2022 in review and the Prog Readers’ Poll

Obviously, overshadowing everything, 2022 is the year that Alan White died. We will all remember him and the streamed Seattle tribute concert was a lovely memorial.

2022 marked a return to touring after the pandemic, with live shows by Yes, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, and the Trevor Horn Band, as well as the Jazz Sabbath tour with Adam Wakeman and Dylan Howe, and Dave Kerzner's All Star Prog Band with Sherwood. 2022 was perhaps a quieter year for Yes-related releases. But we did get albums from the Prog Collective and Arc of Life, from Rick Wakeman, and from Virgil & Steve Howe, plus some notable guest appearances including Sherwood and Davison on Dave Kerzner's The Traveler, both also on Lobate Scarp's You Have It All, and Wakeman and Downes on Fernando Perdomo's Frost soundtrack. There was the usual array of Cleopatra tribute records and Zorbonauts releases. I think there are two guest appearances that I feel deserved a bit more attention: David Paich's Forgotten Toys, which has a song with the late Michael Sherwood and a brief appearance by Billy; and Clint Bahr's Puzzlebox, including a piece posthumously incorporating a Pete Banks solo.

I think it can be interesting to try to step outside of our Yes fan perspective and consider how the broader world sees the music we love. In terms of audience reach, the most successful Yes-related music of 2022 must be Carly Rae Jepsen's album The Loneliest Time, which made the top 20 in the UK, Canada & US. Trevor Rabin plays guitar on the track "Talking to Yourself" (#91 on the UK iTunes chart by itself), presumably invited in by his son, who co-wrote/produced it. Or maybe it's Rabin's music for the Disney+ show National Treasure: Edge of History?

Yes-related music rarely challenges for the big awards, but Brad Mehldau's Jacob's Ladder, including a re-interpretation of "Starship Trooper", has been nominated in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category for the 2023 Grammys. (This is slightly confusing as it is not entirely instrumental, with significant vocals in places.)

One interesting measure of success is Prog magazines Readers' Poll, which Yes members have done well in before. The results for 2022 are perhaps disappointing.

In the Band, Male Vocalist, Guitarist, Album and Drummer categories, nothing Yes related. (Apart from Yes remixer Steve Wilson, who did very well, with Porcupine Tree winning Best Band and 2nd in Best Album, while Wilson is 8th in Best Male Vocalist.) Lobate Scarp were 9th in Best Unsigned Band. Adam Wakeman came 7th in Best Keyboardist.

Best Bassist has Tony Levin at #2 and Lee Pomeroy at #8. In the Best Reissue category, Bruford does well, with King Crimson's Discipline/Beat/Three of a Perfect Pair coming 8th and his compilation Making a Song and Dance at #9.

Cruise to the Edge came 5th in Best Event, but this was the first cruise without Yes themselves and Billy Sherwood was the only Yes member performing. Cropredy, at which the Trevor Horn Band headlined one night, was 7th.

So, no Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe or Geoff Downes. No specific mention of Billy Sherwood or Jon Davison, although perhaps they can take a little credit for helping Lobate Scarp to 9th best Unsigned Band. The long-retired Bill Bruford is the only Yes member who comes out of that seeming relevant. Congrats to the do-we-count-them-as-alumni Levin and Pomeroy. Compare someone like Steve Hackett, of the same generation as Yes, who has often collaborated with Yes members: he won best Guitarist and best Event (for his Foxtrot at 50 tour).

I wonder whether the Poll has a UK bias. The magazine is available outside the UK, but I think the readership is mainly British. Maybe the more US-based acts (Sherwood, Kerzner, Perdomo, Glass Hammer) suffer accordingly.

Will the 2023 Readers' Poll look different? Between probable Yes, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Trevor Rabin, and DBA albums, hopefully so.

Poll: Best Yes-related album of first half of 2012

Our latest 6-monthly poll of the best Yes-related album releases attracted 126 votes.

1. Squackett: A Life Within a Day (w/ Squire): 46 (37%)
2. Trevor Rabin: Jacaranda: 39 (31%)
3. Asia: XXX (w/ Howe, Downes): 24 (19%)
4. Producers: Made in Basing Street (w/ Horn, Downes): 11 (9%)
5= Tales from the Edge: A Tribute to the Music of Yes (w/ Davison): 2 (2%)
5= King Crimson: Live in Toronto, June 24, 1974 (w/ Bruford): 2 (2%)
7= Sonic Elements: XYZ—A Tribute to Rush (w/ Sherwood): 1 (1%)
7= King Friday: Let the Song Begin (w/ O Wakeman): 1 (1%)

It was a bumper period for major Yes-related releases. The clear winner was the much-anticipated and long-awaited Squackett collaboration. Major Chris Squire projects outside Yes are a rare thing and the team-up with former Genesis/GTR guitarist Steve Hackett proved irresistible. It's unfortunate that plans for a Squackett tour this year have evaporated.

Until a late surge for Squackett, Jacaranda was very close. While Rabin's film music output has been prodigious, his non-score work has been limited to just a handful of guest appearances over the 18 years since Talk, so Jacaranda was perhaps even more anticipated and awaited than Squackett. I've reviewed the album previously and interviewed Rabin about it recently.

Completing a triumvirate of projects that took their time about being released was Producers' Made in Basing Street. The band has been going since 2006 and much of the album was written and recorded in December 2006 and January 2007. For Yes fans, the album is most notable for seeing Horn taking on the lead vocal role for parts of the album, with a series of poignant songs about his wife's accident.

But Made in Basing Street only made 4th, beaten by Asia's XXX. In comparison to Made in Basing Street, Jacaranda and A Life Within a Day, XXX was a rapid project and the third album from the reunion band in fairly quick succession.

There were no votes for Marco Sabiu's Audio Ergo Sum (with Anderson guesting on one song), Icon's Heat of the Rising Sun, Estelle's All of Me (minor Horn production input), Jay Tausig's Pisces (Sherwood guests on one track) or the two Patrick Moraz releases, Pianissimoraz and Live at Abbey Road.

Anderson's PR machine made much fuss about the Sabiu album and Anderson's talked about making a full album with him, although it's unclear whether that will actually happen.

Moraz' Pianissimoraz attracted much anger from fans: although billed as a new album, it actually only contains one new piece, otherwise being a compilation from Windows of Time and ESP, plus one track from Resonance.

The second half of the year sees no less than six guest star-laden releases from Cleopatra Records (five with Billy Sherwood) going up against major releases from the most recent two Yes vocalists (Davison and David) and possibly one from the guy before.

[Edit: corrected vote totals.]

Anderson/Wakeman/Rabin - what might they play live?

From the latest Grumpy Old Rick's Ramblings, it looks like the Anderson Wakeman Rabin project is seriously gearing up for activity, both an album and tour. But what is the set list of the live shows going to look like? Presumably a new album will be featured, but what else?

When Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe appeared, what they would play on tour seemed obvious from the start. Here was (most of) the band that gave us Fragile and Close to the Edge, and (apart from the opening solo sections), everything they played came from those two albums or ABWH. Moreover, given Bruford had left before the Close to the Edge tour, there was the added irony of this being the first time he had played "Close to the Edge" and "And You and I" live.

Will an Anderson Wakeman Rabin tour have any iconic moments to compare to ABWH playing "Close to the Edge"? The big difference is that Anderson, Wakeman and Rabin never recorded an album together, and they've only been on stage together on the Union tour. They either have to play YesWest songs - which Wakeman didn't originally perform on, has occasionally been rude about, and has rarely played live - or they play "classic" '70s Yes - Rabin's performances of which were often criticised in the 1980/90s.

Anderson/Wakeman/Rabin is an intriguing combination of Yesmen, a more interesting line-up than the current 'official' Yes for some. They have the potential to surprise us in all kinds of ways, but nostalgia is the driving force behind ticket sales and what kind of nostalgia does a band that never existed before offer?