Yes - Like It Is (3) Live at...

Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White; 2011.

I haven't posted in a period but I'm back now with something now that's there something to write about after getting writers block here and TV Quick USA while NY Retail Roundup seldom runs out of ideas.  This is why some people just have one blog!  This is supposed to be the flagship too.

The loss of Chris Squire this past year left Yes without any original members still in the band (Peter Banks passed a couple years before, and their surviving former colleagues Jon Anderson, Tony Kaye and Bill Bruford have all left the band more than once already).  Billy Sherwood was selected by Squire himself to come back and take over on bass.  Many have slated Yes for carrying on in this manner and the fandom are torn as they have been for almost a decade since Anderson last left again.

There have been two volumes of the live release Like It Is from their current label Frontiers who fill the void of not having even existed yet in the old days to have signed the bands by releasing live albums from Yes, Asia (Geoff Downes does double duty while Steve Howe will focus on Yes and solo from here on out), Def Leppard and others.  Yes' 1971-72 and 1977 albums were revisited and the next tour will do the same for 1973 and 1980.  Half of Tales of Topographic Oceans and all of  Drama plus encores are being planned for this year and I would hope there would be an official album and DVD dedicated to Squires memory (the last one was already prepared by the time he had gone).  It'd be too easy to just get a bootleg and with more security at shows one would be lucky to sneak in a quick video on a mobile phone and I wouldn't dare do such a thing; also, I'm no Wayne Isham or Bob Clearmountain so I can't do a proper job anyway).  If they decide to have a go, then I hope they will come to the new amphitheatre across town to tape and film as the Grandstand where several past lineups have played across the street sadly went the way of the Rainbow and Marquee.  Now Roger Dean has to paint a new cover as only he can.  More on this in due time.