This is a concert recorded at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. The set mostly contains classic Yes material but also music from the only ABWH album. Beginning with a snippet of “Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” (Remember Yes used to start their concerts with Stravinsky’s “Firebird”?), this is followed by solo spots (Anderson then Howe then Wakeman), all Yes numbers in the case of the Anderson and Howe sections, ‘Teakbois’ being the only one from the ABWH album. Apart from the expected large chunks of the ABWH album there is a strong scattering of classic Yes material performed by the quartet, augmented by bassist Jeff Berlin (Tony Levin was ill), additional bassist Julian Colbeck and rhythm guitarist Milton McDonald; both men also contributed backing vocals.
Although the music has already been released on two occasions – in 1993 (Being starved of prog at that time I remember buying it on cassette when it came out) and 2006, it does benefit from the remastered sound and usual slick Esoteric presentation. Bruford’s use of electronic percussion grated with some and Chris Squire’s distinctive bass playing was conspicuous by its absence, and this album certainly divided opinion amongst hard core Yes fans. Nevertheless, the ABWH album itself featured some strong material, especially resonant considering the context of the times in which prog rock was seen as a marginalised and spent force.
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