Yes
Apollo Theatre, Manchester

Sunday 22 November 2009

This was Yes - but somehow it wasn't. There was one little thing missing, and that one little thing made all the difference!

On the afternoon of the concert I did a little bit of research on the internet - for instance, to see if they had a new album out. Little did I expect to find that the frontman Jon Anderson was not performing - whether because of illness or because of falling out, the story isn't clear - and not only that, but keyboard maestro Rick Wakeman was out for the count too. I was devastated and came very close to deciding not to bother going. Sanity kicked in though, and having paid out £40 for the privilege, I felt that it would be wise to venture out into the cold rainy Manchester weather just to see - but heaven knows what sort of horror story was going to await me!!

The answer was that I was very glad I went, and it was a good job I didn't know about the personnel changes at the time I booked the ticket because there's no doubt that I would have decided against it, and the consequence would have been that I would have missed a fantastic night.

The question of the replacement personnel needs some explaining though, because it is all controversial and sticks in the throat somewhat.

I quickly discovered that Mr Benoit David is more like Jon Anderson than Jon Anderson is: it would be impossible to distinguish their singing voices, and they look exactly the same and move about the stage in exactly the same way. The only real difference to be noticed is that Mr David is obviously a good deal younger than Mr Anderson, but otherwise, you wouldn't really know that one came from Montreal in Canada and the other one came from Burnley in Lancashire. It wasn't a great surprise to learn afterwards that Benoit David had actually been the singer in a Yes tribute band and had thus been picked from obscurity. All the same, it left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth because if I had paid big money to see Neil Diamond in concert I would have expected to see the real Neil Diamond and not the "Real Diamond" aka John Hylton. In a way, just as Real Diamond was better than Neil Diamond in some ways, so also Benoit was better than Anderson in some ways, but that is not the point, and yes, I felt mightily short changed.

The other personnel change was easier to accept. Oliver Wakeman is of course the son of Rick Wakeman, and whilst one might quibble at the obvious nepotism, it wasn't too difficult to accept that he was stepping into his dad's shoes, and it seemed almost like Rick was there in spirit. Unlike Benoit, Oliver didn't try to provide a total visual replacement. His keyboard playing was certainly good and very adequate, but Rick Wakeman is one of rock music's great showmen, and his absence made it seem that Yes had actually become a four piece rather than a five piece band.

Well, it clearly had the makings of a disaster- but after all that, how was it?

The answer was - absolutely fantastic!! What must be said is that Yes really are the consummate live performers. I have been to see them before, at Kings Dock Liverpool in 2003, and i commented at length then about how brilliant they were. Nothing has changed - the sound quality and the instrumental playing are still second to none - in this, only the Roger Waters concert, and perhaps Genesis, can compare. I was a little disappointed last time that the selection of songs was very limited, being restricted to only a couple of albums from the classic line-up in the early seventies - no such problems this time round! Many would say that the famous Gut friendly track "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" was the standout track, but good as it was, there was better - my favourite was "Machine Messiah", a track from the album "Drama" (incidentally the only album on which Jon Anderson didn't sing and obviously why it could be played tonight....) which "out Black Sabbaths" Black Sabbath. It really is the heaviest, most powerfully ferocious rock riff of all time and not at all the sort of thing you'd expect from a supposedly wimpy prog rock band. There was a stunning track called "Astral Traveller" from the early album "Time and a Word", "Tempus Fugit" also from Drama, "Onward" from "Tormato" and lots of classic stuff. Best of all was "Starship Trooper, played as the encore. This wasn't played at Liverpool either, presumably because it was not recorded by what Jon Anderson would have considered the pure classic lineup - but it was here. The concluding section builds up to the most fantastic crescendo in the history of rock, putting Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" to shame.

I should say something too about the instrumental doodlings and solos. In the wrong hands they can be utterly boring and self indulgent and are often quoted as being one of the reasons for the popular demise of progressive rock: but properly handled and not taken to excess, they are an essential and unmissable component of the genre. Each instrument got its own solo and none was overdone or outstayed its welcome. Steve Howe's acoustic guitar solos were superb, and even Oliver Wakeman showed some of his dad's panache. As for "doodlings" - well, the finale of Starship Trooper shows doodling at its best from keyboards and guitar, and it is one of the finest moments in rock music.

The answer is yes - it was a fantastic concert and with hindsight I wouldn't have missed it for the world - only, lets hope Jon Anderson gets over his illness, because despite the benefits of youth and freedom of musical choice, original is always best.

28.11.09