wedge

digging out more memories of this show...during the "wurm" ending of "Starship Trooper",i remember the drum set started rising up in the air on a seperate riser and spinning opposite of the stage revolution...how Mr White kept up the intense drumming, let alone NOT getting nauseous is beyond me...the crowd went insane at this point & the band fed off of that & just absolutely tore into the remainder of the song!!...i also remember that during Chris' solo,all other stage/arena lights went out & 1 spotlight was on him while he went to the center of the stage & was jumping & spinning all over while the bass sound was so pushed up in the mix that me & most people in our seating area were getting uncomfortable from the absolutely bombastic power that was coming out of the PA system. it was like nothing ive ever experienced, and ive seen/played over 1000 live shows since then...i really wish a tape of this show would re-surface so i can at least re-live the sound of it...

wedge

1st Yes show i ever saw, at the tender age of 10. my parents were Yes fans from "time & A Word" ~on, and my dad had promised to take me to see Yes someday (he saw them at least 1 time on every tour since CTTE), and seeing that the band was, obviously, in a disarrayed line-up, he probably figured this was his last chance to make good on that promise. i remember He was really surprised/disappointed that the arena was barely above 1/2 full a couple minutes before the lights went down. its all a bit of a blur now almost 28 years later, but i was blown away by this show!!! it was "in the round", and i remember our seats were about 10-12 rows up off the floor in the lower section ( section 138? i seem to remember; it was one of the ends of the arena ), so we were just about stage level on the sight line, maybee 50~60 feet from the stage. i remember the sound being so LOUD it was almost unbearable, but absolutely clear. (my dad also took me to see The Who at the same arena 2 years later on their 1st 'farewell' tour, and they werent nearly as loud, and the sound was all distorted & muddy). typing this out now, i can still see the band doing their individual solos & the stage stopped revolving with them facing us each one-BONUS!! another memory was someone randomly sitting down in the row in front of were we were sitting & vomiting wildly all over themselves for about 5 minutes while their girlfriend looked on in horror, then getting up & stumbling off...ah, memories!!!

seriously, even though the crowd was small by Yes standards, they were VERY loudly cheering between songs & it was pretty obvious that Trevor & Geoff were accepted by the crowd, even though the sound of the group was obviously a bit different. also, "Drama" had been available for a few weeks before this show, and "Does It Really Happen", "Machine Messiah", & "Into The Lens" got great crowd response, but it was obvious what the crowd wanted when they played the "classics".

even though theres no mention of a tape available of this show, i knew someone who had it on a pretty crappy quality audience recording way back when; so bad i never bothered to add it to my collection of muddy audience tapes of Philadelphia & NYC from this tour. i still have my battered & dog-eared programme, though!!

all in all, i remember this being a very high-energy show with a rockin crowd in attendence regardless of how maligned this tour/line-up has been over the years. ive seen yes 3 more times after this( 2 times on the "90125" tour, and the "Union" tour), but since it was the 1st time i actually saw them, it made the deepest impression on me.

Bruce Ray

This is still a fairly vivid memory for me, as it was the first time I saw Yes. I went alone to this show, as my girlfriend probably wouldn't have appreciated Yes. She wasn't disappointed though: we attended an excellent Queen show in the same venue the following evening! The set list as I remember it was essentially the same as the one listed for the Detroit show above. The Colliseum wasn't full--maybe 3/4 or so. I bought a tour program, which I still have. I sat at about mid-level, but the seats were alI pretty good because Yes was performing "in the round." I distinctly remember the band members during the intro music (Stravinsky?) standing back-to-back in a tight circle in the center of the round stage, closely surrounded by a curtain. This curtain slowly began to roll itself up from the bottom, revealing the band to much applause as the intro music climaxed. They then quickly took to their instruments for a rousing version of "Does It Really Happen?" I thought Geoff Downes had great stage presence, and his solo, which included a snippet of "Video Killed The Radio Star," was tastefully performed. I brought my cheap 110 instamatic camera, and to this day I have a somewhat blurry but still discernable photo to remember the show by. I also brought in a nice pair of binoculars, which the guy next to me conveniently borrowed just before Steve Howe launched vibrantly into that first short electric wah-wah solo in "Yours is No Disgrace." I'm a guitarist, so this upset me a little! Furthermore, I was more than a little unhappy when the rotating stage stopped rotating with Mr. Howe's back to me as ripped through "Clap!" I thought Trevor pulled off the vocal parts pretty well; at least, he didn't sound as noticably flat as others who saw Yes on this tour have indicated. What has stuck in my mind, though, was his peculiar dialect that came through in certain songs, most notably in YIND: where Jon sang "Croh-ling out of duh-ty holes...," Trevor chimed "Crah-ling oud of dir-dy holes..." He also played acoustic guitar in parts of "Machine Messiah," and perhaps a couple of other songs as well. He introduced "Tempus Fugit" by telling the audience that this is what "producer" Eddie Offord would say to the band when he wanted the band to "get with it." After the show, as we were all filing out of the Colliseum, I overheard a fellow concertgoer (whom, I'm afraid, was not very knowledgeable about Yes) quip to his buddy, "You see? He [Trevor Horn] sounds just like that other guy!" Ahh, the memories...!