Zolias

Friday, May 10, 2024 6:14 PM

49 Years ago to-day!

TaffinOz

Tuesday, October 13, 2020 9:49 AM

I was at that concert. Went alone cos my mate pulled out. Sat on the grass and got fed vodka and orange by a friendly bunch who had a giant orange juice container and who took pity on little old me all alone. That made an awesome concert even more memorable, or maybe not. It was a warm afternoon and a magical experience I've never forgotten.

Jim Walker

Saturday, September 12, 2020 12:04 PM

To Greg Vincent. I think that cracking heard on the last "here" is actually in the sound system perhaps clipping on that note. It probably could be heard in Jon's monitor as well. Doesn't it look like he is reading the lyrics there?

Andy G

Friday, August 14, 2020 3:10 PM

I was actually there that night, so long ago now I can't remember much about it really, but me and my best mate saw Yes as often as possible, we were both Yes fanatics!

Augusto

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 4:50 AM

42 years ago! A milestone for the band and the fans.

Wurm

Wednesday, January 6, 2016 8:13 AM

I agree with the sound problems early on in Sound Chaser & Anderson's guitar sounds louder than Howe's during To be Over. But Close to the Edge sounds amazing. The guitar intro in beyond belief! Close to the edge was played before To Be Over.

Phil Hooper

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A great concert but agree on the poor support - don''t remember it raining at all and Joan Armatrading was on the bill as well.My anal retentive brother made a note that it started at 7.05 pm and finished 9.30pm.Too early for the early part of the light show but caused by local council rules as QPR is surrounded ny houses.

The show was actually filmed by the BBC and later partially broadcast as an OGWT special.I was told by someone in the know that the early sound problems were caused by something blowing in Howe''s guitar system early on in Sound Chaser - if you listen carefully you can hear it and almost sense the rest of the band''s concern as Anderson and Squire look over - and the engineers had to spend the next 30 mins fixing it,which is why Howe''s guitar is too far back in the mix compared to Moraz (and even Anderson''s electric guitar)on CTTE and To Be Over.

You can hear them start to bring Howe''s guitar back as a lead instrument during the early/mid stages of Gates and from then on it sounds pretty damn good to me.All that is needed is a proper remix and remaster - it was mid 70s afetr all.

Personally I thought this was a classic concert with a stunning stage show and it continues to disappoint me that Yes don''t do a Led Zep and really spend some love and attention on assembling,restoring and releasing properly packaged DVDs- including this one - rather than a constant diet of short,poor quality DVDs ( Philadelphia,Beat Club,70s etc) that are a real rip off.As far as I know ,they haven''t even remastered the Yessongs DVD for godssake,which makes QPR sound like the highest quality release....

Steven Shinder

I have the video of this show on two VHS tapes. It's a good representation of Yes at an outdoor venue in the '70s. 'Live at QPR' is kind of like the 'Songs From Tsongas' of the '70s. Here are some highlights of the show:

Sound Chaser: This song had a good intro after 'Firebird Suite'. Though the mix has problems, it's great to see how they performed it. This is the only officially released video of Yes performing this song. The audio of "Sound Chaser" at a different show is on 'The Word Is Live', which I have yet to hear.

To Be Over: Like "Sound Chaser", this is also the only official video source of the whole song. Whether it's studio or live, "To Be Over" is still emotional. This is a better video representation of the song than the instrumental one on 'Live at Montreux 2003'.

The Gates of Delirium: The 'Symphonic Live' version is great, but this is the only version to show Patrick Moraz. Though audio of "Gates" from the 1976 tour is available on 'Yesshows', this is a good visual representation.

Long Distance Runaround: At this show, Yes performs an emotional acoustic version of this song. This beats the version on 'Yes Acoustic: Guaranteed No Hiss'.

Patrick Moraz Solo: This medley includes "Papillion" ('Refugee', 1973) and 'Chachaca' ('Story of I', 1975). You get to see Pat's style here.

Ritual: Possibly the only '70s footage of "Ritual". 'Yesshows' may have the audio of this song from the 1976 tour, but this version is different in that it has a few lines from "The Remembering" after the intro. The climax of "Ritual" sounds spacier than the studio version. When I saw the climax of "Ritual" when I was little, I thought the stage was on fire.

Sweet Dreams: This, along with 'Songs From Tsongas', is the only source of a live version of this song. The audio of this song from QPR made it onto 'The Word Is Live'.

Yours Is No Disgrace: The song begins with a tapping sound and the shiny circle from 'Yessongs' rotating. The song is pretty good, almost as good as the 'Yessongs' version.

Clive Griffiths

I remember reading my programme about 200 times too! Agree that the support line up was pretty poor, except S&C, would have been much better with SAHB to liven things up.

Yes took to the stage early evening. By the time dusk fell the stage lighting and effects were quite magical. Roger Dean's work was fantastic. It was my first concert so a pretty special experience - inspite of the support bands - I was just 17 at the time.

Greg Vincent

Watch the part at the climactic end of "Gates" where Jon's voice cracks:

"Our reason to be heEERRrre...SH*T!!!"

Tsk tsk, Jon --such language!

Mark S

I was there and from what I can remember i thought Yes were brilliant, Seals and Crofts were pretty good and ACE were pretty routine till they played 'how long?' the highlights were Ritual and Gates of delirium, but like other reviewers I found them breaks between sets tedious.

John

I was at this concert, but as far as I was concerned Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel were supposed to appear but didn't turn up. However my memory maybe complete crap after decades of abuse. Seals and Crofts started slow, but then it began to rain and a lot of folk (including me) who were on the pitch decided to go under cover in the stands. Suddenly, their set turned from normality to sheer brilliance, and I wondered at the time whether they thought the exodus was due to their playing which spurred them into a much better performance.
I had never heard an acoustic version of Long Distance Runaround before, and it blew me away.

There must have been other bands there as the concert lasted over 8 hours. I'm sure that a band called Wally performed pretty early in the afternoon.

D. A. Payne

My recent tradition of reviewing Yes concerts never attended using recorded media carries on.

I didn't even know who Yes were until 1977 and so regret it since their work during Moraz' tenure eventually became my favorite. At least I was lucky enough to catch one of the breathtaking Tormato concerts.

Though Relayer and its era were on top by about 1979 I waited years to acquire the DVD mentioned in several submissions below, largely because fragments I had seen on Yesyears and various boots were of terrible quality. I decided one day I'd get it anyway as it did feature an entire Relayer show, but continued waiting until DVD availability was confirmed.

Meantime every last Yes DVD widely available fell well short of what a Yes DVD should be by one measure or another or several. 70s footage was limited to Yessongs and Philly '79 with one badly filmed and directed and both of almost hopelessly poor fidelity.

When this summer [2004]a vendor in England reported a legit, US-compatible QPR DVD he also adamantly reported stunning quality missing from all other DVD offerings. Nearly perfect video and audio fidelity missing from the other already sparce 70s selections, thanks to the original 2" master tape actually being available and well preserved. A yes concert filmed as or nearly as a Yes concert should be, with no MTV-style attention deficit disorder camera direction and no silly graphics as everything post-70s suffered from in one combination or another. Yes' very stage presence and concert aura finally captured or mostly so, and during their 70s peak no less.

I was persuaded to finally order and was floored in the first 30 seconds of playback. Not only was everything my British friend said about it true, it was better than he let on. Sound and video quality and clarity rival anything 21st century. Having a complete Relayer show speaks for itself, but we also finally get to see things like Alan White's true virtuosity on full display as in no other Yes footage from any era. In QPR we have a performance of YIND on video like absolutely no other, together with our only visual record of Sound Chaser and To Be Over.

Someone below correctly observed what I'd say qualifies as QPR's only real problem, a strangely unbalanced mix in the first 40 minutes or so having of all things Anderson's backing guitar and Moraz' keys nearly drowning everyone else out at times. This didn't result from multigeneration copying or careless DVD production as so many other Yes productions did however. It had to be an onsite recording engineer's mistakes. For an overall production so complete and true to source I can easily live with that one problem.

While I must disagree with one or two comments below as overly negative I'd say most of the observations are correct, so no real need to add further. I'll close with a simple recommendation to any FY visitors disappointed or downright unhappy with all other Yes DVDs available, as I am, they seek out the QPR DVD right away. Be sure it's the Singaporean issue since one from Hong Kong I'm told may not be first generation from master and may have more problems. That might also explain why some comments below were less enthusiastic.

TomR

I remember the concert incredibly well. Probably because at 13 years old it was the first gig I'd been to apart from a Greenslade / Rare Bird Saunday night Roundhouse show the previous Autumn.

We were sat in the Ellerslie Road stand (stage right)through three uninspired support acts (Stoke City FC got Alex Harvey and for some reason we got Seals and Crofts) and suffered change-overs longer than most of the sets.

Gryphon aside it was an afternoon of the worst kind of soft rock. A festival bill rivalled only by a Budgie, Curved Air, Hawkwind and Status Quo line up the following summer for sheer tedium.

A British rather than mid Atlantic line up of say Fairports or John Martyn, SAHB and Man would have been more welcome. How we hated country rock! I must have read the pale blue covered programme about 100 times.

So, to answer an earlier question, I think Gryphon started at about 2.30pm and Yes were onstage around 7.30pm so they came on in the early twilight but it was dark by the time the show hit its climax. 5 hours to turn around three support acts seems excessive even for 1975!I guess the band were rightly determined to have their stage set and lighting seen (and filmed) in the best possible circumstances.

I remember people hanging over the edge of the balconies of the council flats at the School End of the ground listening to the show and the excitement of knowing that BBC's OGWT show would be screening highlights from the Yes set later in the summer.

There was a real sense that this was a pinnacle moment and that it couldn't possibly get any better than this. In many ways it didn't. Not for Prog.

Although the Going For The One Wembley Arena shows were also memorable (not least for the return of Rick Wakeman)the QPR set seemed to have that perfect combination of theatricality, musicianship and a wealth of great material with none of the three elements overwheming the other two. Essentially it was my beloved 'Yessongs' album brought to life with the bonus of Ritual, Sweet Dreams and the Relayer material. Pre-discovering girls and the other delights of an experimental late 70s adolescence this was a defining experience of my early years of musical exploration.

It wasn't until I stumbled across Coltrane and Ornette at age of 17 that my perception of what was possible in music was as radically affected as it was that night in west london.

Of course the advent of Sex Pistols, The Clash and Punk Rock was just 12 months away and both Mick Jones and Paul Cook only lived within a mile or so of QPR. It amuses me to think they may have been in the crowd plotting a musical revolution while the ruling party whooped it up.

Nick Green

I thought I would post a few comments about the Queens Park film, as I recently acquired these on DVD, and hopefully give a balanced view for those tempted to purchase them. Though Yes are one of my favourite bands, I would in no way describe myself as an absolute fanatic - King Crimson will always be number on Im afraid! - whether this will make you respect my view more or less will understandably be a subjective decision!

Firstly, as a period piece, the film is a remarkable document of a band at the height of their powers, both as composers and as a performing unit. One look at the occasional crowd shots is a valuable testament as to how the musical landscape has changed since these concerts - a lot of beards, bad clothes and very few women! In many respects this is like a snapshot of a different universe - both performer and audience willing to experience and become involved in popular music way more epic, ambitious, complex and ultimately more demanding than perhaps has ever been heard since.

The quality of the picture is, considering its age, really excellent, and there are enough camera shots to get good views of all band members and keep things 'moving' as it were. The stage comes more into play as afternoon becomes evening and the lights and dry ice kick in - the only complaint is that the stage appears a little cramped for all the set that has been crammed on to it.

The sound, as mentioned in a previous post, is not perfect. This is particularly prominent in Sound Chaser which opens the concert - Howe is at times inaudible, whereas Moraz appears to be in the front room right next to you. This is by no means the case throughout the concert though, and though it never achieves anything like a perfect mix, if you have the sound going through a decent amp which allows you to increase bass a touch, then it is respectable. Everything after Sound Chaser is perfectly listenable.

The performance itself is great, the band are in excellent form, Moraz in particular, closely followed by Anderson, whose vocals are almost faultless. Squire has a tremendous jam during Ritual and the drum freak-out during this song is ace! The melancholy acoustic version of Long Distance Runaround is a vast improvement on the studio version, giving the song a previously unheard of poigniancy.
Sweet Dreams opens with a funky almost disco work out (ahead of their time again!) and is a pounding version, as is Starship Trooper, a tremendous encore

In finality, I think despite its drawbacks, this DVD is well worth owning - where else are you going to get something like this? Where else will you see such fine satin stage wear - many a cry of 'Spinal Tap' from my girlfriend and some degree of laughter at the stage set - the unbeleivers, they'll never understand!

Unlike Fripp and King Crimson, Yes do not seem to take such a careful interest in their legacy of recordings - I would of thought a Yes Collectors Club for rare films and recordings would be a prospect relished by many fans - anyone listening?

Paul French

I remember before the QPR gig the sudden concern from the compere, when it was announced that Yes would be on in about 10 minutes - the already very cramped crowd on the pitch, decided to move forwards quite a lot to get a better view and nearly knocked over the lighting tower in the middle. We were told that if we didn't move back, Yes wouldn't come on at all - that worked -the crowd moved back instantly !! It was in the days of the Roger Dean stage sets and quite honestly, as a 15 year old kid, I had never seen anything as amazing before as the illuminated fibre glass "crab" above Alan White, the "rib cage" above Patrick Moraz and various glowing "lumps" on the floor in front of the others.....and Chris Squire with his "Cruft's poodle" style boots(has he still got them?). I hadn't realised that amazing music wasonly a part of the package and that the unique presentation completed it. It's a shame that Yes don't do that anymore.

Eddie Jerlin

BTW, check out "No Disgrace". There's one part where Alan makes a super-nice "save". Patrick comes in on the wrong beat, so the whole band is off by half a beat (don't remember exactly where), but for 3-4 bars, it gives the whole thing a kind of intoxicating feeling until Alan turns it around by doing two snares in a row (instead of kick/snare/kick/snare) to bring it all back to where it should be.

Dave White

A new Yes laserdisc has been released only in Japan. It's a two-disc set of the famous Queen's Park show that was filmed back in 1975. Portions of this show have been floating around on bootleg video tapes, but this is a legitimate release and the first time that the entire show has been available. It's an incredible concert. It's also interesting to note that Jon Anderson plays funky guitar riffs that would make George Clinton smile! Perhaps this is why Jon no longer plays guitar with the band live ;-)

Barry Garner

Long Distance Runaround (Acoustic version followed by Keyboard Solo), Ritual (with a splattering of High Remembering mixed in)(its awesome). I might add that this version of Sweet Dreams with Patrick on keyboards is awesome!!!! He really cranks!

I finally saw the YesYears video last night. Pretty impressive considering everything. The only piece that made me jump though was several seconds of Patrick Moraz playing the acoustic piano. The tune was, of course, from the Refugee album, which is one of my favorites.

Ron Peterson

Finally!! After waiting 18 years, someone finally got around to releasing this filmed concert from one of YES' most progressive tours. It features Jon, Steve, Alan, Chris, and Patrick Moraz on the second of three tours in support of the magnificant Relayer album. In the afterglow of 1960's hippiedom, YES was touring to spread the "New Age Word" 10 years before it would become a household word.

Their shows were more like mystical rituals than concerts, and peoples hearts and minds were opening at a tremendous rate due to the times and climes and the MUSIC.

Notes From The Edge

STEVE HOWE INTERVIEW by Mike Tiano
Copyright © 1993 Notes From The Edge #80/Jeff Hunnicutt and Mike Tiano.
All rights reserved.
(Used with permission)
[Howe] And QPR was a wonderful show we did with the other act [which] should have been filmed because it was Seals and Crofts, on that show. And so QPR gets released, it's never been remixed from the original monaural mixes, I don't expect that I or whoever it was didn't know and we said it was a good job at the time, but it wouldn't please any of us now, so it doesn't please me.

I wouldn't say it's an embarrassment. I treat retro stuff sometimes as I have to. If people can't find the master tapes or remix it a lot of people would say, why the hell put it out then? And I think that's a fair comment--I didn't ask to have it let out. And this isn't the end of it; this kind of stuff goes on between bootlegs and other sort of grandly moral releases that maybe should be finished up back over it, but nobody want spends the money to do it, and there's no money to make it anyway. It all seems to be very, I think the word is self-effacing; I'm pretty sure what that means. I think that there are times when in my past, like in my guitar book and I've been able to look at all of the things I've done, it's something to wallow in and enjoy, just temporarily, you know everybody's allowed to have a little moment of glory, even if it's just for themselves, just on they're own. But looking at YESSONGS, Jon hated it, and looking at other films attempted to be made or when we made a video--everything's been such a spar. I have to tell you everything that's been passed down to Yes. And it doesn't have to be; it just is, and it's partly because of wanting to be leaders. People get very sensitive about anybody in there, you know, as we all do. Like the Beatles with Paul McCartney: I mean

Drew Freeman

I'm watching it now, but it starts out in the daylight. Was this an afternoon concert? The band is using stage lightning... but the effect is really lost when you can see that it's daylight outside.

Tom Howie

On the import front, there is a two-disc set (you have to buy each disc *separately*) from Yes at Queens Park Road in 1975. This is the RELAYER tour with Moraz. Some caution, `though: this was recorded on videotape, and shows the limitations of videotape circa 1975: the picture is pretty weird, and it was switched live with no post-production, so the shots get a bit weird at time. The biggest problem is the audio, which is good bootleg-quality at best. There are large portions on the first disc (part 1) on which only certain instruments can be heard: an over abundance of keyboards and no guitar, for instance. This problem seems to be corrected somewhat on Part 2, but don't buy these expecting to hear Yes in its sonic glory: you'll be *very* disappointed!

Long Distance Runaround (a completely different arrangement: Anderson, Howe, and Squire only with guitars, very lovely - seen briefly on the "Legends" disc and the reason I bought this disc), Ritual (amazing performance)

Howard Fielding - Sounds

Saturday, August 27, 2022 4:11 PM

Geir Myklebust has transcribed Howard Fielding's interview with Steve Howe the day after one of the three YES concert appearances in Bristol during the Spring 1975 European Tour. The interview article appeared in the May 17, 1975 issue of Sounds.