I wasn't really into Yes before seeing them back in 1973 in Brisbane Australia, but that one show converted me. Alas, I no longer have any memories of that show, apart from the mirror ball used in CTTE, and the explosions during Rick=92s solo spot. So after waiting 25 years, with no return performance, I decided to go on my first ever overseas trip and see some shows in the current Summer tour in North America.
I got in touch with a number of fans on the west coast (courtesy of NFTE and southside.org) and arranged to meet up with them along the way. My plan was to see 7 shows in 9 days, Vancouver (July 17) through to Las Vegas (July 25). The concerts have all received numerous reviews, and without wanting go over that ground again I will only add that each and every show surpassed my wildest dreams, the playing, the sound, the lights, the atmosphere, and of course the Yes fans. Apart from the shows
themselves I had no specific plans or hopes. The concerts were the ONLY reason for my trip, anything else that might happen along the way (whatever that might be) would be a bonus. So here are some of the bonuses, the additional special memories, the icing on the cake.
Firstly, my heartfelt thanks go out to Mark DiNapoli, Willie Lynch, and KC McBride in particular, their assistance both before and during the trip helped make it the most amazing experience in my entire life.
Vancouver - July 17
While hanging around the gig and talking to the road crew, I Met Carlos from Edmonton. He was on his way to San Francisco with a stopover in Vancouver for the concert, and he just happened to be staying at the same hotel as me. We traded stories while waiting for the Boys to turn up for a soundcheck. At 5:30pm Alan Pansons and band turned up, and eventually around 6:30pm Alan and Chris drove up followed by Billy. They didn't stop for a chat or autographs, and went straight into the gig. About 20 minutes later Jon turned up followed by Steve and both of them came over to talk to the fans who were waiting. Alan also came back out
to the carpark and joined in. I got to talk to Jon, Steve and Alan and also got autographs and some photos, and this was before the first show. This was definitely a good omen for the rest of my trip.
My seat for this first show was about two-thirds of the way back, but directly in front of the stage with good line of sight to the stage, and Carlos was a couple of rows behind me. Alan Parsons was OK but a little disappointing. During the intermission the sense of anticipation was incredible, then when the Firebird Suite come on, tears started streaming down my face. I could hardly believe where I was, and what I was about to see and hear. Then they came on stage and went straight into SK. The sound was nice and loud (without being too loud), very clear, each member could be heard clearly in the mix, and the lights just blew me away. The whole show was so wonderfully emotional, the tears stayed with me through most of the concert. Carlos told me after
the show that he had been exactly the same.
Seattle July 18
Met up with Mark at my hotel in Seattle and headed off without a map and consequently got an un-guided tour of Redmond on the way to the Chateau St. Michelle Winery (the gig). Mark had arranged to meet up with some friends who live in Woodinville, not far from the gig, for some pre-show drinks, then off to the gig. The band relaxed a bit on this night, there were a few little mistakes, but somehow it just didn't seem to matter (from a listening perspective), and the band just rolled on relentlessly
(very professional). At one point Jon said Hello Washington, DC and the crowd jeered, then Ah, Washington, er Seattle, Washington and still the crowd jeered (sort of a friendly jeer), then Jon said I got it wrong, didn't I? Oh shit! and the crowd now joined in and laughed and cheered. A great relaxed atmosphere out in the countryside amongst the trees, under a clear blue sky as night rolled in. It felt like this is where Yes should play all their gigs, out close to nature instead of in man-made structures, overall it was still quite a special gig.
Reno - July 20
Met up with Willie and soaked up some of the local ambiance, met an Aussie who had been living in the USA for 10 years and had a good old chin-wag about things OZ. Went to the gig and picked up my ticket from Will Call, and when I got to my seat, I was sitting next to Mark, we had bought our tickets from opposite sides of the globe before we had even met on the net and there we were with seats next to each other. Mark told me that he had just bumped into Mr Squire inside the Hilton before the show, had a brief talk before leaving him in peace. The stage didn't have the backdrop that night because it was a bit windy which meant you could see through the stage and see planes taking off and landing from the Reno airport which was only half mile or so behind the
stage. At the end of the encore just as the band was finishing, suddenly there were fireworks from behind the stage. They lasted some 2-3 minutes until just after the band had left the stage. This was the only night I saw fireworks.
Concorde - July 21
Drove to Concorde with Willie via Lake Tahoe, Sacramento and San
Francisco (yes, I got to see the famous Lombard St.). Concorde was the first gig I saw that had large Video screens, each gig had something new to offer. Each night so far my seat had been getting closer to the stage, this night I was only 40 feet from the stage in front of Steve with the PA and a large video screen to my left. Jon made a reference to being glad to be back in the Bay area=92 and it showed in their playing this night as well, they were pretty pumped up.
On the bus to the airport the next morning, I met Bill and Jamie, who had also been to the Concorde show. They were old school buddies who had met up again at a recent school re-union, and had agreed to stay in touch. Bill was from Portland and Jamie was from LA and they decided to meet up for the Yes show at Concorde. We swapped stories about the show, our respective Yes histories and went on our way.
San Diego - July 22
Joined up with Mark again and met up with a friend of his, Dave. For this concert I had a 2nd row seat right in the centre that I had booked over the net from in Australia. Picked up my ticket from the Will Call and sure enough, Section CCC Row 2 Seat 5. I was so excited to actually have this ticket in my hand. I watched Alan Parsons from a seat up the back, then during the intermission I worked my way down towards the front. The feeling of walking towards the stage through the 7 rows in the Orchestra Pit was simply amazing, the stage felt like a living breathing city that I was entering. When I got to Row 2, I realized that
there was NO Row 1. Row 2 was actually the front row. Just remembering that experience again now still makes me so emotional. I met a number of the other fans who also had front row seats, chatted, swapped stories, and genuinely felt part of the greater Yes Family. I must explain here that I have never before seen a concert from anywhere near this close, let alone the front row. I found myself singing along with the band all
night, not only the vocal parts but also the guitar and bass parts as well. Being this close I just felt like I had to be so involved with everything that was going on just 6 feet in front of me. Lots of eye contact from Steve, Jon, Chris and Billy. Words just fail to describe the feeling of this night, sensory overload, just wonderful.
Los Angeles - July 24
Caught the train up to LA the day before the gig to attend the in-store appearance at Good Guys in Glendale. Met KC at Union Station and headed off to Good Guys. Got there with an hour to spare, met some friends of KC's in the queue, Matt, Anastasia, Donald, and Lee. Mark was also in the queue just a few positions in front of where we were. When we got inside we found out that Alan was sick and was not there, but Igor was there, so I got 5 out of 6 autographs on my tour program. I got to talk with each member, some of them remembered me from Vancouver, and also
from the front row seat the night before in San Diego. This trip was just getting better and better.
On the day of the gig, KC and I went to Universal about lunch time, somehow I just had to get Alan=92s autograph on my tour program to complete the full set. We tried to get to the back stage area but couldn't even get close, security was pretty tight. We went to the box office to pick up my ticket, both my ticket and KC's were up in the Mezzanine, and about half the amphitheatre apart. We discovered from the couple in front of us in the queue that upgrades were available so we asked, and got 2 seats together just to the right of the mixer in the middle of the auditorium.
About half an hour before the show while waiting to meet up with some friends of KC's, we noticed a couple repeatedly going up to the Will Call window. We started talking to them and discovered that they were from Perth Australia, and had flown over to LA for the one show. Jeff had been a long time fan of Alan Parsons and Colleen had been a long time fan of Yes. They didn't know anything about the tour or the shows until 2 weeks prior to the LA show, and in that time they had organised tickets for the show, plane tickets, accommodation, they had also spoken to John Obt from DTS (the sponsor of the current tour) who had promised
them VIP passes which they could collect from the Will Call office. They got their tickets from the Will Call OK, but their VIP passes hadn't turned up yet.
Their seats were about half way back but were way over to one side, so I mentioned the upgrades that we had got earlier in the day and suggested they try and do the same. They came back a couple of minutes later with 2 tickets about 40 feet in front of Steve (Stage Left), even better than the seats that KC and I had got earlier that day. Meanwhile their passes still had turned up and it was now only 15 minutes from showtime. It was then that I saw some road crew with Access All Areas passes so I suggested that Jeff talk to them about his passes. They knew John Obt
and immediately directed us to him around behind the Will Call stand. In talking to John Obt we discovered that there had been a problem with the passes and John took a note of Jeff and Colleen's seat numbers and promised to get the passes to them during the show. I then asked if he could arrange for 2 more passes for myself and KC, and he said he couldn't promise anything but if he could get them he would leave them
with Jeff and Colleen.
During the show, in the middle of Yes set John Obt came out with 2 passes for Jeff and Colleen. As a result of Colleen's subsequent pleading, John returned a few minutes later with 2 more passes for KC and myself, which Jeff promptly brought straight over to us. I must give Jeff, Colleen and John Obt a VERY BIG THANK YOU.
Knowing that this was Jeff and Colleen's first ever Yes show, all during the night I kept reliving my experience from the Vancouver show just one week earlier. Then later in the set Jon introduced a local school choir onto the stage and they sang No Way We Can Lose with the band. The tears were streaming down my face again, not only from seeing these young kids singing Yes music on stage with Yes in front of this warm and receptive crowd, but also from realising that Jeff and Colleen, at their one and only concert, got this one-off extra.
After the show we got into the aftershow party and met Chris, Billy, Igor and Alan, and I got my last autograph from Alan in my tour program. Unfortunately we didn't have cameras with us, due to the body searches getting into the amphitheatre, but at least we got the passes. Colleen was still waiting for Jon to turn up, she had a drawing of Jon that she had done when she was 11 years old which she desperately wanted Jon to sign. After about an hour, the party was starting to wind down when KC suddenly saw Jon pop his head around the door, we quickly rushed over to
Colleen to tell her Jon was here. Jon was actually on the way to his car, so Colleen rushed out of the party after him, and Jon graciously signed her drawing. Colleen came back clutching the drawing to her chest with the most amazing look on her face, she was in heaven.
Las Vegas - July 25
Drove to Vegas with KC, we played Yes music continuously for the whole trip. I'm glad she had an air-conditioner in her car, the Big Thermometer said it was over 110 degrees in the shade. In the Hard Rock during the day we met a lady with Yes earrings who also had a Yes tattoo on her shoulder. Also met up with Mike Tiano and Cindy before heading off for lunch in the restaurant inside the Hard Rock. Jon and Jane were having lunch also, and even though there were a number of fans around, they all let Jon and Jane have their lunch in peace and quiet. I found this very touching, that the fans knew when to keep their distance. Billy was also up the back of the restaurant, and when he was leaving, he recognised me and gave me a quick wave and a Hey Man, and I waved back.
I thought my last show would be a bit sad, but strangely enough I found myself in a joyful mood, just celebrating with the boys up there on stage doing another show for everybody. During the intermission, KC managed to score herself a front row, centre seat, so we met up again after the show. We managed to get to the aftershow party this night as well, it was only a small gathering but this time we had cameras. Billy, Alan and Chris were there for some promotional shots with DTS personnel. After they had finished, they were very gracious and allowed KC and I to get shots with each of them, and also with Mike Tiano and Pablo.
Driving across the desert back to LA the next day we played more Yes music, we just couldn't get enough. It was just one more day before I would be heading off back to Australia, this amazing odyssey was just about at its end. KC and I decided to stay in touch in the future, thanks to Yes we have both found a special soulmate.
To those people I met but forgot to mention, you know who you are, Thank You to everyone I met during my adventure, you all helped make it that extra special event that I dared not even hope it might be. To all the extended Yes Family, you are truly a very special group of people, I love you all.
Soon, Oh Soon, (in Australia),
Still up on Cloud Nine,
Douglas Hills
