Yes Mark 50th Birthday With Shows, Album Redux, Fan Convention
Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, Alan White line-up unveil more Anniversary plans…
YES – THE PROG ROCK legends who celebrate 50 years of existence this year – have announced a weekend of events to coincide with their two London shows on March 24 and 25.
The line-up of Steve Howe (guitar), Alan White drums), Geoff Downes (keyboards), Jon Davison (vocals) and Billy Sherwood (bass) begin their UK tour next week (March 13).
“The European shows will be celebrating 50 years,” Howe tells MOJO, before explaining that sets will draw liberally from 1973 album Tales From Topographic Oceans, and include songs that went down well across the group’s 2017 live dates.
“The tour we’ve just done was titled loosely One From The First 10,” Howe continues, “which meant we did one song from each of the first 10 albums. That show went great. We started with Survival [from their self-titled 1969 debut album] and nobody had heard that for so long. That was a wowing kind of feeling so we’ll also take from that show, and add to the things that we do from Tales…”
Additionally, on Sunday, March 25, the London Palladium will host the Yes Fan Convention, which will be attended by both current members of the band and Yes alumni.
Yes in 2018: (from left) Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, Alan White, Jon Davison, Billy Sherwood.
It will mark the official launch and world-wide availability of a limited new edition of 2011 album Fly From Here, entitled Fly From Here – Return Trip, featuring new lead vocals throughout by Trevor Horn – who sang in the line-up of Yes that recorded 1980’s Drama album – plus an unreleased track, Don’t Take No for an Answer, with Howe on lead vocals. The album can be exclusively pre-ordered via Pledge Music.
Tickets for the Fan Convention are £30 (plus booking fee). Free entry for those who have bought Meet & Greet packages for Saturday or Sunday shows. For full details and to book visit yesworld.com.
Howe’s keeping some of Yes’s other plans closer to his chest, however. After the UK tour finishes, the guitarist promises “a mystery period, which were not saying anything about, and then in June and July we do some major shows in America, where we have ideas for a more radical kind of set. We’ve got a perpetual plan that always goes forward.”
Howe, Downes and White – along with John Anderson and Trevor Rabin from Yes splinter group ARW – speak at length in the next MOJO magazine (onsale March 27) about the rucks and riffs that have fed into 50 years of Yes.
Yes’s March UK and European tour dates are:
Tues 13th Bristol, Colston Hall
Weds 14th Sheffield, City Hall
Fri 16th Glasgow, SEC Armadillo
Sat 17th Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
Sun 18th Gateshead, Sage
Tues 20th Birmingham, Symphony Hall
Wed 21st Brighton Centre
Fri 23rd Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall
Sat 24th London Palladium
Sun 25th London Palladium
Tue 27th Tilburg, 013
Wed 28th Antwerp, De Roma
Fri 30th Paris, Olympia