Throughout the course of its storied career, which has spanned nearly 50 years, Yes has personified the genre that it helped create: progressive rock. From the British band's late-'60s blend of psychedelia, r&b and folk to its '70s epic compositions that still define the genre to its reinvention in the '80s as the slick, MTV-ready arena-rock powerhouse behind the hit "Owner Of A Lonely Heart," Yes has always focused on moving forward.
With that forward trajectory has come a parade of band members leaving, and in many cases, rejoining the group. At the center of all of that movement was one solitary figure, bassist Chris Squire, a founding member, a player who changed the idea of rock bass guitar, and the only musician to play on every album in the Yes catalog. With the passing of Squire in June, the one constant in Yes - and maybe the band itself - was gone.
But talk to Steve Howe, the virtuosic guitarist who started his first stint with the band in 1970, and you'll learn that "there is a sense of responsibility" to keep the band moving forward - which it has been doing via a flurry of activity: the July release of the live CD/DVD, "Like It Is - Live At The Mesa Arts Center," a late-summer tour that begins Friday, Aug. 7 in Connecticut and November's third annual "Cruise To The Edge," the Yes-themed cruise which takes its name from what many consider to be the band's high point, the 1972 album "Close To The Edge."
The band is currently made up of long-time members Howe and drummer Alan White, who has been with Yes since 1972, keyboardist Geoff Downes, an early '80s member who returned in 2011, Jon Davison, the latest singer to replace original lead vocalist Jon Anderson, and Billy Sherwood, a former Yes guitarist who was already slated to fill in on bass when Squire's worsening struggle with Acute Erythroid Leukemia made it clear he wouldn't be able to handle the concert dates.
Before embarking on the tour, which will also feature American classic progressive act Toto, Howe chatted exclusively with Headlines & Global News about forging on without Squire, the changing perception of progressive rock and the odds of a reunion with iconic former Yes-men like Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman.
This is the first time you're getting ready to go on tour without Chris Squire. How does that feel?
It's a very roundabout question, isn't it, because we haven't actually started; we're starting in a couple of days. What's it like? It's not quite like anything we expected but we have a sense of duty, responsibility, we all hold positions and you have to forge ahead, whatever happens in your life. You can't run away from things. So I guess we've kind of faced up to it and kind of come to terms with what we're about to do, because, you see, everything about it is unfortunate, but we knew some time back that Chris wasn't available to do this tour, so Billy Sherwood came in with our blessing to fill in and hopefully Chris was going to come back. So we were kind of half in this mode, you know what I mean? We were halfway down this street because we were going to be doing like this (anyway), and it's a great shame of course that Chris didn't make it through the quite difficult course that he had to do to get back on the road with us and get his life back from his illnesses. So I mean we were halfway down there, but we weren't here (laughs), we didn't know that Chris was not going to be able to rejoin us and that he was going to pass away. So that bit's new. I don't really think you can describe it very well, other than what I just said: we were partially ready for it because Chris wasn't going to be able to do this tour, but we weren't ready for the full shock.
As opposed to canceling the shows, do you think it could be therapeutic to get back out there and play these songs?
Yeah, I mean of course it is. There have only been so many gaps in Yes' performance (history) - 2005, 06, 07 are the only times. So there is a sense of responsibility. We do feel like it would be silly just to stop. Even though this is a very dramatic development, to stop maybe wouldn't be fair to Chris, because Chris was obviously hoping we'd carry on anyway. I think we're trying to strike a balance with a brave concept of going on and rising to the occasion.
On recent tours, Yes has focused on playing classic albums like "Fragile" and "Close To The Edge" in their entirety. What's the plan for this tour?
Well obviously not albums (laughs). Before we did albums, nobody asked us that. Basically we're going to play a selection of music that's appropriate for the summer, it's appropriate under the circumstances that we find ourselves under with the development of the band, so we've invented a setlist that definitely has a couple of songs that we definitely haven't played for many, many years, and obviously we're not going to play unpopular songs (laughs), let's put it that way. We're going to play some popular songs, but we're also going to build in some stuff that we feel adds to that development of having done albums, and next year we'll be going back to Europe with the "Fragile"/ "Close To The Edge" tour anyway, which will be kind of unusual. It's a very popular concept, but I don't think you could do that with another band (on the bill), and we're happy to be touring with Toto, and I think to build the set around an album or two there...Look, it's conceptual, but we've done that now for a couple of years in the States, so I think it's nice to break the chain and do something that allows us to choose music from all over the career. I think maybe it's a bit corny to say it's a celebration of Yes' career, but I mean we definitely cover a very wide spectrum.
The third annual "Cruise To The Edge" is coming up in November. What's the idea behind the cruise, and why has it been successful enough to stick around for three years now?
Well, I mean I guess a certain level of luck is with us. We've had fairly good bills and we've lived up to the occasion, and this time we are adding some different songs; we're building from this set into the cruise set with some additional songs. A bit of a tease there, but we'll be able to do a show without a double-headliner or whatever you'd like to call it with Toto, so that will be nice because we'll be able to stretch out. The cruise I think has been fairly well-managed from both sides, the cruise people and our people. I think we hit on something. I think it's great to have (album cover artist and Yes logo designer) Roger Dean on board. I think his imagery has always been a big part of our visual; people can think about Yes and they see Roger Dean. I think it's the same with the cruise, they think of the cruise and they see, oh, "Cruise To The Edge," and it's Roger Dean. So I think all of these things make it feel comfortable and hopefully friendly and enjoyable. We don't flaunt, we don't sit in bars all day talking to Yes fans, but there's opportunities to kind of meet up and have a little rub shoulders and just kind of the fact that we're they're with them.
For decades progressive rock was savaged by critics and some even declared it dead due to the rise of punk in the '70s. But lately there has been a renewed interest in the genre. Genesis and Rush were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame recently, and fans want Yes there too. Why do you think the tide has changed?
I think it's widened. Maybe it's matured. Whenever you mention prog people go leaping along to mentioning punk, they being the most opposite things, it's like salt and sugar. They are the opposites, so why punk is always brought in straightaway is mainly because a lot of people thought it was the downfall of prog. But I think music's too great to let any one single thing...I mean think about all the great composers who got bad reviews, like "Symphony 1" slated and then years later revered, and the same with groups. Beatles turned down by like 10 labels (laughs) and then they're the biggest band in the world. You have to learn to laugh at critics, and that's the great thing about being a musician: if you can rise above it, and learn from it also - I mean I'm not saying that all criticism is wrong, either, because sometimes there's a little to be gleaned from it - but don't give up your job just because somebody doesn't like you. I find it a bit of a cliché: prog, punk. No, prog carried on, and for a lot of people, it was their central enjoyment, particularly if they got into it at that impressionable age, as we call it. So I enjoy this banter, if you like, between people. We have people who love our music and we made a lot of great albums. In fact, I was chatting to (producer and former member of Yes and The Buggles) Trevor Horn the other day about Chris and other things, and he said, "A lot of bands have one hit album. You have five, six." So in a way, should we worry? I don't think we should. I think we need to learn from criticism sometimes, but for the most part there's always going to be critics and they have a place, they tell a story from their perspective, but it's not the whole story.
What is your favorite Yes album?
I think that when you get to "Close To The Edge" you got an awful lot of the great ingredients that Yes wanted to have. By that time we've got Rick (Wakeman) and many of the founding members, and I think for that reason it's a great jumping-off point. You can look before it and see how we got there, but also you can see how we widened and grew and matured, and maybe got a little crazy after that. After the '80s, I mean Asia was quite a crazy band to be in, but when I see the "90125" video I have a good laugh, I see those guys out there with permed hair and funny trousers, and great, you know, that's how many times Yes has changed its sort of skin, like the '60s, the first two albums, not very successful but there's actually so much talent bubbling in, you've got the '70s with your "Tales From Topographic Oceans," your "Relayers," and "Dramas," which was another great title, because it was a bit dramatic, and there again you've got the '80s, and you have the '90s, so I mean really we have to enjoy this (laughs).
Does Chris' passing make it any more likely we'll see Yes work with former members like Jon Anderson or Rick Wakeman in some capacity, even just for one big concert to celebrate the band's legacy?
I mean, I'd hate to say no, so I'll say I don't know. I don't know. From inside it's quite different. We have to try to stay on our course, and if we change something that changes multiple other things, then we don't know where we are. We spent a lot of time in 2008 kind of finding out where we are, with Benoit (David) and Oliver Wakeman and now with Geoff Downes and Jon Davison and now with Billy Sherwood. In other words, we can't open the floodgates without thinking. So sure, we give these things some thought, but until we come to a conclusion, we'd rather do nothing than the wrong thing.
Are there any plans to do a new Yes studio album any time soon?
I really can't comment on that. We're not wholly sure. It certainly couldn't be very soon because we're not interested in doing it very soon. The last record was quite difficult and we have to learn from that. It could be years in the pipeline. It certainly would be a huge mistake to make some quick record and put it out. That would be the hugest mistake, because we've got something really tricky to live up to, it's called things like "Close To The Edge" (laughs), which is phenomenally orchestrated and arranged, it's got so much writing in it, so much performance, so many great breaks and solos and things, so it's a lot to live up to, and I would say, a bit like I did with (the question about) the reunion with the former members, we better not do the wrong thing. Therefore, to do nothing is a lot safer ground, to move along slowly, until we know a bit more.
YES TOUR DATES
Fri-Aug-07 Mashantucket, CT
Grand Theater at Foxwoods
Sat-Aug-08 Newark, NJ
New Jersey PAC
Sun-Aug-09 Atlantic City, NJ
Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa - Event Center
Tue-Aug-11 Brooklyn, NY
Barclays Center
Wed-Aug-12 Baltimore, MD
Pier Six Pavilion
Fri-Aug-14 Huber Heights, OH
Music Center at The Heights
Sat-Aug-15 Sterling Heights, MI
Freedom Hill Amphitheatre
Sun-Aug-16 Chicago, IL
FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
Tue-Aug-18 Des Moines, IA
Iowa State Fair - Grandstand
Wed-Aug-19 Saint Charles, MO
Family Arena
Fri-Aug-21 Biloxi, MS
Beau Rivage Resort & Casino - Beau Rivage Theater
Sat-Aug-22 Alpharetta, GA
Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park
Sun-Aug-23 Clearwater, FL
Ruth Eckerd Hall
Tue-Aug-25 Houston, TX
Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Wed-Aug-26 San Antonio, TX
Majestic Theatre
Thu-Aug-27 Grand Prairie, TX
Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie
Sun-Aug-30 Littleton, CO
Denver Botanic Gardens - Chatfield
Mon-Aug-31 Salt Lake City
UT Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre
Wed-Sep-02 Tucson, AZ
AVA Amphitheater
Fri-Sep-04 Scottsdale, AZ
Talking Stick Resort & Casino
Sat-Sep-05 Pala, CA
Pala Casino - Starlight Theater
Sun-Sep-06 Los Angeles, CA
The Greek Theatre
Tue-Sep-08 Saratoga, CA
Mountain Winery
Thu-Sep-10 Shelton, WA
Little Creek Casino Resort - Event Center
Fri-Sep-11 Airway Heights, WA
Northern Quest Resort & Casino
Sat-Sep-12 Coquitlam, BC
Hard Rock Casino - Vancouver