Alan, you had incandescent lighting? And electricity too? Why, back when I started in show business, we were lucky to get limelight for stage lighting, smoky and short-lived, and megaphones for audio, and WE LIKED IT.
I'm channeling my grandfather there, BTW, who thought vaudeville was the apex of modern entertainment technology....and thought those newfangled silent films were a passing fad Imagine the deer-in-the-headlights glaze that his attending and seeing a YES Concert would have given him in the 70s.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and sit in with the band whenever you can, to keep your chops up!
Well, there is that. In fact, since the only time YES ever performed in September at the Long Beach Arena was September 1977 for the Going For The One tour, that smoky haze must have made you as confused as it did me! You are probably referring to the back to back Tormato "Ten Two Summers" tour dates of Friday and Saturday, May 25th and 26th, 1979 for these photos, which was the last time that YES ever performed in Long Beach.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and sit in with the band whenever you can, to keep your chops up!
Where did they play in LA in September 1978 for Tormato?
Most every show I went to back then was at either Long Beach Arena or Inglewood "Fabulous" Forum.
But it most definitely was early in my senior year of high school. I know this because I went with a pal (And I have a photo of him taking a photo of me in the venue) who also brought his camera and was sitting up in the loge area; a couple of his shots were printed in the high school yearbook that year so May 1979 was way too late for that.
I thought you said you went to see them in Long Beach in 1979. They really did not play there ever again after May 1979.
But they DID play Inglewood later in the Tormato tour, which you didn't mention before. That was a two-show gig, Oct 5th and 6th 1979, and this is what you must have meant to say
Don' know which night you attended, but their song list the first night was:
Young Persons Guide To The Orchestra
Siberian Khatru
Heart Of The Sunrise
Future Times/Rejoice
Circus Of Heaven
Time And A Word/Long Distance Runaround/Survival/The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)/Perpetual Change/Soon
Don't Kill The Whale
Madrigal
Clap
Starship Trooper
Madrigal/On The Silent Wings Of Freedom
Wakeman Solo
Flight Jam/Awaken
I've Seen All Good People
Roundabout
Due to time constraints, they cut Kansas City Witch from the playlist on the 5th and 6th
Does this look more familiar?:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and sit in with the band whenever you can, to keep your chops up!
Those ads you post are very familiar looking - those were the standard LA Times Calendar section concert announcement ads of the time and I remember cutting them out of the newspaper and tacking up on the wall of my bedroom as a teen.
I did some research just now. Sources indicate that Yes toured in the round for Tormato late summer into Fall 1978 and were in Los Angeles at the Forum in October 5 and 6, 1978. So, these photos were shot at the LA (aka Inglewood or "Fabulous") Forum in Los Angeles on October 5 or 6 (probably 5), 1978.
It was a huge event for me then but nearly 30 years later other things have taken higher places in my personal history and crowded out the details and so that is why we thank Zeus for the internet.
I was of the MTV (90125 generation.) The first time I saw them was 90125 tour at Sandstone Amphitheater in Kansas City, KS in 1984. I was not into them before that. (I was too young in the 70's.) The only albums I had of them then were 90125, Classic Yes, and Going for the One(given to me). After seeing them I had to get more Albums.. I rode my bike to the mall and bought all the older Yes albums every other week or so when I could, and sneak buy a pack of cigarettes from the cigarette machines they had in the mall then, on the way back home. That was all before the hoopla about minors smoking cigarettes.. I'm glad I never got hooked though.. Then a few years later (around the Big Generator album era) I got my first bass, a Tokai P-bass (then a few months after that) my first Rickenbacker 4001, a beat up 1976 FG sanded to MG!
"Pittsburgh on Feb 21st 1974, bitter cold, beer at the concession stand if you just said you were 21 (no ID check), and other vapourous things floating in the air"
Yea, Elys, and as a thirteen year old, I was probably partaking those "vapourous things" a little too early! What I really remember about that show in 1974 was that it started late due to tech problems, at 8:15 there were roadies climbing the PA stacks looking for a problem, then Yes came out in full glory! The set list, as I remember, was SK, AYAI, CTTE, TFTO (complete) and, after a long pause where the house light actually came up for a while, they returned to do Roundabout. So many people had left at that point that we were able to get very close to the stage. I remembered thinking "maybe that was another intermission and they'll play for another hour" but of course, they were finished.
One of my best concert memories, however, comes from the much maligned Union tour, in Orlando, Florida. While Jon spoke about a recording session at Advision Studios in 1972, Tony, Trevor and Alan quietly left the stage and the "Fragile" lineup performed "Long Distance Runaround" - Fantastic!
Pete Greenwood and I were just discussing our hopes for a 40th Anniversary Tour and CD, hopefully as good as "The Ladder" which is one of my favorites.
First saw YES as the opening act for Jethro Tull during the Aqualung tour at the Seattle Center Coliseum. Maybe summer of '71? Your Move/All Good People had barely hit the radio airwaves.
First saw Yes in early '79 In The Round. Great show. Since then I have only missed one Tour of theirs in Texas, in 2000. Annoying, as I missed G.O.D., which I really would have liked to hear (and remember).
Later on in 1979 I got my first Rickenbacker 4001 at Evans Music City. Still have her, but she is currently getting some work done (hurry up, Paul!). Seeing Mr. Squire made the choice of a Rick pretty easy. Color selection too. Pity I have never mastered the instrument like he has...
Most memorable for me was the opener in Dallas in '84, BUGS BUNNY!
"Pittsburgh on Feb 21st 1974, bitter cold, beer at the concession stand if you just said you were 21 (no ID check), and other vapourous things floating in the air" ....
For that show I was stuck in Dayton, Ohio, playing with a band that broke up a month later. Had to give my tickets to an ex-girlfriend -- the concert was supposed to have been a gift for my 25th birthday. I still regret not seeing that one ...
