Sunday 27 December 2015

Poll: Best Yes-related album of 1979

At one point before Xmas, this poll was a threeway tie between The Steve Howe Album, One of a Kind and The Age of Plastic, but the field opened out later on. After 70 votes:

1. Steve Howe: The Steve Howe Album (w/ Bruford, Moraz, White), 36% (25 votes)
2. Bruford: One of a Kind, 31% (22 votes)
3. The Buggles: The Age of Plastic (w/ Horn, Downes), 23% (16 votes)
4. Rick Wakeman: Rhapsodies, 7% (5 votes)
5. Vangelis: Opera Sauvage (w/ Anderson), 3% (2 votes)

There were no votes for The Bruford Tapes or Gary Wright's Headin' Home (w/ White).

Bruford's Feels Good to Me came second to Wakeman's Criminal Record in the 1977 poll, while Howe's debut came third in the 1975 poll, behind Wakeman's King Arthur and Squire's Fish Out of Water. So a turnaround with Wakeman now back in fourth.

Yes albums after 90125 - how do they rate?

There was a recent thread on ProgressiveEars.com about the later Yes albums and I thought it would be interesting to summarise the views therein. I found 36 posts where I could derive someone's rank ordering of albums. I then used sequential STV to produce an overall result. And the final top 5 are...

1. Big Generator
2. Keys to Ascension 2
3. Magnification
4. Fly from Here
5. Keys to Ascension

Which I thought was rather interesting. The period after 90125 has so many varieties of Yes: there was YesWest vs. ABWH plus the hybrid Union. Then came the classic line-up of reunion of the late 1990s, with and then without Wakeman. Finally there's the post-Anderson era.

And each of those very different Yeses gets into the top 4: Big Generator for YesWest, Keys 2 for the classic reunion, Magnification for the classic line-up minus Wakeman and experimenting with an orchestra, and Fly from Here to represent the Yes after 2008. If you include Billy Sherwood's role on Keys 2, you've got most of the people who've been in later Yes included (no Davison yet, no Khoroshev). You've got more pop-oriented music, retro prog and attempts at something new.

What's made later Yes work hasn't been some simple line-up combination or particular direction. Later Yes has blossomed in unexpected ways.

Sunday 15 November 2015

Poll: What are you most looking forward to in the rest of 2015?

I asked what you were most looking forward to in the rest of 2015 and 105 of you obligingly replied:

1. Panegyric/Steven Wilson remix of Fragile: 25
2. Anderson Ponty Band tour: 23
3. Billy Sherwood's Citizen: 18
4. Downes Braide Association's Suburban Ghosts: 12
5. New Steve Howe Trio album: 11
6. King Crimson's THRAK BOX: 8
7. Cruise to the Edge: 6
8. Other: 2
9. Seal's 7 (prod. by Horn): 0

Most of these have now happened (1, 3, 4, 6, 9) or are currently happening (2, 7, 8), so let me know in the comments what you think of them. Opinion was fairly equally divided, although no-one picked Seal's latest album, 7. Well, you're all wrong about that because it's a great album.

Both using the write-in option chose Yes getting into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. That is, of course, up to the Hall's voting panel once nominations have been chosen. But you can still vote on the nominations here: Yes are in second place, but only just ahead of The Cars, so keep voting. The system allows you to vote several times per day (per device). The nominations are not solely determined by this public vote, but it appears to carry some weight in the process.

Wednesday 26 August 2015

Poll: Best Yes-related album of 1978

Well, that was even more conclusive than Fish Out of Water's win in the 1975 poll or Olias of Sunhillow's in the 1976 poll. There were 67 votes (I could have left the poll open longer, but what was the point?):

1. UK: UK (w/ Bruford): 57 votes (85%)
2. Patrick Moraz: Patrick Moraz III: 5 votes (7%)
3. Trevor Rabin: Trevor Rabin [a.k.a. Beginnings]: 4 votes (6%)
4. Annette Peacock: X-Dreams (w/ Bruford): 1 votes (1%)

There were no votes for Lonnie Donegan's Puttin' on the Style (with Banks), Chromium's Star to Star (The Buggles before The Buggles) or three long out-of-print albums with Rabin, Disco Rock Machine's Time to Love, The Tee Cee's Disco Love Bite or Forbidden Fruit by Hot R.S.

UK fans may be interested in Eddie Jobson's crowdsourced deluxe re-issue plans: see here on the news page.

Sunday 19 July 2015

Poll: Best Yes-related album of 1977

93 of you voted on the question of the best Yes-related album of 1977:

1. Rick Wakeman: Criminal Record (w/ Squire, White): 32 (34%)
2. Bill Bruford: Feels Good to Me: 30 (32%)
3. Genesis: Seconds Out (w/ Bruford): 24 (26%)
4. Rick Wakeman: White Rock: 3 (3%)
5= Patrick Moraz: Out in the Sun: 2 (2%)
5= Rabbitt: A Croak and a Grunt in the Night (w/ Rabin): 2 (2%)

There were no votes for the two Detective albums with Kaye, nor for two other albums with Rabin, Rabbitt's Rock Rabbitt and House of the Rising Sun, released under the name Hot R.S.

Criminal Record, perhaps Wakeman's last really successful album, led throughout, although the result was close in the end with Bruford's first solo album challenging, and Bruford's turn with Genesis not far behind. (Thus Bruford appearances overall outpolled Wakeman appearances.) Nothing else got any serious attention.

Friday 5 June 2015

Poll: Best Yes-related album of 2014, part 2

We got 65 votes in total for the best Yes-related album of the latter half of 2014:

1) King Crimson: Starless (w/ Bruford): 15 (23%)
2) Mystery: Tales from the Netherlands (w/ David): 14 (22%)
3) Todmobile: Úlfur (w/ Anderson): 12 (18%)
4) United Progressive Fraternity: Fall in Love with the World (w/ Anderson): 9 (14%)
5) Dave Kerzner: New World (w/ Sherwood): 4 (6%)
6) Empire: The Mars Tapes (w/ Banks): 3 (5%)
7) Billy Idol: Kings & Queens of the Underground (w/ Horn, Downes): 2 (3%)
8=) Jerusalem: Black Horses (w/ Downes) 1 (2%)
8=) DuskMachine: DuskMachine (w/ Downes) 1 (2%)

There were no votes for Spandau Ballet's The Story: The Very Best of Spandau Ballet (with new tracks produced by Trevor Horn) or two further releases involving Billy Sherwood, Queensrÿche feat. Geoff Tate's Frequency Unknown Deluxe Edition and Spiders & Snakes' Year of the Snake. There were 4 'other' votes, but they were blank or for ineligible entries... which was partly my fault as I mislabelled the poll the begin with!

A very close result, with the latest King Crimson mega-boxset just winning out over the live Mystery album, and then two releases with Jon Anderson guesting, Todmobile's Úlfur (my personal choice) and United Progressive Fraternity's Fall in Love with the World (another good album, but with a more fleeting appearing by Anderson). I wonder whether Úlfur would have done better if it had had some more significant promotion behind it; I don't think Anderson himself ever mentioned it!

Given David's retirement from music, Tales from the Netherlands may be the last release we ever get with him performing, so nice to see it was well received.

Sunday 26 April 2015

Notes: Steve Howe, 19 April 2015

As part of a UK tour to support the release of Anthology, Steve Howe played a solo show on 19 April 2015 at the Jazz Cafe, Camden Town, London. The highlight for me was the medley of the 4 Yes songs using Portuguese guitar.

Set:
"In the Course of the Day"
"Trambone"
"Sweet Thunder"/"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (to represent the Steve Howe Trio)
"Diary of a Man Who Vanished"
"To be Over" (Howe introduced the piece explaining he wanted Yes to play it and "Sound Chaser" but the rest of the band won't)
"Pleasure Stole the Night", with vocals
"Corkscrew"
unidentified
"The Little Galliard"
"Classical Gas"
Half of "5% for Nothing" (Howe talked of the difficult the band had rehearsing Fragile for their recent US tour, saying it took longer than they thought to get all the "moods and the swings")
"Mood for a Day"

intermission

"Hint Hint" (for daughter Steph, who was in the audience)
"Ram"
"Look Over Your Shoulder", with vocals
"Provence"
"Valley of the Rocks"
"Solitaire" (Howe described how Yes doing new albums has been "quite controversial." He talked of a "bit of a mad rush" doing Heaven & Earth, but that Fly from Here was "more appropriate". He also expressed some surprise that Horn had wanted to expand "Fly from Here" into a suite.)
"Second Initial"
"Sketches in the Sun"
"Cactus Boogie" (switching to electric guitar, Howe talked of his first gig at age 14 in 1962 at a venue on Holloway Road, London with a makeshift band)
"Georgia's Theme Pt 2"
"Dorothy"
"Intersection Blues"
Yes medley: "Hour of Need/9 Voices/Wonderous Stories/Your Move", with vocals (on Portuguese guitar)

encore:
"Clap" (Howe explained how the piece didn't have a title, so Bruford asked him what he was hoping for when people heard the tune)

Saturday 7 March 2015

Poll: Best Yes-related album of 1976

The best Yes-related album of 1975 poll was a foregone conclusion, won by Fish Out of Water with a 62% lead over its nearest rival. The 1976 poll is a similar story, with an even greater, 69% lead. Out of 69 votes:

1. Jon Anderson: Olias of Sunhillow: 56 votes (81%)
2. Patrick Moraz: The Story of i: 8 votes (12%)
3. Rick Wakeman: No Earthly Connection: 4 votes (6%)

There was 1 vote for Fish Out of Water, but that was released the previous year. And no votes for any of Alan White's much underrated Ramshackled (w/ Anderson, Howe), Absolute Elsewhere's obscure In Search of Ancient Gods (w/ Bruford), Pavlov's Dog's At the Sound of the Bell (also w/ Bruford) or any of the hard-to-find albums with Trevor Rabin, i.e. Mike Makhalemele & Winston Mankunku Ngozi's The Lion and the Bull, You and Me's Come With Me or Margaret Singana's Where is the Love.

Thursday 5 March 2015

Trevor Horn Band, 5 March 2015: initial thoughts

I'm just back from the Shepherd's Bush Empire and the Trevor Horn Band show. Some initial thoughts...

Support was from Will Heard, a young man on vocals and electric guitar. Clearly rather nervous, he played 4 or so songs. Good voice, OK material, including an interesting if not entirely successful electric/punk version of The Carpenters' "Close to You".

The main set began with an exhilarating "Welcome to the Pleasuredome" (originally by Frankie Goes to Hollywood), appropriate as the band would go on to play twice as many numbers from the album of the same name as any other. Then they were straight into The Buggles' "Living in the Plastic Age".

A fine beginning... and then Seal walked on stage and the audience cheered, but sadly Seal was only there to explain that, for only the second time in a 26-year career, he has had to withdraw from the performance due to a recent bout of flu. After effusive praise for Horn, he was off and it was on with the show. Kate Westall came to the front of the stage for a sultry "Slave to the Rhythm" (originally by Grace Jones). Then with Lol Crème joking about tartan skirts, Westall and Kirsten Joy did a rousing "All the Things She Said" (originally by t.A.T.u.), followed by Crème singing 10cc's "Rubber Bullets".

Horn then introduced Gabrielle Aplin, who did her version of Frankie's "The Power of Love". This arrangement was mostly just Aplin on vocals and (synth) piano, with the band joining in later on to boost the power of the song. Aplin stayed to sing Annie Lennox's "Why", originally produced by Stephen Lipson. A great vocal performance from Aplin.

More Frankie with the band's instrumental version of "Two Tribes". Horn then announced a Yes song would be next, but that he wouldn't be singing it. He jokingly explained that we needed to summon the spirit of Jon Anderson, which led to a few bars of "Soon", sung by Westall, as an intro to "Owner of a Lonely Heart", sung by Jamie Squire (no relation). As in the band's Japanese TV performance, the guitar solo was replaced by a keyboard solo, although Downes was mixed too low, at least where I was standing, to hear this well.

Horn next explained how his partner, Mel, had played him this song and he had fallen in love with it. Mr Probz, the song's performer, was, if I heard right, now working on Seal's album and had come over from the Netherlands to sing "Waves". Then we had another guest, an uptempo, bravura performance by Ella Eyre of "Gravity" (originally by DJ Fresh feat. Eyre).

With jokes about his piano playing, Crème came forward to play keys for "I'm Not in Love", with Squire on lead vocals. Horn explained that they had then planned to perform a set of Seal songs, but without Seal, they just did "Prayer for the Dying", with Squire again on lead vocals.

The main set finished with a great performance of "Video Killed the Radio Star" (including a short insert using the rap from will.i.am and Nicki Minaj's "Check It Out", which sample "Video..."), complete with big finale, then into "Relax", again with Squire singing.

The band encored with "Leave Right Now" (originally by Will Young and produced by Lipson) with Squire on lead vocals.

The band were... from stage right at the back: Kirsten Joy (lead & backing vocals), Kate Westall (lead & backing vocals), Jamie Squire (lead & backing vocals, percussion), Ash Soan (drums) and Luis Jardim (percussion), with 18-year old Simon Bloor (keys, guitar) behind Jardim. At the front, from stage right, was Geoff Downes (keys), Lol Crème (guitar, backing vocals, keys), Trevor Horn (bass), Stephen Lipson (guitar), Julian Hinton (keys) and Phil Palmer (electric & acoustic guitar).

I'm blessed, I saw a lot of the early Producers shows in Camden, so some of this set is becoming very familiar. I'd like to hear some different 10cc songs and I could lose "Two Tribes", but the other Welcome to the Pleasuredome songs were great. The band suffered the late loss of Seal, but Squire did a good job. Aplin and Eyre shone as guests. Soan was fantastic on drums, particularly good on "Owner of a Lonely Heart". The band was quite large, with four guitar players at times. I've no idea what Bloor was doing and Palmer seemed superfluous.

This was basically the same band with much the same set as when they were called Producers. Is the name change just about increasing sales? Despite Horn's name being out front, the other principals were still well represented: we had 5 songs associated with Horn (2 Buggles, 1 t.A.T.u., 1 Seal; although we would have had more Seal), 5 associated with Horn and Lipson (4 Frankie, 1 Grace Jones), 2 associated with Lipson, 2 10cc numbers for Crème, and 2 covers.

Highlights: "Welcome to the Pleasuredome", "All the Things She Said", "The Power of Love", "Gravity", "Video Killed the Radio Star"
Disappointing: "Waves", "Prayer for the Dying", "Rubber Bullets"

Sunday 1 March 2015

2014 polls: bad news for Heaven & Earth, but better news for other Yes releases

The results for two big fan-voted polls of progressive rock in 2014 are now in, and there's a fair amount of Yes-related interest. First the bad news: in the DPRP Annual Poll (374 responses), Heaven & Earth won Biggest Disappointment, by a large margin over Pink Floyd's The Endless River. Prog magazine's Readers' Poll has a similar category, Non-Event of the Year, with Heaven & Earth 4th (behind No High Voltage Festival; the Sum of the Parts Genesis documentary; and Kate Bush only playing London).

Other categories had better news for the band. Yes were 1st (Relayer) and 6th (The Yes Album) in Prog's Reissue of the Year category, and 8th in the magazine's Multimedia of the Year for Like It Is (won by Transatlantic's KaLIVEoscope). Likewise, Like It Is was 7th in DPRP's Best DVD section (again won by KaLIVEoscope).

Prog's Event of the Year was won by Kate Bush's live shows, but Rick Wakeman (who writes a regular column for the magazine) came 3rd for his Journey to the Centre of the Earth 40th anniversary tour, while King Crimson's return was 4th and Cruise to the Edge, 6th. DPRP's Prog Happening of the Year category was won by the return of Pink Floyd, with King Crimson's return now 2nd and prog cruises in general, 3rd. (Wakeman's Journey shows received only 2 votes with DPRP, making them 17th equal.)

DPRP has a separate Best Concerts category. King Crimson came 5th equal for their 13 Sep 2014 show, although in a large field, 3 votes was all you needed for 5th equal. The category was won by Transatlantic's 14 Mar 2014 show in Amsterdam; with the "D" in DPRP being Dutch, the Amsterdam shows tend to do well.

The two polls differed somewhat on individual players. Wakeman topped the keyboardist category for Prog, but he only got a single vote in the DPRP poll, where Geoff Downes came 7th equal. Wakeman was also 3rd in Prog's Man of the Year category, which was won by Steven Wilson. Steve Howe made 7th in Prog's guitar list, but also only got a single vote with DPRP. (Steve Rothery won both best guitarist votes.) Similarly, Tony Levin came 3rd in Prog's bassist poll (won by Nick Beggs), but had a single vote with DPRP (won by Pete Trewavas).

Not much happening in the best vocalist categories. Jon Davison's 2 votes for his performance on Heaven & Earth got him 22nd equal with DPRP (won by Peter Nicholls). He also got 1 vote for his performance on Glass Hammer's Ode to Echo, but there were no votes for any other Yes vocalists. (Prog only gave top tens, but there were no Yes men in Prog's male vocalist category, won by Joe Payne, while their female section was won by Lee Douglas.) Alan White and Dylan Howe both got 1 vote for DPRP's Best Drummer (won by Mike Portnoy). (Again no-one in Prog's top ten, also won by Portnoy.)

Prog's Album of the Year was Opeth's Pale Communion (3rd with DPRP), with the only Yes-related entry being Dave Kerzner's New World, on which Billy Sherwood guests, coming in 10th. Kerzner was also 4th in the Tip for 2015 section with Prog, won by iamthemorning, and 3rd Best Newcomer with DPRP, won by Synaesthesia.

DPRP's Best Album was IQ's The Road of Bones (3rd with Prog), with the highest Yes-related entry being United Progressive Fraternity's Fall in Love with the World 14th, on which Jon Anderson guests, with New World coming next at 24. Ode to Echo (with Jon Davison) was 42nd and Heaven & Earth was 50th.

DPRP also has a Best Tracks category, won by IQ's "The Road of Bones". The top Yes-related entry here was "Subway Walls" at 35th equal. The only others in the top 100 were "Believe Again" and Glass Hammer's "The Garden of Hedon" (if Davison appears on that track) tied at 89.

Finally, Heaven & Earth managed 8th equal for Best Artwork at DPRP.

Thursday 26 February 2015

Progeny: 7 Shows from '72

You may be having difficulty accessing the main news page because of the high demand for it. That high demand is because of the breaking news about the Close to the Edge tour live release. I repeat details here:

Originally trailed as a blurry photo on Yes's official Facebook account, news grew of a forthcoming archival live release featuring a line-up of Anderson, Squire, Howe, White and Wakeman, and featuring new art by Roger Dean. This is Progeny: Seven Shows from Seventy-Two (Rhino), a 14-disc box, with 7 new paintings by Dean. One of the concerts included is the 31 Oct Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto performance on the Close to the Edge tour; set: "Intro: Firebird Suite", "Siberian Khatru", "I've Seen All Good People", "Mood for a Day", "Clap", "And You and I", "Heart of the Sunrise", "Close to the Edge", Wakeman solo, "Roundabout", "Yours is No Disgrace". According to Doug Curran on Facebook, all 7 shows are complete and from the Close to the Edge tour, with 1 Nov Ottawa (same set list) being another of the shows included. As for the other dates, speculation turns to 4 Nov Columbus, OH, 11 Nov Durham, NC and 14 Nov Atlanta, GA that are also believed to have been recorded (two of those may possibly be the sources of parts of Yessongs).
It appears that further archival live releases from other tours may be planned.

Saturday 31 January 2015

Poll: Best Yes-related album of 2014, part 1

Happy new year, and we begin the year by looking back to last year and our poll of the best Yes-related albums of the first half of 2014. There were 59 votes:

1. Asia: Gravitas (w/ Downes), 28 (47%)
2. Dylan Howe: Subterranean: New Designs on Bowie's Berlin (w/ Howe), 11 (19%)
3. Glass Hammer: Ode to Echo (w/ Davison), 6 (10%)
4= Billy Sherwood: Divided by One, 5 (8%)
4= Light My Fire - A Classic Rock Salute to The Doors (w/ Sherwood, Kaye, Howe, Downes, Wakeman, Moraz), 5 (8%)
6. Marty Walsh: The Total Plan (w/ Sherwood), 2 (3%)
7= Missing Persons feat. Dale Bozzio: Missing in Action (w/ Sherwood), 1 (2%)
7= Downes Braide Association: Record Store Day EP, 1 (2%)

There were no votes for Birds of Satan (with Davison) or Marcelo Paganini's 2012 Space Traffic Jam (with Sherwood, Kaye). An emphatic win for Asia with their first album since Howe left the band, and a clear second place for Dylan Howe's Kickstarted Subterranean with dad guesting. I voted for Subterranean myself, but nearly went with third place Ode to Echo, one of the band's best albums to date, in my opinion. Various Sherwood-related projects bring up the rear, although collectively they get more than Subterranean.

[9 Apr 2015: I missed a candidate album in the poll, Checkpoint Charlie's Love Karma, co-produced by Igor Khoroshev. Not that anyone voted for it under other...]