1.01 Time And A Word (2.34)
1.02 Owner Of A Lonely Heart (1.39)
1.03 Time And A Word ~ Teakbois ~ Owner Of A Lonely Heart ~ Time And A Word (3.10)
1.04 The Clap (3.54)
1.05 Mood For A Day (4.44)
1.06 Rick Wakeman - Two Selections (6.01)
1.07 Long Distance Runaround (4.38)
1.08 Bill Bruford - Drum Solo (2.31)
1.09 Birthright (7.19)
1.10 And You And I (10.01)
1.11 I've Seen All Good People (9.39)
1.12 Close To The Edge (19.34)
==============================
2.01 Crowd noise 1 (1.22)
2.02 Themes (4.39)
2.03 Tony Levin And Bill Bruford - Bass And Drum Solo (4.15)
2.04 Brother Of Mine (10.12)
2.05 The Meeting (5.43)
2.06 Heart Of The Sunrise (11.22)
2.07 Order Of The Universe (9.22)
2.08 Roundabout (8.05)
2.09 Crowd noise 2 (1.18)
2.10 Starship Trooper (10.13)
2.11 Crowd noise 3 and booing (1.27)
==============================

Artist - Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe

Date - 1989/08/05

Venue - Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

Setlist -

1.01 Time And A Word (2.34)
1.02 Owner Of A Lonely Heart (1.39)
1.03 Time And A Word ~ Teakbois ~ Owner Of A Lonely Heart ~ Time And A Word (3.10)
1.04 The Clap (3.54)
1.05 Mood For A Day (4.44)
1.06 Rick Wakeman - Two Selections (6.01)
1.07 Long Distance Runaround (4.38)
1.08 Bill Bruford - Drum Solo (2.31)
1.09 Birthright (7.19)
1.10 And You And I (10.01)
1.11 I've Seen All Good People (9.39)
1.12 Close To The Edge (19.34)

2.01 Crowd noise 1 (1.22)
2.02 Themes (4.39)
2.03 Tony Levin And Bill Bruford - Bass And Drum Solo (4.15)
2.04 Brother Of Mine (10.12)
2.05 The Meeting (5.43)
2.06 Heart Of The Sunrise (11.22)
2.07 Order Of The Universe (9.22)
2.08 Roundabout (8.05)
2.09 Crowd noise 2 (1.18)
2.10 Starship Trooper (10.13)
2.11 Crowd noise 3 and booing (1.27)

Lineage -

Stereo one-point tie mic> Sony Walkman WM-F46 stereo cassette recorder> Maxell UDS-I 90 high-quality normal bias master tapes> JVC TD-W505 stereo double cassette deck > Cakewalk Pyro 2005 (recorded tapes onto HD here)> Cakewalk Pyro 2005 (tracked and edited giant wav files here)> Trader's Little Helper (Flac Frontend encode level 8,
aligned to sector boundaries)

Quality - 8.5-9.0/10 very good plus to excellent minus
audience analog recording, MASTER TAPES

CD 1: 12 tracks, 75:50
CD 2: 11 tracks, 68:03 with crowd noise
CD 2: 8 tracks, 63:54 without crowd noise

TT: 143:53 or 139:44 This is the ENTIRE concert, with the exceptions of two quick tape flips and one tape change.

The taper and I had the honor of attending this once-in-a-lifetime concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD on August 5, 1989. It was the first time either of us had seen ABWH, so we didn't quite know what to expect. We were both extreme Yes fanatics, having listened to Yes since 1970 or 1971, whatever year THE YES ALBUM was released. It was a beautiful mid-summer evening and the sun was just beginning to set as the concert began. The car was parked at Columbia Mall, crotching of the recording gear was done in a Sears bathroom and we made the long walk from the mall to the Pavilion, moving gingerly so as not to have the
gear fall out of the taper's pants onto the ground via the pantleg, a wonderful move that actually happened at a Johnny Winter concert at Hammerjacks in
Baltimore about six months later. But that's a tale for another time...

Getting through security was laughably easy, decrotching and readying the recorder was accomplished in that little farmhouse-type bathroom building at the back of the venue (as George W. Bush would say, "Mission Accomplished" a few decades later) and we were in our seats about 30 minutes before the show began. The show was taped from (as I read from the yellow ticket stub) 10 ORCH, SEC CTR, ROW K, SEAT 116. So if memory serves me correctly, we were about 10 rows from the stage, in the center. Excellent seats. As I said, the sun was starting to set and it was still daylight when the
intro music began. The taper elected (perhaps ill-advisedly) not to tape the intro. We were expecting to see the band walk on stage just like every other concert I had ever seen but this was not what happened. A scream/roar erupted from the back of the covered pavilion. I turned to see Jon Anderson walking slowly down the aisle right by our seats. He started singing TAAW and a quick finger hit
the record button. He was bathed in white light and I believe that he was dressed in pure white garments. He looked regal, majestic and serene, very much like Jesus Christ descended from Heaven or like a Roman deity, depending on your theological outlook. Surrounded by security, he passed right by us, climbed the stairs onto the stage and the concert proper began. The audience was in a state of pandemonium. A truly impressive opening to a truly majestic concert...

What can I say about the show itself ? You can read the setlist. Mind-blowing, superb, magical, mystical, majestic, awe-inspiring, life-altering, ineffable...after a while, words fail you. It was one of the finest concerts I have ever attended and now any of you Dimers who wish to can share the experience for free. I could go on and try to describe all of the songs played but the concert WAS 18 years ago and memories slowly fade. Let me describe the salient points of the recording, both good and bad...

First, the good points:

1) As mentioned above, this recording is complete.

2) There is virtually NO talking, shrieking, whistling or any other audience bullshit CLOSE TO THE TAPER on this recording. The taper was surrounded by very polite,
quiet, respectful audience members who were there for the
music and not to hear themselves talk.

3) There is no distortion present. There are no speed problems or any other serious faults to prevent you from enjoying this show. There is no hiss.

4) This is a pretty clear recording. The vocals & instruments come through clearly and distinctly.

Second, the bad (not very bad at all) points:

1) The audience can be heard constantly, but at a distance from the taper. It's a steady constant low-level roar like the ocean. You'll hear screaming, whistling, shouting and yelling but all at some distance from the taper. I did say that the
audience was in a state of pandemonium, didn't I ?

2) As anybody who's been to Merriweather Post can attest, the venue has that hollow, cavernous outdoor-shed-without-walls acoustic quality to it that is very difficult to combat unless you are VERY close to the stage and the given band is playing VERY loudly. We were close to the stage but I don't recall having to wear earplugs so ABWH wasn't blasting at top volume. This, coupled with the fact that the Sony Walkman WM-F46, while being a GREAT little recorder costing only $60 brand-new at David Weis in Hopewell Township, PA, had its limitations, results in a periodic "thinness" to the recording as well as a periodic distant sound even though we were close to the stage, as well as being close to the edge...

3) One of the idiosyncrasies of the WM-F46 is as follows: if you stop the recording, flip the tape and then hit record again, it will take ~ 3 to 4 seconds for the recording volume to regain its former volume level. You'll hear this at the beginning of YM/ISAGP, the last part of LLBOMine and at the very start of Starship Trooper. There was and is nothing that could be done about this ; that's just the way it was and is. You'll also hear some very brief mic fumbling at the beginning of TAAW ; Jon caught us by surprise.

4) Lastly, you'll hear a few very brief exchanges between the taper and seatmates about different aspects of the show. One hilarious bit concerns the taper having seen Yes in Pittsburgh in 1987 when
Jon Anderson was on stage, incoherently rambling about people on other planets(!). Ah yes, the wonders of psychedelics...

So there you have it. This is the raw recording that I've had lo these many years. I changed NOTHING about this recording except to track it and to remove a few stretches of applause and screaming
between songs. No music is missing. This show fits on 2 80 min. CDs.
CD 1 = Tracks 1 - 12. CD 2 = Tracks 13 - 23. If you wish to include the 3 tracks of crowd noise on CD 2, go ahead. More than about 20 seconds of cheering and screaming is way too much for me. The song titles become more understandable if you have a copy of the legit ABWH tape lying around so you can follow along with that setlist.

I've decided to release this rare show after sitting on it for 18 years
because of all the fantastic recordings that I've gotten from great guys
like The Toole Man, EEklair and a host of many others (don't be mad if
I didn't mention your name). I hope that my actions here will spur other
people to release their Holy Grail recordings that they've been sitting
on for a long time. Last night I got word that a high-school friend of mine who I've known for 40 years was found dead at home just 2 months after his mother died. He had no family left. Extremely sad. Tears flow ; I'll miss you, Bill. If you're sitting on a show that somebody wants and something happens to you and it remains unreleased, who does it benefit ? You may as well get it out there where it can be enjoyed. What else are you going to do with it? You can't legally sell this stuff ; you may as well give it away. Good things will come back to you when you perform good actions. I'm sure of that (the Karmic Wheel and all that stuff). So I exhort all you ancient tapers with 25-year-old shows that are the Holy Grail(s) to somebody out there: open up the vaults. I already have...

That's about all that I can think of to say, so let's wrap this up.

Finally, please don't buy, sell or convert this show to mp3 or any other lossy format. Please seed this as long as you can. Please trade this freely as it definitely is uncirculated. This show will be a
welcome addition to any ABWH fan's collection. I will post a sample to help some
of you decide whether or not to download it. So, as Mr. Natural is so
fond of saying, have fun, don't freak out and enjoy the concert ! Oh yeah, if you know the 2 titles of the Rick Wakeman selections, please post them. I've forgotten the titles...FINALLY, if you wish to remaster this show, go right ahead. I hope that you know what you're doing so that you don't look like a moronic asshole in front of thousands of fellow Dimers. Please upload your finalized version here so everybody can enjoy it. Unless it sucks. Then throw it away while we all laugh at you.

PS: I'm always looking for ABWH shows, early Yes shows from Pittsburgh, PA prior to ~ 1984 and especially Led Zeppelin, Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, PA 1975/02/01 which is one of a few Holy Grail shows I would love to get.
How about Patti Smith, Leona Theater, Homestead, PA summer 1977? Finally, I KNOW one of you little fuckers has this one: Rory Gallagher, The Bottom Line, New York, NY 1979/09/06 FM broadcast. So, please help me out here if you can. Live, be well and enjoy this rare show !!!