I was there since the night before passing on the joints that were roundabouting, All bands were a blast Gentle Giant was fantastic, not particularly a Frampton fan but it was ok to see the half naked chicks be carried out by the security guys. I was lucky to get pretty nice spot on the edge of the baseball diamond about 250 feet from stage. Then the evening dropped its curtains and the green lasers announced what I had came for. By the time Siberian Katru dropped in with the lasers I had managed to move to almost 35 ft from stage just where the mixer boards and sound engineers were. Great spot. Simply a day in my life That stays live!!!

This was the first concert I ever went to. My buddies and I arrived the night before, camped out in the parking lot, and ate pot brownies until the sun came up! It was fantastic!
Two things that really stick out in my mind is that sometime in the early morning, people would 'rush' the front of the line and we would have to grab our shit and run...and, the other thing that I remember was that we assumed that everyone was coming to see Yes!

Peter Frampton was a great surprise as far as performance goes. I knew his music but wasn't a big fan. He rocked that place. I remember the upper decks bouncing up and down while he sang. After his set, the stadium thinned out quite a bit and we moved to the font of the stage and had killer 'seats'. We actually stood in center field as close as you could get to the stage. One of many many memorable Yes concerts!

I was there man. I was 17 years old and I remember this show like it
was yesterday. I was there with my two best friends in the world.
There were yellow shirt security guards everywhere. They were huge ! looked
like they were body builders. When I got to the gate, there were these large
green garbage dumsters filled with drugs and alcohol that the security guards were removing from people trying to get into the show. I had time to look down and see what was in those garbage bins. Knives, huge bags of pot, every type of drug known to man. The dumpster was half full, and this dumpster was huge. We got inside and went to the upper deck where you can lean over the concrete balcony and see down to the parking lot. I saw this small ant running away from a bunch of yellow shirt security guards. He was trying to break in to see the show. he did not have a ticket. i told my pals that this crazy guy was running straight for the side of the stadium. This crazy dude jumped up onto the stadium wall and began to climb straight up the wall like spiderman, at high speed. ( There was some type of decoration on the side of the stadium back then, they sort of looked like diamond shapes. ) this crazy dude was moving fast, he was coming straight up the wall! The yellow shirts ran to the front gate and started to run up the stairs. If you remember there is an overhang on that balcony spot that lets you view the outside parking lot. My friend Peter said, there is no way this guy can get his hand over the top, because when he gets to where we were standing, it would be impossible for him to get his hands over the concrete overhang. He would be stuck underneath us. I watched spiderman for as long as possible, until he climbed so high i could not lean over and see him anymore. Suddenly i saw a hand appear and his fingertips grabbed the ledge. Peter and I knew he was going to die, he could not get his other hand up to the ledge. We both leaned over and grabbed his hand and he was so strong he managed to flip his body over the concrete ledge and tumble into our space of safety. He had long black hair and he was high on speed. I could see it in his eyes. He was breathing so fast I thought he was going to have a heart attack. he managed to say " thanks man " as he ran toward the seats and hurled himself into the crowd. About 1 minute went by and we were surrounded by the swarm of yellow shirt security guards who leaned over the ledge to capture spiderman. They looked at us in bewilderment. They thought he vanished into thin air. it appeared to be impossible to get past the extending overhand that was working against him. We realized spiderman literally had to put his life on the line, he kicked off the stadium wall and put everything he had, on the hope his fingers would catch the lip of the overhang. if not, he would have surely fallen to his death. I saw so many crazy things happen that day that I still shake my head in disbelief. it was the best YES concert I have ever seen in my life. Peace

i was sooo wasted, lost my friend marc in the upper decks (remember baseball stadium) only to run across him in centerfield. we celebrated our great fortune with another fatty in the middle of 60K plus party people. the lasers, sets, CHRIS and STEVE transformed that shithole of orange county into ROCK HEAVEN. we were 17 years old and frampton could kiss our ass, YES!!!! oh yeah, burnt the hell out of the tip of my nose but could'nt feel it. i'm grateful for the event and for being here to recall that night. hey marc! ROCK ON!

Thanks for posting the review from the Times Scott. It was interesting to read the Richard Cromelin review just to refresh my memory that he and the head nut case at the LA Times (Robert Hilburn) had no business reviewing anything outside of mainstream rock / pop of that era (I was at this show so I remember).

If a band didn't have lyrics like Bob Dylan, the Who, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John or the Rolling Stones then these guys dismissed it as pointless. The medium was music guys, not lame rock poetry.

Though Cromelin was more open to music like Yes he was still part of an attack team of Times writers that constantly trashed the likes of Yes and any music that pushed the envelope.

Sadly, due to their position at the main newspaper in a key music industry city, these writers had a hand in turning the music industry into the wasteland it is today.

We were just kids, 16 years old living near the stadium that summer. We stood in line from dawn just to get a chance to lay a blanket on the field which was given later up to the surging crowds. Yes came out after Framton, and sounded as great as they ever had, the the Dean set was artistic, and the laser show, a lost art, was great. This was one of many we saw at the Anaheim Stadium over a period of a couple of years; the Stones, Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, the Who, Black Sabbath just to name a few. Yes was one of the best, then MTV came about and these grand live shows faded, but over time artists like Yes became epics, while the no talent MTV bands were left to just talking as dubbed bad rap. There seems to be no demand for the artistic live performance anymore, where have the all the fans gone, you still there?

I remember paying $10.00 for the ticket to see this YES show. It was the first time and also the best Yes show I've ever seen and I've seen them every time they have toured sence then.The light and lasers were awesome.Roger Deans stage set was out of this world.Too bad for anyone who missed the 76 tour. They will never know what they missed.

I remember this concert. Hot, crowded and I went there to see YES. Didn't understand why Peter Frampton was on the bill but enjoyed his show. The wierd thing was, after Frampton played, the crowd really thinned and we were able to move to really good seats to see YES. Then the sound got really better, different soundman I suppose and we enjoyed one of the best YES concerts ever to bless the LA basin.
Eventually married the only girl in our crowd and she could whistle louder than Frampton could play his guitar.

Well 69,000 sure seemed like 80,000. I'm Surprised no one was Killed! It started when 50,000 people lined up the Night before, and whatever line that was 'formed' by Thousands was totally disregarded, MY GOD! Greatest Concert of all time possibly?
Scott
yesman@att.net

I believe "Starship Trooper" was played after "Roundabout"..In fact I know it was! Gentle Giant was awesome with everyone in the band joining in on the drum solo.

"Yes, Frampton in Rock Concert"
AT ANAHEIM STADIUM
Monday, July 19, 1976
Los Angeles Times
Richard Cromelin

The reasons for the great popularity of the giant stadium rock shows (Saturday's Yes-Peter Frampton bill at Anaheim Stadium sold out 10 days in advance) must involve the two-headliner-for-the-price-of-one package and the picnic atmosphere, rather than purely musical concerns. On that level bigger is not necessarily better, and the vastness of the venue Saturday reduced Yes to maybe.

Or perhaps the group itself was simply low on inspiration this time around. A year ago at the Hollywood Bowl Yes countered the somewhat forbidding nature of its symphonic progressivism with a passionate eloquent performance which put across its imposing structures with the naturalism and economy of a Chuck Berry show. This time it seemed a bit strained and sluggish, perfect ammunition for the anti-art-rock argument.

Yes' music retains a certain sensuality and the group still delivers with authority, but as its material becomes increasingly more dense, abstruse and insular, its seems more and more remote.

The music is without an underlying sense of urgency, and while it's not necessarily heartless, neither can it be considered warm and engaging. Yes doesn't really mean anything, not the way the Wailers or the Who mean something, and its private visions, however pleasurable at moments, seem more fitting for a museum than for the rock 'n roll stage.

Peter Frampton, whose momentum refuses to wane, followed sets by Gentle Giant and Gary Wright at the early-starting concert with his basic "live album" show (plus, of all things, "Lady Madonna"). Audience response was typically enthusiastic, from the kids in the top row to the president's son, Steve, in the wings.

I minor point but one worth noting. Yes did NOT play in Los Angeles on July 17, 1976 but rather at Anahiem Stadium, in Anahiem, CA, which is aprox. 35 miles south of L.A. Anahiem is home to Disneyland.

The show consisted of: Gentle Giant, Gary Wright, Peter Frampton, and then Yes, which to say the least, was an absolutely stellar performance by the band!

There had to be 80,000 people at this show, and man, they were all crushing me in the rush to be near the stage when Yes came on!