Prog Rock Pioneers ‘Yes’ Leave the Audience Spellbound at The Iconic Royal Albert Hall!

Prog Rock legends Yes delivered a breathtaking performance to a packed audience at the Royal Albert Hall! The atmosphere within the iconic venue could only be described as a bubble of excitement as the packed audience waited for their idols to take to the stage!

Whilst being a band who have had many line-up changes throughout their illustrious 48-year career, tonight’s line-up of Steve Howe on guitar and vocals, Geoff Downes on keyboards, Billy Sherwood on bass guitar and vocals, Jon Davison on lead vocals and acoustic guitar and Jay Schellen on drums was a match made in heaven, for Yes were tighter and better than ever!

A band renowned for their complex, eclectic and multi-layered sound, they had the audience mesmerised from the very first note! As the band took to the stage, the audience erupted into ecstatic applause. Tonight was the last night of the UK leg of their ‘The Classic Tales Tour’ and they were pulling out all the stops! Their first track, the epic 10-minute masterpiece, ‘Machine Messiah’ with its sprawling rock riffs, Downes keyboards that wouldn’t be out of place in St Pauls Cathedral and Davison’s vocals, that hit the kind of notes that would make a choir boy proud was an explosive start to an evening musical mastery!

‘I’ve Seen All Good People’ was seven minutes of utter joy and went down an absolute storm, and ‘Don’t Kill the Whale’ with Downes exquisite keyboard was as close to perfection as you can get!

Whilst every member of this legendary band proved themselves to be outstanding musicians in their own right, undoubtedly the man who is the pillar of this legendary band, who was on fine form tonight, was guitar supremo Steve Howe! Howe’s performance captivated the audience. And tonight was all about being in the moment and experiencing the music to the point where Howe waved a finger at those super keen fans who whipped out their phones and tried to film their idols!  But whilst Howes guitar was absolutely magnificent, the charismatic Jon Davison’s superb vocals really stole the show! His voice was so smooth and beautiful that he had the audience absolutely bewitched! He made the vocal complexities of each track sound absolutely effortless, like he’d been singing these songs his whole life! Davison who filled the hefty shoes of founding member Jon Anderson made every song his own whilst still maintaining that spiritual rich sound that has entranced generations of fans. His voice is seemingly ageless and tracks like ‘Don’t Kill the Whale’ left the audience awe-struck. Howe’s guitar came into its own on this track, as he made it sing! Watching Howe commanding the stage, it’s hard to believe that he wasn’t born with a guitar in his hands!

As the band delivered track after track of musical mastery, it was easy to see why ‘Yes’ have remained such a pillar of the UK music industry for so many years and why they have maintained such a dedicated legion of fans, and if tonight’s performance is anything to go by, they will be reigning strong for many years to come!!

Yesworld.com

Words and photos by Louise Phillips

All photos are owned by Louise Phillips Music Photography

Setlist:

Machine Messiah
It Will Be a Good Day (The River)
Going for the One
I’ve Seen All Good People
America (Simon & Garfunkel cover)
Time and a Word
Don’t Kill the Whale
Turn of the Century
South Side of the Sky
Cut From the Stars
The Revealing Science of God (Dance of the Dawn) / The Remembering (High the Memory) / The Ancient (Giants Under the Sun) / Ritual (Nous sommes du soleil)
Roundabout
Starship Trooper