I was saddened yesterday to read that Chris Squire is very poorly. He has acute erythroid leukemia and so, for the first time, Yes will be proceeding without him this summer/autumn while he undergoes treatment. From what I have read about this disease, the outlook is not great; a bone marrow transplant offers the best chance.
A big Get Well Soon to my favourite bass player.
Very sad news. Keeping fingers crossed here.
Oh dear - I hadn't heard that. :( Chris has been the one constant in the perpetual change that is Yes' line up. He's right up there in my list of favourite bass players. I do hope he gets better.
I dug out Fish Out Of Water last night - I have the Expanded Edition, which has a DVD with it with a video of a couple of tracks from the album, performed with the orchestra (and Chris Squire in all his youthful glory, and wearing a very nice dress!) and also an interview with CS in 2006.
Today I was having a look on Youtube and came across Chris Squire's Swiss Choir (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knmWhvn1Fuk) which I had vaguely heard of but had never heard anything from, despite the excellent title. For those of you who like Steve Hackett's guitar and Chris's bass, it's rather good. I ordered it after hearing the first half of the first track.
It's something I get out every Christmas. Rather nice. I imagine the kids regard it the same way I regard Bing Crosby though!
Anyway fingers crossed
Sad indeed. I hope there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Was listening to Squackett only the other day. I thought that was a great album. :)
While we're on the subject of Yes they've just put out another live album called Progeny. It's what Yessongs should have been, ie you can hear everything clearly. I'm guessing this was at their actual peak before the bloat and the egos set in (sorry TA I tried Topographic but...). Wakeman in particular is a monster but the whole band just rocks. 96 minutes and if the current band did the same cd you could add at least 10. Thoroughly recommended. And poor old Chris needs $ for his chemo I'm guessing (the Nhs is something to be grateful for)
Quote from: owen on May 25, 2015, 10:32:30 AM
While we're on the subject of Yes they've just put out another live album called Progeny. It's what Yessongs should have been, ie you can hear everything clearly. I'm guessing this was at their actual peak before the bloat and the egos set in (sorry TA I tried Topographic but...). Wakeman in particular is a monster but the whole band just rocks. 96 minutes and if the current band did the same cd you could add at least 10. Thoroughly recommended. And poor old Chris needs $ for his chemo I'm guessing (the Nhs is something to be grateful for)
Cowabunga ... not just a live album, but a 14-disc set covering seven separate concerts from 1972 :o
That's quite something: may just have to check it out.
But I'm not quite sure what you mean about "before the bloat and egos set in", Owen: if "Close To The Edge" doesn't count as "bloat" (in the best possible, Topographic Oceans sense of the word! :)), then I don't know what does. I mean, it's not as if these gigs are from 1969, when Yes were essentially a pop band, albeit an extremely good one and obviously going places.
One could argue that 1972-1975, from Close To The Edge through Topographic Oceans (which was being written on the road as Yes were playing these "Progeny" gigs) to Relayer, represents Yes at the very apex of their long-form bombast ... and absolutely stunningly so.
(As for egos, I think they were always there from Day One ;))
My favourite live recording of a Yes gig though will always remain the October 1978 show form the Empire Pool, Wembley, that was recorded by the BBC and played in its entirety as the very first edition of Tommy Vance's "Friday Rock Show" shortly afterwards. I had a cassette recording of this for years, but it's widely available online now. Stunning, right from the Close Encounters opening, with Starship Trooper a massive highlight, and the band as vibrant and tight as ever. Amazing.
And I was there at Wembley at one of those gigs: will remember it forever. Indeed, one of my idiotic dreams is to rent out the Wembley Arena (as it is now) and invite 10,000 old friends in to listen to that recording played back at full volume in the hall.
Sigh ... À la recherche du temps perdu.
On the original topic, I wish all the best to Chris and hope he pulls through; he and the whole of Yes have been a massive part of my life.
I cheaper out and got the double cd. :P
I'd add going for the one to the classics. I just think they needed an editor for topographic oceans. Ctte is fine
Quote from: owen on May 25, 2015, 06:27:45 PM
I cheaper out and got the double cd. :P
I'd add going for the one to the classics. I just think they needed an editor for topographic oceans. Ctte is fine
Absolutely, GFTO is at the very top of the pile too. It was the first Yes album I bought, complete in its deep transparent red vinyl form, and I raced home each lunchtime from the summer-time farm job I had to play it through before returning to work. I then travelled to Wembley to see them play that autumn too. My first ever gig: astonishing as a 16-year old.
(A few weeks later, my second ever gig was Buzzcocks at Aylesbury Friars: quite a different proposition.)
I had started listening to Yes years earlier though, when my father brought home a cassette of the Yes album from his work. I listened to it under the covers on a mono portable player and loved it, but idiotically, never quite made the connection that this band might be putting out other albums in the meantime, which meant missing CTTE, TFTO, and Relayer when they first came out.
Moron, really ...
I picked up on Yes as a "living band" in 1977 when the aforementioned GFTO came out: there was a big spread on the album in NME (or was it Melody Maker?), which I read over someone's shoulder on a school trip. That woke me up and the record was bought immediately.
Interestingly, I remember that the same paper had a tiny article showing a weird space ship (of then indeterminate size) from a small, relatively unknown film that had started to make it big in the US, but which hadn't yet come to the UK: that film was "Star Wars".
Ooh, the opportunities for nostalgia ... ;)
Quote from: Trapezium Artist on May 26, 2015, 07:17:44 PM
Ooh, the opportunities for nostalgia ... ;)
Ah but nostalgia is not what it used to be... ;)
Being a teenager in the 80s, early Yes passed me by and I think the first Yes album I ever heard (certainly the first one I ever bought) was the atypical Drama. For a start, it had no Anderson or Wakeman so couldn't be a real Yes album - and worse, it had the Buggles as their replacement - heresy! :o But ignorance is bliss as they say and coming to this album with no previous knowledge / preconceptions, I loved it and still do. At risk of getting back on topic, I think it contains many of Chris Squire's finest moments - Tempus Fugit and Machine Messiah for starters - both of which I was delighted to hear live a couple of years ago on the Fly From Here tour. Then 90125 / Owner of a Lonely Heart came out and that was me hooked on the Rabin-era material (with Talk being an underrated classic in my view). Only after that did I work my way backwards, with the Yes Album, CTTE and GFTO being my favourites of the early era.
Who went & rattled TA's Yes cage?
:) :) :) :)
Quote from: Mikey on May 27, 2015, 05:01:07 PM
Who went & rattled TA's Yes cage?
:) :) :) :)
Heh! We all know by now that if ever the forum is getting a bit dull, you just have to put a post up either saying that Tales From Topographic Oceans is a load of flatulent nonsense or that NASA is better than the ESA and it suddenly perks up! ;) :P
Quote from: D S on May 27, 2015, 05:53:38 PM
Quote from: Mikey on May 27, 2015, 05:01:07 PM
Who went & rattled TA's Yes cage?
:) :) :) :)
Heh! We all know by now that if ever the forum is getting a bit dull, you just have to put a post up either saying that Tales From Topographic Oceans is a load of flatulent nonsense or that NASA is better than the ESA and it suddenly perks up! ;) :P
Or that Asia are brill.
Maybe that's the Buggles connection with Yes.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa :)
I regard slagging off ESA as going a little too far. I'm sure they're not full of overinflated egos and bloat
Quote from: owen on May 28, 2015, 08:18:23 AM
I regard slagging off ESA as going a little too far. I'm sure they're not full of overinflated egos and bloat
Oh, but you'd be wrong, so very wrong ... 8)
Not in my area, of course ...
That said, if NASA can live without a definite article in front of their name, so can ESA. Thank you :)
Asia: Chinese food of music. I liked them for a a couple of years. I have not liked them for 30 more. Shame: I've always liked Steve Howe.
Buggles + Yes: The Buggers, as my very pissed off Yesfan friend said in 1980.
Personally, I think Drama is excellent stuff.
TA out.
Talking of which, I see Yes are doing a 10 date UK tour next April / May where they will be playing the whole of Drama and Fragile. Hmm - might be tempted by that - but whether it is Billy Sherwood or Chris Squire on bass remains to be seen...
"Grammy award-winning rock giants, YES, announce double-album 2016 Spring tour where fans can look forward to a unique YES experience with the band performing two of its iconic albums in their entirety, Fragile and, for the first time ever, Drama, in addition to classic YES tracks.
"This is a first for us," said YES guitarist, Steve Howe. "This is the first time we'll be performing Drama in its entirety. In fact, most of the Drama songs haven't been performed in some 30 years." YES drummer, Alan White, adds, "Drama's a great album, and we decided it's long past due to bring its life and energy back to the forefront. We think the fans will love hearing Fragile and Drama in their entirety, and we certainly look forward to performing them."
The 2016 tour marks a return for YES after the phenomenal success of their sell-out 2014 triple-album UK tour. The demand for tickets exceeded all expectations; YES are delighted to be able to give their fans this opportunity to see them once again performing live. This double-album tour will also see YES perform a number of their seminal tracks, "Owner of a Lonely Heart", "Starship Trooper" and more. "
Can't really imagine Fragile without Wakeman, Bruford and Anderson... and I think it's unlikely, given what Chris Squire has got, that he will be resuming bass duties any time soon. His age is against him, and the median overall survival for his condition is about 8 months (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2942006/) :(
That is one scary webpage :o - I think I recognised the words "the" and "and" but the rest may as well have been another language! :P
But yes, I tend to agree with you on both counts. I would really be going to hear Drama (which would have 3 of the 5 original members - provided they keep well too.) Fragile isn't one of my favourite Yes albums, just because of all the little solo tracks, which can be hit or miss - and they also makes it a strange choice to play in its entirety if the original performers aren't there. I mean, the Fish not played by Chris? ??? The 3 key band pieces (Roundabout, Heart of the Sunrise and South Side of the Sky) should be good to hear though.
Arguably, Yes was always a bit of a revolving door (I'm sure I read one of them (JA?) saying that Yes was the first 5 to turn up for rehearsals!) but they are in danger of becoming their own official tribute band shortly...
I recognised is and a but I'm with you :o :o :o :o
Quote from: D S on June 11, 2015, 01:23:33 PM
Arguably, Yes was always a bit of a revolving door (I'm sure I read one of them (JA?) saying that Yes was the first 5 to turn up for rehearsals!) but they are in danger of becoming their own official tribute band shortly...
Looks like the Yeggles were the first to the rehearsals
A Culture Factory vinyl replica CD of Buggles' groundbreaking 1980 debut album.
The first major work from Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes (both soon to join Yes), this 2015 edition contains three bonus tracks.