marineboy

I remember this concert quite clearly despite it being nearly a quarter of a century ago. The atmosphere in the Hippodrome was uneasy right from the start. The band came on and actually played a very good show. Steve, Alan and Chris were playing extremely well, however Trevor Horn was clearly having trouble hitting the high note and, let’s face it, who wouldn’t. Geoff Downes played a workman like show but did himself no favours by playing in a pair of yellow Marigold (washing-up) gloves.

During the set Chris played a bass solo that consisted mainly of Amazing Grace and it was interminable, which was surprising since his playing during the rest of the show was top-notch. The new tracks that they played form the Drama album were actually pretty good but it was the older material that seemed to let them down.

The heckling was minimal and only came at the end of the show. However the band left the stages to booing from a relatively small section of the crowd, I suspect this was partly due to the lack of any sort of keyboard solo from Geoff and especially during Starship Trooper. Competent on the keyboards he may be but a Rick Wakeman he most certainly isn’t.

After the show I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Howe at the stage door but totally embarrassed myself by saying “Where is he, I can’t see him?”, to my brother, whilst looking directly over the top of his head. He was stood right in front of me but was a lot short than I had suspected. Chris Squire also tried to run us over in his haste to leave the venue. He was driving an enormous black America 4WD Jeep type-thing and any fan that got in its way was clearly fair game.

Funnily this show came a week after I saw Tangerine Dream play at the Apollo in Manchester, which was a show that I really didn’t want to go to but my friend insisted that I did. The Yes show at the Hippodrome was something I’d really been looking forward to and had waited, with eager anticipation for many months, to see. As it turned out the Tangerine Dream show was far superior and Yes were a bitter disappointment.

Over all it was a memorable show but probably for all the wrong reasons. Had it been any other band it would have been seen as a good show but since it was Yes it came over as fairly mediocre.

Isca 63

This was my first Yes gig, possibly only my second concert. The show was brilliant ... Trevor's voice was fine, only toward the end did it start to crack. Chris took over lead vocals for the encore, that being "Roundabout". The band left the stage, the house lights went up, but the audience would not leave. Eventually, the band returned to play a second encore ... "Parallels". Out of tune, out of sync but utterly magnificent.

As I recall, there was no heckling, no shouting for Jon and Rick. My friends were so excited they were leaning over the balcony above us, cheering and singing along.

Am I the only guy that remembers that tour this way ... ?

Colin Morris

I seem to remeber being able to get tickets on the night for this concert. The fact that Jon and Rick had left and The Buggles had joined meant that a lot of people had stayed away. Still, it was nice to see Yes in a smaller venue. I'd seen them at Wembley last time. What I can remember is them playing Yours Is No Disgrace. Which was good, as was And You And I,even though it lost alot without Jon. Not a classic yes performance, but not bad.