tonight Yes was at or close to its best, the recording must be OK and special thanks to the Orchestra (European Youth Orchestra) , who did a great job and could be heard very well. Where were they yesterday??

The public went absolutely crazy.

We had prime balcony seats, the sound there was absolutely fantastic. Massive sound. Much better than in the front rows where I sat yesterday. No more front rows for me.

The show was even more extended, it had Owner also. And magnification. And Gates. This last one was the highlight I guess.

What can I say: Fantastic, fabulous, extatic...... None of these words can accurately describe my feelings about the performance given by YES at the Heineken Music Hall last night.
Because they were filming for the new DVD (which hopefully will also be available in the Region 2 version this time) the lighting was different from the night before. Normally the audience is in the dark and cannot be seen by the bandmembers, but this time the entire hall was lit too!
So Jon, Steve, Alan, Tom and particularly Chris, could interact throughout the show with us in a different way than usual.
They seemed to draw alot of good vibes from this, because the show lasted for 3 hours and 10 minutes!
At the end the audience went completely wild and stormed forward to the stage, after Jon had asked if we would like to 'get up and boogie' with the next song called "I've seen all good people"....
Well, we were certainly willing to do that AND with such enthusiasm that alot of people must still be suffering from soare throats and aking muscles, like I am experiencing right now.
( well I'm 45 so what can I say....) But it was all worth it!!
I wasn't able to make a setlist because I tried to get some pics even though all camera's were strictly forbidden, but here are my personal highlights of the show in random order: Close to the Edge, Magnification, Gates of Delirium, Don't go, And You and I, Ritual and the best of them all: Starship Trooper.
The orchestra gave an extra dimension to the music and I must say that overall they were a welcome addition.
For me, this was the best YES gig ever and I am looking forward to the DVD, so that I may relive this wonderful evening time and time again.
Thank you YES for bringing your wonderful music into my life for more than 30 years!
I hope and trust you will keep going strong for many years to come......

Dex.

Jon Anderson:
Wooh! Thank you. It's great to be with you this evening. Great to be here in Amsterdam again. We’re going to do a couple of new songs from our new album, which we did earlier this year. The album is called ‘Magnification’ and the idea is love is so wonderful. Love is everything, really. Love is so powerful and you can’t take love for granted, that’s what it’s about. This song is called 'Don't Go', 'Don't Go', 'Don't Go'. Don’t go there.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I’ve been trying to find out how to say thank you in Dutch all day, and nobody knows. Exactly! It’s even hard to say that, but, what was it again? [???] or something like that, sorry. I won’t go any further. Making this record, we used to get together midday, and sort of start work, music spontaneously, actually spontaneous in Dutch is the same word, spontaneous! I know, I know these things. Every time I got to the studio, Alan was on the piano here, over there, Alan White, piano, playing the piano. He would be there, playing away, practicing Chopin, Stravinsky, all that stuff. That’s it, Stravinsky, Stravinsky, wrote that. It was on a good day, as well. So, um, okay Alan

Jon Anderson:
Oh yeah, I like this song. I wish I could sing in Dutch, I think about it every day. I would learn some words and then put ‘em all together. And I’d come to sing to you in Amsterdam and you’d say what’s he singing about, why’s he singing that way? And I sing to myself, I learnt, err, things like daffodils, and err, Amsterdam, I’m still light, that’s enough.

Jon Anderson:
Sorry. That’s all I know, I had a mental block there. I would love to sing in Dutch. That would be so cool. Maybe one day, you know. You never know. We’re going to do a song which ahh, we got together and did this song and it’s ahh, the idea of the song is that, ahh, we’re surrounded by the divine all the time, whether we know it or not. We wake up in the morning and the divine is with us, so the idea of the song is called 'In The Presence Of'.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. Thank you. New songs, new songs. I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Wilhelm Keitel and the European Festival Orchestra! Wonderful. Just wonderful people. They’ve been traveling with us for six weeks and ahh, traveling through Russia and Hungary and Italy, and Sweden, Finland, everywhere. It’s just been so wonderful every night, and this is their, their last night tonight and they’re so, they’ve been so, just so amazing. Yes, I know, it’s okay. They have to go home and get a job, you know. They don’t get that one, I think. Yes, they do! So, when we decided to do this tour with ahh, the symphony orchestra, we thought about the history of the music we’ve done over the years and we looked back into the seventies and decided we should do a really wacky, crazy piece of music about things that were happening in the seventies. There was craziness going on in business, there was corruption everywhere, the war, and stuff like that. A little bit like today, actually, but, it’s very similar. But the idea of the song is that war is not needed and that light is more powerful. Okay, the song is called 'Gates Of Delirium'.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, thank you. Thank you for listening. It’s amazing, here we are year 2001 and playing that song from so many years ago and thank you for listening to it, so much. I'm going to leave you in the capable hands, and the fingers, the wonderful guitar styles of the amazing Mr. Steve Howe!

Jon Anderson:
Yes, Steve Howe on guitar. Of course, I used to be able to play just like that. It was in, it was in this dream in 1972. I remember it vividly. A wonderful dream, a wonderful dream. Some guy asked me outside, I think I said this last night. So what, this guy says to me, last night, he said “I’m your biggest fan”. I said “yeah, you are pretty big, yeah, that’s pretty big”. He said “Are you going to do Starship Trooper”. I said “No, no!” He said “Please!” I said “Okay!” It’s okay, I like, you know, ‘Starship Trooper’!

Jon Anderson:
Yo! Chris Squire! Hey, we’re filming tonight, hey, what’s going on? These cameras. We’d like to do a new song for you and ahh, this is the first time we’ve tried it, except for last night, we tried it last night as well. You gotta try these things, you know. It’s a song, the title song from the album ‘Magnification’. And I forgot what the title is, but I think it is ‘Magnification’. There you go. Here we go.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. We’d like to do a piece of music which we, ever since we actually wrote this song, we’ve been playing it, so we’ve been playing it for a zillion years and so, we’re going to get it right tonight if it kills us. Well, not really. I’m just sort of ahh, amazed how love is so powerful. This is a song for my one and only, my Janee there. And she and myself, we travel together all the time and we walk around the cities, wherever we are, and love is just so unbelievably beautifully wonderful. I couldn’t think of any more words, but that’s about it, and this is for you, my love.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. One of the pieces of music that we did, ahh, in the mid-seventies was a reflection of, ahh, some books and ideas that was coming through. Um, the idea of doing an album with four pieces of music, ahh, we worked so hard together on this music and then we decided, well the fourth movement is all about the idea when we get together with the audience, ahh, everywhere we go, it’s like a very powerful thing that happens, and you listening, we playing, and they call it a ritual anyway. So we decided to ahh, do this piece of music, we’re going to do it tonight. It’s called ‘Ritual’.

Jon Anderson:
Chris Squire on bass guitar, Mr. Chris Squire! On the drums, Mr. Alan White on the drums. On the keyboards, Mr. Tom Brislin. And of course, Steve Howe on guitar. Let’s hear it for Mr. Wilhelm Keitel and the European Festival Orchestra. Wooh! Thank you so much. Thank you. We have one song we’re going to play now and we want you all to sing along and half way through, get up and boogie. In the key of, after the four. 1,2,3,4.

Jon Anderson:
Here we go!