Reissue, expanded and remastered edition of classic Yes alumni tour souvenir from ’88.

Release Date: 31st January 2025

Label: Esoteric / Cherry Red

Format: 2CD/2DVD

YES – NOT YES…

Whether or not this counts as a Yes album, the line up (Yes stalwarts Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe) and the music (including Heart Of The Sunrise, Close To The Edge, Starship Trooper, And You And I…) deems that ABWH were a potent force in their short-lived incarnation.

The tour from which this Shoreline Amphitheatre recording comes wasn’t just Yes music from the Prog Rock annals, but of course the quartet had new music of their own that defined what Yes could sound like in the late Eighties. And – it wasn’t the sort of commercial rock radio fare with which Yes had major success earlier in the decade.

Some of us (ahem) still have our limited edition, numbered copy of the 2CD/video (!) of this release. However, the new release gathers everything into a convenient package with a fourth disc that includes the short In The Big Dream promo/interview/edits release available separately (yes, a VHS tape) at the time.

The main course though is an audio and video of the full show. It fill some gaps with Your Move/All Good People, and Starship Trooper not being on the CDs in the original Fragile release set although The Meeting (it’s on my VHS) is curiously absent.

The concert format is unusual. A half hour opening of a collection of solo pieces acts as an introduction before the full ABW&H kicks in. After Anderson’s angelic acoustic slot and Howe playing his guitar signatures, Bruford batters the electronic kit before Wakeman stars. His solo spots are always a delight and the piano on Gone But Not Forgotten/Madrigal is stunning before he unleashes some flying fingers on snippets from his solo career.

AND SO TO YES

The cherries on the cake in the set are the Yes standards. Close To The Edge is tremendous. Four of the five originators playing the hell out of one of Prog Rock’s significant pieces, particularly the I Get Up I Get Down part and the domination of Wakeman’s massive organ sound. And You And I, Heart Of The Sunrise, Starship Trooper – all genuinely epic and impossible for this combination of musicians to foul up. All Good People and Roundabout give the chance for some boogie (or as Jon says “you want some more Rock and Roll?“) and Howe is firing on all cylinders.

Spotting the join between the classics and the new material might be tricky. As strong as 90125 might have been, there’s nothing as jarring as Owner Of A Lonely Heart or the heavy metal of City Of Love vying with the majesty of And You And I. Themes is suitably bright and packs enough virtuosity into six minutes. Then Brother Of Mine and the might (“Rock gives courage” indeed and duly honoured with the final song of the main set) of Order Of The Universe see the quartet bringing Seventies Yes into the Eighties.

One of many twists in the ongoing tales of Yes. The ABWH one a short-lived but very worthwhile passage.

Here’s Heart Of The Sunrise:

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