What's Going On With Yes?

Considering that it's the 21st century and all, it's been a pretty good recent run for the big 70s proggers (Rick Wright's recent death aside). King Crimson just finished up a short but very enthusiastically received tour, as did Genesis last year (to a lesser extent). Van der Graff Generator didn't just get back together to tour but have recorded a couple of new albums, while Rush bounced back with an excellent album last year in Snakes and Arrows.

Given all that, what the hell's gone wrong with Yes? The band was all set to do another tour this fall, to celebrate the group's 40th anniversary. When we last left them, the lineup had reverted to the "classic" one of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Alan White and Rick Wakeman. But touring isn't really high on Rick's to do list anymore, so the group drafted in his son, Oliver, to play keys. That's understandable and not unprecedented - Yes keyboard players are almost as numerous as Spinal Tap drummers (thankfully, they don't tend to meet the same fate!). No problem, right?

Well, except that then Jon Anderson got sick. Sick enough that he couldn't go and tour. Keep in mind that, while Squire is the only Yesman to be on every album, Jon's only absence was Drama, which is an excellent album but produced a fairly disastrous tour, mostly due to the negative reaction to Trevor Horn signing Jon's bits. So Anderson is as key to what "Yes" is than anybody else.

Without Anderson available, the other Yesmen pulled a Journey and recruited a singer from a tribute band. Actually, that's not really fair to Journey. They took their new guy and recorded a new album with him before going out on tour. Yes has no such plans, so at this point it really is a weird quasi tribute to itself. Don't get me wrong - as I said, I love Drama and if the band wanted to crank out some new material with a new vocalist that would be great. But it doesn't look like that's in the cards.

To make things worse, it's emerged recently that the whole situation wasn't exactly blessed by Anderson:

In a statement at his official website, Anderson has slammed the forthcoming Yes reunion (minus himself and Rick Wakeman).

He says he is 'Disappointed that, with the exception of one phone call from Alan, none of the guys have been in touch since my illness, just to find out how I am doing, and how we will foresee the future for YES. And disappointed that they were not willing to wait till 2009 when I’m fully recovered'.

Anderson also claims to have done pre-tour work (including with Roger Dean) and appears to be blindsided by the whole thing. Regardless of the legalities - I'm not sure what stake Anderson has in YesCo anymore - that's a pretty shitty way to deal with, literally, the voice of Yes.

The whole thing is rather sordid and a sad way for one of prog's pioneers to wind down its days. Having never seen the band in the flesh, I'd probably jump at the chance to see the real deal live, even just blowing through the old war horses. But I've got no interest in YesLite. If that's the best they can do, maybe it's time to call it a day.