Yes at the London Palladium, Saturday 24th March 2018

Ok, we're into the last lap here, folks.  This is the Big Yes 50th Anniversary Weekend, and the Time They Played the London Palladium.  Wooh!

After a relatively easy trip down to London from Liverpool, and dinner on the rooftop terrace of the Karma Sanctum.   Which was of course frequented by Chris Squire. 

After drinks at the Palladium

it was off to the concert. Was it Firebird Suite or Young Person's Guide...?

You did get the sense that everything had been leading up to this.

Astoundingly, Steve was wearing a SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT SHIRT.

But still the same socks.

Jon is left handed, but plays the guitar right handed.

Jay and Billy share a joke.

Geoff rocked the brave leopard ensemble that had last seen the light at Bristol.

 

"Ecology!  Yeah!!  Let's go." said Steve, as his new, stripped-back, minimalist introduction to And You And I.  No kittens and whales for the Palladium.

You can see the mother of pearl fish on the fret here.

"Mouse One!  What happened to your fag..?!

Hang on, who's this?

Why, it's Special Guest, Trevor Horn, my nemesis from the Apollo in 1980.

Tempus Fugit indeed.

"SQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAWK!!!!"

Steve smiles!

 A fabulous evening!  Tomorrow is a really big day with the Fan Convention.  

And what's the betting Steve uses the phrase 'Sunday night at the London Palladium" during the concert tomorrow...?

Yes at The Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool - 23rd March 2018

I love Liverpool.

A quick scoot across from Birmingham, and there was time to visit the Tate, the Walker Gallery, visit an antique shop with a big ginger cat called Murdoch, have a drink in The Vines and The Philharmonic Bar across from the venue, both of which have spectacularly ornate old-fashioned brass, plasterwork and stained glass decorative interiors.  

And on to the show.  Front row opposite Steve.  Blethery audience, who wanted to shout VERY LOUDLY into the ear of the person next to them all about previous times they'd seen Yes, but not to actually watch and listen to them on this occasion right in front of them.  They didn't like being shooshed.

Anyway. Here's the stage set-up - note Steve's rug.

Steve has been wearing exactly the same clothes all tour, even down to these stripy socks.

  

Steve is very, very 'relaxed'.  Jon is back to his smart casual suit look.

All tour, Steve has been building up to a real block-bustin' speech to introduce And You And I, and tonight he excels himself.  It's all here.  The planet. Plastic bags.  Ecology.  Nature.  We must respect is all, you dig?   Love it, love it all.   Go Steve!!

"We must love everything from the little cat right up to the big whale."  Steve says, quite unexpectedly and totally sincerely.  I immediately want to have that on a T-shirt.

Apologies again for the Steve-centric post, but here he is at the side of the stage leaning against the speaker stack.

At one point, Steve was so animated that he leant stiffly forward at an angle as if he was going to fall flat on his face, then suddenly ran across to the edge of the front of the stage as if he was going to jump off into the crowd, braking right at the edge.  Extraordinary! It gave me a real fright.

After an abortive attempt during the first song of the encore (Roundabout) to stand, the Tour Team managed to get down to the stage to dance around for the second (Starship Trooper).  The home crowd were still reluctant.  The Loud Chatty men disapproved strongly.  A random guy next to me looked up from his seat quizzically as I danced around him.  "Get up!" I shouted.  Which, good for him, he duly did.  Afterwards he said that actually, he'd rather enjoyed it.

It later turned out that the Loud Chatty man had wreaked Freudian revenge by tying our jacket arms into Gordian knots so tight that it was extremely hard to undo them. Is this a Liverpool thing?

A while after the show, a couple stopped me in the street and spoke to me - I didn't know them, but they recognised me from the show.  They were fired up with energy and enthusiasm and how we'd been dancing around down at the front.  Big hugs all round.  Lovely!