If you we a fan in the '70s, back in the day, and lost your Yesway [like me], I want to know what brought you back.

Details, please.

No such thing as too much information in this thread.

I want to know more about my relatives in the Family of Yes . . .


Beg to hear your wonderous stories

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Hi Melissa!
I've been following the Yes guy's around since 71 and I've never lost my way regardless of the line-up or the albums.There's never been a time when I've completely just put them on a shelf and let them sit.Theres times when I don't listen to them for a few weeks or longer and at some point one of the cds gets popped in and away I go so I do take little breaks but not usually for too long.There's times I take breaks from all music just to enjoy the quiet time.Listen to the birds sing ya know.

Well, Mark, that's certainly a lovely story, but it's not about returning to Yes, now IS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, thanks for the response. Many days I wish I'd never lost my Yesway, not so much for the albums, which I can buy, but for the lost concert opportunities. I can't ever make up for that. [excuse me now while I go and slit my wrists; back later]

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Hey heres something else.Since 71 I've NEVER missed a tour. Yowsa yowsa yowsa.Yep,and every one of them was a total mind blowing experience.You should've been there.

You're a mean, mean man, Mark Poppe.

Are you trying to make me cry?

I'm going to ignore you completely now.

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

"Here's the story, of a man named Brady..."
Wait, wait, that's not it!!

I was a huge fan in the 70's. First heard The Yes Album in 1971 (courtesy of a friend's older brother), and then Roundabout on the radio and Fragile of course, and CTTE locked it up. Skipped school and headed downtown to Sam's or A+A's to buy Tales and Relayer and GFTO when they came out.

And then came Tormato (which I still liked) and university, and the people I lived with and hung out didn't like prog, and introduced me to loads of other music (most of which I still like too). Meanwhile, we had Drama (everyone knows how I feel about that, right? ) and then 90125 and OOLALA. And that wasn't my Yes. And that was the end for me. Plus there was work now, and marriage, and raising a family, and all that stuff...

And then one day about 3 years ago, I saw a copy of CTTE on the $4.99 rack, and I remembered how much I loved that album. And I got it and put it right on in the car and the years and the memories came rushing back.
The announcement of the 2004 tour roughly coincided with the kids being old enough to re-claim our lives, and I decided that I wanted to see Yes. But I needed the secret password for the radio station pre-sale, and a little Googling introduced me to Yesfans. And the rest, as they say, is history!

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"Strange how potent cheap music is" (Noel Coward)

I'm not mean.I'm nice.If I could take you back in time Melissa I would take you on every tour and return you completely to the world of Yes.Honest injun.

Thanks for posting, Pauli. Excellent story.

I can totally relate to the friends who weren't into prog. I guess that's partly what happened to me, too.
CTTE was also my first choice of rebuy. I wonder how many of us returnees chose it too.
I found Yesfans because I obsessively google EVERYTHING. I actually found the site in Oct, found it to daunting with my memory of yesmusic being so dim, and didn't come back until I'd heard me some.

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

I believe you, Mark Poppe, and your post made my poor little yeslovin' self melt.

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

I first heard Yes in 1973 at a schoolfriend's house - it was The Yes Album. I was hooked from the first listen. I'd been a huge Genesis fan from '72 and they were still my fave band for many years after first hearing Yes.

I saw Yes on the Relayer tour, in Glasgow and then again on the GFTO tour, also in Glasgow. I had all their LPs by then and continued to buy them up to Drama. I wasn't too keen on Tormato and didn't see them on that tour. I also bought Olias and FOOW and loved them both.

After Drama and Jon leaving, I sort of lost interest a bit. I emigrated to Australia in 1983, and heard OOALH on the radio at that time. That wasn't the Yes I knew and loved, so didn't buy 90125, or any other subsequent albums.

As Yes don't have much of a profile in Australia - maybe to do with the lack of tours there - I didn't hear any more of them for many years. I got into different music at that time - lots of Aussie bands such as INXS, Midnight Oil, Divinyls etc.

I was in LA around 96-97 and saw a poster advertising Yes touring, so I was aware that they were still around and I longed for them to tour Australia.

It wasn't until 2002 when I saw an advert in a Sunday paper for Yes touring Australia in March 2003 that I really got back into them. I joined Yesfanz and also Yesfans and saw the Sydney concert in September 2003. What a revelation! I'd been back into the music for almost a year by then, and seeing them on stage once more was just incredible. I was in tears.

By this time I had all the 90125-onwards CDs and really liked what I heard of the "new" Yes. I'll always be a Trooper first and foremost though.

I went to the UK in 2004 and saw shows in London, Manchester, Glasgow.

In October 2005 I went to the UK for Jon's solo tour.

So after almost a 20-year gap, I'm a born-again Yesfan!

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Childlike soul dreamer

I got into Yes in 1989, and followed their music religiously until about 1997/8. The fact that they consistently overlooked Australia as a tour destination, together with the generally poor standard of their albums from Union onwards meant that I lost interest in the late 90's. A lot like True Believer, it was that tour in 2003 that brought me 'full circle' back to the band, and my appreciation of them has been growing ever since. I remember in November 2002 watching morning TV with my wife, and the (usually lame) entertainment news came on. The presenter uttered the words (something like) ". . . .and in touring news, 70's progressive rock dinosaurs Yes will be heading down under in 2003". I started punching the air and dancing around the room like a man possessed, much to my wife's dismay.

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This is the end. I never thought I'd hear myself say those words after all these years. You put your life into something... build it, protect it... The end is as unimaginable as your own death or the death of your children. I could never have scripted the events that led us to this. None of us could.

I first heard Yes around the time of 'The Yes Album'.

It was my first Yes record.


Others followed - plus, I went back to see where they started.

As time went on life took other directions.

Yet through it all the Yes records remained when others were consigned to the second-hand shop.

From time to time I'd search for 'lost' items.

Listening was sporadic though.

Often it seemed that Yes found me.

Reading a quote in a music magazine - ABWH, the Union tour, the boxed set release.

Hearing a reference on radio - 'Talk'.

Transferring vinyl to cassette.

Then finding CDs.

In 1995/6 I advertised for Yes items. Didn't get much response but found a fellow Aussie who I've since re-found at Yesfans.

Came across the new 'Keys' CD.

Started collecting any Yes items I could locate.

For the past four or five years I've probably only missed a handful of days where I didn't listen to at least one Yes/Yes related song.

Most days I wear a Yes T-shirt for part of the day.

I don't know if I really ever went away - I don't think Yes would let me. They were always there, even if I didn't realise.

A return?

More a re-AWAKENing.

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MICHAEL

sometimes i think that yes is the only living thing - e e cummings

Thank you so much for your wonderful story.

I can relate totally about the quality, but for me, it has more to do with being uninterested in hearing more when I heard OOALH on the radio. I liked the song okay, but it didn't touch me at all in the way that Yes had in the seventies. Of course, I'd lost my Yesway long before OOALH, but the chance to find my way back was lost in the '80s. Better the authentic artistry and heart of Bruce Springsteen than the whatever-that-was Yes I think was my response at the time.

I'm glad we're back!

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Thank you for your wonderous story.

I, for one, don't know how I ever went without it or had the thought "AllYes on AOLRadio? I wonder how dated it's gonna sound to me now?"

I'm listening to GFTO ripped to my office computer right now -- Wonderous Stories, in fact -- and I'm almost moved to tears. Here comes Awaken. Oh, oh, how beautiful this all is . . .

When I first reheard them, the lyrics wouldn't leave my head and I was so proud that I still remembered them -- Relayer and CTTE, especially. I guess in a way they never really left me either. The music was there in the Yes corner of my musicsoul just waiting to be re-awakened. What a nice way to think about it. Thank you.

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

I guess I fit this category, to some degree...

I got into Yes, initially, in the Early 80s, ironically, when there was NO Yes (Between Drama & 90125)....

I saw the Yessongs movie on USA Night Flight....(I knew a few songs from the radio already)
Then ordered the album from Columbia House....

My interest kept growing thoughout the decade, even though I was more into Metal at that point....
By the Late 80s/Early 90s I was a total Yes freak.....

In the Mid 90s I got back into KISS pretty strong, but still saw Yes in '98....

I was full back on board by 2002, when my wife asked me to play her some Yes....

I'm sure she still regrets it!

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"Control yourself, or you'll spurt!" ~ John Lennon in A Hard Day's Night


Raven's Mist Has Moved! Check out the new & improved site!

this is a pretty solid statment for me melissa.

i was a huge YES fan from about '75 on having an older brother that rammed the prog landscape into my ears: Crimson, Genesis, ELP, Gentle Giant.......Yes was my true love of those followed by Gabriel Genesis.....

i held my own trying to convert the metal heads in high school who preached the gospel of zepellin and kiss. thankfully through healthy debate i was introduced to rush at that time......but's that's a topic for another thread.

i saw YES on the GFTO tour and again and again in the round on the Tormato and then 10th anniv tour......hardly noticed that after Tormato nothing was coming out of the YES camp in '80 but i was fully immersed in college then and spending every night hanging out with pink floyd's wall

but then the news hit that the new yes album was coming out and another tour. so off to the record store and ticketmaster i went. much to my surprise jon was gone........but i still liked the harder edge to drama. the live show was a different story though and then the guys gave up.

i moved on to different stuff including the springsteen music......saw a bunch of dead shows and dozens of others. i remember hearing owner and thinking anderson hooked up with some techno pop act.....then i found out it was yes without howe and understood why the "sound" wasn't there. i was not intersted in this YES.

flash forward 5-6 years. my brother (yeah the prog guy) is in town and slips my ABW&H raving about the music. unfortunately this disc was given to me long after the tour and actually the group was already kaput.......then life took over with kids and mortgage payments and jobs

then in 2000 i hear YES is at grant park in chicago and it's free......the best price for the kids and housepayment kind of yes fan.......i go....i hear ctte, gates and ritual.......wow! the fire is rekindled. the band is back.....they toured a few more times but for various reasons i just couldn't get to the shows and i promised myself the next tour i would go........i pulled up yesworld to find out when that would be......found yesfans just as the 35th anniversary tour was being announced.............met this thoughtbecontact person on YF....went to the rosemont pre-show........discovered weeds.....

sat 20 feet from steve in merrillville and saw the show of all shows at red rocks

and it's like i never left...........

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and they're giving me a wonderful potion 'cos i cannot contain my emotion

What a great story! Thanks.

Ah, USA Night Flight, that was before they became the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit channel, right1 I remember that show, but I never saw Yessongs on it . . . Too bad, because I might have come to my Yessenses sooner

I love that you describe yourself as 'total Yes freak'; so very apropos.

You're lucky that your wife loves them as well -- at least that's what I understand you to mean. I'm working on my husband . . .

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Thank you for all the detail. It's wonderful!

I can sort of identify about being around what you refer to as prog heads. For me, there was a guy named Rick who played guitar and I sang -- one of our numbers was Your Move. He was also into the Strawbs and Gentle Giant. I had other friends earlier on who were totally into ELP and Pink Floyd [and the must have Deep Purple Made in Japan. Total head music]
Then there was my friend Anita who also sang, and she introduced me to Renaissance. Anita and I would sing sing sing along [we were both sopranos, but of course without Annie's range or quality of voice.]

I must admit to not holding my own among metal lovers, or any other kind of lover, and I never even tried. I've always tried to interest people close to me about music, but I drop out the moment the debate bell rings.

I wish I'd run into your brother and he'd given me the ABWH. I would have had enough of a head start to NOT miss the 35th anniversary tour. I'm afraid to buy the DVD because just holding it in my hand in Borders makes me wanna cry.

I look forward to the day when I can feel more like I never left. I gotta say, though, learning lyrics was much easier when I was 15 . . .

Oh, BTW, nice e.e. cummings impersonation.

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

I have seen every tour at least once with the exception of Magnification and the Ultimate tour.The first was the Yes Album tour in New Jersey and i am quessing in the summer of 1971. Yes was incredible live and they got better and better and better throughout the 70's. Every album in the 70's up to Tormato was a knockout.Every show was fantastic and they were all great shows with wonderful light shows and stage designs. For me the In The Round show was a little annoying. The Music was great but the stage moving slowly around in a circle was irritating.I have seen a few other in the round shows by other groups and they were annoying also so it is a thing with me.

Tormato was enjoyable but the first album i felt that was not up to the Yes standards. It was not surprising that Yes took a break after Tormato. Drama was an effort to capitalize on the great success of the 70's and i along with all my Yes friends left the Drama show saying never again. To me it is amazing that some of the Yes players even tried to do the More Drama Tour last year and i should have known better than to get tickets to the Borgata show. 90125 came and what a show. A totally different Yes! Nowhere near the sophistication of the 70's band but great music none-the-less. I loved the 90125 and B.G tours. I went to 3 90125 shows.They all rocked and i loved these shows just as much as the 70's shows. Rabin was great and i always liked Tony Kaye. I believe it is ridiculous to get in a debate about the merits of Rabin vs. Howe and all the rest. 90125 was a great album and Yes reached the top again.Then ABWH and one of the great shows live ever. A tour-de-force! Bruford was great and Wakeman was on the top of his game. The album was a good one but the live show was great. Then Union and the beginning of the end for Yes. A mediocre album at best but the live show was great.

Then Talk! Horrible album and a bad Yesshow. Saw the show and it was the worst live show ever with maybe 1000 people in the audience. I took some friends to see Yes for the first time and it was embarassing. 1000 people with a capacity of 13000. The place was like a morgue. There were rumors 2 hours before the show that Yes was experiencing serious infighting and the show was going to be cancelled but it did come off. The show was poor and it was obvious that Squire and Anderson were at each others throats.

Then Open Your Eyes and another bad album and the show was better than Talk but still not that good. Finally a decent album with The Ladder. The live show was quite good and the album was wonderful. Then another poor album with Magnification. The Masterworks was a letdown as the epics need to be played with Moraz or Wakeman.A yawner and a good funeral album was Magnification. The last Yes show was The Full Circle with Wakeman and it was a knockout of a show. Wakeman added alot of spice to the Magnification pieces(ITPO) and it was a great show but no more than 2200 people were at the show.

I have been a Yes fan all my life. I have never left the band or lost my way but i must admit since Talk it has been mainly downhill with the exception of a decent Ladder album. Keys is the only album since Tormato with the classic 5 and it could not be sold without packaging it with live old classics so we have seen the last album with the classic 5. Wakeman and Anderson may do another album with other players but that remains to be seen. Yes definitely needs changes for it to continue no matter how many are in denial on this issue.

Well, to paraphase myself in my response to Mark, that's a very nice story, but it's not about what brought you back to Yes, now is it . . .
I'm glad for you that you've been with them all along, and as for the artistic merits of later albums, well, it's not something I can discuss intelligently because I haven't gotten there yet . . .

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Well i never left Yes so if i never left than there is nothing that brought me back!

My point exactly. :

I asked for stories about returning to Yes!

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Yor are being persipitity Melissa just like my wife this morning!

I'm sorry. I don't mean to be persipitity.
It's just that I started this thread to commune with others like me. Reading stories about people who never missed a thing makes me sad right now, as I communicated in an earlier response.

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

Just teasing Melissa.

Thanks, Truebeliever. Sorry I didn't respond to your post sooner, but there were three posts in a row when I checked and I somehow missed yours. You have a great story.

I can totally relate to Drama and Jon leaving as the place you left Yes. I just got the disc and don't care all that much for it.

As for not hearing much about them because of the lack of profile in Australia, well, I was here in the states the whole time and never heard about them, either. I guess there are many ways to miss out on Yes

I envy you seeing an advert for a tour in 2002. I wish I'd been paying just a smidge more attention because maybe I'd have found my way back in time to see 35th anniversary. I don't doubt that if I'm lucky enough to see them onstage again, I'll be in tears too.

I can also relate to your trooper heart. As I go forward in time with Yes music, I like what I hear just fine, and I'm sure I'll come to love it, but I don't think anything will ever compare for me to the Classic Six, with CTTE being at the absolute top of the list.

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Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

I came back to Yes because of CD technology. I really had lost all interest in music during the early 80's, but I was eventually given one of those new-fangled cd players for Christmas (round about 1985). So, off I went to pick up a few albums (including Yes, Crimson, PFM, etc). 90125 came as quite a shock, I can tell you, but I was soon hooked all over again. I guess once your infected the virus stays with you

Yeah....she like 'em too, but not to ste same degree as I do.....lol...I have to back off sometimes to keep her from gettig burned out on it.....

She occasionally posts here & at yf as Mists of Morrigan....

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"Control yourself, or you'll spurt!" ~ John Lennon in A Hard Day's Night


Raven's Mist Has Moved! Check out the new & improved site!

I never, ever fully left Yes. But I missed some stuff along the way. For me, the turning point, or should I say, the drop-off point, was Union. I couldn't fully get into that CD. It failed to grab me as other Yes works, or ABWH did. I guess you could say that normal everyday life got in the way, too. The funny thing was, the music was always there, but I had shifted focus.

My joke about the 1990s is that I spent the entire decade in ice rinks, which is not too far from the truth. It started slowly, first with my eldest who started skating lessons in 1990, and then with my son, who started a year later. My eldest became a competitive skater quickly, and at the height of her involvement (which actually came in about 2000-2001), was skating a solid six days per week (sometimes seven), with ballet and off-ice conditioning included. That that point, my son was also playing competitive hockey almost year-round, with summer ice devoted to 3-on-3 leagues and camps. Add my youngest's surprise appearance into the mix in 1999, along with trying to work, having a husband who travelled, etc., and you get the picture.

Music has always been a mainstay in our home, as I took keyboard lessons for 10 years as a child. I was also involved in radio in college, so I was always interested in what new music was out there. But because the rest of my life revolved so much around my kids, I was often stuck with what was on the radio, hearing only what the programmers deemed was important for the listening public to hear. I was aware of the various Yes CDs--Talk, Keys, etc., although on OYE. I knew about Billy, I knew about Igor. Heard when they were coming to town, etc., but I was either at a skating competition, hockey tournament, or something...or I could find no one to go with me. Concerts really were few and far between.

The turning point came in late 2002. I was out for the afternoon, doing some appliance shopping with my husband. We were essentially finished, and he had run into a store to get something. I sat in the car and heard a radio ad for the upcoming Yes show. When he returned I said to him, "You know my birthday is coming up, and I haven't seen Yes in years. If you ask Sharon (a concert ticket connection) if she can get tickets for this, that's all I really want for my birthday." Well, he did. Sharon secured four tickets for us. When we got to the Chicago Theater, there was a mix-up, and our name was not on the list. My husband had trouble getting in touch with Sharon, but eventually he did about a half hour before the show--but she had to get in touch with the promoter to straighten things out.

We eventually did get in...just as Firebird was starting...so we just quickly handed our tickets to the usher, who took us down front. Fourth row. Right in front of Wakeman. I almost cried. I hadn't been that close in years. That show was the first Nine Voices show in November 2002. I hadn't seen Yes since the 90125 tour in 1984. Something sparked in me that night. It was one of those life-changing moments. It sounds corny, but everyone around me noticed.

Because my other half follows Rush and had been on that band's internet forums, I new there were websites devoted to bands, figured there had to be something for Yes, so I started surfing. I found Yesworld. Looked around for a bit, joined YF in early December. I remember the first person that I ever responded to there was Arno (Mr. Holland). By the end of the month, I was hooked. I quickly made friends. My first two solid friends, PeterCologne and Tardistraveler, are people I wouldn't trade for the world, and I have met a number of absolutely wonder true blue people along the way.

I slowly found my way back through the music I had missed, buying one CD at a time, the studio works first, discussing what was for me, new material. I will never forget the day that I got my first Yes weed from Deelovesyes in February 2003. It was a copy of the Nine Voices show, and I was so insane about it, that I played it six times that day. Along the way, I started to learn that a lot of the other bands I had liked were still producing new music. Peter started sending me copies of live shows he had, and my collection started growing. My weed collection took a huge upswing at the first YF gathering in 2003. I returned home with a treasure trove full of shows.

The crowning memories for me, however, lie in 2004, a sort of second adolescence I guess, when I went to five Yes shows, hosted two preshows, the first of which drew about 150 people in May for the Allstate show, and then Merrillville show in September. But the best time of all was travelling to England with Kathi in June for the 35th anniversary show, meeting people from around the world at the Wembley preshow in Shakespeare's Head in London. I hadn't had so much simple fun in years.

Then, later that year, we started this site, and the rest is history.

Thanks to the great guys on Delicious Agony, as well as my other internet friends, I am exposed to all sorts of new music. I now have a local group of friends with whom I can go to concerts...and instead of lamenting that I have no one to go with, I now have such lofty problems as, "Ok, which one...Steely Dan or Adrian Belew...they're both on the same day!"

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Deep within the dark
We sometimes catch a spark...

Wow! Beautiful post