Dwayne Allen

Sunday, July 14, 2019 12:36 PM

It was fortunate that I attended the Relayer Tour in Kansas City at the "Municipal" because Barton canceled the show as reported due to fire regulations. I was there and they first placed the impossible restriction that the house lights remain on during the entire show.
This was not required due to the lights or special effects but the fear of smoking as the smell of marijuana was detected. As you know the acoustics of Barton are bad, to begin with, and since it is located on state property the State Police believed they needed to schedule a small army. Yes acted wisely and canceled. They are back in Arkansas in one week and I asked Steve during YES50 if he remembered that show being canceled, which he did not. We lost a show three years earlier due to Bill Buford quitting before the Close to the Edge Tour. I hope this black moment in Arkansas rock history is displayed when the now-closed Barton Event Museum data is placed in the Statehouse. I was part of the concert crowd that refused to leave and we were threatened with violence. Let the exhibit include concerts from the entire state while touching on the hate and social unrest that was displayed during that time period.

Rick Snell

The show was cancelled at the last minute because of fire-marshal regulations. My parents had dropped me and a friend off at the concert and gone to a movie. We walked what seemed like 30 or 40 blocks to a gas station on Hi. 167 and called a cab. Not knowing where to go, we picked the Camelot Hotel, figuring we could wander around a bit. Then, in the lobby, we saw Ngu (roadie)! He rode up the elevator with us, chuckling at our Yes-paraphenalia (shirts, buttons, program). "Great show, huh?" he said. When we came back down to the lobby, we saw Jon Anderson discussing transportation and the like to the next night's show. He had on some kind of stacked-sole sandal with multi-colored socks. As he started to leave, my buddy got up the nerve to croak out, "Mr. Anderson? Could you sign our programs?" He put his big, loopy JA on both of them.