wade

Friday, September 17, 2021 10:26 PM

copypasta the back of the shirts and blow it up and you will see that the tour dates show a date for dallas which was cancelled with 5 hours notice due to jon having a sore throat. the promise was made that they would reschedule, so ticketmaster told everyone no refunds. the do-over never happened, so i have an unused ticket to the only abwh show that never happened. the boys owe me $12. but i would have much preferred to see the gig.

david c. michael

Not one of favorites.It was a good show but it lacked the power that they have when Chris Squire plays with them.Still happy to see the band again.Concerts are always better to go see then going to some sporting event,because concerts when you walkout after it is over you never lose.You always win!

Cherokee Wilson

At least for the YES songs that Levin played on tour he sought Squire's advice on how he could play the somes more authentically. And as Levin was not one of the individuals who was upset with Squire and who admittedly admires him enough to say he didn't think it was appropriate for him to try to share the stage with Squire during the Union tour it is entirely possible that Tony tried to emulate Chris's style a bit.

And if you ask Anderson or Squire about that time period neither one will say they were pissed off at each other (probably a bit of revisionist history as is YES' wont).

The only person who actually said he didn't want Squire in ABWH was Bruford who has been known to ping pong from love to hate in his comments about his old mates depending on who he was playing with at the time.

Martin Maxwell

However I have to point out that Rick was using a Minimoog on the ABWH tour. According to a contemporary article in Keyboard, it was a MIDI:ed version of a classic Minimoog. I believe he played it from the Yamaha V70, which has a better keyboard feel than later Yamahas (I think this was the only reason Rick used it since the internal sounds of the V70 are basically DX7II with some added waveforms). The drawback is of course that you cannot reach the knobs on the Mini at the same time, so some kind of automatic tuning is needed (which defeats the purpose of using a real Mini in lieu of a racked clone).

On the ABWH video, you can see the Minimoog standing on a case behind Rick. He never plays it directly. In can be discussed whether he actually uses it or if it is just a showcase - a touch of nostalgia kind of thing.

Steven Sullivan

Levin has indicated that certain [bass] parts were uncomfortably fast for him (I'm sure he doesn't play the opening of CttE in as sixteenth notes, the way Squire used to). But there aren't many of these in the ABWH set (e.g., LDR, Starship Trooper, Heart of the Sunrise, ANd You and I, ROundabout) that are beyond his powers. On HotS, for example, he used funk fingers to pick the 16th notes in the first theme.

Jeff Berlin also changes a few of Squire's parts -- in at least one case it was because he thought Squire's part was lame, according ot my sources.

John

Back in '89, for the ABWH tour, a friend and I did the dead thing and followed them around for the eastern US part of the tour. We meet all members of the band several times, was a really cool experience (Esp. when you're 18 and meeting your "Heros"). In particular, Jon always seemed to be in a daze/spacey evey time I meet him. I came to the conclusion that it was just the was he was, but I meet him in '97 and he was completely different, very coherent. Rick, I only meet twice and was as witty as he was in the interviews I seen. Steve was also in great spirits and the first time I met him, I wanted an autograph and the only paper I had was a map to sign, he thought it was quite amusing (actually got to shake his hand a couple o' times). Bill, I only meet once, but was best encouter with a member I ever had. I had backstage passes for MSG, which was a medium size room in the back. I was sitting at the bar, and he actually came up to me and intitated a conversation. Also, during '89 went to London to see them at Wembly. My friend knew Paul Silvera, the assistant tour manager, and he gave her backstage passes for both nights. Another friend and I meet Chris backstage in '97. My friend, being a huge Tales fan, asked Chris if they would ever consider, doing a show at someplace like Carnegie Center where they could perform all of Tales. Chris just looked at him and sarcastically said "Oh Yeah, we're thinking of it", smiled and left. I've never had as strong a desire to meet any other musician as I did with Yes. Seems a little strange, now, that I was so into it back then, but I'm glad I had the chance to meet them all.

Gmelin

[about the stage setup] The _ABWH_ tour had a couple of lightning bolt-looking things on the backdrop which would light up and move.

David Letcher

[The ABWH Tour Book] contains a fascinating "family tree" of just where all the band members have come from and how they got to ABWH. It also lists all the albums, solo & YES albums made and when. It contains interviews with all the guys including Tony Levin.

Unknown

Steve Howe is a vegetarian and also does not like to fly. In fact, during the ABWH tour he would drive in his limousine whenever possible instead of flying with the rest of the band.

Notes From The Edge

TONY LEVIN INTERVIEW by Mike Tiano
Copyright © 1993 Notes From The Edge #129/Jeff Hunnicutt and Mike Tiano.
All rights reserved.
(Used with permission)
MOT: To someone like myself who lived with that music it's intriguing when someone discovers it later...what was your first reaction to the type of music they [ABWH] wanted to play?

TL: Well, allow me, at the risk of offending, to group the Crimson catalogue together with the Yes, and Genesis material - none of which I knew about until I had to learn it to play on the tours. I remember being given a tape of 'Red' -- and hearing it, thinking, wow, this is fantastic. Also, "Lamb lies down on B'way" thinking, "Why did he leave Genesis? But "Close to the Edge," my thoughts were more like, "How the H%$# am I going to play THIS??"

MOT: What did you find intimidating on the latter? The parts, or the length, or...?

TL: It might have been the other songs, but it was the frequency and accuracy of the notes coming out of the low end instrument! Frequency, not referring to pitch, but how many of them occurred within a second! More than I could play, for sure.

MOT: Was working with ABWH the first time you heard 'Close to the Edge'?

TL: Yup. I think it's "Roundabout" that was one of the main technical problems for me. "Close to the Edge" was just a nightmare for background lyrics. Still don't know them. Had them pasted to my keyboard, ran out of room on the keyboard!

MOT: That song is regarded as probably Yes' best. Did it blow you away when you first heard it, or did you react otherwise?

TL: "Close to the edge, down by the water, how did it go, I'm a forgotter." er,, what was the question? Oh, did it blow me away -- well, the truth is, I didn't have the option of getting blown away - I had a few weeks to learn all the material and, frankly, that involved me improving my technical speed quite a bit - so I didn't stop to evaluate anything until later. I was impressed, but worried about technique, I'm afraid. At that time, I decided, instead of trying to play fast with a pick, to develop a new technique I had tried a bit - two drumsticks attached to my fingers -- I call them funk fingers -- I felt this would be a trebly sound in keeping with the tradition, but would be somewhat new too, and VERY trebly. Maybe I'm saying my emotional reaction was ... fear! Not really -- I dug the material, and very much enjoyed the challenge it presented me with.

I'm flattered you speak of me as a major contributor - I think that I was more of a player to hold things down while the real "band members" shown at the things they do so well. I enjoyed this role, since I got to do what I love; play good music on the bass. Also, Bill and I got to play a duet section in the show, which became a wide open improvisational thing - good fun.

MOT: It was definitely a high point.

TL: By the way, Rick is a mean Boggle player. We played just about every night backstage - sometimes until moments before he (not me) was due onstage.

MOT: You became ill towards the end of first leg of the ABWH tour. Who's idea was it to continue with Jeff Berlin?

TL: Well, the illness came on very fast. I don't know at what point they decided how to continue (having been, at that time in a Houston hospital) but I do know that Bill had worked a lot with Jeff [previously]. I'm sure he called him, knowing Jeff has the chops to learn the material.

MOT: The fact that the band later toured Japan and returned to the US shows would indicate that the band was committed to remaining together. Was this the case?

TL: Again, I wasn't in on the board room discussions. All I know is, when I had recovered, the management asked me to continue with the European leg of the tour. I did, though without the verve I had had earlier. It seemed at that time, to be an ongoing project.

Roy

Those who saw ABWH live might remember that Tony played the bass with pared-down drumsticks attached to his fingers.