Paul Jackson

Back from Manchester gig, sadly our seats were awful, although near the front they were way over to the left and could not see Tom at all, occasionally Steve disappeared behind the four big speakers :-(

Despite the seats I still managed to enjoy the show but look forward to seeing them again in Dec when I know I will be able to see the whole band. The orchestra seemed to be enjoying themselves tapping along in the parts when they were not playing and smiling a lot.

So no Gates this time - hoping for that on 13th Dec. No Howe solos and no "argument" over Roundabout or Owner. Magnification AY&I and Ritual were the best on our side of the house but I would like to see what someone in the middle thought of the show :-)

If they had not played Gates elsewhere on the tour I would have settled for that as a setlist but having that dropped here together with the bad seats means for only the second time in nearly 30 years I'm a little bit disappointed by a Yes Show. The only other time was Stoke City football ground way back on the Relayer Tour when it was pouring with rain and they stopped the show early - I dont think they did Gates that day either :-(

Oh well roll on 13th Dec its the last UK gig so surely GOD will be with us!!

Matthew Verrill

Just got back from my first ever Yes gig at Manchester. I can't remember the exact running order but it was pretty much as usual except for no Gates, no Howe solo and no Owner (thank God!!) They did play Magnification though. Running time was just over 2 hours.

I was sat way off to the right so had a great view of Chris, reasonble view of Jon and could just about see Steve and Tom. I didn't see Alan at all except for the beginning of ItPO and the end of the show. I also couldn't see much of the orchestra. Ususal complaint--the orchestra was way too quiet in parts, although the mix is much better than I'd anticipated from hearing various boots.

I recorded the whole show in MiniDisc but it didn't survive Chris's bass pedals so most of it is fairly inaudible. I'm going to try again at Sheffield on 11th December so hopefully then I'll have a decent copy of live Magnification to post up.

There was a flyer on my seat advertising Magnification, which said that the YesSymphonic DVD was due out on 18th March 2002. It also advertised a special release of Magnification featuring interviews and live footage. No release date for that though. Perhaps this will include the Masterworks bonus tracks??? Only speculation of course...