----------------------------------------------------- AUGUST 28, 1975 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Rolling Stone Magazine Yes Affirms: There's Life after Wakeman By Elliot Cain SAN FRANSCISO -- The massive backstage area of the Cow Palace was eerily quiet as the two limousines pulled through the loading dock and the members of Yes filed out. Opening act Ace had already finished, and it was only a few minutes before a tape recording of Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" announced the band's entrance onto a blinking, flaming, smoking stage. Their performance was impressive. As they waded through lush and complex material like "Close to the Edge" and "Long Distance Runaround" with nearly flawless musicianship, departed keyboard whiz Rick Wakeman was not particularly missed. His replacement, Swiss-born Patrick Moraz, played with total command of the electronic music idiom. The evening's surprise was how much the five-man group sounded like Yes before the departure of Wakeman. When Wakeman left in the summer of '74 to pursue his grand-scale solo touring plans, many critics wrote off the group. Although he didn't join Yes until after their third release, "The Yes Album," in 1971, Wakeman, with his long blond hair, onstage flamboyance and keyboard savvy, had become the center of attention. Nowadays, bass player Chris Squire plays down Wakeman's role in the group, labeling his presence a "decoration," and lead singer Jon Anderson has hinted that the group regarded Wakeman's departure with something less than apprehension. "These things happen all the time," Anderson said.  "If some guy doesn't seem to want to fit in, and all of a sudden he decided to go, that is it. You look for someone else." That someone else turned out to be Moraz, a classical and jazz-influenced musician and film score composer. "An old friend of mine told me ' You must listen to this Patrick,' " Anderson recalled. "So I listened to the album he did with Refugee and I enjoyed it very much. It wasn't even a week later when he came over. He just sat there the first day and watched what we were doing. He hardly played anything at all, just a few runs on the moog, but it just felt right. He's a marvelous player," Anderson said about Moraz, who joined Yes in August of '74. Moraz admitted that he'd felt some pressure in replacing Wakeman, "I knew I could do the job, otherwise I wouldn't have taken it." He seemed excited about the group's new "freaky-conscious" direction. "I've never been so happy and the group's never been so happy. There's a great feeling of communion among us." Evidently, that feeling was lacking during the tenure of Wakeman, whose penchant for partying clashed with the sedate nature of the Yes men. Back at the hotel for a post concert dinner -- a tour ritual -- Moraz chuckled over the vegetarian Greek cuisine: "All that's missing is the string quartet." Later, as everyone sipped cognac in Moraz's suite, they were entertained by a full-scale orgy -- on the television. Xaviera Hollander's "My Pleasure is My Business" aired, but the only live debauchery in the room was confined to one sofa, where an intoxicated woman was smothering one of Ace's entourage with kisses. Everybody looked on, amused. "We like to keep it quiet," Anderson explained later. "One thing we were perhaps lacking with Rick in the band was for everybody to want this atmosphere. It seems to be the best way for us, to try to save our energies for what really matters -- the gig." Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com