23 years and 11 days ago

Monday, November 26, 2001

Paris, France

Théâtre De Olympia

2,500 capacity

Jon Anderson:
Wooh! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. It's great to be here in Paris. We’d like to to do a couple of new songs for you from the new album. We finished that a while ago, it’s an album called ‘Magnification’, it’s in your stores now, as we speak. And, ahh, you know love is so powerful. Love is everything. Love is all you need. We love you too. Don’t take love for granted, that’s the song. That’s the song that we’re going to do now 'Don't Go'.

Jon Anderson:
Somebody stole my guitar and so I’m just borrowing this one. [???] So I’m just checking the sound. I’ll be with you in ten minutes. That sounds okay. We’d like to do a song for you which ahh, every time we get together in the studio, Alan White was always there first, practicing on the piano, Alan White, here, look. Great stuff, like Chopin.

Jon Anderson:
It’s so wonderful to be here in Paris, we walked down by the sea, on a beautiful afternoon, but it’s raining here. It’s just so wonderful to run into the cheese store, the cheese store, and smell that runny cheese. And Paris is so wonderful and beautiful, my daughter lives here, Deborah. So we here we are today, we had [???].

Jon Anderson:
Sorry, I got carried away, but we had a good time. So, one day, we did this song together, and it’s spontaneous, sort of a spontaneous situation with Steve and Chris and Alan and myself. We did this song, which we called 'In The Presence Of'.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you, thank you. Thank you. I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Wilhelm Keitel and the European Festival Orchestra! Thank you, wonderful people, and ahh, they don’t speak English. But they speak music, it’s beautiful, I like them. We decided to do this tour, this symphony idea, and look back at the sort of history of the Yes music. Here’s a really wild and wacky, crazy piece of music to play for you tonight. [???] Remember the seventies. There was ahh, crazy things happening, there was corruption, there was war, the was businesses falling apart. Life was a bit crazy. A little bit like today! That was then and this is now, and this is a song called 'Gates Of Delirium'.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. It’s so wonderful, listening to you listening. It’s so powerful. I’d like to leave you in the capable hands, and fingers, the wonderful guitar styles of Mr. Steve Howe!

Steve Howe:
Thank you very much. Thank you. Vivaldi! A little bit of Vivaldi there for you. I thought I might play a little bit of a happy piece that I wrote for my, ahh, twenty-five year-old son called Virgil. It’s called ahh, ‘Second Initial’.

Jon Anderson:
Steve Howe on guitar. Of course, I used to be able to play just like that. It’s true! It was a dream in ‘72, or something. Anyway, there was a fan outside. I hope you all speak English for this one. And he said, “I’m your biggest fan”. I said “yeah, you’re pretty big, yeah”. And he said “Are you going to do Starship Trooper”. I said “No”. I said “No”. He said “Please!” I said “Okay”.

Jon Anderson:
Chris Squire on bass guitar! Thank you so much. Thank you. We’d, ahh, like to continue with a new song. This is, ahh, this is the title song from the album. The album is called ‘Magnification’, so the song is called ‘Magnification’! The idea, very simply is to magnify everything that is good around you, so that it will also magnify everything that is good within. Woohooh

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Merci. I was watching TV this morning. Anybody [??? Something in French]. It was amazing! And he’s still here! [???] on TV this morning. We’re going to do a song now that, ahh, a dedication to my honey, my wife, Jane. It always works together, we’re together all the time. Love is so powerful, you know, it’s truly, truly amazing. And, ahh, I will ramble, I will speak, until I hear a sound and I will back away from the microphone, thinking I’ve done my introduction. When I hear the sound. Oh!

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. A lot of memories, you know, we’ve been together many times over the years and we want to thank you so much for coming along this evening. And, ahh, one of the things that, ahh, is so amazing is that, ahh, it’s the year 2001 and we’re still playing music that we wrote years ago, and it’s thanks to you. We hope you want to hear these songs, so. The idea, the idea, we get together like this, in the ancient days, they would call it a ritual, just to get together [???]. So, we’re going to play a song and, ahh, I hope you’re all going to stay up late tonight, okay? You’ll be home later. We do a short set and a long set. Tonight it’s the long set! We played here in 1968, it’s amazing! I know none of you were alive, it’s okay. Here’s a song called ‘Ritual’.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. We’d like to do one more song. It’s in the key of. And I’m so blessed, I have the most, beautiful, beautiful daughter here tonight. Deborah, this is for you. There she is. She’s so wonderful, so precious. In the song, I want you all to sing along, and then half way through, up and boogie, like you do. In the middle. Okay? In the key of, after the four.