Events

The trio—Anderson, with guitarist Trevor Rabin and keyboard maven Rick Wakeman—plays at the UB Center for the Arts on Wednesday night, November 2 and Anderson doesn’t mince words about the reclamation.

It’s been a tumultuous eight years for fans of British prog-pioneers Yes. First front man and key songwriter Jon Anderson was outsted from the band in the wake of health issues that docked his ability to tour in 2008, and then bassist Chris Squire died in summer 2015. Contentious debates have ensued as to whether what remains (essentially, guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Alan White with a group of talented session players and a vocal doppelganger, Jon Davidson) should even be calling itself Yes.

After some initial upset at what seemed like a callous move, however, Jon Anderson is no longer bothered by any of this… particularly because he considers ARW to be Yes. And many listeners would agree.

The trio—Anderson, with guitarist Trevor Rabin and keyboard maven Rick Wakeman—plays at the UB Center for the Arts on Wednesday night, November 2 and Anderson doesn’t mince words about the reclamation.

“We’re reclaiming our right to be Yes, as a band,” he said over the phone from a New Jersey hotel room. “I have a shirt that says ‘ARW, a.k.a. Yes.’ There are a lot of bands playing Yes music all over the world, including the one that gets to carry the name. At first, it was annoying when they went off to do their own thing like that, but it’s silly to dwell on it. There’s so much good music to be made, there’s no time to worry about who gets to be in Yes. We’ve got other things to do. But I’ve watched videos of them on Youtube, and it seems like they’re just going through the motions of playing. It’s uninspired. Meanwhile, we’re up there power-housing these songs every night and making people feel great. When performed by a bunch of good musicians, Yes music is a lot of fun.”

Andersons high-road position on this issue is admirable, but not all that surprising from an atypical rock legend that prefers meditation to beer before taking the stage. Within the context of Yes, pegged in 1970’s Rolling Stone as a bunch of “uptight vegetarians,” Anderson’s image as an enlightened sprite seemed entirely appropriate. Ironically, it was the hard-partying Rick Wakeman credited with rocking the band’s peaceful boat back then, but Anderson is over the moon to be touring in this trio, which is supplemented by bassist Lee Pomeroy and drummer Louis Molino. And in case you’re wondering, Wakeman will indeed be wearing one of his famous capes.

“People are impressed with Lee and Lou,” he said. “It’s thrilling to be onstage with Rick – magical, actually. All of us seem to have gotten better with age. I’m 72 this week and I’m singing better than I’ve sung in as long as I can remember.”

The respiratory issues that suddenly ended Anderson’s career with Yes have been resolved through a successful sinus surgery, and rather than being a one-time spinoff, ARW’s intention is to make new music and tour again. Originally, the plan for these introductory shows was to resurrect material from Rabin’s tenure, which includes Yes’s most commercially successful record, 90125. But the final setlist leans more toward classic 70’s Yes releases – in particular, 1971’s Fragile.

“Initially you get together and you’ve got a couple dozen songs to try in rehearsal,” he said. “The ones that work are the ones you keep. It seems natural to me to perform the songs we’ve chosen. There’s a lot of love, good will and honesty in our music, and it was designed to be performed onstage. It’s very adventurous stuff, and it’s in our DNA.”