Yes (band)

Yes
File:YesYes.jpg
Background information
Years active	1968–1980, 1983–present
Members	Jon Anderson Steve Howe Rick Wakeman Chris Squire Alan White

Yes is a progressive rock band that formed in London in 1968. Despite many lineup changes, occasional splits and many changes in popular music, the band has endured for over 35 years and still retains a strong international following. Their music is marked by sharp dynamic contrasts, often extended song lengths, and a general showcasing of its members' instrumentalism. Probably the most ambitious musically of their wave, Yes manages to use symphonic and other so called "classical" structures with their blend of musical styles - including some innovations - in a happy constructive "marriage" of music.

Early days

Founding members Jon Anderson and Chris Squire are often considered the core of the band since Squire has performed on all official Yes albums and Anderson has performed on all but one. Rick Wakeman, on the other hand, has been in Yes five different times. A journalist once remarked that the band could be called "The Squires" as Squire has been a steady guiding influence throughout the band's history playing a similar role to Mick Fleetwood in Fleetwood Mac.

Yes was formed in 1968 by vocalist Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire. The original lineup also included guitarist Peter Banks (who came up with the three letter name, with the rationale that it would stand out on posters), keyboardist Tony Kaye, and drummer Bill Bruford, who was to become one of the most acclaimed drummers of his time. They played their first show at a summer camp in England on August 2, 1968. Early on, the group earned a reputation for taking other people's songs and drastically changing them into expanded, progressive compositions (much like Deep Purple did). Unlike many artists doing this at the time, especially with Beatles material, Anderson and his band made the music their own. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1969. From the beginning, Yes was a band of excellent musicians with ambitious goals. Peter Banks was immediately a break-out star among fans and critics, and the harmony vocals of Anderson and Squire were an immediate trademark of the Yes sound.

In 1970, the group took their ambitions to the extreme, especially for this period, by recording their second album with a 30-piece orchestra. Time and a Word featured original compositions with the exception of two songs, Richie Havens's "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed", and "Everydays" by Stephen Stills. The epic reworking of Havens' song also included excerpts from the theme song of the movie The Big Country. Although musically exceptional in terms of melody and a powerful delivery of songs, unfortunately, the orchestra (and keyboardist Tony Kaye) overpowered Banks and much of the vocal work, leaving Time and a Word as somewhat of an uneven effort. Before the album's release, guitarist Peter Banks was fired. The American release shows Steve Howe on the front cover along with the other members as if he had played in the album, though the back cover does portray Banks.

The "classic" lineup

Vocalist Jon Anderson performing in concert with Yes in 1977

The early 1970s Yes recordings are still considered the classic Yes sound by many fans. These albums feature complex classically-influenced arrangements, unusual time signatures, virtuoso musicianship, dramatic dynamic and metrical changes and oblique, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. Their repertoire often exceeded the standard three-minute pop-song structure with lengthy multi-part suites sometimes lasting 20 minutes or more, making the band a leading 70s progressive rock combo. Vocal verses alternated with atmospheric instrumental interludes, frenetic ensemble passages and extended guitar, keyboard and bass improvisations. The signature sonic features of this 'classic' period are Jon Anderson's distinctive high-register lead vocals, the group's strong vocal harmonies, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe's respective keyboard and guitar solos, Bill Bruford's polyrhythmic drumming and Chris Squire's highly melodic and discursive bass playing, enhanced by the sound of his Rickenbacker model 4001 stereo bass.

Chris Squire was one of the first rock bass players to successfully adapt electronic guitar effects such as tremolo, phasing and the wah-wah pedal to the instrument. The rhythm section of Squire and Bruford was considered by many to be one of the best in rock music at this time.

The first two Yes LPs mixed original material with covers of songs by their major influences, including The Beatles, The Byrds, and Simon & Garfunkel. The departure of Peter Banks in 1970 and his replacement by ex-Tomorrow guitarist Steve Howe gave Yes a new edge. The group's emerging style coalesced on their next LP, the critically acclaimed The Yes Album, which for the first time consisted entirely of original compositions by the band; it was also the record that united them with long-serving producer and engineer Eddie Offord, whose studio expertise was a key factor in creating the Yes sound.

File:Howe.jpg

Steve Howe, lead guitarist for Yes

In 1971, original keyboard player Tony Kaye left to form his own group, Badger. Although a talented keyboardist who contributed memorable chord passages on the Hammond organ (particularly on the classic "Everydays" and "Yours is No Disgrace"), Kaye could not match Howe's guitar improvisions. He was replaced by the classically-trained Rick Wakeman, who had just left The Strawbs and was already a noted studio musician with credits including David Bowie and Lou Reed. Wakeman brought the keyboards up to a level pegging with the guitar, still a rare situation for a rock group even today.

As a soloist, Wakeman proved to be a perfect foil for Steve Howe. He also brought two vital new additions to the group's instrumentation—the Mellotron and the Minimoog synthesizer. Surrounded by banks of keyboards, his flowing blonde hair and sequined cape provided a strong visual focus on stage, although they later became the object of ridicule in some quarters.

The first recording by this 'classic' lineup of the group (Anderson, Bruford, Howe, Squire and Wakeman) was a dynamic ten-minute interpretation of Paul Simon's "America", which originally appeared on the album "The Age of Atlantic", a compilation with several acts from the roster of Atlantic Records. The excellent organ work on the track is actually played by Bruford. It was both the end of one era—their last non-original track—and the beginning of another, showcasing all the elements of the new Yes sound in place.

With Wakeman on board, Yes entered what some consider their most fertile and successful period, cutting two highly acclaimed LPs. Fragile (1971) went Top Ten in America, and Close to the Edge (1972) was also a huge seller. Yes enjoyed enormous commercial and critical success around the world and became one of the most popular concert attractions of the day. They also notably benefited from the tremendous advances in live music technology that were taking place at that time, and they were renowned for the high quality of both their sound and lighting.

Fragile also marked the beginning of a long collaboration with artist Roger Dean, who designed the group's logo and their album covers, as well as their stage sets. Some consider the album Close to the Edge to be the high point of the whole progressive rock genre. Some fans of this era describe themselves as "Troopers", after the 3-part track "Starship Trooper" from The Yes Album.

Shortly after the release of Close To The Edge, at the height of the band's success, Bill Bruford stunned fans with the news that he was quitting to join King Crimson. He was replaced by former Plastic Ono Band drummer Alan White, a more conventional rock drummer and a distinct contrast to the crisp, imaginative drumming of Bruford. White debuted on their next release, the three-record live collection Yessongs, recorded on their world tour in late 1972 and early 1973. The album included two tracks with Bruford, notably the song "Perpetual Change" with an extended Bruford drum solo as well as backing Chris Squire in his solo "The Fish," but White played drums on the balance of the tracks. Many fans are not happy with White's drumming on the live album, but his energy is indisputable, his technique solid if not inspired, and credit has to be given to White learning the tremendously ambitious repertoire in a matter of days before embarking on the tour. (In fact, White, a friend of Anderson's and Offord's, had sat in with the band in the weeks before Bruford's departure, observing the band and experimenting with the music, and took over the drums with Bruford's blessing.) White has lasted with the group for over thirty years, consistently contributing solid drumming, capably handling some of the more ambitious time changes and shifts within the songs, and maintaining a reputation for having a collaborative and "down to earth attitude" [1].

Yessongs was a hugely ambitious project and undoubtedly a major gamble for their label, Atlantic Records. It was one of the first rock triple-album sets, featuring live versions of all-original material from the previous three studio albums. Presented in one of the most lavish album packages to date, Roger Dean's artwork spread across a triple gatefold cover and continued the cosmic-organic design concepts of the two previous albums. The album was another bestseller and was recently voted among the top twenty live records of all time. A video of the tour, released under the same name, featured concert footage (with Howe garnering a large amount of the focus) intermixed with psychedelic visual effects.

Their next studio album, Tales From Topographic Oceans marked a sea change in the band's fortunes, polarizing fans and critics alike. Although extended compositions were by now a Yes hallmark—the title track of Close to the Edge took up the entire first side of that album—the four tracks, each roughly 20 minutes long, that comprised the two-disc Topographic Oceans earned mixed reviews and left many feeling that the band was beginning to overreach itself. Coming after extensive touring, the album was later described by Jon Anderson as "the meeting point of high ideals and low energy." Rick Wakeman, in particular, was not pleased with the album, and to this day speaks ill of the album. Increasing interpersonal tensions between Wakeman and the rest of the band led him to quit at the end of the Tales tour. There is a brighter side to the tale of Tales nevertheless. A closer look into the music of this album however, for those who are inclined towards concept albums, reveals a grandeur that eludes the ear at first listen, and becomes (for some people at least) a milestone in progressive music history thereafter. Many prog-rock fanatics in fact consider this album to be one of the greatest progressive albums of all time. As divided as the opinions get, one thing that is certain is the impression this album leaves behind, whether it be positive or negative. Wakeman left the band, ostensibly to put together a prog-rock triumvirate rivaling Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, but Wakeman did not participate, and the band, eventually featuring Bruford, his King Crimson bandmate John Wetton, guitarist Allan Holdsworth, and Roxy Music's wunderkind keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson, formed under the name UK. Wakeman himself embarked on a long, productive solo career.

Perpetual change

Wakeman was replaced by Swiss musician Patrick Moraz for Relayer in 1974. The vast difference between Moraz's contributions to Yes and Wakeman's was more of a novelty than a disappointment, Moraz being a distinctive electric-jazz musician in his own right. Again, the album featured a side-long track, "The Gates of Delirium," from which the "Soon" section was put out as a limited single release. This reached Number One on the Spanish charts. Following an extended tour through 1975–1976, each member of the group released his own solo album. At the same time, Yesterdays was released, containing tracks from the first two albums, as well as "America" as the opening track.

Yes performing in concert in 1977

The group commenced sessions for a new album. There is some confusion about the chain of events, but after a considerable amount of negotiation, Rick Wakeman rejoined the band on a "session musician" basis. The confusion comes from Moraz being on record as saying he feels he deserves credit for much of the music on the resulting album. Certainly Howe has also stated that the group "tried to remove as much of Patrick from the songs as possible", so it would appear that he did contribute to the initial sessions. Ultimately, Moraz ended up at the top of the ambiguous "thanks to..." list on the album sleeve. In any case, after hearing and being impressed by the new material Wakeman once again became a permanent band member. Apart from the 15 minute track "Awaken", the resulting album, Going for the One, was mostly made up of shorter songs, including "Wonderous Stories," released as a single in the UK in 1977. This album and the next, 1978's Tormato featuring the same lineup, were successful in spite of being released at the height of the punk rock era in Britain, during which Yes were often criticized by the music press as representing the most bloated excesses of early 1970s progressive rock. Ironically, Yes outlasted almost all the groups of that era as well.

The Tormato album is another that has sparked dissension among fans, with many feeling half the album is mere filler and others defending it as a logical progression from the more poppy Going for the One. Fans of the "classic" Yes sound were happiest with the last track, the driving, symphonic "On the Silent Wings of Freedom," propelled by White's energetic kick drum and Squire's harmonized bass. The band members themselves have said that they were not sure of some of the material on the album. Virtually no one liked the cover art. After the tour, Wakeman again left the band, not to return for 13 years.

In 1980, the band's career took a serious left turn, even by its own standards. Wakeman had again grown disenchanted with the band, but this time so had Jon Anderson, who was enjoying success outside of the band in partnership with Vangelis. Contractual difficulties also caused problems with the musicians and their respective labels. This left Squire, Howe, and White (recuperating from a broken ankle suffered at a roller disco) to start sessions for a new album without a singer or a keyboard player. At Yes manager Brian Lane's suggestion, Squire invited The Buggles duo of Geoffrey Downes (keyboards) and Trevor Horn (vocals) - who were coming off an international success with their New Wave album The Age of Plastic and the acclaimed single "Video Killed the Radio Star" - to help out on a new Yes album. Initially, the plan was that Downes and Horn would help write some new material - they already had a song called 'We Can Fly From Here' which had been written with Yes in mind. Soon, Howe, Squire, and White confessed that their singer and keyboardist had actually left the band. To Downes and Horn's surprise, they were invited to join Yes as full-time members. They accepted the invitation and performed on the Drama album in 1980. While Drama was well received by many fans (nicknamed "Panthers" after a feature of the album's artwork), many other Yes followers missed Anderson's unique lyrics and vocal style. The album's inside cover also displayed a bit of a horror-house style in photo and graphic design, an anomaly that perplexed some fans. The album itself stands up quite well, going back to a harder rocking sound that hadn't been heard since The Yes Album. Squire and Horn alternated taking the lead on vocals, and Horn added the occasional second bass guitar.

After the Drama tour, Yes broke up. Downes and Howe went on to form Asia with former UK frontman Wetton, Horn began a productive career in production, and Squire and White began sessions with Jimmy Page, fresh from Led Zeppelin's recent demise. The band was to be called XYZ, said to be short for "ex-Yes-Zeppelin," but nothing came of the sessions, except for a few demo tracks, elements of which would appear in later Yes music.

"A Ridiculously Successful Comeback Album"

In 1983, over two years after the breakup of Yes, Chris Squire and Alan White met guitarist Trevor Rabin (late of the band Rabbitt) and formed a new group, dubbed Cinema, which also included original Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye. Formerly a solo artist with three albums to his credit, Trevor Rabin's writing contributions included the catchy riff-oriented "Owner of a Lonely Heart," but Rabin also played a role in the making of music which fit the MTV era while retaining certain aspects of Yes' original style - particularly the vocal harmonies. Originally, the lead vocals were shared between Rabin and Squire, but in early 1983, Chris Squire played Jon Anderson some of Cinema's music at a party in Los Angeles. Impressed with the band's new approach, Anderson decided to join the project, resulting in the "accidental" reformation of Yes. Many fans call this lineup "Yes West," because of the band's relocation to Los Angeles and the more American, radio-friendly sound.

To distinguish them from those who prefer the classic Yes (sometimes called "Troopers"), fans of this lineup were often called "Generators", taken from this lineup's second album, Big Generator. However, it should be noted that many Yes fans enjoy both periods of the group's music.

The band's first album since the reunion, 90125 (produced by former vocalist Trevor Horn), was a radical departure from their earlier sound. It was more visceral, with modern (for the time) electronic effects. 90125 is Yes' most commercially successful album by far, eventually selling over six million copies and securing a new lease on life for Yes, who toured over a year to support it. The song "Owner of a Lonely Heart" from this album was even a top hit in R&B charts (and sampled countless times since), resulting in the band's only Number One single. Yes also scored significant hit singles with "Leave It" and "It Can Happen," also garnering a Grammy award for Best Rock Instrumental ("Cinema," a short, highly compressed and complex track recorded live in the studio), suggesting that the group had not totally abandoned their musicianship in favor of commercial success -- as some fans allege. The popular album also spawned a live album and concert video, both entitled 9012Live, and a second live album featuring solos from all five band members.

In 1986, Yes began recording Big Generator. Unfortunately, interpersonal problems (chiefly between Squire and Anderson) kept the album from timely completion, and ultimately Trevor Rabin took a hand in its final production. Although 1987's Big Generator did not fare as well as 90125, it still sold well over two million copies. Some Yes fans have considered Big Generator more faithful to the vintage Yes sound than its predecessor due to a concentrated effort to record longer songs such as "I'm Running" in addition to the more poppy tunes. Trevor Rabin's radio-friendly "Love Will Find a Way" charted moderately well, with the Beach Boys-inspired "Rhythm of Love" barely scraping the Top 40. The 1988 tour ended with a gig at Madison Square Garden as part of Atlantic Records's 40th anniversary celebrations, but left Yes members exhausted and frustrated with one another.

Union and reunion

Jon Anderson grew tired of the "new" Yes line-up (and perhaps Chris Squire in particular). He also wanted the band to return to its classic sound. Following the 1988 tour, Anderson, asserting that he would never stay in the band purely for the money, began working with former Yes members Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, and Bill Bruford. Some in the group (particularly Bill Bruford) wanted to distance themselves from the "Yes" name. As it turned out, the former Yes members were contractually unable to use the name, as Squire, White, Kaye, Rabin (and, ironically, Anderson) held the rights, dating back to the 90125 contract. Subsequently, the new group called themselves "Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe", or simply ABWH. The project included Tony Levin on bass, brought in by Bruford after the two had worked together in King Crimson. Appealing to old and new Yes fans, their eponymous 1989 album featured "Brother of Mine," a popular MTV video in its own right, and went gold in the United States. However, they did not all record together as in the early 70s and instead their parts were slotted into place on the album by Anderson. Howe has stated publicly that he was unhappy with the mix of his guitars on the album (a version of "Fist of Fire" with more of Howe's guitars left intact eventually appeared on the In a Word box set in 2001). It is also worth noting that according to Bruford, the four-way writing credit does not reflect the actual writing process and was instead an incentive to have the ex-Yes men take part in the recording sessions. After the album's release, legal battles (sparked by Atlantic Records) soon followed over the title of ABWH's tour, An Evening of Yes Music Plus, the live recording of which featured Bruford colleague Jeff Berlin in Levin's bassist spot, who was forced to sit out for two weeks due to illness. In addition, the live sessions were augmented by second keyboardist Julian Colbeck and guitarist Milton McDonald. The tour alternated between music from AWBH and vintage Yes classics, and each night opened with short solo stints from all four Yes members.

Meanwhile Yes were working on their follow-up to Big Generator. The band had been shopping around for a new singer, working with ex-Supertramp Roger Hodgson, and songwriter Billy Sherwood of World Trade. Hodgson enjoyed working with the group but thought it unwise to attempt to pass off the music as Yes. Arista, ABWH's new label, encouraged ABWH to seek outside songwriters, and Trevor Rabin ultimately sent a demo. Predicatably, Arista sensed the commercial possibility of a Yes re-union. Throughout early 1991, phone calls were made, lawyers soothed, and agreements struck, with Yes West joining ABWH for the Union album. Each group did its own songs, with Jon Anderson singing on all tracks. Chris Squire sang background vocals on a few of the ABWH tracks (with Tony Levin doing all the bass on those songs). A world tour united all eight members on one stage in a short-lived "Mega-Yes" line-up of Anderson, Squire, Howe, Rabin, Kaye, Wakeman, Bruford, and White, but the album itself proved less than the sum of its parts. Clearly a combination of two recordings, none of the songs on Union featured all eight members at once; two-thirds were actually ABWH compositions, while Trevor Rabin and Chris Squire contributed four songs (including a Billy Sherwood collaboration). Nearly the entire band have publicly stated their disliking for the finished product due to producer Jonathan Elias's secret involvement of session musicians after the initial sessions. (Bruford has disowned the album entirely, and Wakeman was reportedly unable to recognise any of his keyboard work in the final edit.) The Union tour itself featured tracks spanning the band's entire career, and it was one of the highest grossing concert tours of 1991 and 1992.

The 90s and beyond

At the end of the tour in 1992, Bill Bruford chose not to remain involved in future Yes possibilities. Jon Anderson began writing with both Howe and Rabin separately but eventually the former was not asked to be on the next album by the record label (Victory Records), who had approached Rabin with a proposal to produce an album solely with the 90125 lineup, to which Rabin initially countered by requesting Wakeman be included. By 1993, Wakeman's refusal to leave his long-serving management meant he also could not play on the new album, which by then was well into production (Rabin and Wakeman have both expressed regret that they never played together on a Yes album - excepting the patchwork of Union - although Rabin did guest on Wakeman's Return to the Centre of the Earth album in 1999). Yes was back to its popular 1980s lineup of Anderson, Squire, Rabin, Kaye, and White. In 1994, Yes released Talk on Victory Records, one of the group's poorest selling releases. Neither the record label nor US radio stations provided much promotion for "The Calling," perhaps their strongest single since "Owner of a Lonely Heart." (David Letterman heard the song while driving and immediately sought to find the "new band" in order to put them on the Late Show). Jon Anderson and Trevor Rabin's collaboration resulted in a near-perfect fusion of 'old' and 'new' Yes. Some of the fruits of the band's work with Roger Hodgson also appears on the album. On the 1994 tour, guitarist/vocalist Billy Sherwood, who co-authored Union's "The More We Live" with Squire, joined as a sixth member. After the tour, Tony Kaye and Trevor Rabin left, with Rabin going on to become a highly successful film score composer.

Proving the truth of the old adage "never say never again," the band surprised and delighted fans by reforming with the classic '70s lineup of Anderson, Squire, White, Howe and Wakeman for a three-night live performance in the California town of San Luis Obispo in 1996. The resulting live recordings were released, together with new music, on the Keys to Ascension albums. Keys to Ascension 2, in particular, featured 48 minutes of new music that was considered by many fans to be their finest music since their 1970s zenith. The band was disappointed the new material wasn't released as a studio album, which had the working title of 'Know.' The new studio cuts from those two albums were later reissued on a single CD called Keystudio. Wakeman left the group yet again before the release of Keys to Ascension 2 after a Yes tour was planned without his input, and his frustration over the decision to bury the Keystudio studio tracks on redundant live albums.

Billy Sherwood immediately joined Yes on keyboards and guitar; a close friend of Squire, Sherwood had had some success as lead vocalist/bassist of the 80's prog-pop band World Trade. Open Your Eyes was released in 1997. Sherwood's influence on the album seemed to take the band back in the direction of the 90125 lineup (though in fairness, Open Your Eyes did not start out as a Yes album but rather as a Sherwood-Squire project). The tour that followed, however, featured few material from the new album, concentrating instead on the revival of classic Yes material. The return of Steve Howe to the touring Yes, along with a heavier emphasis on 70s-era Yes music, was considered an exciting development by many fans. The tour also featured keyboards from Russian keyboard player Igor Khoroshev, who had played on a few of the Open Your Eyes tracks. Khoroshev was later made a full time member for the following album The Ladder. Many fans considered this new album a return to the classic sound, largely because of Khoroshev's keyboard presence. His work was classically-oriented and also included sampling large sections of music by British techno group The Prodigy. In live performance, Khoroshev also reproduced Wakeman-era keyboard parts more faithfully, perhaps, than Wakeman himself. Sherwood's live role was limited to backup vocals and backup guitar, with a few notable spotlight moments for guitar solos in Rabin-era songs. Howe refused to duplicate Rabin's solos, citing that his style would not fit those solos (Howe was never fond of Rabin as a member of Yes, claiming that Rabin had undermined his guitar parts in performances by Yes West, as well as sanitizing the sound of the band on albums, particularly Talk; Rabin, of course, disagrees). The 1999 tour resulted in a live DVD of the performance at The House of Blues in Los Angeles. "Homeworld (The Ladder)", a track from The Ladder, was written for Relic Entertainment's Homeworld real-time strategy computer game and was used as the credits and outro theme.

Sherwood was relieved of his duties prior to the 2000 Masterworks tour, which featured a revival of the Moraz-period extended piece "The Gates of Delirium" (from the album Relayer). Khoroshev was fired from the band after the tour due to a cloud of controversy over his backstage conduct including a sexual assault charge, just before the recording of the 2001 orchestral release Magnification. The only Yes album without a full-time keyboardist, Magnification is considered by some fans as the best Yes studio album since the 1970s. The band was not only backed by a 60-piece orchestra, but specific parts and arrangements were written by notable film composer Larry Groupe and executed by the orchestra, sounding as if the orchestra was a permanent band member. On tour, however, the band hired a session keyboardist, Tom Brislin, as the orchestra alone could not faithfully reproduce some of the classic Yes keyboard material.

Fans short-changed in 1996 were delighted as Rick Wakeman announced his return to the group on April 20, 2002, and a world tour for Yes followed, including a return to Australia after more than 30 years. The classic lineup enjoyed a somewhat revitalized presence in the public consciousness, especially during the celebration of their 35th anniversary in 2004. Reacting to an online survey of popular Yes songs to play, the band added "South Side of the Sky" to the touring set list, a surprise given that it was rarely played before, even on the original Fragile tours.

This revitalization showed itself during a show in New York's Madison Square Garden. Near the end of the song "And You and I" where Howe finishes his pedal steel part, before the last few acoustic notes, the band was overhwelmed with thunderous applause. It lasted so long that by the time it subsided, the roadies had already removed Howe's guitar- Wakeman then had to play the last bit with Anderson singing.

In later legs of the tour, the band performed some songs in accoustic style towards the later part of the tour, after doing a live-via-satellite concert as part of the Yesspeak documentary's premiere.

In 2005, DJ Max Graham sampled and remixed Yes' "Owner Of A Lonely Heart", credited to Max Graham Vs. Yes. The song reached the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart.

While beginning in 2005 Yes are on indefinite hiatus, band members are pursuing varied solo projects. Alan White has formed a new group, White, featuring Geoff Downes of Asia (and Yes's 1980 lineup), with an album expected by the fall, and Chris Squire has reformed Syn, one of his pre-Yes groups from the 1960s, though without past Syn member Peter Banks. Plans for a joint tour (along with Steve Howe) of the United States and the UK, which would have included the Yes members (and the singer from White) performing songs from Drama for the first time since 1980, were cancelled as a result of visa problems for English members following the July 2005 London bombings. In October 2005, Jon Anderson indicated that it was unlikely that Yes would tour in 2006 but that "new studio work in early 2007 was probable."

Discography

Official albums

Released	Title	Chart Positions	Type
July 1969	Yes	-	Studio
June 1970	Time and a Word	UK #45	Studio
March 1971	The Yes Album	UK #7; US #40	Studio
November 1971	Fragile	UK #7; US #4	Studio
September 1972	Close to the Edge	UK #4; US #3	Studio
May 1973	Yessongs	UK #7; US #12	Live
December 1973	Tales From Topographic Oceans	UK #1; US #6	Studio
November 1974	Relayer	UK #4; US #5	Studio
February 1975	Yesterdays	UK #27; US #17	Compilation
July 1977	Going for the One	UK #1; US #8	Studio
September 1978	Tormato	UK #8; US #10	Studio
August 1980	Drama	UK #2; US #18	Studio
November 1980	Yesshows	UK #22; US #43	Live
November 1981	Classic Yes	US #142	Compilation
November 1983	90125	UK #16; US #5	Studio
November 1985	9012Live: The Solos	UK #44; US #81	Live
September 1987	Big Generator	UK #17; US #15	Studio
April 1991	Union	UK #7; US #15	Studio
August 1991	Yesyears	-	Compilation
September 1992	Yesstory	-	Compilation
March 1994	Talk	UK #20; US #33	Studio
October 1996	Keys to Ascension	UK #48; US #99	Studio
November 1997	Keys to Ascension 2	UK #62	Studio
November 1997	Open Your Eyes	US #151	Studio
September 1999	The Ladder	UK #36; US #99	Studio
September 2000	House Of Yes - Live from the House of Blues	UK #36; US #99	Live
September 2001	Magnification	UK #71; US #186	Studio
July 2002	In a Word: Yes (1969 - )	-	Compilation
July 2003	Yes Remixes	-	Compilation
July 2003	The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection	UK #10; US #131	Compilation
August 2005	The Word is Live	-	Live

The Yes Atlantic Records catalog has undergone at least two remasterings and re-releases on CD. The initial CD releases appeared in the late 1980s, and the first remasters were released in the mid 1990s, with dramatically improved sound and much original album art restored. In 2003 a further remastering effort was begun by Rhino Records, this time including more original art, extensive booklet liner notes, and rare bonus tracks.

Singles

• "Your Move" (1971) #40 US
• "Roundabout" (1972) #13 US
• "America" (1972) #46 US
• "And You And I" (1972) #42 US
• "Wonderous Stories" (1977) #8 UK
• "Goin' For The One" (1977) #24 UK
• "Don't Kill The Whale" (1978) #36 UK
• "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" (1983) #1 US - 2 weeks, #28 UK
• "Leave It" (1984) #24 US, #56 UK
• "It Can Happen" (1984) #51 US
• "Love Will Find A Way" (1987) #30 US, #73 UK
• "Rhythm Of Love" (1987) #40 US
• "Lift Me Up" (1991) #86 US

Tribute bands

There are a number of Yes tribute bands. These include the UK based Fragile, who specialise in performing live cover versions of what they describe as "classic period" Yes numbers, e.g., predominantly material from The Yes Album up until Close to the Edge, interspersed with earlier and later songs such as "Time and a Word", "Astral Traveller", "Owner of a Lonely Heart", etc. The band has received positive endorsements from members of Yes, including featuring guest spots from Peter Banks and Steve Howe [2].

Other Yes tribute bands include Roundabout, the Brazilian group Yes Songs, and Northern California's Parallels.

External links

• Yesworld: The Official Yes site
• Forgotten Yesterdays: A Comprehensive Guide to Yes Shows
• alt.music.yes F.A.Q.
• Reviews of albums from Yes to Drama
• Yes CD reviews
• Full Circle Tour Melbourne 2003
• Parallels - A Tribute to Yes
• Yes (The Classic Rock Connection)
• Yesclopedia on Yes, an external wiki