Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

"In '76 I jammed with Jon Anderson at the hotel Yes was staying at in Pittsburgh. He played a wooden flute and I played my dulcimer. "-- Jeff

I was at that concert! This was the Relayer tour, correct? Where the stage set had lights in snakes heads that followed the musicians? I remember that it was the first time that many people had seen lasers used and they kept jumping up from their seats trying the grab the beams as they swept over the audience. I was sitting about 25 rows back on the floor and actually had footprints on my white pants from people stepping on my lap as they tried to grab the light. Did you see the show Yes did in the round at the Civic Arena? The one where some looney fan sneaked up onstage and grabbed Jon?

Ilan, thanks for the correction...a Classic deserves to be quoted correctly.

"No one knows who they were...or what they were doing..."

That was the last year I saw Yes until '97.

Well ,here's the story. Yes played in the round at the Civic Arena. I was sitting on the side about 15 rows up and had a semi-bird's eye view of the stage. They were near the end of doing "Gates of Delirium." All eyes -- including the roadies', were on the stage, but I could see a crouched down figure weaving his way up through the crowd to the side of the stage. Next thing I and anyone else knew, the guy was onstage, standing behind Jon Anderson, who was singing. The roadies ran toward them and the guy got Jon in a bearhug. Jon kept singing. The roadies moved in and the guy lifted Jon off the floor. He quit singing. Steve Howe, rather than save Jon, grabbed one of his guitars off the rack in the ensuing tussle and ran to the other side of the stage. The next few seconds looked like one of those cartoon sequences where there's a big ball of flying feet and fists ... then the crasher and Jon appeared out of the back of the ball, Jon with his arm around the guy. He was obviously saying something to calm him down. Jon patted the guy on the back and the roadies escorted him down the stairs. Jon walked back to the microphone and picked up exactly where he had stopped singing. Pretty amazing reaction by Jon. All that meditation must've paid off.

Jon was probably a wrestler in high school!

If he was, he must have been picked on all the time for his voice being so high. He sounds the same as he sings! It's like at the end of "Starship Trooper" on Keys to Ascension I . . . "Thank you so much!" Every time I hear that little snippet, I die.

I think the only thing Jon has wrestled with is the meaning of life. Unless , of course, "Olias of Sunhillow" is his name in the ring.

Well, Steve Howe couldn't have saved anyone, anyway. He's always looked pretty scrawny, so I'm sure he was just letting the roadies/security do their thing and got his instruments out of the fray. I probably would have done the same. Interesting story!

Hey Dave, I saw Olias in a grudge match with The Purple Piper at the Square Garden of Madison...

Dane: me too! I remember the smell of Mary Jane was heavy in the air that night ...

Reminds me of the time I got busted in the MSG toilet, during a Yes show, in fact...but perhaps another time and thread...