----------------------------------------------------- JULY 22, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver) http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/music/article/0,1299,DRMN_54_1276388,00.html Definitely Yes No ifs, ands or maybes: Legendary band reunites for the long haul By Mark Brown The classic lineup of Yes - Rick Wakeman, Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Alan White and Bill Bruford - had thought about working together. They'd discussed it, they'd analyzed it, they'd mulled it over. And it didn't happen. A lone tour in '94 seemed to have been the end of that lineup of the band. Then a few years back, the British show This Is Your Life did a piece on keyboard legend Wakeman that included a live video link with other Yes members in the U.S. Steve Howe said: "Hey Rick, we made a lot of great music together and it'd be really nice if we could do it again in the future." It was live TV, and there wasn't the chance for all the discussing, the mulling or the dithering. "Without pausing, I said 'Yeah, I'd love to do that.' It took me aback. I remember going back to my hotel that night and going 'Wow. Yeah,'" says Wakeman, now 53. It was at that point that Wakeman knew he had to get himself back with the group that changed progressive rock with albums such as Close to the Edge and Fragile. It has finally happened, with Yes together again and on a tour that plays City Lights Pavilion tonight. "Yes has always been a major part of my life and always will be. There is a strange thing that the sum of the five individuals, for whatever reason, add up to a number greater than five," he says. "I don't want to know why, because if you start searching for that X factor, that's when it can all start going wrong. "We played last night, and it was a first night like I've never felt before," says Wakeman from his Seattle hotel suite, where the tour kicked off last week. "I never really left last time. I know that sounds a bit daft," Wakeman said. He toured with the band on the Union tour in 1994, but in the ensuing years they never played together again because of management miscommunication. Wakeman would book solo projects, then discover there was a Yes tour going on. "I was contractually tied up and I couldn't get out of it," Wakeman says. "Life went on in two different directions. It was very frustrating, I have to say." Those frustrations are gone, though, and the five are on tour; it's Wakeman's first Colorado shows since the '80s. Besides huge hits such as Roundabout and Your Move (I've Seen All Good People), they're playing songs they never did onstage before. "We never really got round to South Side of the Sky off of Fragile," Wakeman says. "I've never played it since 1971 - ever. We played it last night and it went down a storm." Wakeman also added keyboard arrangements to recent Yes Magnification material, even though he didn't play on that album. "We've learned more than we played last night. We came offstage at 11 and there were still two or three things we didn't even get to," Wakeman says. While technology has made playing those songs easier - moogs and mellotrons were notoriously balky in the '70s - "everything you hear is played. If you go to the theater, you don't expect actors to mime difficult passages. I have a considerable amount of pride in Yes for that." Wakeman is looking to release the classic catalog in 5.1 surround sound, as well as record the next album that way. "It's absolutely tailor-made for Yes. I'll be pushing hard to think that way when we're recording." The band's creative peak was Close to the Edge, Wakeman says, "simply because it was the last period of time where the band was allowed to do what it wanted. Not just Yes, but any band. We went in the studio and were trusted to do what we liked. We could hear in our heads the things we wanted to create and there wasn't the technology to do it. So you'd have to find ways to do it." He hopes the band will have that freedom when it goes into the studio in 2003. "A band like Yes should not have any puppet strings anyway," he says. "I know what the capabilities are of Yes, musically, and there shouldn't be a leash in sight." And yes, he's in for the long run, he assures fans. "All I can say to people on behalf of the band is if you didn't hear your particular favorite this time around, you'll hear it next time around," he says. "We're looking at this thing as rather long-term. We'll try to get everything in over the years." Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com