Band Yes affirms legacy with Sunday night gig in Santa Barbara

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Music fans can embrace affirmative action and just say Yes — yes to checking out the legendary progressive rock band that will be playing a gig Sunday night at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara. Those in attendance might also say 'yes'' to not quitting that day job as the few remaining tickets are as pricey as the band's repertoire is vast and weighty.

During a career that is approaching the Big 5-0, there have been 21 Yes albums, 14 of which have ended as metallic milestones to the label suits — a big hell, yes — reaching gold or platinum status. They've sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.

Yes was started in 1968 by Jon Anderson and Chris Squire and immediately became leading proponents of progressive rock, also known as art rock or classical rock. This was not the radio-ready three-minute single, but extended spacey jams by virtuoso musicians, featuring grandiose lyrics dealing with big ideas. Leave it to the critics to see and hear things differently. For many of them, prog rock was pompous, bombastic and overblown, but few said it sucked.

Well, maybe the punks did. Not even in their wildest dreams — not even with help from Bob Vela and power tools or practicing 25 hours a day could they approach the level of skill of the prog rockers, since playing loud, fast and screaming about who knows what clearly did not fit into an art rock scenario seeking credibility and respect. The DIY (do-it-yourself) scene was the only viable option for the vast majority of musicians, many of whom did not have aspirations beyond getting their long suffering girlfriends on the guest list.

Back in 1980, Anderson and keyboard player Rick Wakeman just said no to Yes and left and were replaced by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, both of whom had been in a band called the Buggles, whose hit 'Video Killed the Radio Star'' was the first video played on MTV, back when it actually played music. The first Yes album the new guys played on was 'Drama.''

The title proved prophetic as Yes broke up in 1981 and Downes and Yes guitar player Steve Howe along with Carl Palmer and John Wetton formed the supergroup, Asia, a band that still plays. Yes came back a year later and has been active ever since.

Their fans, too, have been busy — voices For Yes have lobbied tirelessly to get their heroes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, so far without success. Lots of bands not in the Hall have nonetheless kept playing — millions of them.

In appreciation of their vast repertoire, Yes, much like many other bands, have settled on a good way to share the same old song(s) with their fans. They do album shows. In Santa Barbara, the band is going to perform 'Drama'' from 1980 in it's entirely and sides one and four off 1973s 'Tales From Topographic Oceans,'' plus several of the band's greatest hits.

While Yes-less, Downes has remained with Asia, released a bunch of solo albums, produced others and then rejoined Yes in 2011. A rarity among musicians — a morning person — Downes was right where he was supposed to be for a 6 a.m. phoner. Question not asked: Shouldn't they be Yeah when they play SoCal and Yup when they play in the South? But that's another story for another time.

Geoff, good morning, it's Bill with the Star — how are you?

Good, how are you?

All good, man. Hey, thanks for doing this thing so early.

That's all right. No worries — if this is the only time you could do it, then it's fine.

Why do you suppose there are so few morning people in music?

I don't know. I don't know what it's all about.

What's the latest in Yes world?

Well, we're touring around the States and right now, we're in Detroit, and just working our way west, really. We did a lot of shows around the Northeast area — that was pretty exciting stuff. We have all new staging and an all-new video presentation. It's been really good, and a lot of people have liked the show.

Who came up with the idea of these full album shows? What a great idea. It seems like more and more bands are doing it — how long has Yes been doing it?

We've been doing (it) for the last three years — back in 2013, we started doing the 'Close to the Edge'' album and then the 'Yes'' album and we've added extra ones since then like 'Going For the One,'' 'Fragile,'' two sides from 'Tales From Topographic Oceans'' as well as the whole 'Drama'' album.

Wow, 21 Yes albums — that's a lot of stuff to remember.

Yeah, it is — I'm not so familiar with the later stuff, but certainly the earlier stuff seems to be what we've been focusing on.

With so much material, how do you guys go about choosing which albums to cover?

Well, they sort of choose themselves in a way. The milestone albums like 'Close to the Edge,'' 'Fragile'' and the 'Yes'' album were significant in the band's early history. So now were doing 'Tales of Topographic Oceans'' which is a very interesting album — in terms of it was a very conceptual album that Yes put together in the mid-'70s. And, of course as I said, the 'Drama'' album was a very significant album in that it was a turning point in Yes's career when Trevor Horn and I joined.

How would you compare Yes 30 years ago to Yes in 2016?

Obviously we were all very sad when Chris passed away last year. That was a big blow to us and we've soldiered on since then, and Billy Sherwood has come on in place of Chris and done a really good job, so we're just keeping the flame alive as best we can.

What is progressive rock and why do you suppose it elicits such extreme responses? It seems like people either love it or hate it.

I think there's been a resurgence in recent times as people have gone back to listen again to this music and have discovered that there are some significant aspects to it, and particularly, a lot of today's rock is not particularly creative, so I think it's kind of resurfaced again to a large degree because people want something with more depth and more imagination in it. I think progressive music checks those boxes.

Or maybe all the punk rockers and DIY musicians can't play half as well as you guys can?

Well, I think the emphasis was always on the musicianship for the progressive rock bands back in the '70s, so musicianship was always at the fore, and I think that's something that people look at now. It wasn't just fodder for the masses, but all about guys that had mastered their instruments and had learned how to play, and I think that has inspired young people.

Speaking of mastery of your instrument, does a band as accomplished as Yes still practice? Or do you practice on stage — how does that work?

We do sound check every day and try to tie up any loose corners and strictly from the standpoint of going on tour, we have an extended practice period before we go on tour. That's for sure.

What was it like going from the Buggles to Yes? That would have to have been quite a change, I would think …

It was quite a change, yeah, and I adapted to it as quickly as I could but it was challenging in many aspects and was very much jumping into the flame. I had never performed to audiences the size that Yes had, so that was quite a daunting prospect but I took to it as fast as I could and really started to enjoy it.

How did you get to be the keyboard player? Was that always your instrument of choice? Were you that piano kid?

Yeah, I was a piano kid, a church organist and singing in the choir — I started doing that when I was about 10 or 11. I very much came from a musical background — it was very important to me and now I can say that I've made a career out of it.

Absolutely. Tell me an Asia story. I remember I saw you guys in Santa Barbara at the Arlington Theatre back in the '80s — at the same place where Yes will be — and the musicianship was perfect and the drummer and his drum kit rotated and played upside down.

Yeah, that was Carl (Palmer) and he was very much the showman. Carl was a terrific drummer and we still do bits of Asia today to some degree.

If you're a businessman that changes jobs all the time, you are viewed as unreliable, but with musicians who seem to change bands hourly, there seems to be no such stigma. Why is that?

Yeah, that's right. It's actually a very small world — the music scene that I was involved in and there was plenty of cross pollination between the various bands. We'd all bump into each other in studios and that sort of thing, so it was not that strange that people would hook up with different people and do different projects. It was all part of the game.

There's been a dedicated and ongoing campaign from Yes fans to get the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Who do you think should be in the Hall in addition to you wonderful guys?

I think the progressive British rock bands have been overlooked for the most part — bands like Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Deep Purple, who just got in last year — the Moody Blues is another one.

The Moody Blues for sure. The Sex Pistols are in, yet the Moody Blues are out? Unbelievable.

Yeah, so there's quite a few significant bands that have yet to be even nominated and I think that has to do with how the selections work as to who is going to go in or not, but I don't think anyone gives it the importance that people think it should have. Certainly none of that has stopped the band from functioning and didn't stop it going onward.

How do you get up for a show every night?

I just like to have a quiet moment beforehand. I think that's a thing you can do — collect your thoughts, know what you're going to do and then brace yourself and get on with it.

What's the strangest gig you've ever played? Had a what-the-hell-am-I-doing-up-here moment?

Yeah, I've had a couple of those. I've had collapsing keyboard legs — not electrocution on the stage but not far off from that. I've had lights fall down and land where I'd been standing — all sorts of things. It's a dangerous game, this music.

How many speeding tickets have the cops given you as you hurried to get to the gig on time?

I don't have any, actually. I don't generally drive in the states anywhere because we're usually driven, so if there's a speeding ticket, it's not my bad.

When the history of rock 'n' roll is written, where do you suppose Yes will fit in?

Well, I think since they started the band as an entity, the music has not been similar to any of the other British progressive rock bands. Yes has a unique and interesting history as the band has developed and gone through certain changes — certain personnel changes, certain musical changes — but they've always retained that Yes sound, and I think that's very important as to the significance of Yes in music history.

Geoff, that should be more than I need to know — thanks for doing this at such an early hour and I look forward to seeing you wonderful guys in Santa Barbara.

We're looking forward to it. Bye now …

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