JUST THE WAY THEY WERE
YES
Madison Square Garden, New York
THE COMBINATION of three Yes-men and two Bugglers is potentially the best thing to hit BOF-rock in a decade. On my left, a monolithic 12-album world-class outfit who must have been running short of ideas to maintain their style and audience, particularly since Anderson’s and Wakeman’s idea was to split.
On my right, a two-hit-wonder, pariahs of pure plastic pop for pure plastic people and a name chosen for its crassness —
Note, though, they’re still called Yes, not Buggles, or Yuggles, or whatever. The outcome is a giant step backwards into the ‘Close To The Edge’/’Fragile’ era, possibly a wise move, since most of their lasting music was carved into the rocks around them. The point being, is this a deliberate scheme to increase ratings? It’s tempting to assume the answer is yes, for the following reasons: ‘Drama’, the recorded offspring of the union, harks back to those days strongly, and thus when it’s displayed live, meshes in perfectly with the rest of the set, which comprises 95 per cent of material from —
Finally, is it coincidence that Trevor Horn employs an almost identical high-voice technique to that of Jon Anderson? Hmmmm? So don’t worry, Yes-fans you’ll love ‘em even more, just the way they were. The rest of us will mourn for what could have been.