Looking Forward to Looking Back: 2025 in review and 2026 to come

I did a post a year ago entitled "What does 2025 hold for Yes fans?" So, what did we get and were my prognostications remotely accurate?

To quote my earlier self: I believe 7 Yesmen have releases or live dates announced for 2025: Jon Anderson (Band Geeks live album and tour), Bill Bruford (Pete Roth Trio shows), Rick Wakeman (solo shows), Geoff Downes (Asia live), Trevor Horn (one festival appearance announced), Billy Sherwood (on Dave Kerzner’s Genesis tribute album), and Jon Davison (at John Lodge live shows).

All those happened. Indeed, Horn fit in some more dates (see my previous blog entry for a review of his 20 Dec 2025 show). Bruford continued touring with the Pete Roth Trio, including playing a new composition of theirs entitled "Looking Forward to Looking Back". Indeed, Bruford, I believe, played more live dates than any other current or former Yes member in 2025.

I would pick my favourite Yes-related concerts of the year as 1. Trevor Horn and his band, featuring Seal; 2. the Pete Roth Trio featuring Bill Bruford; 3. the Pete Roth Trio featuring Bill Bruford. Five years ago, the idea of Bruford back touring was fantastical. Twenty-five years ago, the idea of Horn regularly playing live was also fantastical. How things have changed.

Sadly, John Lodge, Davison’s father-in-law, passed away in 2025, leaving a final EP release, Love Conquers All (with both Davison and Downes guesting).

I think we can have strong expectations for: a new Yes album and tour, a new Downes Braide Association album, and a new Rick Wakeman solo piano album.

Fifty fifty here. Wakeman’s piano album came out, as Melancholia. Yes did tour. However, both the Yes and DBA albums remain delayed and are now expected in 2026, with some recording work for Yes still happening in December 2025.

More up in the air, but possible, is plenty more. There are three albums with Billy Sherwood that look like good bets for 2025: exo-X-xeno’s (also with Patrick Moraz); a new CIRCA: album (also with Tony Kaye and Jay Schellen); and an album with Dave Kerzner and Fernando Perdomo. There is a whole suite of Jon Anderson projects that might appear, with various follow-up albums (Anderson Stolt 2; 1000 Hands: Chapter 2; and a second studio album with the Band Geeks) and maybe the eventual realisation of some very long-running projects, Zamran (dating back at least to 2000) and Chagall (from 1980!). Other projects we could see include a new Asia album and more touring; maybe another Trevor Horn album; and various projects with Oliver Wakeman (maybe a tour, but more probably a release).

The exo-X-xeno album came out as Luminous Voyage. It’s my pick for the best Yes-related release of the year.

However, nearly everything else I listed did not happen, although they remain possibilities for 2026.  2025 was rather low on Yes-related releases. However, Asia did play dates in 2025 and the Asia album is now promised for 2026. Oliver Wakeman has announced several dates for 2026 (some with his band, some with his dad).

It seems like work with the Band Geeks continues to crowd out anything else for Jon Anderson. A second studio album with the Geeks is expected late 2026, as well as touring earlier in the year. All of Anderson’s other projects: who knows?! He keeps talking about Zamran in interviews, but are we any closer to a release?

Most obviously missing from this list is Trevor Rabin. He had talked of another solo album to follow Rio and possible touring, but it’s been a while since we’ve heard anything.

And still silence.

In terms of things I did not foresee, my second favourite Yes-related release of the year is probably Steve Howe’s Signals Crossed EP. As for archival releases, I would like to mention Keith West’s Cross That Bridge - The Anthology 1965-1999, with various tracks with Steve Howe.

I’m not doing a longer post about what 2026 will bring, although I will note that it’s shaping up to be Geoff Downes’ year, with Yes and Asia live dates, new studio albums from Yes, Asia and DBA, and multiple live Asia albums, all expected. There has even been a little talk of a Buggles tour.