The Royal Tour: Yes at the Hard Rock Casino, Atlantic City, 15th June 2019

Ah, Atlantic City.  Back again.

It's where you find this...

Yes, 'Spouse's Signature Not Needed.'  And this...

And in the Hard Rock casino itself, this...

Now I did have my camera this evening.  Hurrah!  And I did have a photography pass.  Yay!!

Unfortunately, it's a new camera, and I hadn't got to grips with the settings.  They were set up for landscapes (which don't move), but rubbish for rock stars indoors (who move a lot).  I was hopeless.  

Meanwhile, right in front of me, the Gottlieb brothers trained their 20 foot long telephoto lenses on the band, and effortlessly snapped their endless masterpieces like a pair of absolute Magnum pros.

Tonight, Jon was in skin tight green trews.  At one point, he sat on the front of the stage like a little lost Kermit the frog.

At another point, Steve hung his hands down by his hands and shook them, like he was trying to get cramp out of them, and shaking the blood back into them.

Anyway, at this point, daunted by the pros in front of me, and frustrated by my total ineptitude, I gave up, and just listened to the Gates of Delirium.  Because it's not every day that you can.

The Royal Tour: Asia

Ah, Asia.  Asia do nothing for me whatsoever.  I don't know why.  

However, they do have the lovely Mr Downes on keyboards and the equally lovely Mr Sherwood on bass (although he really was too far away on the right hand side for me to get any unblurry shots of him).  (In fact, even when he was right beside me, he was still blurry...)

Geoff was wearing dark glasses at Farmingville. Apparently Alan's 70th birthday celebrations the night before had been quite tiring.

Now, having said that I don't like Asia, the set was not without its entertaining moments, and here's one of them.  Video Killed the Radio Star, folks, with the ghosts of tuneless Trevor Horn (c.f. Glasgow Apollo, 1980 - I don't forgive or forget) and youthful Geoff, looming behind Ron Thal and his megaphone.

Lol!

"And special guest star - Mr Steve Howe!"

Who actually smiled.

At the Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City, I got up to leave after Asia had finished, much to the bemusement of a middle-aged couple beside me (who had greeted each act so far with increasing bemusement and enthusiasm).  "Gee, where is everyone going?" the guy asked.  I replied "It's a 20 minute break now and then Yes come on."  "WE'RE GOING TO SEE YES????" the guy yelled, incredulously.  Like, score!!  

The Royal Tour: John Lodge

Before seeing the show, I had zero interest in seeing Mr Lodge, or was aware I knew any of his tunes.  But it turns out that yes, I did know most of his songs, and he did a hugely enjoyable and affable set.  

At one point (and rather excitingly) Jon Davidson came out to sing Ride My See-Saw, which irritatingly, is still stuck in my head three weeks later...

I'm sure Mr Gottlieb in the foreground there took a much much better photo than I did!!

So long, and thanks for all the plectrums!

The Royal Tour: Carl Palmer and Arthur Brown

Here are a few photos I took of the Royal Tour at locations in east coast America this June.  

On the same bill were Carl Palmer's band with Arthur Brown (as in the Crazy World of..., my head is on fire etc), John Lodge of the Moody Blues, Asia, and the whole raison d'etre, Yes.

Locations were the Long Island Community Hospital Theater, Farmingville; the Hard Rock Theater at Atlantic City, NJ; and the PNC at Holmdel, NJ.

I'm going to lump them all together by group, so first up - the ever-youthful Carl Palmer, and the force of nature that is Arthur Brown. 

Arthur couldn't hold a tune, and my goodness, he absolutely murdered Knife Edge.  But it didn't matter a hoot - that's not why I schlepped across the Atlantic.  The guy is about 170 years old and puts on a show like this!  Go Arthur!!! 

Gurning guitar-playing wunderkind Paul Bielatowicz. (By the way, this is in no way a criticism.  I love his energy and enthusiasm, plus he supports the theory that the entire band goes offstage and relaxes together in the same Fountain of Youth.)

Fiiii - yerrr!!

"It's great to be alive", confides Carl; and yes, it really is.

And now for Carl's drum solo during Fanfare for the Common Man.  He starts off here with the foot pedals, then gets tore into the gongs.

Whee...!!  Having barely broken sweat, over his shoulders they go...

That's all folks!  And already the stage is cleared for the next act, John Lodge.

Yestival: Yes at Foxwoods, Mashantucket, 10 August 17

Over two hours into the Yestival, and finally, it's time for The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, with its opening swirl of magical lights, which coalesce to spell out the original logo of 'Yes'.  It's like the actual start of the universe.

The premise of the show is that there's a song from each of the first ten albums up to Drama (released in 1980),  Which quite frankly, are the only Yes albums you need to bother listening to.  So which one to kick off from Yes?

Knee-wobblingly, it was Survival.  I've always wanted to hear this played live.  And here it was, in a casino, in the middle of a forest in Connecticut.

This is There's No Rick?? - You're Kidding! (aka Geoff Downes) playing the gentle opening bars.

Yes, quite a few audience members were astounded that neither Rick Wakeman nor Jon Anderson would be appearing on stage that night.  They could NOT believe it.  "But I've PAID for Anderson!!" 

This is Steve Howe.  No American I talked to seemed confused about Steve, and were all in agreement that he was definitely in the band.

Next up was Time and A Word, and a rather pepped-up titular tune. Not-Anderson (Jon Davison) was sporting a rather risque pair of snakeskin slacks, and, alarmingly, was chewing gum whilst singing (which made me fear that at some point I was going to have to leap on stage and perform a Heimlich manoevre).

Then it was on to The Yes Album, and a rather funky backdrop for Yours Is No Disgrace.

This is Billy 'Whaddya mean, Chris is dead?" Sherwood.

 

It's 1971.  It's Fragile.  It's South Side of the Sky.

Now it's 1972, Close to the Edge, and an epic version of And You And I.

Next, 1973 and Tales from Topographic Oceans.  Steve sat to play Leaves of Green, and Jon came in to sing with him. It's a very delicate piece.

 

Soon from Relayer.

1977 - Going for the One .

Tormato and a funked-up Don't Kill the Whale, introduced by the major pounding drummage of Howe Junior.  Because there are two drummers, Dylan (Steve's son) and Alan White.  More audience confusion.

Album number ten, and it's Drama and Machine Messiah from 1980.  The album which disappointed me the most when it came out, but thrilled me the most when it was revisited and played all the way through live last year, with Jon giving it a new emotional depth.

Now, King Crimson may have a weird load of percussive vegetables. And apparently Jon has a pet green pepper to shake.

 

At this point, I was down at the front of the stage for three (count 'em) encores - Madrigal, Roundabout and Starship Trooper.  But although the guys were inches away, I didn't take any photos, as being down at the front with all your friends is about being in the moment.  Nothing is better than that moment. 

So here are the band, taking their bow.

Junior Howe and Senior Howe.