Alan McIntyre

This was my second glimpse of Yes on this tour. Having been so impressed by the Glasgow gig, and with a ticket for Edinburgh in the bag already, I resolved to make another journey to catch them somewhere else. One venue jumped out at me - the Birmingham Symphony Hall - must be a good sounding venue, I thought.

So on the day, I travelled from Edinburgh to Birmingham by train, listening to some Yes tapes I made up over the weekend, in very high anticipatory mood. Soon, oh soon ....

Having a wander through the Convention Centre to get my bearings, I came upon the doors into the Symphony Hall, with the unmistakable, if muffled, sound of Yes doing their soundcheck emanating from within - Heart of the Sunrise. Unfortunately, I and the 2 or 3 other Yessouls hanging around could not persuade security to let us in.

So to the concert - I had a great seat, centre on to the stage in the 1st circle. The venue was very impressive - a real classical music setup with stalls at stage level and several circles stacked up vertically, each not very deep (maybe a dozen or so rows of seats at the back of the hall, and only 2 rows down the sides).

The place looked pretty much full as the Open Your Eyes "ambience" track gave way to the Firebird Suite and the band appeared and blasted straight into Siberian Khatru.

Maybe it was because I knew what was coming, but somehow tonight didn't quite match the experience of the Glasgow gig. Don't get me wrong, it was still excellent, but something undefinable was not quite there. The sound, for a start, was a rather variable - at times a bit muddy with the Keyboards in particular and even Jon's voice too low, and Steves guitar too harsh - and at other times much better. Also the crowd seemed more muted, at least the people around me anyway. Even with Jon asking us to get on our feet in the middle of All good people (to do the "Birmingham .... err ... Boogie !) and then gesturing for us to get up, I found myself the only one within about 20 people to get up. The people in the stalls seemed to be doing pretty well though.

Enough of the negativity though, I still enjoyed it immensely. Again my main highlights were America (dodgy sound - no keyboards), Heart of the Sunrise, And You and I, Long Distance Runaround and another magical performance of the Revealing. Jon commented after the Revealing about it being 25 years old, and thanked the audience for allowing them to be there to play it, and hopefully to be playing it into the 21st century. I for one fervently hope so.

Wondrous Stories was a very pleasant little surprise, although here again I could barely make out Igor's keyboards which was disappointing.

They finished off with the usual high octane encore of Roundabout and Starship Trooper to a pretty rapturous reception and long standing ovation (apart from some people around me that is !!!).

Having seen this set twice now, I'd just like to make one general comment - how about dropping the solos, or maybe condensing them into a shorter section, and making way for another couple of band songs (or maybe Awaken or Mind Drive). As much as I enjoy hearing Steve's wonderful guitars, and Chris's magic with a bass, I know they can play like this, but I'd rather hear it in the context of the band sound. The "symphonic" Yes band sound is what it is all about to me. Also, the solos break up the rhythm of the set which builds up nicely though to Heart of the Sunrise, then loses it through the solos, and picks up again from Owner and RSoG to the end. Maybe next tour guys ?

Well for me its on to my (adopted) home, Edinburgh, on Friday for my 3rd gig of the tour !

Tony O'Rourke

Despite being in my mid-30's and despite liking YES for more than 20 years this was the first time that I have seen them live and was not disappointed. The gig was excellent from Firebird Suite through to I've Seen All Good People. The sound in the Symphony Hall was wonderful, even from where I was sitting in the third row of the Upper Balcony (five floors up). The venue only has a capacity of 2,500 so it still had a small show feel to it.

The show almost had a "family" feel to it. I'm sure this is no different anywhere else in the world with dads and mums bringing their kids along. (One nine year old child sitting next to me was very excited at being at his first ever concert. Every time he saw someone who was vaguely "rock-star" looking (i.e. long hair, leather jacket), he would turn to his Father and say "Is that one of YES?) Back to the gig. I've waited 20 years to hear AND YOU AND I performed live. The same with HEART OF THE SUNRISE. The musicianship was superb. The mix was strange at times with Billy Sherwood's rock gymnastics often drowning out the sound of Steve Howe's elegant playing. There were a few bum notes (maybe they were on purpose). I particularly enjoyed Jon Anderson's introduction to some of the songs:


And You And I: "It was a Thursday evening a long time ago and our engineer Eddy Offord would be preparing "tea" (miming the rolling of a joint), "Earl Gray in particular"
I've Seen All Good People: Which he referred to as the "Birmingham Boogie". Birmingham is regarded as the British centre of rock music as so many good bands/musicians emanate from the area - Black Sabbath, half of Led Zeppelin.
The way he thanked the audience for letting them play "The Revealing Science of God"! We should be thanking him.
Steve Howe's playing was amazing, Chris Squire was Chris Squire and leaped around the stage like a man possessed. (Does he always kneel so still for so long during Alan White's drum solo), Igor Khoroshev performed like any good session musician and copied Wakeman and others well but I would have appreciated a longer solo, Alan White was excellent and Jon Anderson's voice did not belong to a man his age. He sang like an angel. (He kept waving to the audience so we waved back).

A couple of gripes though. Firstly, Billy Sherwood should have stayed in Las Vegas. His style of playing didn't fit and he looked bored some of the time. If that meant no "Lonely Heart" or "Rhythm of Love" but got "Gates of Delirium" or "Awaken" instead then so be it! Also I was kind of expecting a more elaborate stage set. At times, the stage looked like an overgrown "lava lamp". Still, the music more than made up for it.

Good luck and good health to YES. I'll make sure not to wait another 20 years before seeing them again.

Richard Faragher

Although I have tickets (and a babysitter) for the SH concert on Thursday this week, I decided at 5pm this evening that I just had to go to tonights show. At 7pm, me and my 5 year old daughter (nearly six, daddy!!) were in Birminghams wonderful Symphony Hall. All the way there, my daughter kept asking me "will they play de de de, de de de, de de de de?" (Mind Drive) and "will they play I Believe" (Open Your Eyes). As you can tell, she has been a Yes fan for many, many erm.. months.

So, to the show. Having paid regular visits to nfte.org for a while now, it was clear that the set would contain few suprises. This was true. I also suspected that after such a gruelling tour, the band would be tired. This was also true. What we got tonight was more 'Going through the motions' than 'Going for the one'.

My main gripes? The sound was poor tonight, I felt. I have heard Yes sound better at Wembly. If you are just going to push the faders on the desk up to max and leave them there, then from an audience standpoint you would be better off in one of the big 'sheds'. Chris sounded muddy, all Steves electric work was too harsh/brash, and Jon was way back in the mix somewhere.

The Billy problem: If Billy moved one place in on stage ie. between Jon and Chris, all the critisism of him would cease. As it stands, he is the bloke that strums and sings a bit in the wings. You can tell that he feels this too, and has assumed the role of a bit part player. If Billy is a member of the band, then get him on the stage! I still think that Yes should be a five piece band though. They lose that 'edge' with additional members on stage.

Igor Moraz :) was very good, I thought. However...as KTA1 & 2 (especially) demonstrate, with Rick Yes are truly great. Without Rick, Yes are great. (Without Yes, Rick is crap(ish)).

Finally, the set list. I don`t know... it didn`t seem to flow too well. I just wish that Yes would have taken the bold move to perform some more new material - there's enough to go at after all. The band make a big

Tom

Tightest concert I've seen on this tour, not a bum note to be heard.

FTB was dropped, but TRSOG was back in. Jon's voice seems fine. Steve played Mood For A Day (sitting down), Diary Of A Man Who Vanished (Steve himself called it that, my copy of the album says "Disappeared") and Clap. Igor has a pony tail. Billy turned up. >{? I'm not sure that they were tired. Everything they did seemed almost effortless, especially Wondrous Stories. Perhaps it's the lack of effort that's being interpreted as a lack of energy. They definitely weren't as lively as they were in February, but they are more together as a unit. Swings and Roundabouts.

Meng

This is the second time I've seen them this tour. At Nottingham the sound mix wasn't great; this time it was spot on and the gig was excellent. It was really good to hear the keyboards all the way through - Igor really can play, and what's more it looks like he's enjoying himself; his intro to Long Distance Runaround was superb, and his piano solo reminded me of the Moraz solo from the 1975 QPR show. I've said it before - he should get the gig full time.

No surprises in the set list; Steve did Mood, Diary of a Man who Disappeared and Clap. (I trained my binoculars on him during Owner - his body language said it all!!!!!)

At the beginning of All Good People Jon suggested that half-way through we do "the Birmingham ... err ... um ... Boogie. I can't remember what we called it in Prague!"

Chris Squire and a Rickenbacker is a match made in heaven. He is also pure ham. Long may he remain so : )

Summing up: this was the 13th time I've seen them (& ABWH) since 1972. Unlucky for some but not for me!! This was definitely one of the best. 9.5 out of 10.