Produced by Ken Fuller, Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week we decided to postpone the second part of our Buggles episode because we had the chance to interview James Gardner about Rick Wakeman’s use of the harpsichord. It was a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion and we learned a lot about both the instrument and some of the characters involved with creating the actual instruments Rick used on recordings with Yes. James has encyclopedic knowledge of the use of harpsichords in popular music and he mentions a large number of songs which have featured the instrument over the years. I’ve added YouTube videos of each song James refers to in the show notes for this episode. You might want to refer to those while you listen to the interview or come back to them at the end. I found they helped me a great deal.

• What kind of harpsichord did Rick use?
• Who made it?
• Where else can we hear harpsichords in popular music?

Take a listen to the episode and then let us know what you think.

Produced by Ken Fuller, Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week we are back with our ‘Why did Yes want…’ series and we have reached 1980 when both Anderson and Wakeman had left the band and up stepped Horn and Downes. How did this happen and why would Yes want to develop a relationship with a pop band? Listen on to discover our thoughts and then add your own to the show notes. Over the coming week we will be listening to The Buggles album, ‘The Age Of Plastic’ to try and find some clues to help us with the question above so please do join in with that and let us know what you think of the album, 42 years later.

• A pop band?
• Are you serious?
• How could that work?

Produced by Ken Fuller, Jeffrey Crecelius and Wayne Hall

This week, Mark and I consider the question of what would happen if Yes were restricted to only playing music from Open Your Eyes to The Quest in a concert. Imagine that. Well, we did. Listen out for our ideas and add your own to the show notes for this week.

Produced by Ken Fuller, Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week, Mark and I give our impressions of the self-titled album by Refugee, featuring Patrick Moraz, in our attempt to see why Yes wanted him in the band in 1974. As you will hear, we both rather like it. Please do add your own comments to the show notes for this week’s episode and let us know if you agree or disagree.

• Is it obvious why Yes wanted Patrick Moraz from this album?
• What special abilities does he show here?
• Would he fit in?

Facebook has just changed how pages work which means that I’ve had to establish a new place for us to post and discuss Yes-related happenings. It’s a new group entitled, rather creatively, YMP Discussion Group. For the moment it’s open to anyone to join but I’ll be adding rules and joining requirements when I have time. One of the advantages of the new format is that all members of the group have the same ability to post content, so it’s a bit more egalitarian, or somesuch. Please do search for the group and join in.

Produced by Ken Fuller, Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week Mark and I consider why Yes wanted Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz to join them after the departure of Rick Wakeman. We discuss the bands which Moraz played in and the route he took to arrive with Yes which, as you might imagine, wasn’t straightforward! It eventually led to his band, Refugee so we will be spending next week listening to their self-titled album in order to give you our thoughts on that record. Sounds like it’s going to be fun.

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