------------------------------------------------------- AUGUST 26, 2004 ------------------------------------------------------- Source: The London Free Press (Ontario, Canada) http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/Today/2004/08/26/602294.html Contributed by Donna Yes it's still going strong After some years of turmoil, the veteran British rock band is back together and back onstage. By Free Press Staff and News Services After more than 30 years in the business, British progressive rock band Yes is celebrating the fact that, yes, it's still as charged with positive energy as ever. "It's a sort of devotion to the work. You can party, but you gotta turn up on time . . . (in) the right frame of mind, the right spirit," vocalist and co-founder Jon Anderson says. Anderson and co-founder/bassist Chris Squire both marvel at the way Yes has endured, when the Beatles -- a band Yes admired tremendously -- would break up so soon after Yes started playing London, England clubs in the 1960s. "When we started, the Beatles had a six-year career. I thought that any band that lasted that long was doing a great job. When we formed Yes in 1968, it was not on the cards to still be working together in 2004, but here we are," says Squire, the one Yes-man who never left the band. "At that time, there was the Berlin Wall, the Cold War . . . There was apartheid," says Anderson. "In a way, we've lived into a better world in terms of life in general. That's what I look at more. That's what I sing about now. I can only sing about what I feel or what I see . . . It's never been drugs, sex and rock and roll." Squire, Anderson and three veterans from the Yes of the 1970s -- guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White and keyboardist Rick Wakeman -- are Yes these days. The band plays the John Labatt Centre on Monday night. Wakeman's return to the fold has found him comfortable at last with Tales from Topographic Oceans, a 1973 effort the critics love to hate as being Yes at its pretentious worst. "He loves playing it now . . . Rick tells jokes constantly. We're very funny with each other onstage about what we're doing. We laugh at each other's antics onstage. We can't be too serious," Anderson says. "It's great to have (Wakeman) back," Squire says. "He's like a kindred spirit, even though everyone in this band has got a different character. But for some odd reason, when we get together, it works." Yes is perhaps best known for such releases as The Yes Album, the 1972 breakthrough Fragile and Closer to the Edge as much as it is for a series of lineup changes that would make even Spinal Tap envious. Yes scholars will remember that Squire's ownership of the Yes name meant several of his former bandmates had to bill themselves as "Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe" when it came to a 1989 album, including former Yes drummer Bill Bruford. Two years later, most of the band's key players had said "yes" once more for a reunited effort titled Union. "I think it's probably good judgment and a lot of luck," Squire says about being the lone mainstay. "We've had down-time periods when we've not done a lot and then we regenerated and then slowed down again and then got going again. We've had an interesting career." Also on Monday's bill is U.S. rock band Dream Theater, whose hits include Pull Me Under, Falling into Infinity and Scenes From a Memory. IF YOU GO What: Concert by British progressive rock band Yes. Dream Theater is also on the bill. When: Monday, 7:30 p.m. Where: John Labatt Centre Details: Tickets are $45, $59 and $69, plus service charges where applicable. They can be purchased at the centre's box office, Ticketmaster outlets (Sunrise Records shops in London) or at www.ticketmaster.ca or by calling 488-1012. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, inquiries, corrections, or additions, contact yitp@yesservices.com