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22. September 05  - Jon Anderson - Konzert -  Theaterhaus Stuttgart
                                                                 
 YES im Juni 2004 in Europa!
  Welche Freude!

Ralf und Kerstin
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YES in Deutschland 2003!

 

     11.  Juni 2003   Berlin, Germany       (  Im Tempodrom)

 

Immer und immer wieder! YES muß man einfach selbst erleben! Unbeschreiblich!

YES-Fans:  Winston, Paula, Kerstin, Ralf, Marielle, Peter


 

Es macht uns glücklich so viele Gleichgesinnte kennengelert zu haben!

Das war ein ganz großer Augenblick.
Es ist wirklich das Beste, was YES passieren konnte, Rick Wakeman wieder dabei zu haben. Ein sehr, sehr symphatischer Mensch mit einer ganz natürlichen Ausstrahlung.
 
 
 

Auf dem Balkon stehen:  Jan, Winston, Kerstin, Thomas und Ralf

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Blumen für YES und  Worte des Dankes.


Nach dem Konzert, sichtlich geschafft.
 


 

Mit Danny aus Belgien.

 

Konzertbericht von Dieter Löffler aus dem Südkurier Singen Hohentwiel  Juli 2003

 Wenn Rockstars ins Rentenalter kommen, führt der  Weg nicht zwangsläufig in den Ruhestand. Sie  können weitermachen wie bisher (Rolling Stones), auf Kaufhaus-Musik umsteigen (Genesis), in der  Versenkung verschwinden (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) oder sich zerstreiten (Pink Floyd). Oder  aber sie können ihr eigenes Ding durchziehen. Zu  dieser Sorte gehören die Musiker von Yes, der  britischen Rocklegende aus den Siebzigerjahren.
Seit 1968 steht die Band um den Sänger Jon Anderson in wechselnder Besetzung auf der Bühne, produziert Album um Album, absolviert Tournee um Tournee - wie ein Dinosaurier, der nicht aussterben will.

Yes-Konzerte sind daher immer eine Zeitreise in die Kreidezeit der Popmusik, zurück in jene Jahre, in denen Haare und Röcke noch lang waren. Nach einigen Ausflügen in seichtere Gefilde haben die fünf Briten zu ihrem  ursprünglichen Sound zurückgefunden. Art-Rock nannte man das damals - ein dicker, flauschiger Teppich aus Gitarren- und Keyboardklängen, kunstvoll geknüpft und dicht verwoben, über den sich die unverwechselbar helle Stimme Andersons legt. Wer kurze, eingängige Hits zum Mitklatschen sucht, ist bei Yes an der falschen Adresse: Das Quintett stammt aus einer Zeit, als Rockmusik nicht unterhalten, sondern beeindrucken wollte. Für ihre  bombastischen Darbietungen wurden sie in den Siebzigerjahren verehrt, in den Achtzigern belächelt und in den Neunzigern vergessen.

Heute sind sie wieder da. Und wie. Selten hat man auf dem Hohentwiel, auf der wohl schönsten Freilichtbühne des Landes, ein imposanteres Konzert erlebt. Zweieinhalb Stunden lang erzittert Singens Hausberg unter den Klangkaskaden der fünf Rock-Senioren, die laut Plakatwerbung "in Original- besetzung" in den Hegau gekommen sind - inklusive Rick Wakeman, der sich immer noch mit Glitzerkleid und blonder Mähne hinter einer Wagenburg von Tasteninstrumenten verschanzt. Am Anfang hat die Gruppe zwar etwas Mühe mit den Gesetzen der Akustik. Nach drei, vier Stücken aber zündet es. Bei "Dont kill the Whale" vom Album "Tormato" springt der Funke über, die Band fängt sich und wird von Minute von Minute besser. Spätestens bei "Heart of the Sunrise" aus dem Jahr 1971 ist das Publikum der Gruppe wehrlos ausgeliefert: Der unglaublich satte Sound bringt die Menge geradezu  physisch zum Beben. Noch immer gilt: Yes ist keine Band, sondern eine Naturgewalt.

Auch der Auftritt auf dem Hohentwiel zeigt, in welchem Maß diese Gruppe von der Individualität ihrer Mitglieder lebt. Das RocknRoll-Leben hat sich tief in die Gesichter der fünf Musiker eingegraben. Frontmann Anderson - im kommenden Jahr wird er 60 - wirkt kauziger denn je; zudem zwingt ihn ein Rückenleiden zum verhaltenen Einsatz der Kräfte. Gitarrist Steve Howe büßt für vergangene Drogen-Exzesse und steht auf der Bühne wie eine Mumie - ein Anblick, der wehtut. Einzig Bassist Chris Squire wirkt munter wie ein Animateur beim Altennachmittag.

 Kunst wird den Menschen geschenkt, weil sie der Vergänglichkeit entgegenwirkt. Aus den fünf Yes-Mitgliedern sprudelt die Musik heraus wie ein Gebirgsbach: Im kleinen Finger hat jeder dieser alten Herren noch mehr Energie als alle Boygroups heutiger Zeiten zusammengerechnet. Das gilt selbst für den in sich versunkenen Steve Howe, der meist ins Leere blickt und sich der Außenwelt offensichtlich nur noch über sein Instrument mitteilen kann. Sein Gitarrenspiel scheint Himmel und Hölle aufzureißen.

Höhepunkt des Konzerts ist das 20-Minuten-Stück "Awaken" vom 77er-Album "Going for the one". Die Gruppe holt noch einmal alles aus der Trickkiste, was sie in 35 Jahren angesammelt hat. Howe brilliert mit schwindelerregenden Gitarrensoli, Squire traktiert scheppernd seinen Rickenbacker-Bass, Wakeman        hetzt von Keyboard zu Keyboard und zieht sämtliche Register. Endlich entfaltet in der hereinbrechenden Dunkelheit auch die Lichtanlage ihre frappierende Wirkung. Yes seien für die Rockmusik, was Richard Wagner für die Klassik bedeute, schrieb einmal ein Kritiker.

Das mag übertrieben sein. Jon Anderson ist nicht Rene Kollo, der Hohentwiel ist nicht Bayreuth. Sicher ist aber auch: Yes ragt aus dem Mittelmaß der Szene weit heraus, weil die Band sämtliche Kompromisse hinter sich gelassen hat und nur noch die Musik spielt, die ihr wichtig erscheint. Als Zugabe gibt es denn auch "Roundabout", einen 32 Jahre alten RocknRoll-Kracher. "Owner of a lonely heart" und die anderen großen Hits aus späteren Zeiten, als die Band das große Geld machen wollte, stehen nicht mehr auf dem Programm. In Singen finden sich nicht viele, die darüber traurig sind.
 

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Juni 2002

Die Zeit  vergeht,  doch die Erinnerungen bleiben.  Am 1.6. 02  trafen sich in Berlin einige Menschen, die
eines miteinander verband:YESDie Idee einen deutschen Fanclub zu gründen,  stand  natürlich im Vordergrund  und YES hat es  wirklich verdient.  Leider waren wir nur einige YES-Lichter, die es sich nicht nehmen ließen gemeinsam YES-Musik zu hören, YES-DVD‘s zu sehen und somit der Band ganz nah zu sein.
Es gab viele interessante Gespräche, Freundschaften wurden geschlossen und man war sich darüber einig, die beste Band der Welt zu feiern.
Für  die Gründung eines YES-Fanclubs hat es allerdings dieses mal noch nicht gereicht. Wir waren einfach noch zuwenig Personen. Der Anfang ist aber gemacht worden und die Musik und die Botschaft von YES für jeden allgegenwärtig.
Ganz herzlich möchte ich  mich  bedanken bei:  Thomas,  Klaus-Peter,  Gunnar,  Ralph,  Andreas, Gisela, Gordon, Owen und die anderen ....
Danke anYES. Die Band, die alles möglich machte.  Kerstin
 
 
 
 
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           --------------------------------------------
Source: Music Street Journal - Issue 33
http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/jonandersoninterview.htm

     Interview With Jon Anderson of YES  -   Oktober 2001

 Music Street Journal: How did the idea come about to work with a symphony orchestra?

 Jon Anderson: Well, basically, we had talked about the project on and off for about 5 or 6 years. I think  Steve came up with it and said, "Let's go for the orchestral this time." It's interesting to me that Chris   and Alan said, "yes", because before that they'd always been more into the rock, heavy sort of style of  the band. It was very interesting that they sort of leant towards it this time.

Music Street Journal: How do you think it's worked?

Jon Anderson: I love it. I really do. I think it's part of the history of the band. It's a nice place to before  the next two or three years. We're just going to tour this project for a couple of years and then have a  break because we've been steadily working on this band no, on and off, for about seven or eight years  without a break. So, we talked about, OK, we'll do that album. We'll bring in the right kind of arranger,  Larry Groupe, who's this guy we found - who has a really good sort of cinematic orchestration style.   And, the over all picture of the album turned out great for us. So we said, OK, let's tour it for a couple of  years and then have a break. It's a nice place to stop for a while.

Music Street Journal: With this being an extended tour, will you get back to the states?

Jon Anderson: We hope so, next spring or next summer. We're talking about doing a tour next summer,  probably doing more the new album. Just this last tour we only did a couple of songs, because it isn't  released yet. It comes out in a month or so - December the 4th it comes out in America. So, the general idea was that next spring - late spring/early summer - we could do another tour just  concentrating on the new album.

Music Street Journal: How is it feeling on stage? You seemed a little crowded up there.

Jon Anderson: Where did you see us?

Music Street Journal: Toronto.

Jon Anderson: Oh yeah, it wasn't a great gig. It was weird. We'd just sounded great in Quebec, and we  had a great run of a week and when we did Toronto for some reason it just didn't feel like a great show  for us. I know we talked about it afterwards that we didn't feel uncomfortable, - the stage is a good stage   -it just sounded very boomy in that place for some reason. We just thought it was OK. We're very  critical of what we do so we remember that show. The orchestra generally - you know we picked up  orchestras ever night because the conductor was so good with them. He worked with them in the  afternoon. Then we just got on with the show in the evening. Like anything, you can have a rough night. You can be the best football team in the world and you'll still get beaten one day. It's the same with  baseball.  It's the same with musicians. Some nights it's just not happening for some reason. For some  reason it didn't sound as good as we thought it would because we like that place very much, but it didn't  sound clear to us.  Whereas the night before in Quebec - and it was bizarre because it's a very big hall  in Quebec - it sounded fantastic. That can happen. The sound guy gets it right six or seven nights, then  one night he won't quite get it right.

Music Street Journal: How has this compared with your previous attempts at working with orchestral  instruments?

Jon Anderson: Well, I did an album called "Change We Must" in '91 or '92, and I really enjoyed working  with the orchestra so much and I understood the quality of an orchestra it it's done correctly. All you  need is a good arranger.  There's no point in hiring 50 people to play in the background.  It's bizarre that  this year there have been some great recordings that have been sort of hit records along the way with  full orchestra. So, this year was very big on bringing out the orchestral music, if you like. It's one of  those things. A lot of people start thinking the same thing at the same time. We just had to make sure  we had a good arranger. Because if you listen to the album it has this sort of ebb and flow - one  moment it's sort of pretty heavy, then beautiful music, then a poignant song, then a very simple sort of  17th century kind of feel about some songs. I like the album very much. 

Music Street Journal: How would you compare this experience to the situation of using strings way back on Time and A Word?

Jon Anderson: Well, it was a lot easier to do simply because 30 years ago the musicians that we worked with were very, very "oof, rock and roll", but most of the people we've worked with on this tour -  they love Yes. They started listening to Yes before they became musicians. We got a lot of orchestral  players who are fans. They stand backstage and wait for us to come off, shake hands and autographs.  It's a lot like a little lovefest every night. It's bizarre.

Music Street Journal: How do you see this album in comparison to the last couple of   releases?

Jon Anderson: I always thought we had a lovely turning point when we did The Ladder because I wasn't  in the creative world with Chris and Billy when they wrote songs for Open Your Eyes. So, it was a question of keeping it going - keeping the band going. Management thought it was going to be a big  record, but it never happened. I was so happy when we got to The Ladder. That was a bit of fresh air for  me. It's not classic Yes music in the sense, but in the same vicinity, shall we say. The bizarre thing is. I was listening to a song yesterday, which I really like. It is Elton John's new single. It's just beautiful if you listen to it. The more you hear it, the more you get into it, shall we say. And that's the same wit  most music. I remember listening to Dave Matthews' "Space Between". I thought it was OK, and now  I've heard it 50 times -it's everywhere, you know. I started to get into it. I think that's what music does. If  it's played enough people definitely get into it. That's been the biggest problem with our music is that we don't have a forum to play it because people don't want to play our music on regular radio.

Music Street Journal: What happened with Igor?

Jon Anderson: Well, he wasn't really fitting in. Eventually the guys said, "do we need another keyboard  player?" He was getting too frisky in his work - a bit of a superstar. We thought it was just part of his  makeup, but eventually it just became the dominant part. You can't work all the time with people like that. We had a similar thing - I can't tell you who it was - down the line we had a guy in for about a year. He just became such a superstar because he was in Yes. That freaks us out because we don't believe we're superstars. We don't believe we're legends. We believe we're musicians trying to make it work, trying to get it right. Trying to do good shows and trying to survive the business. It's one of those things.  The first period of time when you work with anybody you're going to hoping it's going to be  great. You  start sounding great, then it eventually it goes downhill very fast.

Music Street Journal: What about the man you have on keys right now, Tom Brislin?

Jon Anderson: Tom is great simply because he knows he's part of the team. He's not in the band, but  he loves Yes music. He was so quick in rehearsal. He knew all the parts. He was very quick to get on with everybody. Half the battle is making everybody appreciate who you are, what you do and what you  did to the group. So, we can always rely on him coming in and working with us. I don't know how long  he wants to stay or if we want this to happen maybe another year. Then, as I say, we might have a break for a while. I like him. He's a good guy.

Music Street Journal: Do you have any side projects in the works?

Jon Anderson: I'm working on my own project at the moment. I've been working on this piece of music for a year now, and it will be ready next summer, I believe. I'm very excited about it. I did an album years and years ago called "Olias of Sunhillow" where I performed all the music, and I'm getting back to that  place again. 

Music Street Journal: Will this be a sequel?

Jon Anderson: Yeah, I'm trying to figure it out as we speak. It has a lot to do with the mysticism that  surrounds us. We're going to go through a period now, because of the Lord of the Rings movie coming out. There will be a lot of interest in the mysticism of life and things like that. So, by the time I'm  finished, it will be the right time.

Music Street Journal: You've always been looked upon as a very spiritual man, and a pacifistic man. What is your take on the events regarding the terrorist attack on September 11th?

Jon Anderson:Well, very simply, we're all spiritual people. Islamic people are spiritual. Buddhists are spiritual, Zen. All the rivers meet in the same ocean. I've always said this because it comes from  Gandhi. It comes from all the great people. I've read it years ago that Krishna was Christ. Buddha was Christ. Mohammed was Christ. Jesus was Christ. Why keep differentiating the difference and say that  we're the infidels. Actually there's been more massacres created out of religion over the years than as     long as your arm, and it's not a good thing. It's got little to do with reality. I believe, honestly, I believe  that it's sort of raising the world consciousness for us to realize that we are all one on this planet, and  we've all got to look out for each other. And, there's got to be a way of distributing not only the wealth,  but idealism. When you think about how much of the Western world's food gets thrown away, compared to the other side of the world that starves. And now we're sending all this money to feed the Afghans. Why has that  not been happening since Bob Geldoff started the whole ball rolling? I used to know Bob when he was    doing Live Aid, and he came up against so many brick walls, simply because there's so much  corruption in this world, and, it doesn't stop over there. There's a lot of corruption over here. I think that the worst thing that can happen to any civilization is to start doubting itself. That's why  America has not always been asserting itself. I've got a flag on my jeep, and I'm not American. I'm only  American because of my lovely wife Jane. We live in America. I love America. America, and this is the truth, we are the children of the nations of the world. We're all here. All the nations of the world came to live here. This is the eye of the storm. This is where we should be seen to be healing the world because  we have everything here. Jane and I were in Washington when it happened, and the first thing that you  realize is there's black area, there's white areas. In every town we go to there's these regions for different people. You have your Chinese area. So, it's all separate nations within one nation. In most    terms, everything lives in harmony, but there are these under currents of definite one-upmanship. Who's  got the money? Who's the richest person? Who's got control of the money? It's an endless  conversation, I suppose. But it's such a sad time in my life and for everybody else. 
           We're going on tour in Europe and I'm thinking, "Gosh, I'm going to be up there singing Gates of  Delirium on this tour, and it's going to seem different to me now". "Soon, oh soon the light" - the light is an understanding - light of realization. I've believed that for years and sang about it on so many different  levels. So, I'm just still searching and hoping that we come through - knowing that we do. Like Gandhi said, out of all the heartaches in life, love will always conquer. Love is the power.

Music Street Journal: This situation is making many people question that.

Jon Anderson: It's fear. It's fear of the unknown - fear of what's next. You've got the picture in your head  and millions and millions of people around the world have that picture in their head. It's bizarre on the  new album I was singing about "can't keep this picture from out of my mind." It was all about those little  children being escorted across the road in LA out of the Jewish school where a guy had gone rampant  with a gun. I couldn't get that picture out of my mind, and the whole song I was getting into other  pictures - about the slave trading going on in West Africa and the slavery of children into war and stuff. The guys in the band were saying, "OK, Jon, you're getting a bit heavy here." I said, "but it's real." They  said, "well, can you cut out the slavery?"  So, I rewrote it because they were saying I was getting too  dark. I could understand that because I was into this whole place that the spirit is very, very strong   within us to survive, but yet there's so many things out there that need to be sorted out. We all know it. It's not like we're all stupid. We all know that the government's got to get their act together. CIA, FBI -  they've seriously got to get their act together. Everybody thinks the same way. Isn't it about time that   there's no starvation on this planet? Isn't it about time that we can look towards Africa and see it as a  safe place and growing community instead of incredible corruption?  They learned it all from the British  and Dutch and Belgium. They learned it from the Europeans. 

           Source: Rock Ahead
           http://www.themusicindex.com/rockahead/reviews/yes3.htm

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