What a great day! Spent the night before with a bunch of friends in and around a van in the parking lot so we were there early enough to have a pretty good on-the-ground spot in front of the stage. Yep, it was a hot day but we had coolers with enough beer plus other entertainment aids so the long wait was tolerable. Frampton, Mason, and Yes put on a perfect show. Does anyone remember Yes having a fire-breathing dragon hanging over the stage, or am I confusing shows? Wish I had a time machine.....may not find the time to see Napoleon, but I certainly would dial in a repeat of that day in Ypsilanti!

What a DAY! The Crew from of the Clair Brothers put up a Mountain of Speakers, more Crown DC-300a's than you could ever imagine, Electro~Voice TL 4050 Folded Horn Bass with EV 30" speakers, banshee horns, JBLs piszo tweeter. Pro Co Sound from Kazoo had the band totally hotwired. Roger Dean Stage set and lighting was candy to the eyes. It was a total assault on the environment.
The Band, Anderson in flowing attire, Steve played like Segovia, Chris with his Rickenbacker and Moog Turus Bass pedals, Alan never better was at his best, and Patrick took it away with his Orchestron.

By evening the MC said there was 100,000 at the show and I believe it,Rynearson Stadium was full both side, the field was standing room only.

The Day started with Ace (How long have you been holding on, Frampton (some of the Comes alive album is from this concert) Dave Mason (Split Coconut), and Yes from sunset into the evening.

A long ride home on I94. Would do it again, in a Heart Beat !!!

http://www.clairbrothers.com/
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This was my first concert, I was 16. One of the guys in our group was 18 and we wanted to buy beer on the way. But we forgot there were no beer sales in MI before noon on Sunday. So we were all kind of pissed off that we had no beer. That's about all I remember.
This week I'm going on the Rock Legends Cruise and Frampton and Mason are scheduled to perform. Hard to believe 41 years have gone by.
If I meet them I'll tell them this story.
Thanks everyone for filling in some old memories.

MY SECOND CONCERT,PINK FLOYD @ OLYMPIA STADIUM DET.6-23-75 MY FIRST I WAS 17.AS FRAMPTON WAS ENDING A GREAT SET MY FRIEND JOHN RAN TOWARDS BACK STAGE AND I FOLLOWED,HE SAID HE WAS CHASING A FRISBEE THAT FRAMPTON THREW FROM THE STAGE I GOT THE IDEA TO TRY AND GET BACK STAGE. 2 CRAZY DRUNK HOT GIRLS BEHIND A PORTABLE FENCE GOT US BACKSTAGE.IMMEDIATELY WE FOUND FRAMPTONS SMALL TRAILOR,HE WAS BEING INTERVIED OUTSIDE BY A GUY FROM CREEM,AND A WOMAN WRITING ON A PAD. I SAID HEY PETER WANNA SMOKE A JOINT OF COLUMBIAN GOLD! HE SAID YES.HE WAS WEARING A TORQUOISE P. MCARTNEY SHIRT AND TORQUOISE PLATFORM SANDEL TYPE SHOES WITH SHORTS ON. A PIC. WAS TAKEN,PETER HOLDING A STYROFOAM CUP,WE LEANED AGAINST AN OLD FORD FAIRLAINE.AT THE NIGHTS CLOSE WHILE LAZILY WALKING BACK TO MY CAR WE STOPED TO TALK WITH PATRICK MORAZ THROUGH A CHAINLINK FENCE AND GOT AN AUTOGRAPH.WE NOTICED JON ANDERSON SITTING DOWN ON A COOLER ON THE RUNNING TRACK WE RUSHED AROUND THE FENCE TO TALK TO HIM BEING THE FIRST 2 THAT GREW TO ABOUT 10 FANS. I WAS THE ONLY PERSON ASKING HIM QUESTIONS. I ASKED HIM WHAT HE THOUGHT ABOUT KISS(NEW @THE TIME) I WAS WEARING A SILKSCREENED P.STANELY T-SHIRT I DESIGNED IN ARTCLASS,HE SAID IT WASN'T A NEW CONCEPT AND RELATED TO SEEING ALICE COOPER AT PARTIES IN L.A.SOMEONE BROUGHT HIM A BAGGIE OF MICHIGAN CHEERIES AND HE SHARED THEM WITH US.NOW HERES THE "COOL"PART.HE TOLD ME I REMINDED HIM OF A REPORTER,THEN EXCLAIMED I REMINDED HIM OF KEITH EMERSON WHEN HE WAS STONED!(I WAS SOBER @ THAT POINT)MY FRIEND AND I LOOKED AT EACH OTHER AND LAUGHED BECAUSE PEOPLE HAD SAID THAT BEFORE.HE WAS AS KIND AND GRACEFUL AS HIS LYRICS.WE TOLD MANY FRIENDS FROM SCHOOL. A FEW MOS. LATER JOHN AND I STOPPED AT A PARY-STORE AND I PICKED UP A CREEM MAG. AND SAW A SMALL ARTICLE OF THE SHOW WITH A SMALL PIC. OF FRAMPTON WITH ME CUT OUT OF COURSE.WE ALSO,HAVING NOT ATE ALL DAY RAIDED THE EMPTY TRAILORS AND ATE BREAD AND VEGGIES (ROCKSTARSLEFTOVERS) AND TOOK SOME OF THE EMPTY WINE BOTTLES FOR SOUVINEERS THIS WAS SURELY A SUMMER CELEBRATION AS IT WAS BILLED. I CAME BY THE TICKET A WK. BEFORE WHEN I SAW JOHN AT A FRIENDS AND HE SAID U DRIVE AND U CAN HAVE THE TICKET, ABOUT 20 YRS LATER AFTER ONLY SEEIN HIM A FEW TIMES SINCE 1978 I WENT TO HIS HOUSE WHERE HE WAS RAKEING LEAVES DROVE UP WITH YES TICKETS AND SAID U DRIVE ITS YOURS SOMETIMES PAYBACKS TAKE TIME.THE SHOW WAS BOTH YES BANDS IN THE ROUND.

This was an absolutely unforgettable YES show. I was 21 and will never forget it, my first time seeing YES at an outdoor concert. It was a long hot day, I got the sunburn of my life on my back and shoulders. Ace were horrible and were booed. Frampton was very good (he was just about to hit it big) and, surprisingly, so was Dave Mason (who I had walked out on just a few months earlier at a poorly attended concert in Grand Rapids). YES were fantastic and magical, the weather was perfect once the sun went down and their light show took over. The reworked acoustic version of Long Distance Runaround blew me away and Moraz's keyboard solo was nothing short of inspired genius (I loved the portions from Refugee). It was very rude and stupid of people to be throwing frisbees at the stage while the band was playing. I remember one frisbee hitting the neck of Steve's guitar during Sound Chaser (during the part of the song when it was just him playing electric guitar). In any case, it was a night to remember. I just can't believe it was over 30 years ago because that was one of the best concerts I have ever attended in my life. Thank you, YES.

I was 16 at the time, and was a big fan of Yes, and Dave Mason as well. A pretty fun day, very enjoyable, but hot. People were very irritable prior to Yes taking the stage, it seemed to take forever. Quite a few left as soon as they appeared. But I stayed and had a great time.

I wasn't at this concert, but a friend of mine and his buddy went there and recorded the entire concert--what is the sound quality like on the 'unofficial' release of this concert (though it looks like it does not have the entire concert)? The sound quality of my friend's recording is okay, but not anything spectacular.

From listening to the recording and talking to my friend, it sounds like it was very hot that day... people waited a long time for Yes to start, and were irritable. For the first couple of songs, you can hear people in the audience yelling "sit down!", and at one point Jon Anderson says, "they would sit down if they could sit down...." There were also technical problems--it got really crackly during Moraz's piano solo, and during one of Steve Howe's songs (I think it was "The Clap"), there was a really loud buzz, as if a tech just disconnected the faulty speaker. The mix was rough at times--the keyboards were sometimes very loud (i.e., the electric piano was distorted at the very beginning of Soundchaser).

My friend did not see Steve Howe get hit with a frizbee, but at one point, Jon Anderson says, "The people over there are throwing things. Please don't throw things, it looks terrible from here."

Despite all this, the performance was amazing--Moraz's solo on Soundchaser is the best of the 4 I've heard, and I also liked his solo on Sweet Dreams.

When YES finally opened their set it was getting dark, and a full moon rose behind the stage, making the evening magical.

During a lead guitar solo at this concert,(I think it was Close to the Edge, or maybe Ritual), Steve Howe was inadvertantly hit quite sharply in the head by a flying frisbee tossed by an irreverant fan. His head falling slightly backward, dedicated performer that he is, Steve only recoiled a little and continued to rip out his chops with only a barely perceptable and brief change (was it shock or anger?) in the music. A more egoistic rocker may have stopped the concert at this point, but not Steve. Bravo!!!

This was a great show, and a great time to be alive. It was still pretty early in the morning when the stadium announced that no coolers would be allowed in the stadium. Too many of us to stop threw our blankets over the barbed wire, climbed in, and tossed coolers over. The best security could do was to try and take tickets as we came over. Even this was a poor effort. As a result the stadium opened a couple hours early, and I still have my whole ticket.

Ace got booed, and pleaded for the crowd to let them finish their set. Frampton, who was not big yet, did better. Between Frampton and Dave Mason, they announced Mason would not take the stage until the hippies climbed down from the scaffolding. They did not, so all the people with illicit beer bottles unwisely threw them up the scaffolding to persuade the hippies to come down. No offending hippies were hit, but many innocent concertgoers seated under the scaffolding suffered injury.

Dave Mason was great. There was a huge delay between Mason and Yes. The rumor was that Yes did not show up when they were supposed to. It was dark by the time they took the stage, and everyone had been partying all day. How was Yes? I have no idea.

Tickets were $8!

Jon Anderson:
What I'd like to do is finish with a song from 'Topographic Oceans' called 'Ritual'.