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Friday, September 5, 1980 New York City, New York Madison Square Garden 20,000 capacity 42 years, 4 months and 26 days ago
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Pat B This was my first Yes show and it changed my life for ever. 40 + shows later and I get just as excited as I did on this evening when I was 16 years old. Yesman Lee Rolling Stone, November 27, 1980: The new Yes: still living in the past By David Fricke HERE COMES THE new Yes, same as the old Yes. Original vocalist Jon Anderson and flamboyant keyboardist Rick Wakeman may be gone in body, but their spirits still hang like Damoclesian swords over the heads of their replacements, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of the electropop duo the Buggles. And judging by their performance on the second of three nights at the Garden, Horn and Downes are not holding up well under the pressure. Instead of adding a few New Wave wrinkles to the British supergroup's baroque art-rock song and dance, the ex-Buggles continued to belabor the old ones without improving on them. Visions of Jon Anderson in his silken sugarplum-fairy robes surely danced in the heads of the 20,000-plus faithful gathered here when Horn - looking pitifully alone on a raised platform in the center of the circular, revolving stage - hit several horribly flat notes during the old Yes song 'Yours Is No Disgrace.' In Wakeman, rock's answer to Liberace, Downes had an even tougher act to follow. But he didn't try very hard, playing familiar lines from such Yes hits as 'And You And I' and 'Roundabout' as if he were reading them from an exercise book. His only acknowledgement of the Buggles' success was a snippet of their hit 'Video Killed The Radio Star' in his otherwise inconsequential solo keyboard spot. While the Buggles were busy entertaining the ghosts of Yes' past instead of exorcising them, the rest of the band - bassist and charter member Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Alan White - tried to beat a little life into a new repertoire, which included four of the five songs on Drama (the group's first album with Horn and Downes), two as-yet-unrecorded songs and selected warhorses from the past. Howe's hot flashes of Indian modality and twenty-first-century Chuck Berry, and Squire's volcanic bass variations on 'Amazing Grace' in the middle of Drama's 'Tempus Fugit,' came as welcome relief during a show that was remarkably only for the group's overreliance on the amateur mysticism and pseudo-orchestral maneuvers that made them famous. Yes are apparently more concerned with re-creating former than getting down to the business of being the new band they claim to be. The potential is certainly there. Of the songs on Drama, 'Into The Lens' is the most engaging compromise between Horn and Downes' cloying commercialism and Yes' earnest, arty pretensions. But if this show was any indication, the new Yes still have a couple of Buggles that need to be worked out.
before 'Into The Lens' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. Hello New York. We're going to play something now from our new album 'Drama' and..uh this is called 'Into The Lens'. before 'Clap' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. Thank you. There's a gentleman who's standing on my right here. His name is Steve Howe and he's going to play something for you. before 'Go Through This' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:We're going to do a a song that we haven't recorded yet. It's a bit of rock 'n roll and it's called 'Go Through This'. It features Steve. before 'Man In The White Car Suite' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. There's a gentleman standing on the left here and we used to be in [???]. His name is Geoffrey Downes and he's going to play something called 'The Man In The White Car Suite'. before 'We Can Fly From Here' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. Here's another song that you've never heard before. This is a tune, the first song we ever wrote together when we first met last May and we never put it on the album. It's called 'We Can Fly From Here'. before 'Tempus Fugit' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. Whoa, it's hot up here. This song is from our new album 'Drama' yet again. It's features the Fish here on an unusual bass. It about time and how it has a tendency to flash by and it's called 'Tempus Fugit'. before 'Amazing Grace' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. You really are a great audience tonight. We're really enjoying it. There's a gentlemen standing here on my left in a strange jacket. His name is Chris Squire. We don't, we don't call him Chris Squire. We call him 'The Fish'. before 'Machine Messiah' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. [???] called 'Machine Messiah'. [???] before 'Starship Trooper' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. Before we play our last song. I want to thank you again for really being a great audience. You've been so great. [???] This is our last song. [???]. before 'Roundabout' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. We're going to play one more song. You've really been a good crowd so we'll play. after 'Roundabout' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Trevor Horn:Thank you. [???] Thank you. |