Produced by Wayne Hall and Jeffrey Crecelius

I was on the road this week but still managed to catch up with Mark and Henry Potts to discuss the news that Yes will not be playing Relayer on the upcoming tour but have opted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Close To The Edge instead.

I was in a hotel room with just my laptop but this news was clearly too important to miss.

* Why has Relayer been shelved?* Will we ever hear the full album live?* Is it too soon to play Close To The Edge in its entirety again?

Listen to the episode and let us know what you think!

PRESS RELEASE:

50th Anniversary Celebration

of Close to the Edge

for UK

The Album Series Tour in June

8th March 2022: Progressive pioneers YES have announced a change to their forthcoming The Album Series Tour 2022 as they will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their iconic album Close to the Edge. This tour, twice rescheduled due to the Covid pandemic was intended to showcase YES’s 1974 classic Relayer album but will now feature Close to the Edge, performed in full, along with other classic tracks from YES’s extensive catalogue.  An announcement regarding the European dates will be made shortly.

The tour line-up features Steve Howe (guitars), Alan White (drums), Geoff Downes (keyboards), Jon Davison (vocals), Billy Sherwood (bass guitar and backing vocals) with additional drums and percussion by Jay Schellen. All tour dates are as previously announced and all tickets remain valid. A full performance of the Relayer album will now be featured in a future tour in The Album Series.

The show will comprise full production and a high-definition video wall directed by Roger Dean who will also be joining the tour with an exhibition of YES related art.

Following the release of The Yes Album and Fragile, in 1971, YES released what is widely considered one of the most defining albums, not only for YES but for the whole progressive movement. Close to the Edge became an inspiration for their contemporaries and for successive generations of musicians.

“We reached a real high, doing ‘Close to the Edge’,” said Steve Howe. “We valued the musicianship, the artistic ideas and the vocalising that people bring and that’s why we’re still doing it, because it’s exciting to do! ‘Close to the Edge’ was voted the most-proggy album possibly ever made. It was very experimental. We had already done 10-minute epics but with ‘Close to the Edge’ we just took it a stage further and I’m very pleased we were brave enough to do that.”

YES 2022 UK Tour Dates Are:

June 2022

15th June       Wednesday   Glasgow        Royal Concert Hall

17th June       Friday             Manchester   Bridgewater Hall

18th June       Saturday        Nottingham   Royal Concert Hall

20th June       Monday          Liverpool        Philharmonic Hall

21st June        Tuesday         London           Royal Albert Hall

22nd June       Thursday  ...