When did YOU first see Chris Squire and Yes?

phlemmy · Post by **phlemmy** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:36 pm

1998 (I think) with Alan Parson opening. It was great. The next time I saw them they were touring with a setlist picked out by the fans. It was utterly boring. The whole Tales from Topographic OCean? WTF?

jps · Post by **jps** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:07 pm

I would have loved to see them do all of TFTO!

I have only seen sides one and four.

phlemmy · Post by **phlemmy** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 2:26 pm

That may have been what I saw as well, I was bored out of my skull!

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 3:04 pm

I've seen them play all 4 sides, but not all at once at one concert.

relayer4u · Post by **relayer4u** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:57 pm

Sean is obviously not a huge Yes fan, and that's ok.

Sounds like he's talking about the 2000 Yes Masterworks Tour...

...this is the set list that had him "bored out of his skull":

Close To The Edge
Starship Trooper
Gates Of Delirium
Leaves Of Green
Heart Of The Sunrise
Ritual
I've Seen All Good People
Roundabout

I loved that tour, especially hearing Gates live again for the first time in 25 years!

No worries Sean, we still love ya!

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:47 pm

GOD live - man can it get much better?! When they did it here in Kazoo, when they got to "Soon", when Jon started to sing, he was in a cone of green laser light looking up. It was so f'ing dynamic!

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:54 pm

Where the studio track is +21:54 total, the part that I wait for every time is that crashing buildup to the climax at +12:49 before Soon comes up - it just about twists your head off, the way they carry it off. Then Soon comes up at +16:09 and Jon starts off singing at +17:08.....

That live performance was even better, and I have never heard GOD done any better than that tour

phlemmy · Post by **phlemmy** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:58 pm

It may have been 2000. To be honest, I didn't even stay for the whole show. We had grass seats at an amphitheater and Kansas opened. It was raining heavily and we were just sitting there getting soaked to the bone. Iron Maiden (my all time favorite band) could have been playing and I would have been just as disinterested in those conditions.

The tour I saw a few years earlier was great. We were 7th row, dead center. It was just wonderful.

relayer4u · Post by **relayer4u** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 6:06 pm

Kansas was the opener for most shows in 2000.

And again, Yes needs all the fans they can get these days, casual or dedicated, it doesn't really matter.

Chant with me now: one more tour, one more tour, one more tour...

We have hope.

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 6:25 pm

Well true it is not the days of late 1968 and all throughout 1969, when they were hungry and ambitious Wednesday Night regulars at Johnny Gee's Marquee Club in London, but they still have quite the die-hard devoted fan base and If They Tour, We Will Come.

Remarkably, Stevie Nicks said it well when she sang "...and we're getting older too". Yes is like fine wine, they get better with age IMHO

leftyguitars · Post by **leftyguitars** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:40 pm

'Got it, Peter! It was held Saturday, July 26, 1969, at Kirklevington Country Club'

Where did you find that info Elys?

bob_atherton · Post by **bob_atherton** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:26 am

Damn, Yes got about in those days. They were at The Granary Club in Bristol two days after this gig. I wasn't there, but Al Read, who ran the club, who was our agent when I played in a band called Eddie Riff, said that my Rickenbacker sound at the Granary was second only to Yes. Praise indeed.

seyesbass · Post by **seyesbass** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 11:32 am

My brother took me along to see Yes at Manchester Free Trade Hall when they were still promoting/playing the Yes Album.I am sure that he said Chris fell over and broke his bass at the previous university gig he went to in Manchester. The next time we saw them a few months later Rick had just joined and they were playing songs from Fragile which they were still recording.I remember Jon Anderson introducing Long Distance Runaround as The warmth of the Sun or something and then handing over to Chris who then explained what the Fish was about and how he couldnt replicate what he had recorded but Steve and Rick were going to help out.
I still have the cassette of that part of the gig unfortunately Heart Of the Sunrise was on another cassette that went missing.Jon explained about moving to the City and the bass making the sound of the train at the start of the song...so now you know where that came from. I have the "original" Fish bass solo from that gig that is almost as the record too. All that for 50p (25c!).

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:30 pm

Bob, they did indeed get around! They played at six different venues in Bristol in the early years (Top Rank Suite, Old Granary, Hippodrome Theatre, Colston Hall, College Of Technology, and Bristol University).

But that date at the Granary on July 28th, 1969 was the only one they every played at The Granary. You were one fortunate soul indeed to be there!

elysrand · Post by **elysrand** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 12:54 pm

Pete, YES played at nine diffrent venues in Manchester: U.M.I.S.T, Palace Theatre, Manchester University, Manchester Evening News Arena, Kings Hall, Hardrock, Free Trade Hall, College Of Art, and the Apollo Theatre.

But they played five different times at the Free Trade Hall: 04/06/71, 10/01/71, 01/31/72, 11/28/73, and 11/29/73.

Now, the most popular song ever in YES concerts, "Roundabout" with over 1300 concert plays, was first played on 09/24/71 in Devon UK at The Queen's Hall, which seated 1,000 people at-capacity.

So either you heard them 10/01/71 at the FTH during their Fall 1971 European Fragile Tour (from 9/24 to 10/31) before they went on their First US Fragile Tour, with Jonathan Swift as the opening act, or you had to wait until after their First US Fragile Tour (from 11/01 to 12/18) on the last date of their Winter 1972 European Fragile Tour (from 1/14/72 to 1/31/72) on)1/31/72 to hear them a second time at the FTH with Curved Air as the opening act this time.

Do you remember which it was?

If it was the first date, then your ticket stub would have looked like this:

And if it was the second time, then your ticket stub would have looked like this: