L'Unità

Thursday, August 1, 2024 4:09 PM

Translated from Italian to English via Google Translate

Black Widow and Yes Songs Mini-pop festival, the other night, at the Teatro Brancaccio in Rome. The Black Widow and Yes were on stage. Two young British bands destined to collect the «emotional» legacy of the Beatles and the Stones, injecting energy and fantasy into pop music. The first ones are the promoters of the latest musical trend: the dark sound. This dark sound is a dreamlike-demonic musical research and descends directly from a certain type of Anglo-Saxon literature (which goes back to H. P. Lovecraft) Unconscious, hallucinated and closely related to the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. The songs of Black Widow (in particular Sacrifice and Come to the Sabbath, both very beautiful and evocative) in fact, speak of witches and manors, of «astral encounters» and horrendous cataclysms, and terror mixes with fascination, in a totally irrational climate. Black Widow are very well-prepared musicians (especially the taxi driver) and are on the scene like few others; we will soon hear about them more widely, since it seems they are trying to quickly overshadow the not-so-justified fame of their direct rivals: Black Sabbath. Yes are the English revelation of this year. A deserved success, this, which brings the group to everyone's attention for originality, dynamism and creative wisdom. The group, in fact, embodies the new musical directions of pop and gives rise to the birth of a British country (that is, among other things, a rhythmic reworking of folk), notably different from that which is spreading in the USA. The group does not follow the paths traveled by Creedence or Crosby. Stills. Nash and Young. but equally takes into account the experiences of these two important groups. The sound of Yes is very similar, to be clear, to that of the now disbanded Buffalo Springfield (from which Stephen Stills and Neil Young come). The English country « Yes brand » is solidly rhythmic, mainly instrumental (the soloist Steve Howe has exceptional ideas and the speed, the density of the sounds are its best features) but leaves parentheses to reflection with typically folk «spaces». In short, in total, almost five hours of music that leave you a bit dazed, but sincerely satisfied. vice

Alessandro

Thursday, August 1, 2024 12:53 PM

Dear All, only now I learn thanks to vintage Italian newspaper l' UNITA' issue of 11 May 1971 that YES played in Rome - Teatro Brancaccio TWO shows at 16 and 21.30 on the 11 May 1971

solo per oggi 2 eccezionali spettacoli alle 16 e 21,30 di. « Yes and Black Widow »

Translation: ONLY TODAY (11 May 1971) TWO Shows at 16 and 21.30

THIS MEANS YES DIDN'T PLAY IN ROME 9 MAY 1971 but ONLY 11 MAY 1971 !!!

Thanks

CHW Thomas

Sunday, October 22, 2023 10:16 AM

Yes only played on May 9th 1971 in Rome and not on the 11th

zolias

Monday, May 8, 2023 11:10 PM

PFM and Premiata Forneria Marconi are the same italian band.

Clive Jones

I have very fond memories of the 1970 tour with Yes, at the time I was in my twenties and with the group Black Widow.

We had just had a blaze of publicity over our first album "Sacrifice" and we were known as the Black Magic band although we were often mixed up with the band Black Sabbath who were also with our management

We were to tour Italy with Yes at the time another up and coming band, we had dropped our black magic tag and were promoting our second album called simply Black Widow, Yes were promoting THE YES ALBUM.

I had never seen Yes before they were the top of the bill and the tour was to last about 2 weeks, both bands traveled separately which was a pity but they were very nice guys I remember in particular Bill Bruford and our drummer Romeo Challenger (now with pop band Showaddywaddy) got on very well as drummers usually do, it was also Tony Kaye's last gigs with the band at that time, he was to leave Yes after this tour.

There was also an opening act for the tour. This changed with each show we did but I remember on one show it was Patrick Moraz, perhaps this was the first time Yes had seen him and they must have been impressed.

I think at the time Yes were a bit complicated for the Italian market. The kids over there really wanted to head bang and you cant really do that to Yes we were luckier as being a rock band the kids were a but more in tune with us, you don’t need me to tell you about the Yes show but I know as musicians we though they were brilliant.

Yes had a big influence on Black Widow. Our music changed after that tour, you can hear the Yes influence on all our albums after that.

I guess my main memories of that time were having a great time with the Italian audience, having real pizzas that tasted wonderful (I’ve never had a proper one since), and watching a great band every night.

Jon Anderson always thanked BLACK WIDOW after every show, something many bands forget to do. Yes, they were certainly great memories that I will cherish forever.

I wonder if Yes remember us?

Corma

The Yes Album Tour is my first personal experience with Yes and is been immediately love.

The teathre is Brancaccio and the ability is about 2.000 persons.

Before the performance of Yes other two group have playng: an Italian group Premiata Forneria Marconi and another English group Black Widow.