Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius, Wayne Hall, Preston Frazier and Bill Govier

It’s the beginning of September and the YMP is back. Mark and I are starting off with the next part of our ‘what did they do next’ series and this time we are back again to Rick Wakeman leaving in the run up to work starting on the Talk album, which he was originally going to be part of. Instead, he undertook some solo and collaboration activity and we will be discussing all that in more detail in this episode.

It’s also been an important week for Yes with the official launch of the pre-order for the new live album:

Following the outstanding success of their 2019 American tour, YES are to release The Royal Affair Tour, Live From Las Vegas through BMG Records on 30th October. Eager fans will be able to get hold of the PHYSICAL formats from 2nd October if ordered exclusively through the YES Store. Formats are: CD digi sleeve with 12 page booklet; 2LP gatefold with 12” booklet and digital. Pre-Order the album here: https://YesBand.lnk.to/RoyalAffairPR

All YES concert tours are special events for their legions of fans and The Royal Affair Tour was no exception, conceived as a wonderful celebration of the best of British progressive music. Guests on the tour were Asia (with YES keyboardist Geoff Downes and a special appearance by Steve Howe), John Lodge of The Moody Blues and Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy featuring Arthur Brown.

Of The Royal Affair Tour album, Alan White says: “The Royal Affair tour album, being released in October, is a welcome new chapter in the wide expanse of YES live recordings. I hope you enjoy it.”

Steve Howe adds: “Having the opportunity to bring together the band members in the development of a well refined set of songs that captures the bands true potential is simply an honour for me.”

The show features many classic tracks across the period 1970 – 1980. The set opened with No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed, the Richie Havens cover from YES’ second album Time And A Word (1970). Tempus Fugit was taken from Drama (1980), Geoff Downes’ first as a member of YES, while Going For The One, I’ve Seen All Good People and Siberian Khatru are from some of YES’ iconic mid-70s albums. The set included a rare live performance of YES’ cover of Paul Simon’s America and John Lodge shared vocals on YES’ cover of John Lennon’s Imagine. Soon-to-be YES drummer Alan White played on the original studio recording.

The Royal Affair Tour live set and album, recorded at the Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas, in July 2019, reaches a climax with two of the best-loved YES tracks Roundabout and Starship Trooper, always a high note on which to close the set.

The Royal Affair Tour also featured an exhibition of original art by Roger Dean whose artwork is synonymous having designed the iconic YES logo and the band’s best-loved album covers. Roger Dean recently painted The Royal Affair Tour album artwork live on Facebook while also fielding questions from fans.

The 26-date The Royal Affair Tour and YES’ performances were critically acclaimed:

The band sounded great and had brilliant visuals to accompany the songs. Sherwood’s bass playing is perfectly suited to capture the essence of the late Chris Squire while Geoff Downes and Steve Howe are still at the top of their games. Vocalist Jon Davison… looks extremely comfortable on stage, hitting each note with ease. (the progreport.com)

Recorded live at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel, Friday 26th July 2019, The Royal Affair Tour, Live From Las Vegas was mixed by Billy Sherwood and is released by BMG Records. Customers who order via the YES Store will receive their albums on 2nd October with the album on general release from 30th October.

What did Rick do next?

In what way was it a family affair?

Should we be looking forward to a new Yes live album?

Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!

Join us as a Patron!

If you would like to support the Yes Music Podcast financially and also have access to exclusive activity and opportunities, there is a special page you can use to sign up and 2020 is the time to join us:

Become a Patron!

Bag yourself a fabulous piece of YMP history before it’s too late…

Why not get yourself one of these? Head over to the YMP Emporium. While you’re there, pre-order a YMP Trivia Card Game and other lovely items!

Show notes and links:







Mark Lang’s new copy of Jon Anderson’s 1000 Hands – with accompanying items!

YMP Patrons:

Producers:

Jeffrey Crecelius

Preston Frazier

Bill Govier and

Wayne Hall

Patrons:

Aaron Steelman

﻿ Dave Owen

﻿ Mark James Lang

﻿ Paul Tomei

﻿ Joost Maglev

﻿ David Heyden

﻿ Martin Kjellberg

﻿ Paul Wilson

﻿ Bob Martilotta

﻿ Lind

﻿ Michael O’Connor

﻿ William Hayes Brian Sullivan

﻿ David Pannell

﻿ Miguel Falcão

﻿ Lobate Scarp

﻿ Chris Bandini

﻿ David Watkinson

﻿ Neal Kaforey

﻿ Rachel Hadaway

﻿ Craig Estenes

﻿ Dem

﻿ Paul Hailes

﻿ Mark ‘Zarkol’ Baggs

﻿ Doug Curran

﻿ Robert Nasir

﻿ Fergus Cubbage

﻿ Scott Colombo

﻿ Fred Barringer

﻿ Scott Smith Geoff Bailie

﻿ Simon Barrow Geoffrey Mason

﻿ Stephen Lambe

﻿ Guy R DeRome

﻿ Steve Dill

﻿ Henrik Antonsson

﻿ Steve Perry

﻿ Hogne Bø Pettersen

﻿ Steve Rode

﻿ IanNB

﻿ Steve Scott

﻿ Jamie McQuinn

﻿ Steven Roehr

﻿ Ken Fuller

﻿ Terence Sadler

﻿ Michael Handerhan

﻿ Tim Stannard

﻿ Jim

﻿ Todd Dudley

﻿ John Cowan

﻿ Tony Handley

﻿ John Holden

﻿ Joseph Cottrell

﻿ John Parry

﻿ Keith Hoisington

﻿ John Thomson

﻿ Barry Gorsky

﻿

Robert and David

Please subscribe!

If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything:

Subscribe on Android

Listen on Stitcher

Theme music

The music I use is the last movement of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. This has been used as introduction music at many Yes concerts. My theme music is not take from a live concert – I put it together from the following two creative commons sources: thanvannispen and archive.org