Review by Richard Henry for MPM
A trip from Northern Ireland for this one, personal story here, when I was 10, I borrowed “Journey to the Center of the Earth” on cassette, and this is the album in question being played tonight, and it’s my first time ever seeing Mr Wakeman, so the excitement is unreal!
First time in this building since 2017 and wow, the upgrade is absolutely amazing, the change is absolutely outstanding!
We have two sets tonight we are told by Rick, the first is a selection of Yes classics redone in this bands way, and then an intermission where we will here “Journey” in its entirety and with all the sections that didn’t originally make it into the original pressing!
Roundabout
Kicking off with the classic from the “Fragile” album from 1971, the first thing that actually caught me was how close Lee’s bass tone was to Chris Squires sound, really well done, the second was Mollies vocals, really strong and powerful but delicate when needed, the guitar playing from Dave was absolutely on point, and what can be said about the man in the middle, perfection!
The Meeting
From the ABWH album, this was a delicately beautiful arrangement from the backing singers, Tess, Izzy and Nick, genuinely moving hearing the three of them on this, the rest of the band sitting back and watching, absolutely loving the way that they have changed all of the arrangements around and have done something different!
Wondrous Stories
From the 1977 Yes album “Going for the One”, Mollie nailing Jons vocal, love watching Rick just move from one side of the rig to the other for the different sounds, also Adam on the other side jumping keys to guitar all through the set, I love the way they have melded all these tracks together into the medley
South Side of the Sky
Back to the Fragile album for this one, and this one has real driving feel to it, underpinned by that lovely bass part with Rick sprinkling I think Hammond on it, also lots of little guitar figures being played by Dave which is easy to miss, that unison riff is just class live, the only thing at times that can be hard to tell is who is playing what part between Adam and Rick, not during solo parts of that but when the whole band is in
And You and I
1972s “Close to the Edge” album this one is from, started with Dave on the acoustic 12 string on the stand at the front, you literally could hear a pin drop with everyone just sitting listening, then when the drum part with the bell comes in and Rick starts to play the melody on the moog, the thing that’s easy to miss is the role that the backing singers have on the whole show, constantly adding parts that you might easily miss, I love the way that’s it all brought down again to the acoustic guitar again before it drifts into that almost folk part that we get a bit more moog over the top of, an epic track to close off the first half of the show!
Now we have a bladder break, not my words, and we have a longer second half of the set to come because we’ll it’s longer than the first half, and there we go, twenty mins of a break between the sets.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
I think there are 26 parts to this massive track, I’m not going to lie as soon as I heard that booming voice at the start of this one saying “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” it took me back to hearing it as a kid, then hearing that overture come in, it’s so powerfully epic live, then hearing those low moog notes come in, I think the thing that is amazing is that after reflection today, I was hearing it with no orchestra just the band and still it lost none of its impact live, just getting to witness the man himself play it live!
Journeys Dawn comes up and we are treated to Lee giving a visual impression of the monsters on the stage, I always loved this part of the work, that melody always get stuck in my head and again this is where having Rick and Adam clearly adds, with Rick playing the moog and I think Adam playing the backing part at this point, again you can’t help but notice the massive addition the three backing singers have to this one, easy to miss I suppose but the musician in me is just scanning everything to see who is doing what!
Gothic Cathedral I always loved the counterpoint part in this with the choir vocal, it’s so triumphant sounding, into A Quest for Water with the rolling harpsichord part, I wonder if this is on a click track to keep it in time with the backing narration, into “The Hansback”, now isn’t that a rock riff right there, I love that moog part but more so I love the guitar part and then the drums following it on that descending run, before it breaks into the massive orchestral part with the piano coming in over the synth backing, now bass player Lee hitting his queue and kneeling down in Fervent Prayer!
The Recollection comes in with a theme musically coming back in again, before we are Lost and Found, before we hear Echoes with Mollie singing a beautiful delicate vocal part over this, really beautiful, which starts to build into 4 miles with the rolling keyboard part, before we fall down in the Reunion, with a funky keyboard part that kicks this one off, giving Dave a chance to walk to the front and break out all the guitar chops, the guy is a phenomenal player, before we hit the harpsichord part with a familiar melody coming back in again.
World within a World again revisits one of the main themes, then into the Raft before we get to The Battle which I love that key part with the bass notes descending not only that but the way that it then melds back into one of the main themes, again this is most definitely the rock section, it just takes me back to being a kid and hearing this for the first time, it’s really magical and getting hear Rick let loose on the moons for the solo section at the end of it, just class!
Cumulus Clouds make way to The Storm where we get a real stank face blues solo from Rick and again the backing vocalists adding to this section massively, before we enter the Cemetary!
Then we meet the Quaternary Man, nerd part, I love the bass drum hits on this at the start, the 4 vocalists are huge on this one, Dave again getting to blow a bit on this one, great solo again, it then gets all otherworldly for the Masterdons, this part is like something from Star Trek I always thought, before we go into the Forest with the soulful electric piano intro to it, which builds up into the next section, The Ages of Man!
The Tunnel, Rick fires up the keys and launches into a trademark solo right the way through this one, before Grieg comes in for the Hall of the Mountain King section from Peer Gant, then we arrive triumphantly at Mount Etna, really delicate choral part with a bit of moog over the top of it, and that’s it, we have made it out alive!
Are we done, well in Ricks words well they got out didn’t they so it’s over, but it wasn’t we still have one song left to go as an encore!
Starship Trooper
Now coming from a world of Prog Metal the first time I heard this song was through Dream Theater covering it on one of the DVDs with Steve Howe and that came flooding back to me when it hits that middle section which is one chord in 4 places, the highlight of this one is the keytars, first off Adam gets out the front and when I say out the front I mean after he is at the front of the stage he is on the front row standing on a seat playing a blazing solo and I mean blazing, before trying to figure out how to get back on the stage and bum hops it and gets up again, it’s his dads turn to get out the front and play and then the highlight for me, the two of them, eye to eye not looking trying to outplay each other while at one point having a conversation, both of them are exceptional players and what a treat to see them both going for it up close!
I absolutely loved this evening, and it was worth the trip over, by all accounts next October we have the Henry the Eighth album being done in its entirely and you can be sure I will not miss that, thank you Rick and band that made the 10 year old in me very happy, 35 years later!
www.rwcc.com
