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.

REV: Trevor Horn and His Band, 20 Dec 2025

The Trevor Horn Band, now billed as 'Trevor Horn and his band', returned for a 3-date min-tour of England in December 2025, finishing in London, where I was happy to see them. Opening, just at this date, was Belouis Some, with an enthusiastic, '80s-tinged set.

The Trevor Horn Band line-up is familiar (Trevor Horn, Lol Creme, Simon Bloor, Julian Hinton, Alex McArthur, Florence Rawlings, Izzy Chase and, on front of house, Tim Wiedner), but with a few changes: Ash Soan, who was in the original line-up of The Producers, is back on drums; while instead of Ryan Molloy on vocals, we had Jakko Jakszyk (vocals, guitar) and Roberto Angrisani (vocals), both of whom have performed with the band before.

The band opened with Frankies Goes to Hollywood’s "Two Tribes", with a good vocal from Angrisani, and then into "Video Killed the Radio Star", including a short "Check It Out" outro, as the band usually does. Angrisani returned for an emotional "Cry", with Creme taking a guitar solo at the end. Then Creme took lead vocals for "Rubber Bullets". So far, so familiar. This is the usual Trevor Horn Band material and it was all OK, but the performance felt a little bit flat.

Jakszyk to this point had looked fairly lost on stage, strumming some rhythm guitar parts and contributing a few backing vocals in "Rubber Bullets". He seemed under-rehearsed, perhaps a late addition to the line-up. But all that was to change for "It's Different for Girls" where he took lead vocals. Jakko’s vocals throughout were a highlight of the evening, bringing a star quality.

Horn started to introduce a Buggles song next, before being corrected that they were playing "Can't Fight the Moonlight". Having seen the set list from the first two shows, I had been expecting "Slave to the Rhythm" and "Owner of a Lonely Heart" before "Can't Fight…" and was worried whether they had had to shorten the set. And then we didn't get "Can't Fight the Moonlight" because McArthur was having technical problems. McArthur was running playbacks, which they use for additional elements on some songs. So, instead we went into another 10cc song, with "The Dean and I", Creme again taking lead vocals. Technical problems fixed and we did get "Can't Fight the Moonlight", with Chase taking lead vocals. 

The second Buggles song of the evening (and the second Buggles single) was "Living in the Plastic Age", with Horn on lead vocals and Bloor taking the lead keyboard role, as he also did for the next song, Frankie's "The Power of Love". Jakko was back for another fantastic vocal.

Horn introduced "All the Things She Said", with the mention of Russia drawing a few boos from the audience. Horn pointed out that the song long predated Russia's invasion of Ukraine and that the girls didn't personally invade! (Perhaps he hasn't seen Julia Volkova's more recent support for Putin?) Chase and Rawlings shared lead vocals.

Jakko was back for another good lead vocal on "I'm Not in Love", with Creme on keys. Then we had a jaunty take on The Buggles' "Elstree", with Bloor again on lead keyboards.

Horn told a story of how Rod Stewart had complained about the unusual 5-bar intro of "Downtown Train", making it tricky for him to know when to come him. Jakko was back on vocals and brought the song to life.

The set list the band plays has been fairly constant for several years, with some variations from show to show. I was a bit disappointed they had not updated the set list more for this mini-tour, but one change they did make was more Buggles material. The fourth Buggles songs of the evening was "Clean, Clean", I think a first for the band and a song that wasn't even played on the US Buggles tour when Horn was opening for Seal. That makes The Age of Plastic the most well represented album in the set. While Bloor mostly took the lead on keyboards for Buggles songs, this one was taken by Hinton.

The regular part of the show then ended with "Relax" (making Welcome to the Pleasuredome the second most represented album with 3 songs), sung by Roberto, who strode up and down the front of a stage flanked by Chase and Rawlings.

But that was not it for the evening. "Slave to the Rhythm", "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and "Kiss from a Rose" has been played on the first two nights, so where were they? The answer came when the band brought out Seal as a surprise guest. (Perhaps not that much of a surprise given he has guested with the band before.)

Seal is a charismatic showman. He dominated the stage. They'd set up two music stands with the words for "Slave to the Rhythm" on them, which he was clearly using, but he still delivered an excellent performance, even sinuously dancing at the appropriate point in the lyric. And then on to "Owner of a Lonely Heart", which he credited as persuading him to sign to ZTT. (He particularly praised the drums.) The audience in the stalls had been on their feet as soon as Seal had come out. Now he got us singing along to the chorus.

As the band got ready for the next song, someone in the audience called out for "Killer" and Bloor played a bar of it, amusing Seal, but the next song was actually "Kiss from a Rose". Again, Seal got us singing along (which is a lot harder to do than for "Owner…"!).

And, finally, after some brief discussion, Horn, Bloor, Seal and Soan managed an impromptu version of "Killer" (joined by McArthur on a shaker)! Lots of Seal getting the audience to sing "Solitary brother" and "Solitary sister".

In all, a very good show. It felt a little under-rehearsed in places, but at its best when the vocalists shone. It was nice to hear more Buggles songs, but the set list could be more adventurous in places. Seal is always worth seeing, but the vocalist of the night was Jakko. Horn is a very solid bassist. However, the instrumentalist of the night was Soan, a powerful drummer, but still with great feel. Bloor’s versatility also stood out, handling a Trevor Rabin guitar solo or a Geoff Downes keyboard part equally easily.

REV: Trevor Horn, Royal Festival Hall, London, 28 Jul 2019

Trevor Horn Live in Concert
Sun 28/07/2019 7:30 PM
Royal Festival Hall

On the second date of their tour, this expanded Trevor Horn Band with string section are fluid and comfortable in themselves, all more polished than their one-off show at the South Bank Centre a year before. More of the Reimagines album was played, some other arrangements tweaked, interesting guests: a great show, but marred by a terrible mix in the first half.

• Trevor Horn: bass (not “Owner of a Lonely Heart”), vocals on “Video Killed the Radio Star”, “Living in the Plastic Age”, “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, backing vocals
• Alan Clark: keys
• Steve Ferrone: drums
• Roberto Angrisani (a.k.a. Kalon Rae): vocals on “Cry” , “Rhythm of My Heart”, backing vocals (not “Dancing in the Dark”, “Blue Monday”)
• Katie Holmes-Smith: vocals on “All the Things She Said”, “Dancing in the Dark”, “Girls on Film”, backing vocals (not “Blue Monday”)
• Izzy Chase: vocals on “All the Things She Said”, “Slave to the Rhythm”, “Girls on Film”, backing vocals (not “Blue Monday”), cowbell on “Since You’ve Been Gone”
• Phil Palmer: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals on “Money for Nothing”
• Lol Creme: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals on “Rubber Bullets”, backing vocals, keys on “I’m Not in Love”, bass on “Owner of a Lonely Heart”
• Simon Bloor: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keys
• Julian Hinton: conducting, keys
• Callum ?: tambourine, shaker, cowbell
• Sam ?: computers, shaker, tambourine
• string section: 4 violins (inc. Jamie Hutchinson, John Dickinson), 2 violas, 2 celli (inc. Miriam Wakeling)
• Tim Weidner: front of house engineer

with

• Matt Cardle: vocals on “Two Tribes”, “Slave to the Rhythm”, “The Power of Love”, “I’m Not in Love”, “Relax”
• Steve Hogarth: vocals on “Different for Girls”, “Ashes to Ashes”, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, “Kiss from a Rose”, “Blue Monday”
• Danny Cummings: vocals on “Brothers in Arms”, “Money for Nothing”
• Mick MacNeil: accordion on “Brothers in Arms”, “Rhythm of My Heart”
• Russ Ballard: vocals and electric guitar on “Since You’ve Been Gone”, “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”

1. "Two Tribes", with Cardle on lead vocals
2. "Video Killed the Radio Star", with Horn on lead vocals
3. "Cry", with Angrisani on lead vocals
4. "Rubber Bullets", with Creme on lead vocals
5. "Different for Girls", with Hogarth on lead vocals
6. "Ashes to Ashes", with Hogarth on lead vocals
7. "All the Things She Said", with Holmes and Chase on lead vocals
8. "Slave to the Rhythm", with Chase on lead vocals for the first half, and Cardle and Chase on lead vocals for the second half
9. "The Power of Love", with Cardle on lead vocals
10. "Living in the Plastic Age", with Horn on lead vocals
11. "I'm Not in Love", with Cardle on lead vocals and Creme on keys
12. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", with Hogarth on lead vocals
  Intermission
13. "Owner of a Lonely Heart" (including string intro), with Horn on lead vocals, Creme on bass
14. "Brothers in Arms", with Cummings on lead vocals, MacNeil on accordion
15. "Rhythm of My Heart", with Angrisani on lead vocals, MacNeil on accordion
  "Born to Run" bossa nova version demonstration, with just Horn/Clark/Ferrone
16. "Dancing in the Dark", with Holmes on lead vocals, just Chase on backing vocals
17. Scottish reel (electric guitar solo by Ballard)/"Since You've Been Gone", with Ballard on lead vocals and electric guitar, Chase on cowbell
18. "God Gave Rock and Roll to You", with Ballard on lead vocals and electric guitar
19. "Girls on Film", with Holmes and Chase on lead vocals
20. "Kiss from a Rose", with Hogarth on lead vocals
21. "Blue Monday", with Hogarth on lead vocals, without Angrisani/Holmes/Chase
  Horn introduces the band
22. "Relax", with Cardle on lead vocals
23. "Money for Nothing", with Cummings on lead vocals


The Trevor Horn Band has been playing dates for some years now, most recently with a line-up including several members of Dire Straits Legacy (Clark, Palmer, Ferrone, Cummings), with whom Horn also plays. This 5-date UK tour is in support of Trevor Horn Reimagines the Eighties, which saw Horn working with an orchestra, with arrangements and conducting by Julian Hinton. Studio magic and orchestra are hard to replicate on stage, but the Band are augmented by an 8-piece string section and the set mixes Reimagines tracks with their older standards like "Rubber Bullets" and "All the Things She Said".

Picture the scene. The show opens with the instrumentalists walking on stage and "Two Tribes" starts. Then the three backing vocalists (Katie Holmes-Smith, Izzy Chase and Roberto Angrisani) jump out. The music's pumping, the trio are jiving. Matt Cardle, the big name guest vocalist for tonight, begins to sing. It's all very exciting, but... I'm fourth row, centre stage and we can't hear what he's singing. The big problem through the whole first half was the difficulty hearing many of the vocals, certainly when the band were in full flow. I don't know what happened, or whether the mix was better elsewhere in the auditorium, but it was a disappointment. That aside, the band were grooving.

Song number two was preceded by Horn telling an anecdote about his daughter going to the same school as Boris Johnson's kids, and Johnson asking whether he was going to sell his kids drugs. And then into "Video Killed the Radio Star". Horn's vocals were a bit louder in the mix. As in recent years, the end of the song incorporates an extract from "Check It Out", the will.i.am and Nicki Minaj song that sampled "Video", and we got a rocked up ending after that too. New guy Angrisani stepped forward for the Godley & Creme song "Cry" that Horn co-produced, with another extended outro, this time for a Palmer guitar solo.

"Rubber Bullets" had Creme on lead vocals, but again they were far too low in the mix. But let's talk about happier things. As with previous shows, the trio of vocalists provided the glamour, contrasting with Trevor, Lol, Phil etc. in T-shirts and jeans. Izzy and Kate had glittery eye make-up and Angrisani had more eye make-up than both of them put together, and he was dressed like a glitter ball. Kate had full torso jewellery and shimmied it hard. We got some choreography, the three miming loading their guns with rubber bullets... it just would've been nice if we'd also been able to hear that Lol was singing about rubber bullets.

The three backing vocalists, Trevor Horn, Alan Clark and Phil Palmer

And so the first half went on. Replicating the album, we had Steve Hogarth singing "It's Different for Girls", but he was drowned out too. Then "Ashes to Ashes", which Hogarth originally recorded for the album, but was then replaced by Seal. Horn said it was Hogarth's idea to do the song on the album; Hogarth said Horn was drunk and can't remember that it was actually Horn's idea. Lovely to see the camaraderie between them. Hogarth was camping it up, gesticulating and striding around the stage, a great performance of "Ashes to Ashes"... in so far as I could hear him.

Chase and Holmes-Smith did "All the Things She Said", thankfully with somewhat more audible vocals. Then a performance of "Slave to the Rhythm" that Horn explained mixed a first half like the album ("without rhythm"), sung by Chase, and a second half more like the original, with Chase and Cardle duetting. Cardle stayed for "The Power of Love", a song that's all about it's dramatic vocal, which we could barely hear.

Then Horn was back on lead vocals for "Living in the Plastic Age", Cardle returned for "I'm Not in Love" and Hogarth closed the first set with "Everybody Wants to Rule the World".

A wave of complaints in the intermission hit the mixing desk, and thankfully something was fixed, making the second half much more enjoyable. We began with "Owner of a Lonely Heart", with Horn coming out in a kilt (the MacNeil family tartan)... although this time it's Alan Clark's solo that's inaudible. After that, the sound was fine!

"Brothers in Arms" is the weakest song on the Reimagines album to my ears, but it worked rather well here, with Cummings delivering an appropriately overwrought vocal. Roberto handled "Rhythm of My Heart". Horn, with Clark and Ferrone's help, then demonstrated his idea to do Springsteen's "Born to Run" to a bossa nova rhythm, before Holmes-Smith sang a very good "Dancing in the Dark".

Then a slightly odd section. As at their Cropredy Convention show in 2017, Argent's Russ Ballard joined them for "Since You've Been Gone" and "God Gave Rock and Roll to You". Ballard is an energetic frontman, these are classic anthems, Lol and Trevor seemed really happy to have Ballard as a guest, but the whole thing didn't really fit the '80s theme.

Back to the album for "Girls on Film", with Izzy and Katie on lead vocals. Then Hogarth, with costume change, was back for "Kiss from a Rose" (with the string arrangement, we were told, having been written by Hinton on the coach down from their previous show in Glasgow). Followed by, with another costume change, Hogarth doing "Blue Monday". It was lovely to now be able to hear Hogarth singing and I still long for a full-on Horn/Hogarth collaboration. As with some other songs, we got a tweaked version compared to the album, with Clark then Palmer having solos at the end.

Then the climax, if that's the right word, of the show with "Relax" with Cardle singing, Roberto/Izzy/Katie bouncing around the stage, and then everyone rocking out for "Money for Nothing", with Cummings back on lead vocals. The audience were on their feet and having as much fun as the band.

A stitched together panorama of the whole band