Mark continues his solo episodes in Kevin's absence. This week, he thinks about his memories associated with three Yes albums.

There's also time to reflect on the recent announcement of the deluxe and expanded version of the Oliver Wakeman-led Yes album, From a Page.

In his second solo episode, Mark talks about a very small section of his extensive Rick Wakeman collection.

A Vinyl Collector compares and analyzes Time and a Word.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week we were delighted to welcome Yes drummer Jay Schellen back on the YMP. Just like last time, we had a lovely conversation and Jay shared his thoughts about the forthcoming UK and European Fragile Tour as well as the new Yes album that is now being prepared for release in July (hopefully). It’s clear from our interview that Jay is totally committed to the future development of the band and believes that the new album will be warmly received. We look forward to that, of course.

• What unexpected item does Jay take with him on tour?

• How does his kit differ from Alan White’s

• Has Jay been more involved in the writing of the forthcoming album than his previous Yes records?

Let us know your thoughts in the sahow notes for this week.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week, Mark and I had a lot of fun on one of our Yes Guess Who quizzes. Also, as you’ll hear, we veered a little off-topic in both the answer section of the quiz and in a two pence segment that was supposed to be about Yes and Yes-related Record Store Day releases, but we enjoyed a little bit of less serious chat a couple of times there.

In the quiz, we each had five quotations from Yes men to try and fox each other with and, this time, I think they were quite a bit more difficult than the previous two outings of this game. Like last time, there were two points for attributing the quotation correctly and one for guessing the decade in which it was said. (That’s really the least reliable part of the quiz and just there to add a little extra spice, or whatever.) I also had a bonus point available for Mark on one question, so listen out for that.

• Who said what?
• When did they say it?
• Who won the competition?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week, we had a great conversation with Glenn Williams, a rock writer based in Japan who I found via YMP Patron Paul Hailes. We picked Genn’s brains about the music scene in Japan today and over the decades to try and find out what makes the country ‘tick’ and why they seem to receive special treatment from record companies. I have several Yes records and CDs in Japanese import versions, as you probably do and they are always impressive.

We also discussed the conditions for live music in Japan and how different genres are viewed. Glenn shared some great insights.

• How have music listening trends changed in Japan over the decades?
• Why has it always been seen as a great place to record live albums?
• How popular is progressive rock nowadays?

Let us know what you think in the comments on the show notes for this week.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week, Mark and I continue our mini series about solo songs that could have been Yes songs and this time it’s Jon Anderson’s turn. As we did last week with Steve Howe, we listened to Jon’s first three solo albums - Olias of Sunhillow, Song of Seven and Animation. We chose just one song from each record that we think could have worked on a Yes album and discussed our reasons. It was very interesting, once again, to note the dramatic differences in approach that Jon went through from 1976 to 1982. In some ways, I think Anderson went the opposite direction to Howe, as you’ll hear.

• How does Jon Anderson’s solo approach change over the years?
• How easy is it to spot songs that could have been on yes albums?
• Who collaborated with Jon on these three records?

Let us know what you think in the comments on the show notes for this week.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week Mark and I began a mini series on songs that appear on Yes members' solo albums but could have been re-worked as effective Yes songs. It was interesting to listen to our first subject, Steve Howe's first 3 solo albums, Beginnings, The Steve Howe Album and Turbulence back-to-back. There are plenty of differences to enjoy, plus some singing from Steve.

We compared notes on several songs and also assigned what we called a 'Yesability score' to each song. All will be revealed in our conversation.

• Which Howe solo songs did we choose?
• Is it easy to tell what could have been Yes songs instead of solo numbers?
• How does Steve's music change over the years?

Let us know what you think in the comments on the show notes for this week.

Established in 2011 and produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I welcomed our longstanding friend, Preston Frazier, onto the show to talk about his (relatively) new book, ‘Yes Indeed - Yes without Jon Anderson’. It’s a fascinating and very different kind of Yes book, as you’ll discover. As always, Preston was full of fun, even when we posed him some of the most difficult questions we have ever asked on the YMP. He took these in his stride, of course and I’m sure you will enjoy the conversation as much as we did.

• Why did Preston write this book?
• What was his approach?
• Is this book similar to any other books about Yes?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

Mark and I return for the first time in the 15th year of the YMP this week to discuss some of what we believe are the most important aspects of the classic Chris Squire solo album, Fish Out Of Water. I do mention that it’s 50 years since its release but, as you probably know, we are a bit late to the party. The official release date was November 1975 but that doesn’t affect any of the points we make in our conversation. As we didn’t celebrate the real 50th anniversary, we are making up for that today. Do let us know what your thoughts are on this amazing record by leaving a comment in the show notes for this week.

• What makes this album so good?
• Is it the best Yes member solo album?
• Who else was involved?

Let us know what you think in the comments over at YesMusicPodcast.com

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

Here is a short selection of Yuletide messages and other pieces of audio to finish off 2025.

Many thanks to Michael Handerhan for his review of the (fairly) recent Yes show he attended and to Stephen Lambe for his audio feedback on last week's quiz.

Thank you to everyone who has listened and/or been in touch in any way this year including all patrons for their support and producers. We are very much looking forward to 2026 and the fifteenth anniversary of the YMP. Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, I hope you have a great time. Here are Michael, Stephen and, finally, Mark to finish off the year.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week Mark and I recorded what turned into a Christmas quiz. As you will hear, we even diverted into other aspects of the holiday season at the end, so look out for that.

As a dedicated Yes fan, you’ll want to take part in the quiz yourself by keeping track of your own answers and scores and then adding them to the show notes for this week.

• Does Kevin or Mark win the quiz?
• How did you do?
• What is the Christmas diversion at the end of the show?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

Well, here we are - 14 years and 700 episodes of the Yes Music Podcast. Thank you to Miguel Falcão who has created the new jingles for 700 episodes and thank you to everyone who has sent messages of congratulation. I’ve inserted the audio ones fairly randomly throughout the show but I’ll start with a few written ones. Over on Twitter or X, Oliver Wakeman said, “A fantastic achievement. I’ve been fortunate to be a guest on a number of occasions. Congratulations!” Thank you Oliver. Julio Scissors (@captainjellico) said, “Congrats!  Love your show!” and Jon Anderson pic of the day (@JonAndersonpic1) also said, “Congrats!” Thank you both.

As you’ll hear, Mark and I had an enjoyable conversation about a particular Yes 700 topic and then there’s some actual music from Steve Howe. Stay tuned for that!

• What Yes '700' topic have we come up with?
• Who has sent messages of congratulation?
• What Steve Howe music do we play?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

The Yes-a-verse went into meltdown this week over a new release of the Wembley BBC concert recording. As you will hear, it’s a bit of a twisted tale so I was grateful to have Mark to help me wade through the marshy world of bootlegs. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this release, the BBC concert recording from 1978 or anything else to do with Yes bootlegs. Please leave your comments on the show notes for this week's episode.

• What is this new release?
• Is it official?
• What was the original broadcast like?

Next week is our 700th episode. I can’t believe it - can you? If you would like to have your voice in that celebratory episode, please send a sound file to show@yesmusicpodcast.com or use the Speakpipe button on the website. If you manage to get something to me by Thursday 4th December, I’ll do my best to include it. Thank you.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week, Mark and I had a lovely time trying to outwit each other with another round of the Yes Guess Who game. I simplified the rules, as you’ll hear, and it went rather more smoothly as a result. What fun we had. Do play along yourself and let us know how you did in the comments on this week’s show notes.

• Who did we choose?
• Were the questions too easy or too hard?
• Who won?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

From a tiny idea I had about Jon Anderson’s use of instruments live with Yes, Mark and I managed to bang on for ages again this week. Hopefully, you will find the discussion as interesting as we did, particularly as I noticed some definite links between the band’s sonic changes over the decades, Jon’s development as a musician and the instruments he used.

In order to create some kind of helpful structure to the conversation, I managed to find the earliest examples of each kind of instrument Jon uses live in the photos on the amazing Forgotten Yesterdays website and I have embedded them into the show notes for this week’s episode - do take a look at those and add a comment if you can think of any other Yeskit Jon used live with the band - or add a comment even if you can’t.

• What are all the instruments Jon used live with Yes?
• When did he start playing tuned instruments?
• What can we glean about the band amd about Jon from his choice of instruments?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

As you will hear, I was looking at one of the amazing photos in the Barry Plummer Calendar (available now from YesMusicBooks.com) recently, when I noticed something peculiar about Chris Squire. I think what Barry has captured is a unique moment in Yes concert history. I don’t think Chris ever did this in any other situation than the shows on the 1975 Relayer tour - and maybe not all of those performances. I have watched the QPR video many times but I hadn’t realised exactly what was going on until I saw this photo and then re-watched the QPR performance.

After watching that QPR version, Mark and I also took a careful look at a much later version, from the Yes Acoustic video. It's very different.

I’ve included a heavily watermarked version of the Squire photo in the show notes for this episode but if you want to enjoy the full-quality version, you know what to do. Order the calendar now while there’s still time to receive it before the New Year.

So, what do you think I’m on about? Stay tuned for the full rabbit hole exploration with Mark.

• What's unique about the QPR live situation?
• What is that guitar?
• Which is the 'better' version?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

In last week’s episode about Chris Squire’s Star Licks video, I was intrigued to notice that Trevor Rabin had also produced one and I had never watched it. Now that we are blessed with YouTube and the efforts of dedicated fans like, in this case, @YesSource, we can all enjoy watching Trevor in all his 1992 glory as he discusses not only his guitars but also his technique, studio practices, soloing approaches, songwriting and lots more. It’s almost an hour of Yes goodness and Mark and I very much enjoyed watching and discussing this week, as you’ll hear. 

Once again, as you can imagine, we get deep into the weeds, particularly as Mark is an expert on studio kit and instruments and I’m, well, I’m along for the ride at least. I did, however learn a great deal I didn’t know about the great Mr. Rabin’s musicianship and kit, which is nice.

You’ll find the video we talk about in the show notes.

• What secrets does Trevor share?
• What kit does he show off?
• What do we learn about Yes music from this video?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week Mark and I took a careful look at the iconic Chris Squire Star Licks video from 1990. Chris is at his relaxed and chatty best and shows off his skills, his guitars and his pedal board. It’s a wonderful time capsule of Yes goodness and Mark and I hugely enjoyed chatting about our reactions to it. The conversation goes down a couple of unexpected routes and we venture, predictably, into the weeds of both kit and musical theory! I promise it’s not tedious though - how could it be with your two favourite podcast hosts in tandem?

You’ll find the videos we talk about at YesMusicPodcast.com

• What secrets does Chris share?
• What kit does he show off?
• What do we learn about Yes music from his bass lines here?

See if you agree with us and then leave a comment.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

After the emergence online of another Drama Tour video - with sound - by James Ferrani on YouTube, Mark and I took a careful look at his 2 videos from consecutive days on the 1980 Drama Tour that featured Buggles men Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes.

There are at least 2 revelations contained in the videos that I don’t believe any Yes fans except those who attended the concerts in North America have experienced in the intervening 45 years. I knew they had happened but seeing them is quite remarkable.

Stay tuned for our discussion, watch the videos in the show notes for this episode over at YesMusicPodcast.com and leave us a comment while you are there.

• What are the unique aspects of these videos?
• Was Chris Squire a bit 'under the weather'?
• Who looked more comfortable - Downes or Horn?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

Following a suggestion from the latest member of the Patreon YMP group, Thomas DeVries, Mark and I delved into Yes sporting links this week. It was great fun to learn about all the ways in which music and sport have collided over the decades and we were helped out by several kind contributors Dave Watkinson, Henry Potts, Geoff Bailie and Jon Pickles. If you have any other examples of sporting Yes links, please do add them to the show notes for this week. Also, just in case it doesn’t come across in the conversation later, I am aware that Brentford football club are now in the English Premier League. When Rick Wakeman was involved with them, they were rather more of a struggling club.

• What sports feature in Yes' history?
• Which Yes member had more than one financial run-in with sports teams?
• What was Yes United?

See if you agree with us and then leave a comment on the show notes for this week.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Ken Fuller

This week it was a pleasure to welcome Billy Sherwood to the YMP once again. We spoke to him just before a rehearsal at Mickey’s Black Box rehearsal facility as the band prepared for the 2025 Fragile Tour of the US. Since that conversation, Yes have played 2 concerts. We spoke to Billy about the tour, his gear and the new Yes album. He was as gracious and open as usual - a great conversation that I know you will enjoy.

Following the first concert on the tour, Mark and I got back together again to discuss the setlist. Clearly, if you don’t like spoilers, you’ll want to press stop on your device after the Billy interview to avoid hearing the specifics of what the band will be playing.

This week, Mark and I spoke to the redoubtable David Watkinson who has published another fabulous Yessay (see what he did there?) on Forgotten-Yesterdays.com. This time, it’s about a subject that might appear a bit dry - the band’s accounts books from 1969-1970. In fact, there is a huge amount that can be gleaned from the documents as you will hear in a few minutes’ time.

Can you guess what are the largest - and the most bizarre - expenses the band incurred at this time? Prepare to be amazed, as they say.

• Yes were into Coke!?!
• Which member of the band was an official Director of the first ever Yes limited company?
• Why was there a separate charge for taking a bath?

You might - or might not - want to read Dave’s Yessay before listening to us banging on about it. If you do, you can find the link on the show notes for this episode over at YesMusicPodcast.com.

In a different kind of time travel this week, Mark and I welcomed Henry Potts back onto the show to talk about his recollections of the first Yes online discussions he was involved with in the early 1990s.

After I posted some photos of the Yes fanzines I have in my collection on the Patreon group, Simon Barrow suggested we speak to Henry who has always been at the vanguard of Yes fans on the internet. He shared some fascinating insights into exactly how the first systems worked and how the ‘scene’ morphed and developed over the decades. Of course, we’d love to hear about your own earliest online experiences of Yes fandom so please do add your comments to the show notes for this week over at YesMusicPodcast.com.

• When did the concept of online discussion begin?

• What were the first websites and fan forums?

• How has it all changed?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week, Mark and I considered what makes Talk from 1994 a great Yes album. The final Yes record featuring Trevor Rabin was a tour-de-force of progressive rock in many ways but what do you think Mark and I chose as our reasons to focus on? Perhaps we chose the same aspects as you would, perhaps not. In any case, do please add your thoughts on Talk to the show notes for this week’s episode over at YesMusicPodcast.com

• Is this actually a great Yes album?
• Does it sound like Yes?
• Which musicians keep the Yes flame alive?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Ken Fuller

Mark and I spent some time this week searching through both our memory banks and our shelves of Yes-related records. We wanted to uncover and promote some lesser-known deep cuts on albums that Yes men have been involved with outside the main group.

We each came up with 3 songs you may not have heard or you may have forgotten about. We hope you enjoy revisiting them or discovering a little more of the breadth and depth of what Yes musicians have been involved with over the decades.

Of course, we would be delighted to have your own suggestions of what other deep cuts we can all benefit from hearing - leave your suggestions on the show notes for this week’s episode over at YesMusicPodcast.com

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

In a truly epic episode this week, I had a lovely conversation with Steve Howe about the re-release of two of his solo albums, Portraits of Bob Dylan and Natural Timbre. Then, Mark and I enjoyed goofing around asking each other to guess the Yes men being referred to in various quotations. Do play along with that yourself after listening to my great chat with Steve.

• Why is Steve re-releasing these two albums now?
• How do they differ in approach?
• How important is Bob Dylan to music generally and to Steve?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

It was great to think a little about what might make up Yes’ authenticity this week. Is it possible to define what makes the output of a band - or any kind of artistic endeavour 'authentic’? Rather than try and come up with a definition of authenticity (which is probably a loftier aim than we had time for this week), Mark and I discussed what the rather nebulous concept means to us, in the context of Yes music.

We each came up with examples of what we consider to be authentic aspects in the 50+ year history of the band and how they support our ideas of what ‘authentic Yes’ is.

As always, we would be fascinated to hear what you think of this concept - please leave your ideas in the comments below.

• How can you tell if a band like Yes is ‘being authentic’?
• Is authenticity more than simply ‘sounding like the same band’?
• Beyond music, are there any other aspects that might contribute to a feeling of authenticity?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I set off once again in our YMP Yes Time Machines, this time to visit Yes concerts that also featured fascinating support bands, or bands on the same bill that we would loved to have seen.

According to the essential Forgotten Yesterdays website, there have been 599 bands who have either supported or played alongside Yes since 1968 so there was plenty of choice for Mark and me. Before we begin, have a think which shows you didn’t manage to attend and would like to go back to in a time machine to experience for yourself. I wonder if you will pick any of the occasions Mark and I did. Let us know in the comments in the show notes for this week.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week, Mark and I discussed the 'solo' songs on Fragile. Each band member contributed an individual project, some with more success than others. The style and approaches used by Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe and Squire are very different and they certainly prompted an interesting discussion as you'll hear.

With Yes soon to embark on playing the whole of Fragile live for the third time, we also touched on how these songs come over live - and if it's even a good idea to include them alongside the 4 'proper' songs.

• Which of the solo songs is the best?
• How do they differ in approach?
• Should they be played live?

This week Mark and I had all sorts of fun thinking about whether there are any short Yes epics - or if this idea is even possible. We set ourselves the restriction of only choosing Yes songs less than 6mins in duration so can you guess what we came up with and how we justified our choices?

It was sad to hear that Ozzy Osbourne died this week, only a few weeks after performing his last ever concert with his Black Sabbath bandmates. I can’t say I was a dedicated fan of Ozzy or Sabbath but my introduction to heavy metal was when a friend of mine took me up to his room in a slightly creepy Victorian mansion and played me the self-titled album by the Birmingham band. How appropriate the setting was. I also learned to play Paranoid on the drums when I was a teenager and my younger son taught my daughter, when she was a toddler, to sing the alphabet to the riff from War Pigs. My elder son was a true fan so he was upset when we heard the news. 

As you know if you’ve read the new Tales book or get your information from many other sources like Matthew Paine on Facebook, Rick Wakeman was a huge fan of Ozzy who he met at Morgan Studios while Yes were recording Tales. He ended up playing keys on 2 songs on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath which was being recorded over the road in another Morgan studio at the time. Eventually, Ozzy returned the favour by singing on Rick’s "The Return to the Center of the Earth", as pointed out by Paul Graf also on Facebook.

Our own Doug Curran interviewed Ozzy for his radio show in 1981 so do make a point of reading his reflections on that on the YMP Facebook discussion group.

Rest in Peace Ozzy.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I returned to the show to talk about the Yes classic album, 90125 from 1983. It is clearly, we believe, a great album but what makes it a great Yes album? It wasn’t originally going to be a Yes album at all and only became one at the last possible moment when Jon Anderson arrived on the scene. The band Cinema, consisting of Tony Kaye, Alan White, Trevor Rabin and Chris Squire had basically finished the record with Trevor Horn but, as you can read in full detail in Stephen Lambe’s excellent book about the album, there were several reasons that band was ultimately replaced by the name and the aura of Yes.

What do you think Mark and I came up with for our 6 reasons and would you have chosen the same features? Let us know in the show notes for this week’s episode.

• Is this a real Yes album?
• What makes it great?
• Who makes it great?

This week I’d like to celebrate the release of my second book, Tales from Topographic Oceans - Yes Album Listening Guide - a title almost as lengthy as the record itself. It’s been a very long and sometimes challenging process to prepare the book for publication - much like the record itself. However, it’s finally here and you can buy it from all the usual places.

If you haven’t yet ordered your copy, you live outside the UK and you would like to help me out, please visit YesMusicBooks.com and order from there. There are print on demand links in the store on the site which will allow you to order copies of the book and its full colour supplement, printed at a location near where you live, avoiding shipping costs and the associated environmental impact. I also get to keep more of the proceeds from the order, rather than giving it to the big corporations. Shipping time may be a little bit longer than the online stores but the choice is up to you.

If you are in the UK please order directly from BurningShed.com and if you normally get your books from a local independent bookstore, then that is also a great option wherever you are in the world.

The book ended up being 336 pages long which is rather a surprise to me. The initial idea was to produce something shorter and simpler than the Tormato Story book - more of an actual guide, rather than an in-depth study. However, as soon as I started, it became obvious that I could resist travelling down just as many fascinating rabbit holes as last time. I did manage to uncover some previously hidden information and it was a lot of fun researching as many different aspects of this epic work of progressive rock as I could. As Prog Magazine put it in their review, “The most rewarding way to experience Tales is to dive in and become immersed. This book is the very definition of that.”

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week, Mark and I enjoyed coming up with 6 reasons why the band’s third record, The Yes Album, is a great Yes album. As I’m sure you know, this was Steve Howe’s first album with Yes and also Tony Kaye’s last. It is correctly viewed by many fans, critics and Steve Howe himself as the first Yes masterpiece.

Clearly, we could have found dozens of reasons why this is a great Yes album but that would have left less room for you to be involved. So please do add your reasons in the comments on this week's show notes.

• What do you think we chose?
• Is this album the start of the progressive sound of Yes?
• Was the success of the album all down to the musicians?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

R.I.P. Johnny Bruhns

This week, Mark and I considered the Yes music of the new Millennium - 25 years after it began. In this time, the band have produced just 5 studio albums and 1 EP:

• Magnification
• Fly From Here
• From a Page (EP)
• Heaven and Earth
• The Quest
• Mirror to the Sky

However, there are plenty of examples of great Yes music to enjoy and Mark and I chose 3 examples each.

• What did we choose?
• Anything from Heaven and Earth?
• Did we get it 'right'?

See if you agree with us and let us know by leaving a comment below.

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week, Mark and I returned to our occasional series on Yes concepts. This time we considered Yes audacity - those times when the band has done something few others would have attempted. We both came up with 3 examples and it proved to be a very enjoyable conversation, albeit with quite a bit of shameless self-promotion from me.

In the world of progressive rock, perhaps the most audacious genre of all, what do you think we came up with - and what would you have chosen? Let us know in the comments on the show notes for this week.

• What are the best examples of Yes' audacity from the past 50+ years?
• Innovation or excess?
• Would you have chosen the same examples as us?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

This week we have a bumper, epic episode where Simon Barrow, Mark and I discuss AI and its impact, in the context of Yes music, of course. My daughter, Charlotte, also gives us her thoughts on the subject so many thanks to her. This topic was suggested by the appearance on YouTube of an album entitled ‘YEP – On The Waterline (70’s Prog Rock / Progressive Rock)’ as spotted by Charlie Nolan.

• Should AI be used in music?
• What impact could it have?
• What about the future for Yes and all other music artists?

See if you agree with us and let us know by leaving a comment below.

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius

It’s already been 3 years since Alan White died. To mark the sad anniversary, Mark and I discussed the iconic drummer’s adaptability this week. We each chose 3 different examples of his playing to highlight different aspects of his musical character. In addition, 4 YMP Patrons gave us comments to read out - Jon Pickles, Ronnie Neeley, Doug Curran, and Fred Barringer. It was very enjoyable to think about Alan but also, of course, a somewhat mournful process. Do add your own memories of Alan to the show notes for this week.

• Which songs did we choose?
• Was Alan 'just' a drummer?
• What were Alan's special skills?

Unbelievably, it’s already 10 years since we lost Chris Squire. Tempus Fugit, but this time not in a good way. To mark this sad milestone, Prog Magazine has included 2 large articles about Chris in the latest issue, number 160. The person charged with writing the main piece was friend of the YMP, Stephen Lambe. Mark and I spoke to him this week about the greatest bassist the world has ever seen, the irreplaceable Christopher Russell Edward Squire (4 March 1948 – 27 June 2015).

Mark and I really enjoyed discussing what Yes virtuosity means to us with the help of YMP Patrons Brian Harris, Michael OConnor, HB Pettersen, Jon Pickles, Dave Owen, Gary Betts, Mark Slater and Ronnie Neeley this week. Can you guess what we all chose for our examples of Yes virtuosity? You might be surprised, as Mark and I were.

There were some common themes that emerged which is always encouraging because it means we are not on our own in our thoughts about the band. 

So thank you to all those Patrons but do have your own say by adding a comment to the show notes for this week.

This week Mark and I enjoyed thinking about what Billy Sherwood has contributed on bass to the last two Yes albums, The Quest and Mirror to the Sky. We each chose three examples of songs from those two records to talk about and shared our thoughts on whether Billy has continued the tradition of Chris Squire bass playing or gone his own way - or a combination of the two.

There wasn’t enough time to review the posts on the YMP Facebook discussion group this week but hopefully I’ll be able to get back to that next week.

Also, apologies to those who sent in entries to last week’s quiz. I haven’t forgotten and I’ll be announcing the winner next week.

This week, Mark and I are trying out a new concept - it’s a game called Yes connections. There will be chances to laugh at my ineptitude as well as chances to get involved yourself with a special Yes connections round for listeners - with a prize for the more creative - or maybe funny entry sent into the show. Hang onto your hat and test your Yes knowledge in a few minutes’ time.

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I were joined by Jon Pickles to talk about the latest (greatest?) Yes Record Store Day offering - Live at the Rainbow London, England 12/16/1972 - a catchy title if there ever was one. I haven't forked out the considerable amount of money for a copy - yet - but both Jon and Mark have, so at least they are speaking from a position of knowledge. No change there then.

Have you managed to get a copy of this new release?

• What does the music sound like?
•  
• Is it a good performance?
•  
• Is the high cost justified?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I had a think about the Yes songs we like that include contrasts - one of my favourite aspects of progressive rock - and Yes music. We both chose 2 songs to talk about in depth but also went on a bit about other songs that also fit this category. It was another very interesting conversation - at least I thought so.

• What songs do we choose?
• What do we mean by contrast?
• Do our selections cover a wide range of eras of the band?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Mark and I always enjoy ‘getting into the weeds’ and ‘geeking out’ about Yes kit so here is another perfect example of this. This week we both chose 3 pieces of YesKit that took our fancy and went on about them for a long time. If you don’t consider yourself a 5%er who loves hearing about the minutiae of music tech as used by Yes, then feel free to skip this episode. If you do, though, I feel I should point out that you’ll miss Mark playing actual musical examples and me giving a little bit of a sneak preview of what’s coming up in the Tales book. You have been warned.

• What bits of YesKit do we choose?
• Did you know all about these already?
• What do you think of Mark’s instrumental ‘chops’?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I have been listening to the great live album by Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks - Live Perpetual Change. Listen out for our comments in a few minutes and do let us know if you agree or disagree with us by leaving a comment on the show notes for this week.

• How does Jon Anderson sound these days?
• Is this a cover band?
• What are the epics like?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Unfortunately, Mark has been unwell this week so best wishes to him for a speedy recovery. As we couldn't record an episode, I've been delving into the archive to uncover the first Yes Tracks Through Time episode I ever did. That was back in April 2013. Wow.

Here are the show notes from way back then:

The seventy-ninth episode of the Yes Music Podcast featuring the first in a series of Yes Tracks Through Time. After the initial recording, what happened to songs live? How did different line-ups of the band alter the character of tracks – if at all?

Listen and then let me know what you think of the different approaches by contacting me via any of the different routes on the right hand side or by leaving a comment below!

Which of the three versions of Astral Traveller is the best?
Should group members leave tracks alone or add their own character?
Does the band’s approach change over time?

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

In a bumper double-feature episode (or something like that), Mark and I compare the Empire featuring Peter Banks version of Something’s Coming with the Yes studio version and we also indulge in a little bit of speculation about the forthcoming Yes album - and who doesn’t enjoy these kinds of guessing games? Well if you don’t, feel free to use the fast forward button.

 Anyway, it was a lot of fun listening to some very early Yes and what Peter Banks did when he revisited it himself in 1979. Videos of the 2 songs are available below of course.

• How similar are the 2 versions of Something's Coming?
• Does Peter Banks play it the same way he did with Yes?
• What do we have in-store from Yes' forthcoming new album?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I return to one of our favourite pastimes - listening to Yes tracks through time. We each chose 3 different live recordings of Awaken to listen to and then discuss. So it’s time to put your Roger Dean thinking caps on and see if you would have chosen the same versions as us.

• Which versions did we choose?
• Why did we chose those ones?
• Who does it best?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I enjoyed discovering the many delights of the Blu-ray version of the Steven Wilson remix set of Tales from Topographic Oceans. It’s packed full of obscure and unusual versions of the songs on the album - a delight for all Yes nerds fans everywhere.

Do you have a copy of the Blu-ray version? If not, you might want to find one as explained in our chat in a few minutes' time.

• What is included on the Blu-ray?
• Does it sound good?
• Is it worth choosing Blu-ray as an audio format over DVD-A or others?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I consider 6 songs that were performed live really well by lineups of Yes that didn’t record them. With the revolving door policy of the band over the decades, there was a lot to choose from so see if we came up with anything you would have chosen yourself. Of course, as usual, we’d love to hear from you some of your own suggestions, so please do add those to the show notes for this week over at yesmusicpodcast.com

• What have we chosen?
• How do songs from different lineups sound live?
• Who plays it better?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week I’m feeding back on my trip to Trading Boundaries to see what Dave Watkinson has put on display alongside the permanent Roger Dean exhibition there. I made a video of Dave showing me around and we both enthuse about all the amazing items.

I then had a chance to chat with Mark about what he noticed on the video - of course it’s embedded into the show notes over at YesMusicPodcast.com

• What was on display?
• Where and what is Trading Boundaries?
• What has Paul Graf sent to Kevin?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

After an important update on last week's episode, Mark and I choose 3 interesting cover versions each. They all feature Yes men past or present. If you'd like to listen to the songs before listening to us banging on about them, they are all embedded below with the original versions as well.

• Which covers did we choose?
•  
• Who is represented from Yes?
•  
• How do they stand up against the originals?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

I received an interesting email from a listener this week. She asked if anyone was aware of the connections between a song by the Italian prog group PFM and Yes’ Gates of Delirium. I’ll explain more when I go through the email with Mark a little later on.

Many thanks to the Patrons who gave their feedback on the topic and before you listen to Mark and my take, you may want to listen to the music involved. I’ve embedded the PFM and the Yes songs in the show notes so head on over to yesmusicpodcast.com and see what you think - then please do add your thoughts to the comments section on the show notes for this week.

• Did Yes copy the PFM song in Gates?
• Who are PFM anyway?
• Are there any connections between the bands?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Mark was back this week and we welcomed YMP listener and Patron Jon Pickles onto the show to talk about the time he was a 'tea boy' at Trident Studios in London. You'll need to listen to the interview to hear all about it but Trident was the world-renowned studio where, amongst unnumbered highlights of rock music, Yes recorded overdubs for their first album, Queen recorded their first two albums and The Beatles recorded Let It Be and other seminal songs.

Listen out for stories about Rick Wakeman, Bill Bruford, Trevor Horn and many more!

• What did Jon have to do as a 'tea boy'?
• Who did he meet and work with?
• What was it like being in Soho in those days?

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Unfortunately, Mark was unwell this week so we wish him a speedy recovery. I'm sure he will be back with us next week.

I did manage to speak to the Yes expert Henry Potts, however, about his recent blog post. Called 'What does 2025 hold for Yes fans?' it contains, in Henry's usual style, a huge amount of detail about all sorts of live and recorded Yes and Yes-related activity that may or may not see the light of day in 2025.

As I say later on, if only half of what we talk about actually appears, it will indeed be a great year for Yes and associated artists.

Many thanks to Henry who was as cheerful and generous as always, despite only having 24hrs notice of the recording.

Henry's site is a veritable cornucopia of Yes and Yes-related information and is one of the longest-lived sources of Yes information on the internet, having been active since 2018!

http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wnyesm.htm

• What is Yes likely to do in 2025?

• What has already been announced?

• What are past Yes members up to this year?

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

It’s 2025 and Mark and I are back for another year of the Yes Music Podcast. According to an online tool, it’s 13 years 3 months 2 weeks and 6 days since I published episode 1. Wow.

This episode focuses on Drama from 1980 - released 44 years 4 months 2 weeks and 5 days ago. Despite the shock of the dramatic lineup changes (Buggles Horn and Downes replacing Anderson and Wakeman) and the resulting initial dismissal of the album by some fans, the record is now amongst the most popular of all Yes albums. So why is Drama now regarded as a great Yes album? Mark and I have come up with our 6 reasons as you will hear in a few minutes. See if you agree and let us know in the comments for this episode.

• Why can we even call this a Yes album?
• What was the impact of The Buggles?
• Does it look like a Yes album?

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

It's Boxing Day 2024 and Mark and Kevin are still in a festive mood. This time, they announce the answers to the first ever YMP Christmas Quiz. They are still in that Christmas Market with the pesky tin cans being thrown about for some reason.😉

See if your answers were correct and join in all the fun...

• What are the answers to the quiz questions?
• Why was the quiz called that?
• Are Kevin and Mark really in a Christmas Market? See if you can work it out this time.

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

In the first ever YMP Christmas Quiz, Mark and Kevin present an episode directly from a Christmas Market ;-)

See if you can answer all the 16 (not 20!) questions and send your answers to show@yesmusicpodcast.com before the next episode is released on Boxing Day (26th December 2024).

Remember that you can extra credit, as explained in the episode.

• What will the questions be?
• Why is the quiz called that?
• Are Kevin and Mark really in a Christmas Market?

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I consider the conflicting aspects of Rick Wakeman’s musical character. We have both chosen one piece of sublime and one piece of ridiculous Wakeman playing on a Yes record or on a live recording. What will we choose? Listen on to find out and then supply your own examples via the show notes at yesmusicpodcast.com

• What were Rick Wakeman's best contributions to Yes?
• What did he do that was more 'questionable'?
• How should he be rated?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week we return to our (relatively) new series for 6 reasons why ‘Yes’ is a great Yes album. Mark and I came up with 3 reasons each so listen out and see if we’ve chosen one or more of your own. Then, why not add yours to the comments on the show notes for this week’s episode over at yesmusicpodcast.com?  

• Is the first Yes album any good?
• What can we tell about the past and future of the band?
• Does the record stand up well today?

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

We spoke to publisher and Yes author Stephen Lambe this week about his (relatively) recent book Rock Classics - Yes 90125. The book delves deeply into the story of the 1983 album that became Yes’ best selling record of all time and saw the rebirth of the band after the events following the Drama tour. It could all have been very different if Trevor Rabin, Chris Squire, Tony Kaye and Alan White had stuck with their original plans of creating a much more stadium rock orientated band called Cinema. Stephen Lambe helps us to discover the unsung hero of the album’s creation and the man who was responsible for bringing Jon Anderson back into the fold.

Listen out for that later on in the episode and get hold of a copy of Stephen’s book at Burning Shed or your favourite retailer.

• Who is the unsung hero of 90125?
• Did the members of Cinema want it to morph into Yes?
• What are the keys to the longevity of the album?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I considered what makes 1989’s Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe a great Yes album. You might now be shouting at your podcatcher, “It isn’t a Yes album,” and we address that question as part of our discussion. 

If you remain unconvinced - or if you are convinced - or you are undecided, please do add your comments to the show notes for this week on https://Yesmusicpodcast.com

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

It was a pleasure once again to welcome Oliver Wakeman onto the YMP. He came along to talk about his new album, Anum Cara, and, as you might expect, I couldn’t help throwing a couple of Yes related questions in as well. Listen carefully towards the end of the conversation and you’ll hear about an abandoned Yes project that Oliver would have been involved in. Head over to the show notes for this episode to see the videos Oliver has created to accompany the album and why not order yourself a copy of the CD rather than streaming the album.

• Is this a folk album?
•  
• Who else is playing?
•  
• Is that really Oliver on guitar?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I chatted about an album we haven’t mentioned in quite some time - Fly From Here. We’ve been considering what makes it a great Yes Album. Always one to push the envelope, Mark also makes some other comments, as you’ll hear later. This is a conversation you may well want to add to so don’t forget to add your comments and ideas to the show notes below.

• Is Fly From Here a great Yes album?
• Does it 'feel' like a Yes album?
• What could possibly make it better?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Last week was the 80th birthday of the legendary Yes co-founder Jon Anderson. To mark this important milestone, Mark and I chose just 3 of our favourite Anderson moments - solo (or collaborations), with Yes on record and with Yes live.

Clearly, we both had to do a lot of thinking and leave out countless items we could have included. However, we did come up with 6 interesting and iconic items to celebrate Jon's birthday. It's remarkable that he is still so active and has created such an amazing collection of musical wonders over more than 6 decades.

• What makes Jon Anderson a special musician?
• What collaborations or solo albums are our favourites?
• What are our choices of the best Jon live moments?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

I’m delighted to say that we are back at the helm of the good ship YMP this week. First of all I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has sent their best wishes to me. It is very much appreciated.

This week, Mark and I have been thinking about all the different Yeskit that has fascinated us over the years. We have chosen 2 items each to talk about - it could be scenery, musical equipment or anything else you could describe as kit. Listen out for our choices and add your own to the show notes for this episode.

• What Yeskit did we choose?
• What was analogue kit like?
• Who was Mister Bassman?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I listened to the edited audio of the main ‘location reports’ I made last Saturday during my trip to London to tell some Tales from Topographic Locations. I had a great time discovering what those important places look like today and their surrounding areas.

Please tell us your experiences of The Rainbow Theatre by leaving a comments section on this week's show notes.

• Is Morgan Studios still in operation?
• Where did the band rehearse Tales?
• Where did Yes play 5 consecutive nights on the Tales Tour in the UK?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Tlaes from Topographic Locations

Please join me as I broadcast live from various locations in London that are connected with Yes and/or Tales. I will be going live on Facebook at various points tomorrow afternoon - 28th September 2024.

Join in via the Facebook Event: https://fb.me/e/1Xctfte4M

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I enjoyed looking back in time via the lens of our Yes tracks through time feature but with a slightly different approach. We both chose 2 Yes song performances from the archives, separated by years, or decades and talked about the differences and similarities in approach, personnel and overall effect. Can you guess what songs we went for and what performances? Have your say on the show notes for this week and see if you agree with us on our choices.

• Are there any differences in arrangement between older and newer performances of the same song?
•  
• How much difference does changes in personnel make?
•  
• Are the newer versions always slower?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

It's time for Mark and me to expound our reactions to the new Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks album, True. I just listened to the music and deliberately stayed away from all other information about the writing etc. of the album but Mark found out a little more. I wonder if our views on the record will be the same as yours.

• Is this a Yes album?
• Why would it be?
• Is it any good?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

A couple of weeks ago, Mark and I assembled one of the most learned and erudite groups of experts the progressive world has ever seen to talk in incredible depth and detail about the Steven Wilson remixes of Tales from Topographic Oceans.
We welcomed Prog Report stalwart Geoff Bailie along with Yes book authors Simon Barrow and Stephen Lambe to our special YMP round table after setting them the task of listening to one side each of Tales, with Mark taking side 4. I was exempt because I needed to act as referee and moderator - or at least that’s my excuse.

If you’re a fan of YMP deep dives, you’re in for a treat. If you’re not a fan of that kind of thing feel free to take this week off - not really, it’s all fascinating stuff.

• Is remixing Yes albums ever a good idea?
• What has Steven Wilson done to Tales?
• Has he improved it?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Mark and I had a great conversation with the legendary Michael Tait this week. Here is what the biography on his Mickey's Black Box website says:

"Michael “Mickey” Tait landed in London from his native Australia in 1967. It was his third stop, after Hong Kong and Tehran, in what was meant to be a 3 month “Visit the Motherland” working vacation. His first job was bartending at the Speakeasy, a private club frequented by the who’s who of the music business. Rubbing shoulders with rock stars led to his second job: Road Manager for the newly formed progressive rock band YES.

During his 12 years on the road with YES he advanced the art of stage production and was a driving force in the new field of tour lighting.

He is credited with building the first pedalboard for guitar, the double Mellotron, the flat mirror ball, the 400-watt Leslie speaker box, and one of the first pin matrix lighting consoles. Next came self-contained lighting units consisting of genie lifts in large road cases with integral 4 cell par 64 lamps. These became known as “Tait Towers,” hence the name of his soon-to-be lighting rental company.

Perhaps one of his most important innovations was the portable rotating stage used by Yes in the 1970’s. Inspiration struck Tait while delivering a can of 35mm film to Morgan studios, where YES were recording. The concept, initially met with skepticism, was soon embraced as it gave everyone in the house a better view of the band and also increased the ticket gross dramatically."

Despite recovering from COVID, Michael was generous and open about his recollections of working with Yes, particularly around the time of Tales from Topographic Oceans.

• Was the Tales Tour a turning point for the Yes live production?
• How did Michael get from Yes roadie/van driver to establishing the most successful live production company in the world?
• What about Jon's bathroom at Morgan Studios?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Unfortunately, this is another week in which Mark and I have been unable to record a new episode. Don't worry though, next week we are interviewing someone who created a huge amount of Yeskit when he worked with the band in the 1970s. We are also taking part in an epic session all about the Steven Wilson remixes of Tales from Topographic Oceans with several of your favourite YMP guests. Those two episodes will (hopefully) be coming up in the next two weeks so look out for those.

This week, on the theme of Yeskit, I'm going to replay the interview we did with the delightful Derek Dearden.

Here's how I introduced the interview in June 2023:

"Unless you have already read my book, Yes The Tormato Story, you may not recognise the name Derek Dearden. However, you have certainly heard the results of his amazing technical wizardry. This is another deep dive episode but it also contains much of interest to any Yes fan. Derek was a delight to speak to when Mark and I interviewed him a few months ago and I’ve been keeping this fascinating interview under wraps so that early readers of the book had a few surprises to discover. If you don’t like spoilers, then consider coming back to this episode at a later date. I won’t be offended.

Quite a bit of this conversation was used in the chapter entitled The Other Drums in my book but even if you have read that, I’m sure you’ll love hearing Derek explaining how it all came about in his own words. To whet your appetite, Derek was employed at Advision as a technician and then went on to found a company very closely associated with Alan White."

• What did Derek Dearden create for Alan White?
• How did it all come about?
• What else did Derek invent?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Before we start, I’d like to thank everyone who has taken part in the Presale for my new book, the Tales from Topographic Oceans Listening Guide. It’s gone really well and I can now afford to commission book covers, pay for production costs and licences for essential photographs and so on. The Presale is still open to those who have signed up to the e-newsletter over at tormatobook.com and to all YMP Patrons. If you are yet to sign up for the e-newsletter, you’ll receive a message telling you how to access the presale as soon as you subscribe.

Remember that the presale is the only way to purchase signed copies of the forthcoming book and you’ll also receive an exclusive mini-pack of book-based memorabilia. What could be better? So make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to be the proud owner of those fine extras. Finally, almost all the Executive Producer slots have been snapped up. At time of recording this episode there are just 7 remaining so if you’d like to see your name printed towards the front of the Tales book as an official Executive Producer, you’d better get in quickly.

This week, Mark and I were going to talk about our favourite pieces of Yes-related equipment but unfortunately Mark was unavailable in the end due to an emergency situation with his dog, Shadow. So, instead, here is a chapter of the audiobook version of my book, Yes - The Tormato Story that deals with one of the pieces of Yes kit I probably would have mentioned anyway - Rick Wakeman’s Birotron. Incidentally, the audiobook is still available from Audible, Spotify and other fine purveyors of that digital format. As one kind review said about my first foray into authorship which, incidentally, he believes is, “presented as a teenage fan essay”, the audio version is delivered with what he calls a, “clipped late night Radio 2 circa 1990 style”. Hopefully that won’t put you off too much.

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I took a listen to some of the existing Yes songs and versions that have already been added to official reissued albums and collections and classed as ‘previously unreleased’. We have chosen some of our favourites and discuss what we like about them.

This activity was partly prompted by Yes aficionado Jon Dee who, in his own words on Facebook says the following:

“I’m currently listening to YES playing ‘Eleanor Rigby’… IN THE STUDIO!!

There are 3 takes and it sounds like they’re doing a studio run through. Sounds like a single microphone was used to record it as a demo - but it’s very good quality.
Getting this on top of the multi-tracks for some ‘Time and a Word’ songs has made this a great week!
I have let the record label and management know about this as the first two albums will be getting rereleased at some point.

How many of you would like to hear ‘Eleanor Rigby’ by YES - plus an orchestra free version of ‘No Opportunity’, ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Clear Days’??

‘No Opportunity’ will blow people away when they hear a no orchestra version with Kaye, Squire and Banks far more to the fore. It seriously rocks.

In addition to his full electric guitar track, there is also a Spanish guitar track from Banks on the multi-track for ‘No Opportunity’. Peter plays some very cool acoustic guitar on that track.”

It’s another set of very exciting discoveries for us Yes fans so keep your ears peeled for more news of that, hopefully soon.

• What could we hear in the future?
• What are our favourite previously unreleased songs?
• Could any of them have been on official albums?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Mark and I had a lot of fun talking about a remarkable video suggested by Rachel Hadaway this week. From a BBC programme called Sounding Out, it features live show footage and interviews with the band from 1971, shortly after Rick Wakeman joined.

It’s full of period charm, as they say, and thankfully available on YouTube now. You might want to watch it before listening to Mark and me banging on about it - or you might not. If you do, there’s a video embedded in the show notes.

• How does the band sound?
• What is the venue like?
• What did each band member say in their interview?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

As always, it was a delight to welcome Yes guitarist Steve Howe back onto the show to talk about his new solo album, Guitarscape. It was a fun discussion during which Mark and I enjoyed asking some searching questions about the new record. Of course, we also slipped in a few questions about Yes and Tales from Topographic Oceans!

Guitarscape is a little different to other Steve Howe solo albums and I’m sure you will enjoy it when it is released in September.

• What' did Igor bring to the Yes keyboard role's different about this Steve Howe solo album?
• How was it put together?
• Who else worked on it?

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I wish Igor Khoroshev a slightly belated Happy Birthday by talking about some of his greatest moments for Yes. We have chosen our favourite 3 examples of the great keyboardist’s work with the band so keep listening and see if you agree. I’ve embedded YouTube videos of each song we discuss in the show notes for this episode, just in case you don’t have copies of Open Your Eyes, The Ladder and Live from the House of Blues.

• What did Igor bring to the Yes keyboard role?
• Did he have all the skills he needed?
• What are his highlights?

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

It seems like a long time since the last new episode of the YMP but it’s not really. Anyway, I am back from my trip of a lifetime to the Indian Ocean for my 30th Wedding Anniversary which was a wonderful, unforgettable experience.

While I was away, I received one of the Union 30 Live box sets after it had been reduced to a sensible price, as spotted by Brian Neeson. Rather than concentrate on what’s in that remarkable package, Mark and I decided to talk more widely about the Union Tour, as you’ll hear a little later on. We also found time for a Two Pence on the surprising mistake on the latest Super Deluxe Edition of Fragile, so look out for that as well.

• What was Mark's experience of the Union Tour like?
• How did the musicians get on?
• Was it 'cluttered'?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Jeffrey Crecelius, Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall and Ken Fuller this is Yes Music Podcast Episode 633 - Tales from the archives

This week I have delved into the YMP archives because my work commitments have not allowed me to record an episode with Mark.

However, this means you can listen to me sounding younger, and perhaps a little more hesitant from way back in 2011. The first focus I had in the podcast was to record my thoughts on all the then Yes studio albums so what follows is those thoughts from episodes 6 and 7 where I covered Tales from Topographic Oceans. I’m sure my thoughts would be very different if I were to rewrite these episodes today but maybe not. Certainly, you can play the old fashioned ‘spot the mistakes’ game with these episodes - do let me know what you come up with.

I would say that Mark and I will be back as normal next week but actually we won’t because I am off on the trip of a lifetime to celebrate my wife’s and my 30th Wedding Anniversary. I’m intending to leave an episode to pop up in the feed and Mark is working on something as well but if that doesn’t happen and the podcast is away for two weeks, don’t worry - it is planned.

Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week Mark and I watched the video compiled and edited by Hed Gilboa and posted to the YMP Discussion group on Facebook by Doug Curran that contains all the known crowd-shot footage of Yes on the Tales Tour of the US and Canada in 1974.

One mistake I made (presumably amongst many) was to say that the Super 8 film format became available in 1975. Of course, I meant 1965 otherwise this tour couldn’t have been captured using this technology. Also, as Mark mentioned later in the discussion, we do have a great opportunity to see what the stage scenery looked like in action during Ritual via the 1975 QPR film, clips from which are spliced into the Yesyears documentary, released in 1991. However, this is the Relayer tour and various elements of the stage production were enhanced by this time so it may be slightly different. I think I’m still correct when I say that there is no known professional film from the Tales Tour itself.

Anyway, historical minutiae apart, I hope you enjoy listening to Mark and me geeking out about this video and discussing aspects of the Tales Tour. You may well want to watch the video itself and look at the screen grabs I’ve included in the show notes for this week before listening to us banging on as it may help to contextualise our ramblings.

• What was it like to attend a concert on the 1974 Tales Tour?
• What is the video evidence like?
• What can we learn about how Yes played Tales live?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

I’ve had no time to put together any news this week but I still managed to speak at length to Mark about both my experiences seeing Yes at Birmingham Symphony Hall. It was a wonderful experience and not just because of the quality of the concert itself.

We’ve also enjoyed listening to the new music from Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks that fans have captured from live concerts and posted on YouTube. There are many reasons to be excited in Yesworld at the moment.

• How was the performance at Birmingham?
• What is the venue like?
• How was Roger Dean?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week we had a great conversation with the delightful Pete Greenwood about his recollections of the Tales Tour when it visited Manchester for two concerts in 1973. The gigs spurred Pete on to pursue his own bass playing and that eventually led to him performing all four sides of Tales himself with the Yes tribute band, Seyes. Fortunately for us, the Tales concerts left an indelible impression on Pete and he shares lots of stories from 1973 with Mark and me. I’m sure you will enjoy listening to those as much as we did.

• What was it like seeing the Tales stage set for the first time?
• How did the audience react to the brand new music?
• Did Rick Wakeman really eat a curry?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I have been looking through the lyrics of the 80s Yes albums, including ABWH. So that meant considering Drama, 90125, Big Generator and ABWH. It was interesting to consider lyrics probably written by at least Jon ANderson, Trevor Horn and Trevor Rabin. It’s an area we seldom look at so it was very enjoyable to examine a different aspect of the music of Yes and I definitely learned a lot from what Mark said about his choices. I’m sure you will as well. As always, we’d love to see what your suggestions are for great 80s Yes lyrics so do leave your choices on the show notes for this episode.

• Are there differences between lyrics by different Yes frontmen?

• Do the other writers try to sound like Jon Anderson?

• What makes a good Yes lyric?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I take our cue from the recent announcement of the Talk deluxe box set to be released at the end of this month. It contains a live recording of a 1994 concert in Canandaigua, New York (interestingly seemingly misspelt on the adverts) that includes 5 songs from the recently released album. So we were wondering how the latest songs sounded in 1994 in a live setting.

The best bootleg available up to now has been the TV broadcast from Santiago in Chile during the fairly short South American Tour of 1994. Mark owns a DVD of the show but it’s available to everyone, including me, on YouTube and the version I have included below is the whole of the broadcast version including interviews with the band and behind the scenes footage. It’s well worth a watch in full.

Mark and I focussed on just the Talk songs for this discussion, however, and there’s plenty to enjoy, as you might imagine. This lineup of the band included Billy Sherwood in his first stint and benefits from his singing, guitar playing, keyboards, bass and assorted percussion. He is, as I’m sure you know, a man of many parts. See if you agree with our assessment of the Talk songs from this performance.

• Was it possible to replicate all the studio trickery live?
• Are the band in synch?
• How did the audience react?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I climbed aboard our state of the art time machine to visit the past of the world’s greatest progressive rock band. We each chose 3 Yes tours we would love to be able to visit and gave each other clues to guess which ones we were thinking of. You’ll get the idea I’m sure.

Do play along yourself and see if you can guess the tours in question before Mark or I do - you probably will. Then, why not add your own to the show notes for this week - set a few clues and then see if anyone can guess in the comments. We had a lot of fun with this activity so join us to test your own knowledge. Set phasers to fun, as they say.

• Where will our time machine take us?
• Can you guess from our cryptic clues?
• Do we show off our Yes knowledge or our Yes ignorance?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Mark and I had a great time this week thinking about interesting or unusual Yes musical textures. We both came up with 3 examples that we thought were surprising or different so do have a look below to hear the clips we are referring to and add your own examples to the comments section. You may be surprised with some of our suggestions - that’s somewhat the idea, after all.

• What interesting textures can you think of in Yes music?
• Is it down to instrumentation, arrangement or a combination?
• Do Mark and I choose the same things again?

This week Mark and I attempted to choose 3 Peter Banks era Yes songs each. As you’ll hear, we turned out to be thinking along similar lines but it was still a very enjoyable experience listening to the earliest days of the band and discussing what made Yes unique even at that stage. This topic was partly in response to a tweet or X post or whatever they are now called from Phil (Primarily_Prog) @primarily_prog
Who posted a photo of Time and a Word and said -

Continuing tonight with perhaps the most undervalued album in the Yes discography.

I seldom hear it mentioned, yet the interplay between Banks, Bruford, Squire and Kaye is quite something.

And Jon’s voice to top it off …

• What was special about the Peter Banks era?
• What are our favourite songs from way back then?
• What can we learn about how Yes music developed?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

It was lovely to welcome back onto the YMP our friend and patron, Geoff Bailie this week. Mark and I spoke to him about the recent news that Yes will be on tour with Deep Purple in the US and Canada this Summer. What do you think of that idea? Well, self-confessed Deep Purple fan Geoff shares some thoughts with us and we discuss pretty much every aspect of the forthcoming tour, as you would expect. Do leave your own thoughts on the show notes for this week.

• Why are Yes touring with Deep Purple?
• Is this a co-headlining tour or are Yes the support act?
• Will Yes always play first?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

It seems like a long time since the last episode but it’s not.

Anyway, it was delightful to speak to a warm and friendly unsung hero of Yes last week. As you will hear, despite being very keen to be involved, Mark wasn’t able to join in the conversation due to timing and technical issues but he will be back next week. Genaro actually contacted me quite some time ago and introduced himself.

It’s taken ages to coordinate a time to speak but I’m sure you’ll agree that it was well worth the effort and I’m sure he will be joining us again soon.

He has asked me not to open the comments function on the show notes for this week but you can still send comments on what you hear to me via email show@yesmusicpodcast.com or by using the contact form. Please do send me your thoughts.

• What was Genaro's role with Yes?
• Why is he a 'mystery man'?
• What albums and live events was he involved in?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

I'm publishing this episode on Good Friday so there's been no time for the usual news roundup. However, Mark and I did manage to talk about 'Talk' receiving the box set treatment.

We discuss what's going to be included - and what doesn't seem to be included as well.

It one of our favourite Yes albums so there's plenty to be excited about with this release.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

We were delighted to be able to speak to Jay Schellen this week about the upcoming Yes UK and Europe Tour and many other topics, particularly his relationship with the late, great Alan White. As you will hear, Jay's connections with Yes are numerous and he is a truly talented all-round musician, not 'just' a drummer.

Stand by for surprising stories, tennis and visits to the pub...  

• How did Jay find himself playing with so many Yes men?
• What did he learn from Alan White?
• What is it like playing with Downes, Howe, Davison and Sherwood?

This week Mark and I were due to have a conversation with Jay Schellen about the forthcoming Yes tour of the UK and Europe. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen for reasons outside our control. We will be speaking to Jay on Monday instead so I’m afraid you’ll have to wait just a little bit longer for that.

In the meantime in this very short episode, I thought I’d mention some of the interesting things I have found out about the (relatively) new Yes drummer. See how many of these facts you knew and how many are new to you - most of them were new to me.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week would have been Chris Squire’s 76th birthday. To celebrate his legacy, Mark and I chose 3 of our favourite Squire bass lines and also chatted about his signature sound and how he achieved it. Make sure you add your own selections to the comments on the show notes for this episode and let’s celebrate the legacy of the world’s greatest bassist together.

• What are your favourite Squire bass lines?
•  
• How did Chris achieve his sound?
•  
• Did he always take the same approach?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

Mark and I had a fun time this week re-watching the ABWH Brother of Mine video and the new Mirror to the Sky one. Listen out for our thoughts in a few minutes’ time and see if you can count how many times I call the song Long Lost Brother of Mine by mistake. Also, do check out the show notes before or during listening to Mark and me banging on because I’ve added lots of screenshots from the videos that we refer to in the conversation. You can also watch both videos as well without having to do that dreary web searching thing - it’s just one of the services we offer to listeners.

• Are there any similarities between these two videos?
• How are videos used to help promote songs, today and in 1989?
• Are lyric videos any good?

Let us know if you agree with us!

After a short break, Mark and I are back to consider what Geoff Downes was doing before being asked to rejoin Yes for the recording of Fly From Here, released in 2011, shortly before the Yes Music Podcast was established. We have been listening to the John Wetton album, Raised in Captivity which includes many prog rock heroes so listen out for our thoughts on that and what, if anything, we learned about why Geoff was re-recruited.

• Can we tell why Yes wanted Geoff Downes from this record?
• What do all those guests add?
• Is it a good record?

I received an amazing email this week - or was it last week I can’t remember - informing me that Yes The Tormato Story has been shortlisted for a Selfie Award. These are handed out for self-published books so I think it has a lot more to do with the work Izzie Lawrence (cover designer), Bob Carling (production management and typesetting) and Simon Barrow (all round legend who kept me on track) had to do with it than me. It’s also down to Mark, every Executive Producer, newsletter subscriber, pre-order-er, supporter, YMP listener, producer and patron and everyone else who had any role in its creation - see the full acknowledgements page in the book for more details. Anyway, I have to go to the London Book Fair in a couple of weeks’ time to see if the book wins in the general non fiction category so keep your fingers crossed, please.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I talked about the situation in Yes at the time Geoff Downes rejoined for Fly From Here - around 2010-11. It's a contentious time - but then again when isn't with Yes? Oliver Wakeman had to make way for the return of Downes who had worked very closely with Steve Howe in Asia for many years and, when Trevor Horn was brought in to produce the new album, perhaps the writing was on the wall for a Downes redux.

All was not well between certain other members of the band either...

• Why did Geoff return (trip)?
•  
• Whose idea was it?
•  
• Why was Oliver Wakeman 'let go'?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week, Mark and I had a great conversation about Yes ephemera - what do I mean by that? Well it’s stuff that would certainly have disappeared if it wasn’t for people like Steve Sullivan, Pete Whipple and Geoffrey Mason over at forgotten-yesterdays.com who collect and share all sorts of items on that amazing site. As on other occasions, it’s best if you take a look at the images in the show notes either as you listen or afterwards because everything will make a lot more sense - assuming Mark and I actually do make sense, of course.

We chose three concert or related items to talk about each and then I threw in a somewhat unusual item I have just received which is certainly ephemeral. I don’t know how many of them still exist. As always, Mark and I would be fascinated to hear your views on this week’s items via comments.

• What items did we choose?
• What items would you choose?
• What is that disk thing?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

As you will hear, the title of this week’s episode is a bit misleading. Mark and I have been choosing some of our favourite slower, calmer songs or parts of songs from the extensive Yes catalogue to talk about this week. There are plenty to choose from given the remarkable ability of Yes to create contrasting musical experiences within an album or even a single song, as I’m sure you know.

See what you think of our selections and leave your own in the show notes comments for this week’s episode at yesmusicpodcast.com.

• What Yes songs are on the calm side?
• Are there parts of other songs in this category as well?
• Do they work?

Let us know if you agree with us!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller

This week's episode is a rather visual one so you will probably want to listen after (or concurrently with) looking at the images below. Mark and I discuss some of the most instantly identifiable (for Yes fans) images which don't include the name of the band. We start off with a quiz for Mark using the first set of images and then we head off down Yes, Jon Anderson, Roger Dean and some other associated rabbit holes.

All of this was kicked off for me by the tiny, circular icons on the inner gatefold sleeve of Tales from Topographic Oceans and I posted this photo of Instagram.

It's one of those 'in the weeds' episodes so I hope you find it entertaining!

• What are those little icons on the sleeve of Tales all about?
• You is the Vitruvian Man?
• What is the Olias symbol?

Let us know if you agree with us!