Steve Howe of Yes: ‘It is quite incredible that it has been 50 years’

Formed in 1968, the band’s ever evolving line-ups have been on the road pretty consistently throughout this time.

However with the pandemic now in the rear view mirror, this is all set to change for the progressive rock legends.

Yes are continuing their well-received Album Series tour this month, bringing the classic Close to the Edge to venues across Britain, including York’s iconic Barbican venue on June 22.

The band, now composed of singer Jon Davison, Geoff Downes on keyboards, Billy Sherwood on bass and Steve Howe on guitar, will play the 1972 classic in its entirety for audiences in celebration of its 50th anniversary – and in homage to their late drummer Alan White.

It will be, as Howe says, an incredible milestone. “It is quite incredible that it has been 50 years,” he tells The Yorkshire Post from his home in southern England.

“We love playing albums in their entirety.

“We don’t want to do it every tour but of course we haven’t done so for a few years so we are itching to get out there.”

Close to the Edge was a landmark record for Yes.

Progressive rock was finding huge audiences with the likes of Pink Floyd and Genesis becoming increasingly popular among serious music fans and the band’s previous album, Fragile, had really broken the band internationally.

Faced with a follow up, Yes focused their collective attention in creating its most ambitious record to date.

Built around the title track which runs close to 19 minutes and consumed an entire side of vinyl, the band were reaching new levels of musical adventurousness while still maintaining its melodic sensibilities.

Like all prog rock classics, it achieves the balance of pushing boundaries to the limit while still having vocals you can sing along to.

But what are Howe’s memories of writing and recording it?

“We were mainly writing on tour,” he says. “We used nights off to get two guitars and a tape recorder.

“We made the album piecemeal at times, often in between shows. We would see a gap and book some days in the studio. It was done in parts but it wasn’t detrimental. We came back fresh.

“We were really knocked out and had done a few shows with Mahavishnu Orchestra.

“There was a mood that we could do something special. Every record had to move us forward and this one certainly did.”

Close to the Edge marks a high water mark with Howe and then vocalist Jon Anderson as collaborators.

Howe said: “I was a chord guy and he was a words guy. We kind of merged those.

“We were arty and we were drawn from different influences but we were still a rock band.

“The strength of every record Yes ever made was in the arrangements. No matter who wrote the song, the arrangement was key.

“We thought it would be more symphonic and more adventurous.”

Part of the current show will see the album’s iconic artwork, produced by longtime collaborator artist Roger Dean, form part of the show.

“Roger has proven himself time and time again,” said Howe. “He is a very special part of what the band does. Seeing at scale is special.”

The musical sophistication of what Yes does requires serious levels of concentration and rehearsal.

Lockdown could have threatened to disrupt the band’s virtuosity but Howe found a way of powering through it.

“For two months I was fairly depressed,” he said.

“I could see that what it took to turn this around and get back on tour was going to take a lot of time. Time and again we thought we would be back on tour.

“It has been a question of patience. But it has given us time to write and record.

“If you are going to play with Yes you need to know your parts incredibly well. If you do it too early by the time you get to rehearsal you will have forgotten it. I have to do my homework. “Everybody in Yes does.”

Yes play York Barbican, June 22. yorkbarbican.co.uk