----------------------------------------------------- SEPTEMBER 21, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Official Mario Millo Website http://www.mariomillo.com/newsfaq/naffrset.html Sebastian Hardie... Unplugged By Mario Millo We could not believe our ears and eyes. Having the "plug pulled" is an experience we will never forget nor will we forget the incredible show of support by the wonderful audience in Melbourne. The applause and standing ovation we received from you as we left the stage will forever be etched in our minds and our hearts. Thank you Melbourne. SEBASTIAN HARDIE wish to thank the absolutely fantastic Melbourne audience who attended the YES concert - Vodafone Arena – Friday 19th Sept. 2003, who were all witness to the plug literally and theatrically being pulled on SEBASTIAN HARDIE. You all stood and made your feelings very clear to the culprit and then warmly and vigorously applauded us as we left the stage. We will never forget this show of loyalty from you all. We were absolutely stunned and could not believe that this had been allowed to happen. It seems we will never know for sure who gave the order to “Pull the Plug”, perhaps YES' guitar tech had been having a bad day and decided to vent his frustration, however, as we did not receive an apology from the YES management once we were backstage, it does leave the question. We were, in fact, rapped over the knuckles by both the Australian promoter and the YES management for going overtime. Some band members of YES the following day, expressed their disappointment at what had happened the previous night. Alan White in particular, came to our dressing room in Sydney and spoke to Alex letting him know they were not aware of what had occurred. At our rehearsals we had timed our set at forty-two minutes including estimated time between pieces. We were always under the impression that our “guest appearance” was the standard forty five minutes generally allocated to support acts. It wasn’t until the afternoon of the concert, that by sheer accident, we viewed a running sheet stating our time on stage as thirty minutes. We immediately approached the promoter about the discrepancy in the time, the outcome being that if our equipment was removed from the stage promptly so as not to hinder preparation of the stage for the YES performance, then we could do a forty minute set. The band made the decision to shorten “Rosanna” by about two minutes and keep the guitar break of “Openings” to a minimum. We thought this would bring our set back to around forty minutes. We didn’t take into account that the clock was ticking from house lights going down. By the time we were announced and then made our way onto the stage to commence, a couple of minutes had already passed. This sort of stuff goes on behind the scenes from time to time and that’s where it usually remains. In this instance, we felt it was necessary to give you all an explanation of events in order to put the matter to rest. We also wish to make a point re our Sydney performance. On stage to the right of our drummer (Alex Plavsic) a 300mm diameter clock was placed in full view. We accepted it as a friendly gesture and had a bit of a laugh about it at soundcheck that afternoon, however, we did feel spooked about the previous night and as we performed our set we were all totally preoccupied about not going overtime which distracted us from doing the performance of our lives. All in all, it was an honour and a wonderful experience for “SEBASTIAN HARDIE” to perform as special guests on the same bill as the kings of progressive rock “YES” -- one we will never forget. We will also never forget the loyalty from our Melbourne audience which made a huge difference to the way we felt when we left the stage. Also, a huge thank you to both the Sydney and Melbourne audiences for the wonderful reception and response we received for our performances. We love performing as a band and cannot wait to get back up on a stage and do our full reportoire. We love this country of ours!!! Cheers, Mario Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com