Yes Music Podcast

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Doug Curran Oliver returned to the YMP this week to help us celebrate 15 years of the show, by way of letting us pick his brain about the fabulous From A Page Expanded and Remastered album. We delve deeply into how the songs were (in some cases) salvaged and reconstructed as well as finding out about what his experiences were of writi...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Doug Curran It was a great pleasure, as usual, to welcome Simon Barrow onto the YMP to help us talk about the new Pete Roth Trio album, Group Chat. Mark knows about jazz but I certainly don't, so I relied on the other guys' understanding of the genre but, as will become clear, it's a bit of a mistake to try to categorise Bill Bruford'...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Doug Curran This week, Mark and I continue our deep dive into The Syn by listening to the oldest songs on the compilation album, Flowerman - Rare Blooms from The Syn 1965-69. We discovered some fascinating music along with information on how it came about via the very good sleeve notes in the album. As with Yes, there are plenty of su...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week, Mark and I begin a mini-series in which we will explore The Syn, the band that is deeply-connected with the origins of Yes. The story will evolve as we go but, to set the scene, we had a conversation about our 2018 interview with The Syn's lead singer, Steve Nardelli. Once we have finished talking about the parts...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week Mark and I spoke to Chris Braide from the Downes Braide Association about their new album, Trauma. Even if you don't know Chris, you will know his work because he has written and/or produced songs for many of the world's most successful artists. He's been nominated for a Grammy and has won an Ivor Novello songwrit...

This week I report back on my trip to see Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks at Symphony Hall, Birmingham. As you'll hear, I had a wonderful time and met some old and new friends. I also find time to torture Mark by making im answer the quiz questions from last week. See if you can do better than him. After he has a go, I reveal the winner of the competition to win a CD copy of the expanded From A Pa...

Mark and I were preparing to enjoy another round of our Yes Guess Who game this week. Unfortunately, Mark was ill and couldn't join me to record. Happily he is home now and on the mend. So I decided to change this episode into a version of the quiz you can join in with yourself. I even have an actual prize to give away. I have a 'spare' copy of the expanded From A Page album on CD which could be y...

This week Mark and I embark on a little navel-gazing. It's the first part of our celebrations of 15 years of the Yes Music Podcast and we look back to what YMP was up to and what Yes were doing 5, 10 and 15 years ago. We remind ourselves of several things we had forgotten, get trapped for a short time in a rabbit hole when I mention my new copy of Olias of Sunhillow and reminisce about how poor my...

This week Mark and I discuss the latest special edition of Record Collector magazine which is dedicated to the world's greatest progressive rock band. I was surprised and pleased to be asked to contribute some articles to the publication and the publisher came back and asked for more so I assume they liked what I had done. I ended up writing 4 pieces: An article on Close to the Edge A profile of J...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Doug Curran This week, Mark and I spoke to Chris Clark, thanks to YMP Patron, Mark Lang who put us in touch with him. We asked Chris about his experiences working with Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks live and in the studio. Now a veteran of approaching 100 concerts with the Yes co-founder, we were keen to know what it's been like, how...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Doug Curran This week, Mark and I have been taking a somewhat forensic look at the newly-released Roosevelt Stadium Jersey City 17 June 1976 live set. We go rather deeply into the weeds around the quality, sources, presentation and packaging, all for your edification. Mark uncovers some surprising aspects of the (rather expensive) vin...

This week, Mark and I were unable to get together so we both recorded separately, like we used to do years ago. Here we have 'retro' or 'classic' YMP I suppose. Anyway, we both enjoyed listening to/watching 2 different versions of And You And I - one from the brilliant Symphonic Live DVD and the other from the BBC Prog Prom event last week. I have embedded both versions into the show notes for thi...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week Mark and I listened to 2 medleys - the Big Medley from the The Word Is Live box set, recorded on 5th October 1978 at The Forum, Inglewood and a recording of Jon Anderson and The New Life Band playing their Yes medley in 1980 at The Royal Albert Hall from a BBC recording broadcast the same year.  Yes Medley - Jon A...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius It's the 50th Anniversary of Jon Anderson's masterpiece, Olias of Sunhillow this month, so it was highly appropriate that we spoke to the album's biggest fan, David Watkinson, this week. Dave helps us plot the musical development of Yes' co-founder to the point at which he felt able to create his first solo album - entirely...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week, we return to our occasional series on YesKit, this time featuring the instrument Tony Kaye used, briefly, in 1968 before he upgraded to a Hammond M100. It was the 1960s iconic keyboard, the British-made Vox Continental. The story of this revolutionary instrument is fascinating and we are indebted to the undispute...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week, we return to our occasional series on YesKit, this time featuring the instrument Tony Kaye used, briefly, in 1968 before he upgraded to a Hammond M100. It was the 1960s iconic keyboard, the British-made Vox Continental. The story of this revolutionary instrument is fascinating and we are indebted to the undispute...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week, I have been researching one of the sets of photos that will be in the Barry Plummer book - Master of Images. It was labelled 'Roundhouse' but, as you will hear, that wasn't as straightforward a venue as I thought it was going to be. Once I get it all sorted out, I was delighted to discover that there is a crowd r...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week, I have been researching one of the sets of photos that will be in the Barry Plummer book - Master of Images. It was labelled 'Roundhouse' but, as you will hear, that wasn't as straightforward a venue as I thought it was going to be. Once I get it all sorted out, I was delighted to discover that there is a crowd r...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius Limited edition box set It's time to post our full review of the latest Yes album, Aurora. Mark and I spoke - quite a lot - about the record and our reactions to it. As you will hear, we both like it a lot and we go into depth about why. There are a couple of aspects I'm not so keen on and there is even a [Shock! Horror!] mi...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius It's time to post our full review of the latest Yes album, Aurora. Mark and I spoke - quite a lot - about the record and our reactions to it. As you will hear, we both like it a lot and we go into depth about why. There are a couple of aspects I'm not so keen on and there is even a [Shock! Horror!] minor disagreement between...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius It’s been a week of huge contrasts. Aurora was released and Mark and I chat about the physical copies later in the episode but I also had the news from Clive Ayer that Yes’ first manager, Roy Flynn, died this week. Clive kindly agreed to come and share his recollections of Roy but before. Here are two tributes, the first fro...

It's been a week of huge contrasts. Aurora was released and Mark and I chat about the physical copies later in the episode but I also had the news from CLive Ayer that Yes' first manager, Roy Flynn died this week. Clive kindly agreed to come and share his recollections of Roy but before that, here are two tributes, the first from Yes' current management team and the second from Dave Watkinson: All...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius Mark and I are looking forward to talking about the new Yes album, Aurora, next week but this time, we have gone right back to the first ever Yes compilation album, Yesterdays, because we mentioned the first song on the record a couple of weeks ago, in the context of The New Age of Atlantic album. We enjoyed listening to the...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius Mark and I are looking forward to talking about the new Yes album, Aurora, next week but this time, we have gone right back to the first ever Yes compilation album, Yesterdays, because we mentioned the first song on the record a couple of weeks ago, in the context of The New Age of Atlantic album. We enjoyed listening to the...

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius This week we welcomed bass maestro Miguel Falcão back onto the YMP, this time to talk about the bass that appears in Barry Plummer’s photo set from Redan Recorders in February 1980. Chris shows off his new instrument to the camera so we have a great insight into his feelings, shortly after he received his customised Electra...