Lee Speaks About Music… #102

Live At The Apollo (Blu Ray) – Yes

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Introduction…

I have to confess that my world of Yes music does not really stretch further than the album Relayer that the band made way back in 1974. Although I did still carry on buying most of their albums up to the year 2001 when they released their 19th studio album Magnification in the hope of them reproducing more of the same GREAT! material that came from the bands output from 1971 – 1974 with the albums such as The Yes Album. Fragile. Close To The Edge. Tales From The Topographic Oceans and Relayer.

But overall I was hugely disappointed from the moment that Yes released Going For The One in 1977. From that moment and onwards, everything just seemed to spiral down the plug hole, and the fact that the band had made so many line-up changes just made it completely worse in my eyes. Most fans of the band may very well even consider an album like Going For The One, one of their better albums. But I guess that would also very much boil down to the fact of when you actually got into the band Yes in the first place more than anything else.

If like myself you was into the band during those earlier years of the 70’s from 1971 – 1974 for example. It’s perhaps easier for those people and myself to plainly see that the album Going For The One in reality was very much not really that much different from the album 90125 they made with a different line-up in 1983. Though in reality both albums are both poles apart and that may even appear to be a ridiculous comparison. But in reality they was both highly commercial albums. Both albums were also aimed at attracting a more popular audience with the material that was written for them.

I think a lot of what really happened regarding the bands writing ability, was that after such a more futuristic album like Relayer the ink from the pen had dried up and they had perhaps gone that forward into the future, it left them no way of going beyond it. So they had to revert to more or less going back to where they originally started at the beginning with their first couple of albums and go back to writing pop songs.

For me personally the only real prog rock song on the album Going For The One is “Awaken“. And that for me personally is the best track on the album and the only track I would also associate with Yes Music. That one track alone is the nearest the band ever got to the music they churned out so well between 1971 – 1974. Personally I do not think they ever got that near to it again afterwards either.

I am not saying that Going For The One is a bad album at all, and in reality its got a fine collection of songs that make it quite a good album if I was to be entirely honest. I also would say that as an album its perhaps one of their strongest after Relayer. But unlike those earlier 5 albums which I can still play with no problem at all and still enjoy today. All the other albums that came after Relayer I can only play the odd track from those albums now and again.

I have brought the odd live DVD or Blu Ray they put out over the years. But to be perfectly honest I never thought in a million years I would end up buying this particular line up of the band. But before I go any further, let’s take a look at the packaging and artwork as usual.

The Packaging & Artwork…

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The disc comes in a standard Blu Ray case and contains a 3 panel fold out colour booklet which contains the linear production notes along with some photographs of the band. The information is not that informative for example, they tell you that Eugene O’ Connor was the Director of Photography but it does not even tell you who the photographers were taking the pictures.

But I guess they was stills taken from the video footage. It does not even tell you how many video camera operators there was, or who the hell shot the footage. However the camera operators are on the end credits at the end of the concert itself. The design was done by Stuart Green of Eagle Rock Entertainment.

The Release Editions…

Package

Live At The Apollo was released in 5 formats of your choice to choose from if you count the digital download. Oddly enough the fact that none of the physical packages have been bundled up will make this quite an expensive package if you want both the audio on vinyl or CD with a picture as well with either the Blu Ray or DVD. As a rule it’s quite common to see either the DVD or the Blu Ray come with the CD’s in one package which can be quite a saving if you’re looking to have the both. Just as well I am only interested in having the picture and the audio together with the concert, rather than just hearing it in audio only.

The vinyl package is the most expensive at around £35 for the 3 LP vinyl edition. Both the 2 CD and the Blu Ray editions are priced around the same price of £14.99 each and the DVD works out the cheapest option at around £12 – £13. No doubt all these prices can fluctuate and I used Amazon for the price comparison being as they are one of the cheapest outlets. However I ended up ordering the Blu Ray for £14.99 from HMV being as it had sold out on Amazon Prime, and I was not going to be paying the extra price for postage and packaging the other sellers were charging for it either.

Live At The Apollo (Blu Ray) In Review…

Live At The Apollo by Yes featuring Jon Anderson. Rick Wakeman and Trevor Rabin was released by Eagle Records & Eagle Entertainment Video on the 7th September 2018. It captures the band live on stage from the concert they played at the O2 Manchester Apollo on the 25th March 2017. The concert was released this year in a way of celebrating the bands 50th Anniversary.

Making up the rest of the band they have Lee Pomeroy on bass who has previously featured in Steve Hackett’s band over the years and Lou Molino III on drums who I have to confess I know nothing at all about. But apparently he has worked with Trevor Rabin before on his solo albums, and even played for the likes of Julian Lennon and Kenny Loggins as well as his main band Cock Robin.

The Blu Ray.

SS 1

The main menu screen opens up with a short video from the show of the band playing “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”. Well I say short but it’s actually about 3 and half minutes of it before it fades out and recycles itself to play it again. The menu itself presents you with 3 options “Play”. “Song Selection” and “Audio Options”.

SS 2

By clicking on the “Song Selection” it displays all the songs in the set list for you to choose from. I quite like how it does not load up another screen, and you can simply make your choice from the one menu.

SS 3

The “Audio Options” can also be simply selected from the main screen as well without having to load up a separate screen. By default the audio is set to LPCM Stereo. It also comes with a DTS HD Master Audio for 5.1 surround for sound freaks like myself. The multi-track Soundtrack comes in 24/48K which is the higher quality of the both soundtracks you get here, and the Stereo mix is in 16/48K only.

The Picture Quality.

The film footage was shot in high definition and was done with the use of 6 cameras and operators. You are getting that more extra with the picture quality over the DVD and this picture quality is quite pristine, which is more than I could say for the Neal Morse concert I previously reviewed. No doubt the cameras have captured the band and the concert very well, and they have also done a grand job with the video editing, and it does the band great justice for it.

The 5.1 Mix.

The 5.1 mix was done by Paul Linford and Trevor Rabin and I have to say they have done quite a very good job of it and used the wide space very well over the 6 channels. It’s a lot better and more fuller than the stereo mix as well. I do find the stereo mix is a bit on the light side of things and lacks a bit of bass too. I would also say the stereo mix is perhaps more on the flat response side out of the 2 mixes you get here. The 5.1 mix does project more ambience but still maintains the bass with good use they have made of .1 channel with the subwoofer.

It also presents you with more of a representation of the actual live sound in the arena even playing it straight with no added colourisation or DSP’s. To be honest I never use DSP’s and this recording does in some way sound like its already been recorded with the use of a DSP to represent the ambient sound of the actual arena. In some ways mixed like this,  its not the sort of thing I would generally go for and would not of felt it would work to my liking at all. But it is without doubt way better than the stereo mix and just by listening to the sound of Jon Anderon’s voice alone, you can plainly hear that the microphone has the right amount of reverb for his voice, where it’s more dry and flat on the stereo mix.

Considering that there was no ambient mics placed in the audience to pick up the audience in the first place this is a concert that does benefit more for the 5.1 mix you get here with how well they have done the mix. However the fact they did add the audience afterwards by using parts of another audience in some cases, they have been a bit silly with where they placed the audience in certain parts. This too has been picked up by most reviews of this release and I shall discuss more about it in both my “Fake Audience Causes A Stir” and in my “On With The Show” sections of my review. But overall the 5.1 mix is very good.

Musicians & Credits…

Yes

Recorded live at the 02 Apollo in Manchester England on the 25th March 2017. Directed by Blue Leach. Produced by Jim Parsons. Musical Supervision by Trevor Rabin. Audio Mixed by Paul Linford & Trevor Rabin. Music Mixed & Produced at Jacaranda Studios. Mastered by Tim Young at Metropolis. Camera Operators James Cullen. James Cronly. Nick Wheeler. Kelvin Richard. Joe Dyer. Rob Emannuel. Herbette. Edited by Reg Wrench & Tim Thomsett. Production Manager Melissa Morton Hicks. Director of Photography Eugene O’ Connor. Artwork Design by Stuart Green of Eagle Rock Entertainment. Management Brian Lane.

Musicians:
Jon Anderson: Lead & Backing Vocals/Acoustic Guitar/Harp/Percussion.
Rick Wakeman: Keyboards.
Trevor Rabin: Guitars/Vocals.
Lee Pomeroy: Bass/Backing Vocals.
Lou Molino III: Drums/Percussion/Backing Vocals.

The Concert In Review…

Like most old venues these days they tend to change the name slightly to cater for those who are now sponsoring the old buildings. And the mobile phone company O2 have sponsored most of them these days, and even though on the front of the cover it states the “Apollo” it’s actually the O2 Apollo these days and was also last year when this version of Yes played there.

1280px-O2_Apollo,_Manchester

As you can see by the building and it’s art deco style its very much like one of those old Cinema Houses built many moons ago just like we have (or rather had) here in Birmingham, and perhaps more like the Shepherd Bush Empire in London. And that is what they was originally built for. The building was built in 1938 and was opened by the actress Margaret Lockwood. Back then and up until the 70’s it was very much mainly used as a Cinema House and was called the Apollo Theatre. Since the 70’s the venue stopped functioning as a Cinema House and has been solely used for concerts. It was refurbished in 2010 and has been called the O2 Apollo ever since.

To be honest I used to enjoy it back in the 70’s when the old Odeon Cinema House in New Street Birmingham used to function as a Cinema House and for concerts. But in the end they put a stop to the concerts and made into one of those multiplex Cinema Houses instead. But most of these venues have more or less the same size capacity although this one holds perhaps a third more than the Odeon and the O2 Apollo has a seating capacity of around 3,500.

Yes Over The Decades…

We are now living in a world where we have 2 bands going under the name of Yes and I have to say it’s just absolutely ridiculous how the name has been so badly tarnished over the years with its many band line ups. Having 2 bands you are perhaps faced with the choice of do you go and see the both? or simply make a choice which band has the best musicians in it?.

To be perfectly frank I would not pay to see either of them live and for those who think that ARW are Yes or even the current line up with Steve Howe and Alan White are Yes. I am sorry to say they are both miles apart from the band I call Yes. But I suppose if you still want to hear the good old Yes music played live, both bands are still capable of doing such a thing.

Though I do understand that Alan White is having a few problems playing drums these days, and at his age being a drummer it does require a lot of physical work. It’s also most likely why Bill Bruford has retired and Jon Anderson did originally approach Bruford to play for their line up of Yes. But he was not interested and was quite happy to be retired and doing the odd bit of teaching drums to students he does these days.

But for me personally there can only be one voice for the band Yes and that is without a doubt the voice of Jon Anderson. The fact that the Steve Howe side of the band picked singers to imitate Anderson’s voice was a very bad decision in my eyes. They turned the band into nothing more than a tribute band by doing such a thing. To be honest even if Chris Squire was still alive now, I personally think more would go to see the ARW side of Yes than the tribute side of it, because it is more original even if it’s not what I personally would of liked to have seen.

But then again if it was not for Squire’s death in the first place there would not be 2 bands going under the same name at all, and it was only down to an informal agreement that Anderson and Squire had regarding the name, which should be used for Squire’s version of the group only whilst he was alive. With both he and Anderson being the longest members of the band Squire was the only member to feature on all of their albums that they made at the time he was still alive. It was Squire’s wife who suggested both bands could use the name in the wake of his death. I suppose it stops all the arguments, but now there may just be a war with their fans arguing over which band is the better :)))))).

Well the one thing I will say is that a line up of Yes without Steve Howe is certainly never in a million years the Yes I knew and loved all those years ago. But I would also say the same to the other line up without Jon Anderson. These very two members of the band are the main ingredients who created Yes Music all those years ago. If back in 1971 the band had recruited Trevor Rabin as their guitarist instead of Steve Howe. I can honestly say that Yes Music would of never existed. They are both good guitarists but both have completely different styles, and Trevor Rabin is a rock guitarist and not a prog rock guitarist and that does make a massive difference I am afraid.

The last time I saw Yes live was on their Union tour back in 1991 at the NEC in Birmingham. The best part of that show was when they only had Anderson, Squire, Howe, Wakeman and Bruford on the stage playing a few numbers. I thought they was mostly overpowered and overcrowded the arrangements of the songs with them all on the stage. It was a bit too much and on the whole, and I felt that when I seen Anderson. Bruford. Wakeman. Howe at the NEC in 1989 they was much better at that concert. Even as impressive as Rabin may have looked when he played more or less note for note along with Wakeman to “Catherine Parr” at that Union concert, never once in my mind did it occur to me that he was the right guitarist for Yes.

Still to this day I do not believe he his right guitarist for the band either, but that all of course depends on what decade of Yes you like the most, and no doubt the 80’s was certainly more of a pop side of Yes than any prog rock side we seen of them in the early 70’s, and to be perfectly honest Howe could not play those 80’s songs like Rabin could either. So if you want to hear songs like “Owner Of A Lonely Heart” then no doubt this is side of Yes you should be buying and going to see in my eyes. But as for the earlier Yes songs from the 70’s there is just no way Rabin can play them like Howe could either. So one may just be questioning why on earth I brought this concert in the first place?.

Well it certainly was not so I could listen to 80’s pop music I can assure you :)))))). And in all honesty even though I knew this concert was being released. I never pre-ordered it beforehand either, like I would with most of the things I buy these days. To be honest I had no intention at all of buying it either. But after watching most of it on Youtube for bugger all there are two things that attracted me to buy it.

The first being I was quite taken away by how so well Jon Anderson’s voice sounds at the age of 73. He’s hardly dropped a note and it’s quite amazing to still have your own voice still more or less in tact after all those years. The second thing that attracted my attention is very much on the arrangement side of things, and just how much my God of the keyboards Rick Wakeman is putting into it all.

I would not by any means say this was the best Yes concert by a long shot. But what you do get here is perhaps something that bit more different with the arrangement side of things, even in comparison to what very little arrangement you got with the Yes Acoustic concert that got released in 2004 with the 1973 line up of the band. But there was another thing that also drew my attention to buy this concert, and that was the many bad reviews it got because the audience was not originally recorded and was overdubbed badly in the mix afterwards.

Fake Audience Causes A Stir…

Being a person who likes to write reviews, I do also like to read other peoples reviews as well. I also like to watch other people such as Darren Lock and such people do talking reviews about music and various other products on Youtube. Which is something I myself do not personally have the confidence to do like they can, and in some respect I wish I could. To be honest I quite admire how Darren Lock presents his reviews but I certainly do not agree with all his reviews.

Unlike myself who is willing to give any album the time of day by playing it at least 7 times over from start to finish before I even attempt to write a review. He can be a guy who in most cases will play an album once, and then makes his own mind up of it. That to me is not a fair review in the first place, especially considering that a lot of the good music in this world does take time to grow on you, and that is generally how many albums will stay the test of time over all those years.

Not everyone is like Phil Collins who writes music to instantly grab your attention by hitting you directly in the face with it. Only to find out later that after a month or so it all wears off and was rather thin in the first place. I am not saying that Collins made bad records by any standards, and they have to be bloody good to have that effect on a person in the first place. But I just found a lot of it soon became outdated. I could say exactly the same about 80’s Yes too.

I also noticed that Darren Lock had reviewed this same Blu Ray of this Yes concert, and a couple of days later he posted a short follow up about the people complaining about the added crowd noise being over the top, to which he started calling them all “wankers” for moaning about it. He even said he had to play part of the concert again to see what all the fuss was about and did admit there was added audience noise, but he did not think it was that irritating as the biggest majority of reviewers were slagging it down for.

So this is very much something I wanted to be able to hear for myself and make my own mind up about it all. I am aware there are many “Trolls” posting reviews on Amazon and a lot of them are not verified purchasers of the product from Amazon either. For example many will complain about how a concert has been badly edited when they have no real experience about film editing in the first place, or they have just started some miracle course learning about it and think they already know it all :))))). Others moan cause it’s not on Spotify so they can hear it for free :)))))).

Others just run a product down simply because they do not like anything about it, and cannot see why it got so many great reviews in the first place. I personally look for the more detailed reviews where at least the person does tend to have some real interest in the product even if it did not quite work out, and the ones that pinpoints the pros and cons about the product. I also widen my search on the net regarding any review and do not stick to one particular site to get what I am looking for.

After all I would not expect anybody to take one review as the bible sort of thing and certainly not my own either. When it comes to any form of music, we all have our own individual tastes, but for this review even though my personal taste of Yes comes from those earlier times in the 70’s and not the 80’s. I am trying not to be completely bias to the later material the band made and put out, and I have always liked some of it to a certain degree.

I would even go as far as saying that it’s good that you can get to hear it again in a concert like this, which does more or less focus on the 70’s and 80’s side of the bands output with the material they are presenting to you here. And that is what really finally persuaded me to buy this concert, not just so I could find out if those reviews about the crowd noise is unbearable.

The other good thing about this concert is that it also comes with a 5.1 mix, and I am a surround freak anyway. Though for this review I have also listened to the concert in stereo only as well, because of all the fuss of the crowd noise. So let’s now take a closer look at what we have here as I go through the concert itself, and see if the added audience spoils the show so to speak.

On With The Show…

The show opens up with an orchestrated intro of “Perpetual Change” and the stage visuals of the band entering the stage (all but Jon Anderson at this point) have an old crackly vintage film look about it all, which I suppose goes with old orchestration that’s being played in this short intro. Visually it’s perhaps not fitting for the Blu Ray and at this point the picture does not even look like its been filmed in HD and perhaps is more fitting with an old film about the Phantom Of The Opera sort of thing :))))))).

Thankfully the intro is very short and the band proceed the show with the short instrumental piece from their 90125 album entitled “Cinema” and by now the picture quality is looking much more like it, nice, pristine and sharp and at the end of the short piece Jon Anderson makes his entrance and the band then actually play “Perpetual Change” and do quite a god job it. The way the band are rolling the numbers of the set list out throughout most of the show is by playing an old 70’s number, followed by an 80’s number and it works pretty well this way I feel too.

As I already stated earlier my favourite side of Yes is very much the early 70’s and not the 80’s side of the band at all. But I have no real problem with this concert and it is a bit of a treat to hear some of these songs from the 80’s again. To be honest most of them I have not heard since back then either. Both the 70’s and 80’s songs have all been given a slightly different arrangement to them, and most of the time it works. I do not expect Trevor Rabin to play those older songs like Steve Howe did, and in reality Rabin would not want to anyway because he would rather put his own stamp into those songs and that I respect.

But no doubt Rabin’s guitar playing is better suited to the songs he originally done with the band and “Hold On” that follows next even gives Rick Wakeman a chance to play a bit of moog on it. He does even more so on “Rhythm Of Love” which is a bit further on in the set, and overall the other members of the band both Lee Pomeroy and Lou Molino III also contribute very well with the backing vocals and harmonies and they all tend to cope with all the numbers in this 2 hour live set.

Bar one song that is, and that song is “And You And I“. There is something not quite right with the performance of this song, and it’s not down to Jon Anderson. He is doing an incredible job on the vocals at his age and it’s not far away from his heyday either. I cannot fault Rick Wakeman here either, but somehow the back line of the band have not quite got it. You can even hear volume levels go up and down in this mix and it appears like they have tried to make the mix work for them to include the song here. I am not saying it’s a disaster by any means but it could of been done better.

But just as that particular song is perhaps lacking that bit of lacklustre, they certainly make it up on “Heart Of The Sunrise” and this to me is my personal highlight of the show and by far the best performance from the whole band. They have more or less nailed this old song of the bands. I was glad out of the songs from 90125 that they also included “Changes“. That was my personal favourite track from that album years ago, and they do justice to it here as well.

Regarding the “Fake Audience” that many reviewers have complained about. There is no doubt that the added audience they have put in the middle of some of the songs, rather than at the end of each song where it’s better suited, was a bit of a silly thing to do. But this has not been done on every song, and even though it may appear to be over the top so to speak, I can honestly say that it’s not that over the top as a lot of the reviewers have pointed out in saying that is has completely ruined the show for them.

I personally think Darren Lock was right, but not by calling them “Wankers” :)))))) but I have listened to this concert 3 times now, twice in 5.1 and once in stereo and it certainly never spoiled my enjoyment of the show. I agree with Darren and all I can say is that people must pay far too much attention to the audience rather than focusing on the band itself and watching what they are doing.

Don’t get me wrong some of the crowd noise is quite loud and does sound pathetic being added to the mix like that, and you can  hear it on mainly the opening songs and “Lift Me Up” in particular. But this is nowhere near as bad as watching something like the American TV program Happy Days where you can hear the audience laugh at the end of every sentence, and the fact that audience did do that, certainly never spoilt my enjoyment of watching that TV program.

I also think they have overdubbed some backing vocals for the 5.1 surround mix especially on “Rhythm Of Love“. But in all honesty none of the overdubs are as bad as what they did with the 5.1 mix of The Way We Walk DVD by Genesis from years ago. I only ever heard that at a mates house many moons ago, and everything they overdubbed in that mix was completely out of sync and no way would I buy that thing :))))).

To be honest the only thing that annoys me about this 5.1 mix is the one part in “Perpetual Change” where they have mixed Jon Anderson’s voice singing the words “Every Day” in the left rear speaker where it sort of echoes like a train in a tube station going down a track. Thankfully it only happens once in the song. But that to me is more annoying than the audience :)))))).

Other highlights from the show are “Awaken” to which they do a bit of a jungle intro and outro to it which is different. “Long Distance Runaround/The Fish” they also cope pretty well with and on “Owner Of A Lonely HeartWakeman gets out his KeyTar to join Rabin on guitar, and they both go for a walk in and around the audience. Overall the band look like they have enjoyed themselves and have had a very good night at the Apollo indeed, and they top it all of off nicely with an encore of “Roundabout” to end the show in fine style.

Now I have not mentioned all the songs they play in the set here, but I cannot really fault them either and the band do a grand job of them. One of the other songs they do is from the Union album and to be honest even though Rick Wakeman did not like that particular album, neither did I, but I felt they could of chose one of the better songs from that album instead of “Lift Me Up“. I actually preferred what they did on the Anderson. Bruford. Wakeman. Howe album in relation to that album and would of preferred something from that or another song from the Yes catalogue.

Summary…

To sum up Live At The Apollo by (AWR) Yes. I personally think the guys in this line up of Yes put on a really GREAT! show. I also think it was well worthy of buying and even for a fan like myself who is into the 70’s side of Yes this is a show that does not really disappoint at all. Having watched it 3 times already it still gives me enough to want to watch it again. I am not saying this is the best concert you will ever see of Yes, and no doubt I would still prefer to hear them on Yessongs and Yesshows and even watch them on DVD’s like Keys To Ascension and Live at Montreux 2003 with the 1973 line up of the band.

But I can still even enjoy DVD’s like Live from House Of Blues and Symphonic Live and they are all pretty much exciting shows, and to be honest I would rather watch a live concert on DVD or Blu Ray than just listen to a concert in audio only. If it comes with a good 5.1 mix then that is an extra added bonus and is a real winner for me every time. I would not say Live At The Apollo has an excellent 5.1 mix, but it’s quite good and certainly a lot better than the stereo mix. You can also turn the rear speakers down as well, so you do not even have to listen to the crowd. But I never did that, and prefer the crowd in the mix to give it more of that live feel.

No doubt the crowd noise seems to a bit issue with at least 50 – 55% of the reviews but I personally and certainly do not think it overshadows the concert, and I would not let those reviews put you off either, unless you are somebody who cannot watch a TV program where the audience is in the background laughing at every sentence sort of thing. The crowd noise is nowhere near as frequent as that for starters, and to be honest the way some people have described it is as if it was like The Beatles playing Shea Stadium and the only thing you could hear was the crowd for God’s sake :)))))).

Conclusion…

To conclude my review of Live At The Apollo I know I originally stated that I would not pay to see either of the two bands that go by the name of Yes these days, and I personally  think it’s a real shame that at the end of the day its come down to all this.  But having watched this concert it does make me wish a bit that I was there, and I may of paid to see them live if the price of the ticket was not too high like most are these days.

There is no denying that Jon Anderson is the real voice of Yes. The fact that he still very much has his voice still very much merits anyone still wanting to see Yes which is perhaps more that I can say for Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull who I could not personally watch live these days, even though I love that band and Ian too.

Watching Jon Anderson even with this line up of Yes on Blu Ray is still very much a delight to see, and no doubt Anderson can still give it more or less his best even at his ripe old age. I am so glad that I decided to buy this concert in the end, and not let my own feelings of how I seen this line up get in the way. You simply cannot turn back the clock to the 70’s all the time and expect it still to be the same today. But even this line up of the band can take you back to the 70’s and the 80’s and they have managed to do a very good job of it all overall.

Dreamer Easy In The Chair That Really Fits You…

The Blu Ray track listing is as follows:

(Total Time 1 Hour 56 Minutes)
01. Medley: Intro / Cinema / Perpetual Change.
02. Hold On.
03. I’ve Seen All Good People
(I Your Move. II All Good People).
04. Lift Me Up.
05. And You & I
(I. Cord Of Life. II Eclipse. III The Preacher, The Teacher. IV Apocalypse).
06. Rhythm Of Love.
07. Heart Of The Sunrise.
08. Changes.
09. Medley: Long Distance Runaround / The Fish
(Schindleria Praematurus).
10. Awaken.
11. Medley: Make It Easy / Owner Of A Lonely Heart.
12. Roundabout.

Lee’s Packaging Rating Score. 7/10.

Lee’s Price Point Rating Score. 10/10.

Lee’s Picture Rating Score. 10/10.

Lee’s 5.1 Rating Score. 8/10.

Lee’s Stereo Mix Rating Score. 7/10.

Lee’s Live Concert Rating Score. 8/10.

2 thoughts on “Lee Speaks About Music… #102

  1. Dead right, Trevor Rabin is a Rock guitarist and though he is very good he lacks the Versatility of Howe, who can switch from Folk strumming to Classical Fingerstyle and flashy Jazz lines in a second. But in my opinion both, Howe and Rabin, could be copied easily by a highly trained modern player. Only the singer can not be substituted and I realised it myself, when I saw YES with the Anderson replacement. I have a different opinion about “Going for a one” and would place it into the line of great YES-albums. Though it contains only one song in the old Yes style they could transfer their trademarks to the two shorter Rocksongs “Parallels” and the title song, and “Wonderous stories” is a wonderful ballad. Only Turn if the century leaves the high level a bit.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I have never been a fan of Trevor Rabin to be honest and to me he was never the right guitarist for a band like Yes. Regarding Going For The One it’s a good album but not like it’ s predecessors. I could also say exactly the same thing about the Pink Floyd album The Wall. Both are commercial albums and both albums were more promoted and even advertised on Television. I also find the biggest majority of fans who praise those albums heard those albums before the bands previous albums and that is why those fans like those albums the best. For myself who was into both bands before those albums came out. I very much see those albums in a different light, ad for me they both have their weaknesses in comparison to what both bands were writing before.

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