Yes at London Palladium

The t-shirt that I wore this evening confirm that it was four years since I first saw Yes in concert, then it was at Albert Hall. I had seen them once since then, also at Albert Hall, and also Steve Howe doing a solo gig just across the water in Teddington. I was hooked and so when they announced that they were playing at London Palladium to celebrate 50 years of their music I was keen to see them again.

Unfortunately, so were lots of other people and by the time that I got online there were no decent tickets left. Then they announced a second night and I was in quickly. Even so the price was bit of a deterrent and I settled for the top layer, Upper Circle, where seat A27 cost me £54.

That proved to be a bargain as I was right in the centre and though I was warned about the safety rail that had no impact on my view, as this photo shows.

It would not really have mattered what Yes played it was always going to be a good evening and including large chunks of Tales From Topographic Oceans merely lifted the excellent to the sublime. But let's start at the beginning.

The show opened with two solid classics from the early years, Yours Is No Disgrace and I've Seen All Good People, both from 1971 and The Yes Album. It was one helluva way to open a concert and set the marker for the evening. They were followed by songs from other early albums like Fragile and Close to the edge before treating us to Wondrous Stories and Parallels from 1976's Going for the One, the final album from the classic period. The first part ended with a return to Close to the Edge and And You and I. It had been about an hour and a lovely hour it was too.

After a short break Yes were back for Sides 1 and 4 of Tales from 1973's masterpiece Tales From Topographic Oceans. They were joyous beyond belief and despite being very familiar were fresh and exciting. If not for the perilous drop to the stalls I would have been tempted to dance.

Yes had been playing with a session drummer and then in the chaotic session in Side 4, Ritual (Nous sommes du soleil), they swapped and brought on Alan White to loud cheers which he repaid with an impressive drum solo.

The second set ended all to quickly but Yes returned for an extended encore that started with a surprise. Trevor Horn joined the band on vocals for Tempus Fugit from 1980's Drama.

Finally it was back to two solid gold classics, a lengthy version of Roundabout followed by Starship Trooper.

Yes had played from 8pm to approaching 11pm with one short and one minuscule break making it over two hours of scintillating music. I expected Yes to be good and they were much better than that. This was a simply astonish concert that started high and stayed there.

Steve Howe at Landmark Arts Centre

Having paid a reasonable amount of money to see Yes play the Albert Hall a couple of times in recent years I was not going to miss the chance of seeing Steve Hose play at a small local venue for little more than the cost of a pizza.

I had been thinking about seeing Steve Howe in Central London or even Farncombe when the gig at Landmark Arts Centre popped up. I walk past it to and from work every day so it is about as local as you can get. That locality also meant that I was able to go there in my lunch break to buy tickets. I was the first person to buy any so I chose three next to the central aisle in the front row. Steve made a strong plea for no photos so You'll have to settle for one showing how the stage was set but without him in it.

There was a food offer too, aubergine curry, which readily solved the where to eat beforehand question. With that in mind I arrived promptly, i.e. just before the advertised time for the doors to open, only to find nobody else there and no sign of doors about to open. I was a little worried that it had been cancelled and I'd missed the email (it happens) but there were soon some signs of life and the doors eventually opened and everything was fine.

The curry was nice enough and they got lots of decent beers in, e.g. Twickenham's Naked Ladies,  so the evening was set.

Not knowing any of his solo work, apart from that which appeared on Yes albums, I was not sure what to expect. It was quite a varied performance and Steve introduced each song to tell us its history and why he wanted to play it.

There were quite a few fragments from Yes, including a song that he described as buried somewhere deep in side three of Tales of Topographic Oceans (I was glad to hear that he still thought of it as a double vinyl album too). There were a lot more of his compositions for solo guitar and I was surprised to hear that some had made their way into the music curriculum.

With just one guitar, and sometimes a voice to go with it,  it was a gentle evening and a very pleasant one too. The room was packed and everybody sat in respectful silence punctured with loud applause at the end of each song. We were watching a legend at close quarters and behaved accordingly.

It was a thoroughly entertaining evening with plenty of good music and interesting stories about it. I left with even more regard for Steve Howe than I started with, both as a musician and as a person.

Yes at the Royal Albert Hall

It was a somewhat tortuous route of my own making that got me to see Yes in concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

I was slow to get tickets through indecision and then they sold out. I checked again much later and some gaps had appeared and when I finally convinced myself that I did want to go there was a brilliant seat available in the Loggia Stalls near the centre.

I am not sure why it took me so long to decide to go as my interest in Yes goes right back to the mid-70's and I had not seen them in concert before. Perhaps I was put off by my one Bob Dylan concert where another life-long idol failed to live up to my estimation or perhaps it was the line-up with no Jon Anderson or Rick Wakeman (who, incidentally, I had seen on an "evening with" tour).

It was obvious that my reservations were not shared and the Albert Hall was packed.

Not only was it busy but everybody seemed desperate to buy a t-shirt too and the merch stand was very busy despite being well staffed. I joined in and after some thinking I settled for the tour shirt based on the Yes Album cover. I like green.

My seat in the Loggia Stalls was even better than I expected from the booking process. It was virtually in the centre and was set a little above the stalls so it did not matter how tall the person in front of me was. I settled down in to my comfortable seat and prepared to be entertained.

The evening had a few surprises all of which worked out for the better.

The set-list was known in advance as Yes were playing three albums in their entirety, The Yes Album (1971), Close to the Edge (1972) and Going for the One (1977). However, I expected them in that order but Yes played them in the sequence Close to the Edge, Going for the One, interval, and then The Yes Album. That meant that they finished with what is arguably the most important of those albums.

The biggest surprise for me was the audience. Based somewhat on other concerts, and Roger Waters' in particular, I had expected a lot of loud singing-along, some shouting, a bit of dancing and a lot of talking. Not a bit of it. This lot were as well behaved as any at Glyndebourne. Until the encore anyway and you are meant to be a little lively then.

So having gone expecting to have my evening disturbed throughout I was, instead, able to relax and enjoy the music.

And what good music it was.

Jon Davison on vocals was close enough to the distinctive sound of Jon Anderson for the difference not to matter. Geoff Downes (keyboards) had been with Yes/Asia for so long that he almost counted as an original member. Then there were Alan White (drums), Chris Squire (bass) and Steve Howe (lead guitar) who had been there for all, or almost all, of Yes' long journey.

The first two albums were played pretty much to their original recordings and The Yes Album was extended slightly in places, which everybody was very pleased about.

I fought hard to be as well behaved as everybody else and managed to curtail my wish to sing to just mouthing the words and reduced my desired movements to just a bit of foot tapping and head shaking.

There was an encore, of course, and it had to be Roundabout; hence the Fragile image above.

The concert was as near to perfect as makes no difference. These were three stunning Yes albums that I have kept playing (and buying) since they came out played by a group that were both technically and artistically proficient.

Next time I'll be quicker to buy tickets.