Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

The Yes 40th anniversary tour is official. They will be playing dates starting in July/August.
Official dates will be available (according to Yesworld.com) SOON!

Jon Anderson
Chris Squire
Steve Howe
Alan White
Oliver Wakeman

Yep, it was just posted on "Notes from the edge" - Oliver Wakeman, eh?

YesWorld (http://www.yesworld.com/) & Notes (http://www.nfte.org/) says it’s so as of March 7th and they link Oliver’s site http://www.oliverwakeman.co.uk/

Dane, was that a subtle request hint?

have part of the gathering at the show.... rent a bus....might be fun

Somebody tell Chris we want tickets!

Now that would be one hell of a confulence...!

After all the speculation at least there will be some US Yes shows in 2008.
However I think the tour has fallen well short of the expectations of their fanbase (particularly in the UK) considering its the 40th year of Yes.
Its a shame because it would have been a great opportunity for Yes to do a series of big all star gigs.
I know..the dreaded band politics.But hey,Jethro Tull are doing it for their 40th and they have issues too.
I am sure Oliver Wakeman will do a great job on the keys but does anyone know whats happening with Rick?
Finally....
What will the set will comprise of?

Just a thought Jim,
If you get in touch with Chris tell him above all else to use the Ritual and Relayer tour bass tone!
Lets have grind and fuzz spare no valves and have no mercy with those Swing Bass strings!

Um, Jim....

Not to forget to ask for backstage passes for RickResourse members...

I have just read Rick Wakemans statement on his website regarding the tour.
Briefly he had concerns about the health of the members of the band particularly Jon who had issues at the end of their last tour.
Rick has had health problems for a few years and he didnt want the others to overdo it themselves.
There was also the concern that yes had over toured since 2002 and he thought it might be best to do a few special shows and as Yes seem to focus on North America rather than Britain there was again all the added travelling.

I can see his point and like I said earlier back here in Blighty where we all got Yes going as a major album selling band in the early 70s we seem to have been pushed out by the promoters...now I know how the Aussies felt all these years!

Still I hope you guys have a great time when the show comes to town.

Speaking of that tone, Pete, what do you use to get it? I've been messing about with schottky and germanium diodes on just the treble pickup line, and it sounds close, if you play at maximum velocity, but I have a hard time imagining that Chris' RM horseshoe could drive a diode into that Jack Bruce sort of sound without additional help....

Maybe he just wound up that Marshall!

I haven't been able to locate any tour dates as of yet. I did read the statement on Rick's site. It does not sound like the 40th Anniversary Tour is going to be a major world tour and there are probably many good reasons for that.

If any one can post a link to the dates or where they are getting their information... I can only find "Dates to be announced" on Oliver Wakeman and Yesworld sites. I even did a "Yes tour dates" search on Google with no results. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

As much as I want to see them in 2008 (and I plan on getting on a plane if I have to!) I would much rather see a solid CD release of new material, done in true YES form, with everyone present and working on the arrangements together. Yea, I know that is almost impossible. Everyone has tight schedules, bands never seem to be able to get together to record like they did in the good ol' days and egos can be out of control. But when music is put together the way that a lot of the late 80's and early 90's stuff was done, meaning, musicians flying in or sending in their parts, then the door is open for producers and record company execs to do like what happened with "Union" (I was hoping to never mention that record here!), parts replaced with studio musicians, MIDI parts reworked or thrown out completely... That's not how FRAGILE was made.

One of the reasons that I really like "The Ladder" is that it was a return to old form in the way of composition for the band. You could tell that they were in close quarters and working on the songs as a team, with a good producer leading them. After my second listen to that CD, I decided that it was the best I've heard since 90125 or even Going for the one! I was proud of them, that after so many years together, they still had such great music in them. It made me think that YES could still be producing material for years to come.

The follow-up record, Magnification, while not as strong instrumentaly as previous records, had excellent songs, beautiful vocal harmonies and proper use of an orchestra, IMO, used almost perfectly to compliment the band. "Give love each day" is in my top five favorite Yes songs and when I got a chance to speak to Chris, believe it or not, my main questions were about his vocal harmonies and not his bass settings. I think that surprised him and may be the reason that he was willing to take a few minutes and talk to me about it. I always felt that his bass parts were a direct result of his early vocal training, that he plays on his bass what he cannot sing... he is truly unique.

As far as Chris reading this forum, I don't know what he's doing these days. I did get an email from someone close to him that did not give any details, but let me know that some damage had been done by a previous forum member. (I do not have any details, please don't PM me and ask, this person was very discreet). Just know that he has been informed that there is a new moderator, so perhaps he is checking in from time to time. Chris, if you are, please get back to working on FOOW 2!

My sincere hope is that Magnification is not the last we hear from Yes as a group, but the truth is that I'll never want them to stop producing music. As great as they are in concert, the CD's will stay with me forever. Perhaps Yes could go into a "Beatles" mode, when touring becomes simply out of the question, they would still be writing and releasing new material. But, since the business has changed so much - meaning that because of MP3 and easy sharing of digital files, they now make most of their revenue off of touring, my guess is that at some point soon they will retire or go completely solo. When I hear CD's like "Swiss Choir" it does give me hope that a lot of music is still to come from these guys, perhaps in ways we didn't expect!