YES,
The 3 album 45th
Anniversary Tour

May 22, 2014 - 013, Tilburg


The first album I ever bought was Close To The Edge. I was 14 years old, and when I first listened to that album, I was flabbergasted. I played the album over and over again, until even my mother liked some parts of And You And I, and the title track. Since then I've been Yes-addict and
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Jon Davison
have bought all the albums of my prog rock gods, with the exception of two albums of course, being Drama (1980) and Fly From Here (2011). Because Jon Anderson didn't contribute on these, and for real Yes aficionados, like me, the golden rule is: Yes = Jon Anderson and Jon Anderson = Yes. This band without Jon on vocals is like Led Zeppelin without Robert Plant or Pearl Jam without Eddie Vedder, so I was really disappointed when I heard that Jon wouldn't be able to join Howe, Squire, White and Downes on this anniversary tour.

I've even considered not going to this gig, but three 'original' Yes members were present, so I decided to give it a shot... When the first notes of the Firebird Suite sounded through the 013 venue, it was as if I was back in the seventies and the set list of this tour also contained songs from the seventies only. Three notorious Yes albums were played in their entirety this evening, being: The Yes album (1971), Close To The Edge (1972) and Going For The One (1977). Of course I knew all the 14 classic symphonic rock
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Chris Squire
songs by heart and I really enjoyed the show. The vocals were being taken care of by Glass Hammer frontman Jon Davison and he did a decent job although, of course, he's no Jon Anderson. Highlights for me were the longer epic tracks like Awaken, Close To The Edge (which sounded a bit chaotic at times), Yours Is No Disgrace and Perpetual Change. These songs all stand the test of time, although they're all at least 35 years old! Howe, Squire and White played top notch, at least, most of the time, and they played these old songs as if they performed them for the very first time. So, a great set list, although I could have done without the rather boring acoustic Clap and the encore Roundabout, a song that Yes have played too many times in their long career. Why not choose a more original encore instead of that redundant, overkill track? But who am I to nag about this evening as, even without Jon. it was a great gig. These old geezers still know how to rock and I hope to see you all (again) during their fiftieth anniversary tour. Then, hopefully, with Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson on stage as well. I know that this is wishful thinking, but what the hell.

Martien Koolen (edited by Esther Ladiges)

Setlist Yes:


Close To The edge
And You And I
Siberian Khatru
Going For The One
Turn Of The Century
Parallels
Wonderous Stories
Awaken
Yours Is No Disgrace
Clap
Starship Trooper
I've seen All Good People
A venture
Perpetual change
Encore:
Roundabout



Pictures Yes by Menno von Brucken Fock

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Line up Yes:

(left to right)
Steve Howe:
guitars and backing vocals
Geoff Downes:
keyboards, backing vocals and bass pedals 
Jon Davison:
lead and backing vocals, percussion, keyboard, acoustic guitar
Alan White:
drums and percussion 
Chris Squire:
bass guitars, bass pedals, backing vocals and harmonica 
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