Yes

My first Yes concert experience was on 25 Sept. 1977 at the San Diego Sports Arena. The stage was designed by Roger Dean and had beautiful orange fabrics draped all around. This time out Yes consisted of Chris Squire on bass (the only member to be in every Yes role-call), Steve Howe on guitar, Alan White on drums, Jon Anderson on vocals, and Rick Wakeman returning on keyboards.

The opening act for this show was Donovan and I believe it was his first performance in San Diego. While the house lights were still up Firebird Suite began to play and the lights began to slowly fade. What a great memory being greeted by the majestic organ introduction to Parallels, a a marvelous start to the evening as well. The material from the recent Going For The One album was equally as strong as their older material and has since survived the test of time compared to some of their other works.

This particular evening had a brilliant mix of old and new. The songs continued with I've Seen All Good People, and Close To The Edge. Wonderous Stories and Turn Of The Century both feature Jon Anderson's angelic alto voice. Jons' microphone gear that night looked like a space helmet collar and had 2 mics for stereo tracking that sounded amazing.

After Going For The One and Awaken the band left the stage. They returned for an encore and played Starship Trooper and Roundabout. What an evening. Rick Wakeman looked like a gladiator in an arena of keyboards and Steve Howe had several guitars to choose from. The quality musicianship of these players has awed me for over 40 years now.

In 1984 Yes toured the 90125 album with Chris Squire on bass, Jon Anderson on vocals, Tony Kaye returning on keyboards, Alan White on drums and Trevor Rabin on guitar. The stage was round and had slanted grating that made it difficult for Echo and the Bunnymen so set up their equipment so the opening act was replaced by 2 Bugs Bunny cartoons. The show started with a new instrumental named Cinema from the 90125 album. Leave It had Alan White playing a small electric drum set for the first half of the song, when the lights dimmed and he reappeared behind the full acoustic drumkit in a blast of light for the end of the song the whole Forum was floored.

This show found Yes playing mainly the newer material. We were treated to a few of the classics: I've Seen All Good People, And You and I, and Long Distance Runaround were mixed in to the main set and once again the encore was Starship Trooper and Roundabout.

In 1991 Yes had a Reunion tour. To some it may have felt the band was larger than the audience. Guitars: Steve Howe and Trevor Rabin. Drums: Alan White and Bill Bruford. Keyboards: Tony Kaye and Rick Wakeman. Bass: Chris Squire. Vocals: Jon Anderson. I was able to see both legs of this tour. The first leg was indoor arenas and the stage was round and rotated clockwise for the first half of the show and counterclockwise for the second half.

The second leg of the tour was in outdoor amphitheaters. In addition to the classics we were treated to a drum duet, two guitar solos, and two keyboard solos. The main sets were only about 20 songs and the encore was Roundabout, but when you consider that some of the songs are 30 minutes long or so it made for quite a full evening of some of the best musical talent you will ever see in one place.