immo hagemann

yet another stunning display of musicianship, style, professionalism, grace and FUN was delivered by the lads last night here in hamburg. would you expect anything less?

wakey's keyboard viruosity may be an acquired taste to some people, however, watching him on stage with his four bandmates, one has to admit that he adds something to the proceedings, that no other yes ivory tinkler can quite deliver. talkin' about sheer presence! great to see these venerable giants feed off each other on stage so much ... and to think that i almost dreaded having to sit through AYAI for the umpteenth time ;-)>. yes delivered a reading of that particular song, which left me almost gasping for air.

i'll probably just continue writing what everybody else will be writing here, so let me just say this: brilliant gig, great fun ... under one condition though: get these people into a recording studio as fast as humanly possible and let them produce a STORMER OF A yes-album. enough of all these nostalgia-tinged pleasantries – i know you have it in yourself. thanks, yes.

and hi to those happy danes who were in front of me!

best, I/Ø

>> i'd almost forgotten what a decent song "don't kill the whale" is ...

Joern

That was a really wonderful evening ! Wow, fantastic !!
A few things went wrong with Steve, the strings of his pedal steel guitar where blocked in SK, so there was nothing to hear. It also happened in Starship Trooper when the 'Loneliness...' part starts and he plays that bit on the accoustic guitar. But Steve went on pretty cool and relaxed. His technician had a lot to do !
Rick was very cool and didn't really look as if he was enjoying what he was doing, but at the second half of the first set, the ice was melting and he finally woke up. The band got really off from that point, showing thumbs up to each other and Jon stated "it's because of you, listening so powerful, that makes us play so good !" Those were brilliant moments of a wonderful show. The atmosphere at Hamburg Stadtpark is always very nice, and the people were really cheering. And "No Rain !" Well, almost.
I've made a few pics with my digicam, I'm just watching them. Nice memories of an unforgettable evening. I've never seen Rick Wakeman before and it was amazing to watch him play all those lines and stuff, you only know too well by having listened to them a thousand times. It was an exciting moment to me, when he started to play a bit on the mini moog. Wow man, Rick Wakeman !!!
That was a great show, I'm still totaly excitetd about it.
Check out my tribute to YES [Link] and peace,
Jörn

Eckhard

What a wonderful evening. Rather a garden party than a regular concert. Hamburg's Stadtpark (open air) is such a beautiful venue. Yes started quite early at 19:15 (the tickets said 19:30). So a lot of people missed the beginning. The sound was perfect. No need for a decent lightshow cause the concert was over at 22:00 before dark after two encores. There were some problems with Steve's guitar tech but I guess he has become part of the show by now. Great to see Rick back in the band ... and during the second part of the evening even he put a smile on his face when the crowd sang along with them very, very old songs from 1972. I think their last tour with the orchestra was far more spectacular and fascinating though this one has been the most intimate one. The venues become smaller. Standing close to the edge of the stage I could get as close to Yes as never before hoping that this might not take away the fragile spell that has been on them since the very beginning. Ok, no more wonderous stories here. Great concert. Hope they will come back again. Maybe in two years time. Then I will be able to take my kids along.