20 years, 3 months and 1 day ago

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Manchester, United Kingdom

Manchester Evening News Arena

19,500 capacity

Jon Anderson:
Wooh! Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. It’s great to be with you tonight. Thanks for coming out. We really appreciate it so much.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. You create everything. You create everything, every day. You create the world. You create your world, every day. It’s amazing. And the mind and the drive inside to make it all work, to put it all together. We call it the ‘Mind Drive’, the ‘Mind Drive’.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening. Thank you. Of course, that’s ‘Mind Drive’ from 1996, 7? 8? He’s got a copy of it, so. We sold one here, not bad going. We're going to go and have a cup of tea after the next song, and a chocolate biscuit. It’s true. And more drugs, actually they’re vitamins, actually. More vitamins, sorry! Ha! Wooh! Did I say that? Did I say drugs? Wow! After the count of five.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. Us guys, us guys up here on stage have traveled quite a lot over the years and ahh, one of the times we were in Switzerland, would you believe for about six months, spending a hell of a lot of money making a record, and eating a lot of cheese and we didn’t learn to ski, for some reason. Too busy, too busy making music, it was. But we did write this song, one lovely Tuesday afternoon, about three thirty.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. It’s ahh, another special night tonight, because ahh, Alan White is wearing his kilt, with his sporran! His sporran. There you go. [??]. Ha! But ahh, he didn’t have his sporran until yesterday, now he feels complete! Rick? Okay, Steve? Ahh, we’re going to do a song which we ahh, recorded a couple of years ago, and in, in doing it during the tour, you realize that the lyrics are really about how time has saved us to be together yet again, here in 2004. So, in a way, it’s such an amazing feeling to get together again, and ahh, time has saved us, time has moved and ahh, here we are. And ahh, this is a song with a wonderful, sorry, a wonderful introduction from Alan, with a paradiddle in the middle of it. Here we go.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thanks. Ahh, Chris is going to have a quick chat here with you. He’s been practicing his Indian Chinese, but now, he’s going to do it in English tonight, so.

Chris Squire:
I’ve been practicing my Manchurian!

Jon Anderson:
Manchurian!

Chris Squire:
Ha, it didn’t work though. Um, we ahh, last year we made an album called ‘The Ultimate Yes’ collection, which was a collection of our better-known songs, I guess, through the years. And ahh, it came out in England and a lot of you bought it, thank you very much. And then ahh, ha! I don’t, (to Rick) do you want me to get you a curry? So um, then it came out in America and they wanted to put a bonus added value disc in with it and they asked us to do some acoustic songs. And so ahh, we decided on the songs and one of them was ‘Roundabout’. And um, Alan and I were in the hotel in Tokyo discussing it, ahh, how we were going to put the thing together and ahh, Alan I think suggested well why don’t we try a swing kind of a Chicago blues type feel and I said that sounds like a good idea. So we got to the studio, in L.A. and we said to Rick “give us a nice Chicago blues version of ‘Roundabout’ on the Joanna”. And he went (Rick plays). And we said, that’s it! We’ll do it like that. That’s a brilliant idea. Fantastic!

Jon Anderson:
Brilliant!

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Wooh! Thank you so much. And now other, another famous paradiddle drum intro from Alan White on the kilt, on the drums. Try it again, in the key of.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Wooh! Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks. We’re going to break things down and leave you in the capable hands and guitar styles of Mr. Steve Howe!

Steve Howe:
Thank you very, very much. It’s great to be back in Manchester. Thank you. That was called 'Second Initial'. My pleasure. Thank you. [??].

Jon Anderson:
Thank you again. Thank you for keeping up with me there. Boogie-ing a bit. One of the great things about um, coming round, as we do over the years, there’s one song that we’ve been playing a long time, and ahh, no matter where, no matter how, no matter when we play this song, it’s always a treat for us to be able to play it and to have an audience to even to listen to us. So, thank you and ahh, cha!

Jon Anderson:
Wooh! Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It’s so amazing, the power, the power of you listening. It’s so amazing. Like a dream, a ritual! When we get together, like a ritual of life, a ritual of music, a ritual of love. Love is everything! Love is everything! Love is everything! Everything! Love. It’s ‘Ritual’.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. I want to thank you all for coming out tonight. I want to thank you all for supporting the band and making tonight such a special evening for us. We hope you had a good time. Here we go.