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Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
@Maxximum23Clark
10:30 AM 5th May 2016
arts

Review: Yes At Sheffield City Hall

 
Many of the classic bands of the Seventies are touring and playing the whole of an album in its entirety in the order the tracks follow on the record.

Yes have done this previously but on this tour they are playing two very different albums, Fragile from 1971 and Drama from 1980.

I was expecting the Fragile album to be performed in the first half of the gig rather than the Drama album.

As the band walk on stage they are accompanied by their track Onward dedicated to bass player Chris Squire who sadly passed away last year.

On this tour besides legendary Yes guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Alan White there is Keyboard player Geoff Downes, bass player Billy Sherwood and vocalist Jon Davison.

The Drama album was a turning point for the band as the duo The Buggles, (Video Killed the Radio Star) Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes joined Yes.

Geoff Downes and Jon Davison
Geoff Downes and Jon Davison
At the time it raised eyebrows amongst the Yes fans, yet 36 years on the songs from the album are met with a standing ovation from the fans at the end of nearly every song.

With songs off the album such as Into the Lens you can hear Downes and Horn's influences on the band: the pop approach they brought to elements of the songs and the technological element is evident.

In vocalist Jon Davison the band have found a vocalist who sounds like former Yes vocalist Jon Anderson, yet on the Drama album it was Trevor Horn who sang the vocals who has a different tone to Davison.

Tonight it was like hearing the album as if Jon Anderson has sung the songs or Jon Davison. On some of the UK gigs later on the tour Horn is joining the band on stage.

After the interval the band deliver a storming version of Owner of a Lonely Heart before Howe does in true Monty Python style "and now for something completely different" as Roundabout from the Fragile album sounds around the Sheffield City Hall.

The fans are in their element as one of the classic Yes tracks sounds just as good 45 years later with the track and the band influencing bands from It Bites to Marillion to newer bands such as Everything Everything.

Steve Howe and Jon Davison
Steve Howe and Jon Davison
The rest of the album follows with South Side of the Sky and Long Distance Runaround being highlights.

Another standing ovation follows from the audience as the band come centre stage together at the end of the show. They all looked genuinely pleased from the warm welcome they had received from the Yorkshire audience.

Starship Trooper is left for the encore in what had been a night of classic rock from talented musicians who are all still at the top of their game. Pure class.