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Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Doug Curran It was a great pleasure, as usual, to welcome Simon Barrow onto the YMP to help us talk about the new Pete Roth Trio album, Group Chat. Mark knows about jazz but I certainly don't, so I relied on the other guys' understanding of the genre but, as will become clear, it's a bit of a mistake to try to categorise Bill Bruford's new-ish collaboration with guitarist Pete Roth and bassist Mike Pratt. Roth says it's 'near-jazz, near-rock' but listen without prejudice, as they say, and we will all enjoy this highly creative and collaborative endeavour.  Simon also shared some items in the chat and afterwards including: Jam-Bot: Virtual Virtuosity and Embodied Performance A Microtonal Poke in the Eye for AI?   With Feeling: Performance, Humanity and Technology   Our own Mark Anthony K's latest release is now available on Bandcamp - Racing From Time, a great 4-track EP. Check it out!

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Doug Curran This week, Mark and I continue our deep dive into The Syn by listening to the oldest songs on the compilation album, Flowerman - Rare Blooms from The Syn 1965-69. We discovered some fascinating music along with information on how it came about via the very good sleeve notes in the album. As with Yes, there are plenty of surprising twists to the tale of The Syn, even in the comparatively short spell they were active in the 60s. After our overview from Streve Nardelli last week, we enjoyed listening to the surviving output from those days. I have included the YouTube videos of the whole album in the show notes for this week so you may want to listen to the music before putting up with Mark and me banging on about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_71CDGhJgg&list=PLNFe8UZQzH8sWSBpwoIKRWPTIKghOREXH How much music was officially released by The Syn in their initial period? Does it sound anything like early Yes? How successful were the band?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week, Mark and I begin a mini-series in which we will explore The Syn, the band that is deeply-connected with the origins of Yes. The story will evolve as we go but, to set the scene, we had a conversation about our 2018 interview with The Syn's lead singer, Steve Nardelli. Once we have finished talking about the parts of the interview that were the most interesting for us, I play the whole interview so you can make your own mind up. In future weeks, we will be listening to all sorts of The Syn music, so if you'd like to follow along, just search YouTube - almost all the music we will be talking about is there. In what ways were The Syn important in the early development of Yes? What are the Yes connections across the decades? When were The Syn active?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week Mark and I spoke to Chris Braide from the Downes Braide Association about their new album, Trauma. Even if you don't know Chris, you will know his work because he has written and/or produced songs for many of the world's most successful artists. He's been nominated for a Grammy and has won an Ivor Novello songwriting award. This is the 6th DBA album and we usually manage to speak to Geoff Downes about the duo's output so it was great to have a chat with the other half of the outfit. Chris' Yes connections go further than Geoff, of course, as he was one of the original members of Producers, along with Trevor Horn. In fact, he has recently released new versions of the songs on the Producers' 2012 album, Made In Basing Street. You can listen to that collection on Bandcamp. Mark and I highly recommend Trauma, which is released today on Cherry Red Records, complete with another fabulous Roger Dean cover. Is this album different to the previous 5 from DBA? Who are the guests this time? Is the music relevant to progressive rock fans? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvQhwOUyDpY  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blOUE9TerVE  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZnRoIjS0k0  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXGf0dbUmOo  YMP Patrons: Producers: Joseph Cottrell Wayne Hall Jeffrey Crecelius Doug Curran Patrons: Robert Nasir Declan Logue John Thomson John Holden Jamie McQuinn Stephen Lambe Chip Palmer Brian Husvar Michael O'Connor Geoff Bailie Lobate Scarp Ronnie Neeley Hogne Bø Pettersen Chris Bandini Michael Handerhan Peter Hearnden Scott Colombo John Viola Mark Slater Robert Vandiver Paul Tomei Brian Sullivan Todd Dudley David Watkinson Simon Barrow Steve Scott Geoffrey Mason Steve Dill Tim Stannard David Pannell Thomas DeVries Bob Martilotta Brian Harris Brian Harris Paul Hailes Ray Riethmeier Henrik Antonsson P.T. Wilson Terence Sadler Steve Luzietti Barry Gorsky Steven Roehr Craig Estenes Martin Kjellberg Gary Betts Fergus Cubbage Bill Whittaker Aaron Steelman Lind Mark James Lang Steve Rode John Parry John Cowan Miguelbass Fred Barringer Rachel Hadaway Dem Steve Moss Douglas Caldwell Steve Perry David Phyrillas     Become a Patron!

This week I report back on my trip to see Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks at Symphony Hall, Birmingham. As you'll hear, I had a wonderful time and met some old and new friends. I also find time to torture Mark by making im answer the quiz questions from last week. See if you can do better than him. After he has a go, I reveal the winner of the competition to win a CD copy of the expanded From A Page album. How is Jon's voice? Was it a fun evening? How did the Band Geeks play? Do leave your comments on the show notes for this week over on Yesmusicpodcast.com

Mark and I were preparing to enjoy another round of our Yes Guess Who game this week. Unfortunately, Mark was ill and couldn't join me to record. Happily he is home now and on the mend. So I decided to change this episode into a version of the quiz you can join in with yourself. I even have an actual prize to give away. I have a 'spare' copy of the expanded From A Page album on CD which could be yours if you can answer my somewhat obscure and devious Guess Who questions. To continue our celebration of the first 15 years of the YMP, I have come up with 15 dastardly questions, the answers to which are all Yes musicians. If you would like to have the chance to win the fabulous prize (and I may well add in some lovely YMP goodies as well), please send your 15 answers by email to YMP Towers - that's [email protected] in time for us to do the draw on next week's episode.

This week Mark and I embark on a little navel-gazing. It's the first part of our celebrations of 15 years of the Yes Music Podcast and we look back to what YMP was up to and what Yes were doing 5, 10 and 15 years ago. We remind ourselves of several things we had forgotten, get trapped for a short time in a rabbit hole when I mention my new copy of Olias of Sunhillow and reminisce about how poor my presentation skills were when I started the podcast back in 2011. It's amazing that YMP still exists after all these years and it certainly wouldn't without your support and dedication to the world's greatest progressive rock band and the world's longest-running Yes podcast. When did Mark join the YMP team? Does it seem like years since the episodes we mention? Is Jon Anderson still a prog god?

This week Mark and I discuss the latest special edition of Record Collector magazine which is dedicated to the world's greatest progressive rock band. I was surprised and pleased to be asked to contribute some articles to the publication and the publisher came back and asked for more so I assume they liked what I had done. I ended up writing 4 pieces: An article on Close to the Edge A profile of Jon Davison A roundup of the most interesting extra tracks on remastered and expanded albums An overview of Yes members' side projects This is the first time I have been published in a nation/international periodical and I am delighted that the edition has turned out to be the best of this type of special I have seen. YMP Patrons Dave Watkinson and Stephen Lambe also contributed major sections of the magazine so it's wonderful that Record Collector magazine have chosen to engage with real Yes fans. The other authors featured are clearly knowledgeable and experienced as well, for example Jerry Ewing, editor of Prog Magazine. Do try and get hold of a copy of this edition after listening to Mark and me banging on about how good it is. Let us know what you think of it and leave us a comment below. What does this magazine contain? Is it worth the money? Is the whole of Yes' history covered?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Doug Curran This week, Mark and I spoke to Chris Clark, thanks to YMP Patron, Mark Lang who put us in touch with him. We asked Chris about his experiences working with Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks live and in the studio. Now a veteran of approaching 100 concerts with the Yes co-founder, we were keen to know what it's been like, how it came about, how the first album, True, was born and what the future might hold for the collaboration. If you listen carefully, I think you might be able to pick up some tantalising clues as to what the forthcoming second album might be like and we had a great time getting to know Chris. I will be seeing him with Jon Anderson and the Geeks in September so I am looking forward to that.   How did Chris become involved with the Band Geeks and then Jon Anderson? Has it been fun? How has the band evolved?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius, and Doug Curran This week, Mark and I have been taking a somewhat forensic look at the newly-released Roosevelt Stadium Jersey City 17 June 1976 live set. We go rather deeply into the weeds around the quality, sources, presentation and packaging, all for your edification. Mark uncovers some surprising aspects of the (rather expensive) vinyl version of this release and we both enjoy the actual performances of the band which featured Patrick Moraz rather than Rick Wakeman at this time, during the Solo Albums Tour. What does this recording sound like? Where did it come from? What are the troubling aspects of the vinyl version?

This week, Mark and I were unable to get together so we both recorded separately, like we used to do years ago. Here we have 'retro' or 'classic' YMP I suppose. Anyway, we both enjoyed listening to/watching 2 different versions of And You And I - one from the brilliant Symphonic Live DVD and the other from the BBC Prog Prom event last week. I have embedded both versions into the show notes for this week so do watch those and see what you think of our reactions. Which version is 'better'? Is it fair to compare them? What was the rest of the concert like?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week Mark and I listened to 2 medleys - the Big Medley from the The Word Is Live box set, recorded on 5th October 1978 at The Forum, Inglewood and a recording of Jon Anderson and The New Life Band playing their Yes medley in 1980 at The Royal Albert Hall from a BBC recording broadcast the same year.  Yes Medley - Jon Anderson - Royal Albert Hall Event 1980  The Big Medley (Time & a Word, Long Distance, Survival,The Fish, Perpetual & Soon) (Inglewood 1978) It was a very entertaining process and, as you'll hear, Mark has a particularly interesting reaction to the rather different style of the New Life Band's interpretations, on a tour that Jon Anderson arranged to promote his recently-released second solo album, Song of Seven. Having just left Yes for the first time, he ended up being out on tour at the same time as the Yeggles version of Yes, who boasted Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn as part of their (fairly hastily assembled) lineup. For his part, Anderson collected together brilliant musicians but with a rather different instrumentation to the classic rock band arrangement. The Big Medley wasn't played on The Drama Tour (unfortunately, some would say) so we can't compare these two performances directly, but they are very close in time. What songs were included in each medley? How does the New Life Band instrumentation work? Which ends up being a better Yes medley (and do we even make a decision on that)? Do take a listen to the recordings I have embedded into the show notes for this week and let us know what you think in the comments over at YesMusicPodcast.com

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius It's the 50th Anniversary of Jon Anderson's masterpiece, Olias of Sunhillow this month, so it was highly appropriate that we spoke to the album's biggest fan, David Watkinson, this week. Dave helps us plot the musical development of Yes' co-founder to the point at which he felt able to create his first solo album - entirely on his own. We also discuss the amazing packaging and the album's influence on Anderson and Yes. Do watch Dave's interview with artist, Jeff Cummins, which is embedded into the show notes for today's episode and check out the photos of my copies of the album and a small selection of Dave's memorabilia collection. Was Jon Anderson ready to create Olias? Did he play everything on the record? Why isn't Roger Dean the artist?

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week, we return to our occasional series on YesKit, this time featuring the instrument Tony Kaye used, briefly, in 1968 before he upgraded to a Hammond M100. It was the 1960s iconic keyboard, the British-made Vox Continental. The story of this revolutionary instrument is fascinating and we are indebted to the undisputed expert in the field, Chris Dale, for a great overview I read out at the end of the episode. It was huge fun to both research and then chat about the Vox Continental and I'm sure you will enjoy Mark's demonstrations as much as I did. How did it become the most iconic keyboard of the 1960s? What was the keyboard Tony Kaye had when he joined Yes? Why did he disguise it? Please do add your own comments in the show notes for this week's episode.

Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Doug Curran and Jeffrey Crecelius This week, I have been researching one of the sets of photos that will be in the Barry Plummer book - Master of Images. It was labelled 'Roundhouse' but, as you will hear, that wasn't as straightforward a venue as I thought it was going to be. Once I get it all sorted out, I was delighted to discover that there is a crowd recording of the concert available over at: https://forgotten-yesterdays.com/downloads.asp?ftype=1&qsectionid=2&qdownloadid=37 After I told the story about what I found out, Mark and I compared notes on this early outing for songs from The Yes Album. It's a fascinating concert to listen to and we both spotted some great features. How many Roundhouses were there? Which one is this? How does Steve Howe fit into his new-ish band role?