----------------------------------------------------- DECEMBER 12, 2001 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Chart Attack http://www.chartattack.com/DAMN/2001/12/1201.cfm Yes: Amplification, Orchestration, Magnification By Martin Popoff Prog-rock institution Yes recently toured with a full orchestra they'd pick up in each town they visited. A stop at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre a couple months ago attracted 10 to 12,000 fans who were treated to a collection of classics as well as two compositions from the just-released Magnification album (Dec. 4). "Well, this is new to us," explains guitarist Steve Howe on the complexities of the tour. "We haven't been particularly tainted by it. But the conductor works his backside off. He's rehearsing in the afternoon. He's there for show time. He has a long day. And basically it's that expertise that makes it easy for us -- the orchestra is our ship. We're the captain, but that's the ship. That's what comes along with us and doubles our sound value or reinvents our orchestrational ideas which were originally synthesizers and samples. So what we're excited about is the lack of things we have to do (laughs). "We don't have to do very much to make the show sound pretty amazing. We have to do our end. The orchestra is like the biggest add-on you can imagine. It's been more pleasurable than I imagined," says Howe. Howe figures that he just needs the orchestra folk to be able to read the music and have their wits about them in order for the symphonic Yes to succeed. "I thought there might be more times when there would be frustration or annoyance, but those things just don't come into it. And many nights these people get a real kick out of doing this. There might be some people that can't wait for it to end and go home. That's OK also. They don't have to love Yes to play this music. They have to be able to read music very well and have a very high standard. Some of the people are very pleased to do something with a band that is more original or less predictable than a lot of other bands who've done this kind of work." He's also impressed by the ability of the players. "They're not playing to anything," answers Howe, when asked if the orchestra rehearse to a Yes tape or indeed the band itself. "It's quite amazing. The conductor has such a vision and he actually knows what’s supposed to happen. It's actually one of the nicest times to hear the music. I'm there towards the end of rehearsal because I still do favour a soundcheck. And I arrive and I hear the most beautiful thing, maybe a segment from any of our songs, just being played by an orchestra in the open air and it's really quite rewarding. It's not a big like stroke on the shoulder but it's a subtle awareness that your music has reached the point where it can be reinterpreted now by an orchestra. And it helps their clarity not to have a band thundering along. It comes together at night, but in the afternoon it's a bit misleading. It's a very gentle and airy creature but when it gets on stage, it pushes, it rocks, it forges ahead." Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com