Howard Maher

Thursday, August 1, 2019 8:15 AM

My experience was much different. I really didn't like Yes Band at all until Close to the Edge. I went to see the Kinks. I was and as folks walked out on them. Lots of students really didn't know who the Kinks were. After the concert, I ended up helping the Kinks pack up their stuff. Excellent experience.

Steve Swerdlin

The show consisted of three acts: the Mahavishnu Orchestra opened up, followed by this "new" group from England ( of whom we had never heard of-> Yes), and the Kinks. I was in the second row, as the first row had been partly eaten away for the keyboard player (Wakeman), who was placed on the gym floor with the audience, as there was not enough room on the small stage for all of Rick's equipment. So out comes this big guy with a huge cape which nearly knocked me over, as he was positioned within two feet of my seat. All that was missing were Viking horns on his head! Chris was wearing those huge eskimo like boots. Bruford had not yet discovered Crimson, Howe had _long_ hair, and Jon was elf-like. They proceded to blow away the audience for the next 40 minutes, after which time they appeared to have been cutoff almost in the middle of a song, and kicked off the stage. We in the audience were flabbergasted! Not only were we amazed by what we had just heard, but we had never seen a band thrown off the stage in mid song. It seemed that Yes had just run too long for a second act. (the Kinks, for their part, were rowdy, appeared drunk, and generally were a great letdown compared to Yes.) I remember running to a number of record stores the next day, buying "the Yes Album" (as this was the lastest one available), and then realizing that there was no Wakeman on it! A month or so later, "Fragile" appeared, consisting of what seemed to be about half of the songs Yes had played that autumn evening at Stony Brook.