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Wednesday, March 18, 1998 Mannheim, Germany Mozartsaal Im Rosengarten 3,000 capacity 24 years, 10 months and 9 days ago
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Steve Rosen The first thing that amazed me about this show was how much closer the seats were to the stage than at the Frankfurt show. I was shocked at just how close my front row center seat was. The band started off playing really good and just got better throughout the show. Jon was quite chatty and had a lot to say to the crowd. It was fun just seeing how comical he can be. I was really impressed with how well the band sounded during "Whitefish". The sound was incredbile as the band quitely backed up Chris' and Alan's thunder. Jon played an instrument that resembled a large iron frying pan. I have no clue what it was though! Roundabout was very loud and very upbeat. The audience was very into it. Starship Trooper also rocked....a very well done encore. When the band came up to take a bow Alan slid his sticks across the stage. I snatched one of them up very quickly. My best friend commented that he had never seen me move so fast for anything other than food! After the show I was very blown away by just how good these guys are live. They are truly gifted in what they do. Dominik Brueckner This is day 1ne after a once in a lifetime experience. Being a fan since '91 (I was 18 then), there has been no chance to see the guys play live over here in Germany until the Open Your Eyes Tour (by the way, I hate those OYE-TrsoG-RSVP-stuff - s o s t o p i t !). Oh yes, this was Mannheim, March 18th So, what can I say? At first, the "technical" stuff: -Hey! THEY PERFORMED THE COMPLETE RELAYER ALBUM!!!!!! - just kidding. No set list changes. Oh yes, something that will help Howe fans: between "Mood for a day" and "Clap" - not The Clap. Steve played something "from the 16th or 17th century" (according to Steve) and something else titled - er - something with a C-, sorry I can't remember. The show: It started ten past eight. Myself sitting in the second row, to my right two teachers. Quite the cliche, isn't it? The lengthened "Close to the edge-intro" stopped, the lights went out, and there was it: "Firebird" Then they came on stage to play "Khatru". During the first few songs Jon had a bit of a problem to get the audience warmed up. Many were just sitting there seemingly paralysed. But after a while it was all going well, and Jon seemed to enjoy himself. He kept on waving to somebody in the audience and after a while we learned that his darling was somewhere in the hall ("where are you darling? She was there just a minute ago! Are you still there?" - silence, then: "Yes!"). Between the songs he told all the famous stories, about the cowbells and "teatime" with Eddie Offord ("four o'clock Eddie rolled some "teas" for us"). Jon was great. He really seemed to have fun, he joked with Chris and Steve all the time and especially enjoyed doing "The revealing science of God", "I've seen all good people" on which he played guitar back to back with Chris. Chris himself was weird. He seemed to get really mad during "The Fish". He stood there right in front of me, moving slowly from one foot to the other trying to get whale-sounds out of his Rickenbacker. Then you could see him standing on one leg, just as Ian Anderson does it when he playes his flute solos. He is a real showman. Somebody should should suggest him to do a late night show. But get rid of those white socks! Chris seemed to be the only one really interacting with Billy. Even when Steve and Billy shared a solo, Steve didn't even look at him. Maybe Steve didn't realize Billy's presence. But I must say one thing: Billy added some nice Wah-Wah stuff to "Heart of the sunrise" and a couple of other songs. Most of the time, however, he just seemed to be posing. This guy might be a great producer/engineer and he might bring a lot of energy to the band, but although there's no doubt that he is as important to the band as Eddie Offord was in the 70s, they didn't give Eddie a guitar and put him onstage, did they?. But let me say two things: colourful Wah-Wah-stuff, great singing (although not loud enough)! Alan White did a great job as well. I would like to write more about him, but this black bass-playing animal stood right in front of him, so I couldn't see too much of Alan. But from time to time you could see him really enjoying himself playing his ass off. At the end of the show he threw his sticks to the audience, and I nearly caught one. Igor (I don't even try his last name): He played absolutely flawless. But - being a keyboard player I must say one thing to all the keyboardists around the world: Speed is not necessarily a sign of quality! Why do all the great keyboard players play their solos much too fast? Wakeman does it, Emerson does it, Moraz has slowed down quite a bit, Lord - well, it doesn't matter when you're doing it on a Hammond, so Igor, if you read this, slow down, we want to hear music not hits per minute. I hope he will stay with Yes, but I don't know if he shares the right "ideology". Finally: Steve Howe. If you think, Chris is the showman of this band, you' re wrong, Steve
before 'America' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Jon Anderson:Thank you so much. [something in German]. Manheim. Nice to be with you. The gates like..uh Chris. No. No. Not you. [something in German] and that's about it. And..uh we'd like to carry on with a song. It's really good to be here. Thank you for coming this evening and we'd like to carry on with a song by Paul Simon. This guy wrote some beautiful songs. This is a song from way long ago. It's about how..uh America is growing into the 21st Century and Bill Clinton and all that. It's a song called [something in German]. before 'And You And I' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Jon Anderson:Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. [something in German]. Thank you. And this song, this next song..uh we recorded this song long time ago in England in Advision Studio with a guy called Eddie Offord. Eddie Offord was really good, Very good engineer and he helped us with this record and..uh every afternoon at four o'clock, [???] o'clock, four o'clock tea time and we would roll the tea. It's true. [???] Eddie Offord, what a guy, what a guy. Thanks Eddie and then we would record the song and..uh this was a really, this song really changed my my thinking about a lot of things about singing songs and if that didn't, that did a lot as well. So halfway through the afternoon I'm saying 'We got to record this song. C'mon guys what's happening.' I couldn't hear anything then all of the sudden. I still, I still couldn't hear anything and then there it was and I said 'Quick Eddie starting playing, recorder, recording.' As you say in Germany. Start the recorder. before 'Mood For A Day' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Jon Anderson:Chris Squire on bass guitar. Thank you so much. [something in German]. Thank you. Woo! Got to the end of that song and I though the whole place was falling apart. I was like 'Wow'. It's great to introduce you to and leave you in the capable hands, fingers and guitar style. The wonderful Mr. Steve Howe. before 'Clap' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Steve Howe:Thank you. It's nice to be back in Mannheim. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. That was a lovely side. I wanted to do this sing along with more than..uh clap along with but anyway you got the idea. That was called 'Windy and Warm' Before that a very short 'Gallard' from [???] bits of [???]. uh.. 'Gallard' Yes from Jon Allen. Dated 1650 or something? Anyway before that 'Mood For A Day'. I hope you enjoyed that and now I'm going to finish up now with a piece that I wrote in the Ched Atkins style who originally was one of my biggest inspirations. Ched Atkins. This is call 'Clap'. before 'From The Balcony' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Jon Anderson:Steve Howe. Thank you so much. While we were making the album last..uh summer. I walked past..uh Steve's hotel room and he was playing this really beautiful idea on guitar and I starting run in 'I can sing for you on it'. So I wrote some song lyrica ideas and we recording it that afternoon. [???] As you say in German a duet. Is that right? Is that how you say it in German? A duet? Just the two of us. That's right. Duet. Okay. So just for a change he is going to my left. I'm highly confused. That's okay. No please [???]. This is for..uh old group mates I got to say for Joe and Robbie. Are you here? Oh Okay. This is a song called 'From The Balcony'. For my love darling wife too Jane. Are you there? No she's not there. She was there a moment ago. Are you there darling? Jane Anderson: Yes! Jon Anderson: Oh. This is sorta a shared moment, you'll see. before 'Wonderous Stories' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Jon Anderson:Thank you. [something in German]. This..uh this next song happened when we working in Switzerland. We were in the mountains. We never learned to ski but we played a lot of good music when we were there and..uh this comes from what you say..uh cow? Coo? Moo? Coo? Clanacoo [???] Okay. So I woke up. Oh we've got one. There's some over here. There's one over hear. Oh okay and I woke up in the morning and I heard this note through the window. Very tiny cow running through around. Like tiny. That's not tiny cow. Give us a tiny cow. Okay. It's a song called 'Wondrous Stories'. before 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Jon Anderson:Grand master of the bass guitar, Mr. Chris Squire and amazing wonderful drummer. The original action man, Mr. Alan White. Yeah! You guys. Cheer up. There's two guys over there looking 'This is really boring, really boring'. C'mon cheer up. before 'I've Seen All Good People' transcribed by: Pete Whipple Jon Anderson:[something from German]. Thank you so much. That was..uh of course..uh the song 'Revealing' from 'Topographic'. Thank you. Here were are in nearly 21st century still made this music. it's really great to. Thank you for coming along this evening and making it work and enjoying our music so much. Thank you very much. Woo! We'd love you..uh to sing along with this song and..uh thanks to the lighting and sound engineer and everybody in the crew and the production crew for tonight's. Yeah. You're a great road crew. They know what to do and..uh there a great road crew. Yeah. They're a great road crew. They know what to do. Please sing along with this song. Please sing along and halfway through. Up. Standing up and dancing just like you do. You know? Mannheim dance. The Manheim dance. Very important. |