21 years, 6 months and 3 days ago

Friday, September 19, 2003

Melbourne, Australia

Vodafone Arena

5,000 capacity

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much, ahh, hey! Thank you so much for being here. We’re going to do a song, which is actually a new song from a couple of years ago and, ahh, it’s very simple. The idea of the song is to magnify all the goodness within and then everything that surrounds you shall also be magnified, they say - somebody says anyway. The song is called Magnification.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you. Don’t kill the whale, don’t kill the trees, don’t kill the butterflies, don’t kill the bees, please. Without them we are nothing, without them we are nothing.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you very much. Thanks for listening to that because it’s a new song and, ahh, thank you. Sorry about the whistling (referring to feedback problems). Yes, just modern technology, you see, it has to whistle now and again. Actually, we recorded an album a few years ago called ‘Fragile’ - I’ll drink to that. And ahh, halfway through recording, downstairs studio became available so I ran down one day and ahh, did this, ahh, kinda crazy piece of music and that modern technology helps me to do it now, so I’ll sing it for you. And it goes a little bit like this. If anyone knows this, please sing along.

Jon Anderson:
I was running away with the key there. That same evening, we were in Advision studios, and, ahh, we put together this song. The idea, very simple. It’s about mountain climbing. We all climb different kinds of mountains every day… on the south side of the sky.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you, thank you very much. That same… that same, ahh, year, was, ahh, a time when we were getting a lot of success and felt really sort of, ahh, inspired, if you like, and, ahh, it was that time when, ahh, record companies just let you play music and create music and it was a very special time for us. And, ahh, someone asked me a couple of months ago, is it better or was it better in those days than it is now? I said no, it’s better now. It always gets better, and the fact is that we’re here to play this song for you tonight is amazing to me, it really is. So, this is for my honey, my drop dead gorgeous wife, my wife, Jane.

Jon Anderson:
One second, one second, one second, wuzzzahhh.. it’s OK, it’s OK, it just, ahh, this happens every night, it’s part of the show. It’s part of the show, it’s OK. We gotta, we gotta practice more, I just know it, we wanna get it right. It’s just, Steve’s going to change one of his guitars and Rick will tell you a joke!

Rick Wakeman:
I don’t believe it. Tell me you’re ready, Steve! You ready? Oh, I’ll have to tell it another time then. What a shame!

Jon Anderson:
We’ll start again.

Rick Wakeman:
1, 2, 3, 4…

Jon Anderson:
We’ll start again one more time. I don’t think we have time for that…

Steve Howe:
OK, no acoustic - better than nothing! Thank you very much.

Jon Anderson:
Some things that really impressed me over the years, and made my life so wonderful, and the first thing I wrote down was Daffy Duck, then Muhammad Ali… OK, I won’t say any more, honest. But it was going well. Kidding, kidding.

Jon Anderson:
Doodoodoo, dootdoot, doodoo, doodoodoo, dootdoot, doodoo. It’s so great to be back here in Australia, a beautiful place to be, back here in Melbourne tonight, we want to thank you, thank you for coming out to see us tonight, and by the way, happy birthday to you, anyone who had a birthday last year, happy birthday to you, doodoodoo, dootdoot, doodoo, doodoodoo, dootdoot, doodoo. That’s enough of that!

Jon Anderson:
I’d like to sing you a song actually, it’s a song that, ahh, I found a tape from, ahh, the ‘Fragile’ days and we never recorded this song, so I’m going to sing it for you now.

Jon Anderson:
The original wizard of the keyboards, Mr. Rick Wakeman!

Jon Anderson:
He has been practicing, I can tell! Well done, Rick. On the count of four, we will attempt Heart Of The Sunrise.

Jon Anderson:
It’s OK, we just got

Jon Anderson:
On bass guitar, Mr. Chris Squire! On the drums, Mr. Alan White on drums!

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much, thank you so much, thank you. And, ahh, just, just to reiterate, it’s really been a fantastic night for us to be here tonight, and, ahh

Steve Howe:
Hey, well, I’m going to do, I’ve got to

Jon Anderson:
Ahh, what ? You got. In the key of. We’re going to do a song in the key of, laaaaah, and if you know this song, ahh, please sing along, and halfway through, please get up and boogie. And make like it’s really, ahh

Steve Howe:
Switch to the 175 then!

Jon Anderson:
Sorry, we’ll be with you in a second