop in Madison, Wisconsin during one of the past tours, and he
tried to convince us that it was a magical guitar, as it only played one
song. He held it up higher for us to listen, but it was Trevor who began
while the spotlight was still on Jon’s guitar. If this sounds puzzling, it
is perhaps because Jon meant us to believe that the strumming we were
hearing was coming from this magical guitar, and not from Trevor. But
before the assembly had time to contemplate the worthiness of his story,
Yes was playing “See All Good People/Your Move,” and people rose to their
feet to show their appreciation. Spectrums of light surrounded them, as the
staging provided by Electrolight and Claire Brothers provided an excellent
backdrop to the music.
After this resplendent display, the audience could barely wait for the next
surprise. Jon introduced Tony Kaye––“who began with the Yes group” way back
when––as Tony flicked the keys of his piano. After a short exhibition of
Tony’s ability, Jon returned to introduce Trevor as the fine player that he
is, and the latest member to join Yes.*
(*Trevor, of course, had no intention of ever joining Yes. As we already
know, he was in Cinema when Jon joined the group, which then changed its
name.)
With Trevor sitting on the steps leading up to the front of the drum kit,
he and Tony began a blended duet which really was quite beautiful. As an
added effect, green laser beams pierced the purple light to form a cone
over Tony and his keyboards and another laser cone showered down around
Trevor. Smoke drifted across the stage, floating through the laser effect,
looking rather marblish. Tony and Trevor accented their solo spots with
synthesizers as well as feverish Spanish guitar picking and ended with a
flurry that moved the audience. If you didn’t notice either of them in your
attempt to figure out the Yes nucleus of Jon-Chris-Alan, you certainly
could not forget them now. .)
Getting right back into the energy of forward movement, Tony and Trevor
began the gamelon-sounding intro to “Changes” while the above mentioned
players took their places on the stage and picked up the tempo and melody.
Perfectly timed, they performed the song that is perhaps the band’s
personal favorite on the new album. They could only improve on the recorded
version (Trevor’s vocal changes were especially appreciated), as this song
sounds too much like Asia to be of this reviewer’s liking. As usual, Yes
proved to be superior live to studio work. .)
Without too much to say and only a sly smile, they then played “And You and
I,” always a crowd favorite. The cheers were emitting from the crowed long
before the song came to its finale. .)
At this point, Trevor took the spot to introduce ‘someone who had been with
the band a little bit longer than’ he had, and the stage lights went down,
while a spray of laser lights were projected in and around the coliseum
hall. The video screen was lowered so that a spotlight would cast a
silhouette of Jon onto it while he played “Soon” from “Gates of Delirium”
alone at the Korg.
He played the chords slowly while his liquid voice soared easily, closing
his eyes to concentrate on the sound and mood. The standing ovation he
received afterwards was too brief a homage to the person who has singularly
carried on the Yes idea throughout the band’s history as well as his solo
works and that done with Vangelis.)
But hey! Let’s rock’n’roll! With a tantalizingly unfamiliar instrumental
introduction, Yes grabbed everyone away from the romantic dreaminess of
Jon’s solo and took them right into “Owner of a Lonely Heart.” (Hey, guys,
take it easy!) The reaction of the crowd to this Number One hit was almost
over-reaction. The youngest fans screamed their approval and jumped up to
dance at their seats. At first the band looked at the audience in wonder,
but it wasn’t long before they grabbed this energy and applied it to this
emotion-driven performance. The lasers were timed to spit out in accent
with the high points of the music, and that was enough to dazzle any doubters.
This song is the new “Roundabout” or “Going for the One” for the 80s. Jon
projects to the audience while Chris and Trevor dance in unison behind him.
One cannot help but notice the power of this tune, and when it is over
everyone smiles.
How to follow that? “It Can Happen” is next. For those performances that
Jon did not tumble off the stage, it was another interesting interpretation
of new Yes.
Returning to the ancient classic material, they chose to play “Long
Distance Runaround.” This, of course, is the moment for Chris to shine out
in a sort of self-parody. As the music slowed, Trevor relinquished
center-stage to Chris. He strode to the front playing “The Fish,” and the
crowd reacted in kind with recognition of what was to come. We saw several
of the shows and also have seen “The Fish” performed many, many times in
the years, so after a short while on this tour we chose rather to
concentrate on Alan White’s superb drumming during this bit rather than
watch the mechanical hamming of Chris. Alan is the best.
Because nothing was played in its entirety from “Drama,” “The Fish” blended
into a bass-highlighting spot from “Tempus Fugit” (yes, yes,) which again
blended into another bass-highlighting spot from “Sound Chaser.” These
parts were admirable, even though many of the audience did not recognize
them, at least not at first.
Eventually, they wound their way back into “Long Distance,” with Jon
singing but not yet visible, as the players had retreated to a resting spot
under the stage. And then, just before the final note of “Long Distance,” a
gleaming yellow spot silhouetted Chris from the right as he played with
bone-thumping power, a deliberately slow-motion version of “Amazing Grace.”
Just in case he did not have your full attention all the way through to the
end, he would stop to put a finger to his lips to shush those in front
before resuming his position cradling the bass and plucking the final note.
One of the strangest tracks on “90125” is “City of Love.” It doesn’t sound
remotely like anything they’ve done before, and except for Jon’s screaming
vocals, doesn’t even sound like anything else on this album. Live, it is
superb. They would do well to not only put this song out as a single
performed live, but to promote it with a performance video, expertly
directed to show the best entertainment Yes can produce on this current tour.
What carried this over was the dancing duet of Trevor and Chris plus the
added arrangement to the tune’s end. Trevor’s soloing and showmanship were
also remarkable. As the spotlight turned into a punctuated strobe, he stood
at the tip of the stage, bending and twisting with the music, grimacing
with every note while a white fog crept upward and engulfed him. Then he
took off, literally stumbling around the stage, half-running from one
extreme edge to the other. Eventually Chris joined him at the front center
where they danced shoulder to shoulder to the delight of all down front.
And for this brief moment, we have magic. But only then. The song was over
very quickly.
Yes took out its biggest guns for the song they have climaxed with in the
past: “Starship Trooper.” It started civilly enough; little did the fans
realize just what they had in store for them. Sticking pretty much to the
original tune as it was recorded in the early 70s, they went on ... but
wait! There’s Trevor soloing again, and before you knew it, he was again
all over the stage, and this time Chris was also showing a burst of energy,
as he tempted those in the front rows from a platform on top of monitor
cabinets at the extreme edges of the stage.
Then as the solo came to the end and Würm was about to begin, the lights
began to move. The lights slowly lowered in back and the front rows of
lights slowly tilted, with the far edges dipping to nearly a man’s height
off the stage. Everything was flashing, while the song was bursting and the
fog again covered the stage, blending the multi-colored lights into an
eerie aura, nearly enveloping Alan (zounds!). They were running––Jon, Chris
and Trevor––exchanging places, encouraging the crowd to its feet and
inviting the people on the floor to come to the stage. It was exciting as
the audience responded. Then there were the lasers, which shot out from a
place behind the Korg and expanded to form patterns on the back wall of the
arena. They did everything with this song. It was all they had.
As it ended, the lights returned to their original upward position and the
fog drifted away.
White light flooded the stage and Yes took a position together, attempting
to bow in unison.
Just as soon as the group left the stage, lasers were projected through
three evenly spaced, sheer screens that were hung from the ceiling near the
front of the arena over the floor seats. At first the graphics depicted the
ever-changing shape of the new logo. That changed to a spinning globe, as
the audience shouted for an encore.
After just a few minutes, the lasers spelled out YES and then began to
flash the word. The cheering crowd picked up on this and began to shout YES
- YES - YES along with the flashing graphics. It was not long afterwards
that the band returned to the stage and immediately started playing their
signature tune, “Roundabout.”
They seemed somewhat tired for this, their final song. That did not
surprise anyone at all, for these veterans had put an incredible amount of
hard work and energy into the more than 2-hour show. Only once did they
play an additional encore song. That occurred in a spaceship-shaped
assembly hall in Champaign, Illinois. The extra song was “Sweet Dreams.” It
was fantastic.
Once again onto the video screen was projected the grayish new Yes logo, a
twisting and turning “Y”, as the song ended and the exhausted musicians
took their final bows for the evening and walked off, happily waving to
their excited audience. The tape of “Hello Goodbye/Leave It” began once
again and the lights went up immediately. It was a spectacularly enjoyable
experience for all.
The question of whether this reunion of players could be successful not
only in the studio but live as well was answered for everyone; the result
being that the concerts during the springtime 1984 American tour produced
delighted responses from new and old fans alike. We hope that Europeans
find the shows equally inspirational, and we look forward to Yes’s return
in the autumn.
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