Yes, here seen playing live in 2023, returned to York Barbican last night, having toured there in 2022. Picture: Gottlieb Bros
YES know how to play the long game. In the second half of their fifth decade as a band, this incarnation is led ostensibly by Steve Howe, who first signed on in 1970.
It is Howe’s skilfully selected setlist that lifts this concert, and gives it an appeal beyond the die-hards. Chosen with the same care Howe puts into his guitar playing, over two hours, two sets and 12 songs, they charted many of the interesting points on the Yes musical map.
With any longstanding group, there are line-up changes, and while there have been some negative reviews of their most recent album, May 2023’s Mirror To The Sky, it was clear they remain a potent musical proposition. Cut From The Stars, the sole ‘new’ track in the show, was there by merit, driven by some exuberant bass.
Yes’s long-form music is a byword for difficult, and as Howe observed late in the second set, “Yes members have to put the work in”. It was akin to watching an orchestra where everyone was the soloist – holding the entire set in their heads while playing for and with one another.
The first half showcased Howe, who played between six and seven guitars during the set (I lost count). With the air of a wizened professor at 77, his dexterity was amazing, switching styles without batting an eye. Like Yes, this is music that is hard for a newcomer to love. It takes effort, and Howe’s guitar work is the same, not people pleasing, but always coming at a composition from an expected angle.
The opening Machine Messiah showed off the heavier side to the band, starting with crunching chords before taking off around the ten-minute mark with some wonderfully propulsive ensemble playing.
Arguably the most memorable moments were when Howe’s guitar tech wheeled on a second guitar on a stand. Still with one instrument around his neck, Howe then produced the most lyrical sounds of the evening, and in this way he closed out Turn Of The Century to finish the first set.
The love the band and the audience have for the music is a powerful force, best experienced in person – and from his skips and hops, Howe looked totally absorbed in delivering a great performance.
The poster for The Classic Tales Of Yes Tour 2024. York Barbican was their only Yorkshire location
Jon Davison was game on vocals, taking on Jon Anderson’s lyrics in choral style. He is a wonderful singer, but the lyrics were generally pretty woeful. Don’t Kill The Whale being a good, if well intentioned, example.
Given the imaginative musical leaps in motion around him, the singer often had to sing the same things over and over – but never quite run into the ground.
There were some affecting moments with just Howe and Davison – and there is obvious rapport and affection between the men on stage. Talking of choir boys, it transpires that keyboard player Geoff Downes began his musical apprenticeship at York Minster. He had his hands full too, with eight keyboards to man, plus pedals.
There was too much intricacy to keep up with, but there was no room for noodling or drum solos mercifully. Stage lighting was also deliberately simple.
The second half was perhaps the better of the two, despite starting with the weakest number of the night (South Side Of The Sky). It shone a light on the incredible bass shapes produced by Billy Sherwood, very much a lead instrument.
It’s unlikely Yes get many plaudits for their sonic voyages on Tales From Topographic Oceans. This 1973 album marks an outer limit, even in the expanded prog universe, and now serves more as a warning to others not to take themselves so seriously. It was striking, therefore, that their 20-minute distillation of this 80-minute work was a real highlight (Howe having told CharlesHutchPress this was “a mini-representation…visiting each of the sides” in his interview.)
Not listening too closely to the words, but feeling the emotion, the interplay between the players, and the thoughtful way the sections had been stitched together, was a veritable masterclass.
The audience were on their feet for the rousing encore Roundabout, and by Starship Trooper we were as one in our appreciation of this vibrant, iconic musical institution that is Yes.
Yes, seen here playing live in 2023, return to York Barbican tonight. Picture: Gottlieb Bros
PROG-ROCK legends Yes bring their Classic Tales of Yes Tour to York Barbican tomorrow night (28/5/2024) in the only Yorkshire show of May’s nine-date itinerary.
In the line-up will be Steve Howe, on guitar and vocals, Geoff Downes, on keyboards, Billy Sherwood, on bass guitar and vocals, Jon Davison, on vocals and acoustic guitar, and Jay Schellen on drums.
“We’re putting together a great setlist covering the length and breadth of Yes’s career,” says Howe, whose band last played York Barbican on their Close To The Edge 50th Anniversary Tour in June 2022.
Divided into two sets, the Classic Tales of Yes Tour show comprises myriad songs from Yes’s back catalogue covering 50-plus years.
Definitely it will include a 20-minute medley from 1973’s Tales From Topographic Oceans and “possibly” music from latest album Mirror To The Sky, released on InsideOutMusic/Sony Music in May 2023.
“As always, we are committed to pushing new boundaries and are very excited to be performing another chapter in the rich legacy of the band,” says Downes.
“This tour format does open up a few corridors,” says Howe. “Choosing the running order, I’ve dreamed up the set list, put it to the guys and said ‘what do you think?’, and thankfully they’ve liked it.
“I don’t pre-set it until I’m fairly sure it’s watertight, making sure we pick songs that reach out broadly across our catalogue. Like playing It Will Be A Good Day (The River) from [1999 album] The Ladder, which is something we’ve not played since maybe The Ladder Tour, and Time And A Word [from the 1970 album of that title], a song that is so warm and beautiful to play.”
Central to the Classic Tales of Yes Tour will be the Tales From Topographic Oceans section in the second set. “I got into the idea of visiting each side, drawing the lines together to form a mini-representation,” says Howe.
The poster for The Classic Tales Of Yes Tour 2024. York Barbican is the only Yorkshire date
This tour finds drummer Jay Schellen becoming a permanent member of the band, with the blessing of long-serving Alan White, who died in 2022. Schellen had begun performing with Yes in 2016, when White was beset with health problems.
“Alan would not give up but he was getting a bit weaker, so we bought in Jay as a standby. For the bigger sets, Alan would come on and do the encore, as his general strength wasn’t capable of doing two and a half hours.
“When Alan couldn’t do the next tour, and later passed away, it was logical to pass on the baton to Jay, who was there already. He’s been very excited to take on the drummer’s role and be constantly involved. It’s a very complicated job but he makes it look easy.”
Will latest album Mirror To The Sky feature in the setlist? “We just do one song from it, Cut From The Stars, the opening track,” confirms Howe. “We’re happier with one, having earlier done two from it.”
As with 2021’s The Quest, Yes began work on their 23rd studio album gradually. “We started in our own studios and then a centralised studio, building the songs. [Vocalist and acoustic guitarist] Jon Davison started to reside in the UK, in Wales, so we could get some of it done physically together, but with a great deal of file sharing first and then maybe rearranging it with greater dynamics,” says Howe.
“We then went on tour, but fortunately we didn’t do any touring in 2023 bar America in September and October, so we had time to finish earlier in the year.”
Howe has embraced the role of new technology in extending the possibilities of recording remotely as well as together, on The Quest and Mirror To The Sky, but also revels in the pleasures of performing each show. “When you’re playing live, you’re doing it differently, presenting it in an immediate way. That’s a beautiful thing; in between the start and the last chord, anything can happen, anything can become exciting. That drive to give a great performance.”
Performance is a combination of “a lot of structure” and the here and now, the difference maker from night to night. “There are parts that really come alive every night, and we put so much into tunes like America [an instrumental cover of the Simon & Garfunkel song]. It’s a challenge to play but bringing it to life is a joy.”
North Londoner Howe, now 77, says his greatest pleasure is playing solo guitar. “It’s the Chet Atkins in me that wants to play acoustic guitar,” he says. “I’ll be demonstrating that I have the will and determination to do that on my new solo album. It’s got me, lock, stock and barrel, me and the guitar, so I hope to do shows like that in the future.” As well as still saying yes to playing with Yes after 54 years, of course.
Yes, The Classic Tales Of Yes Tour 2024, York Barbican, May 28, 8pm. Rearranged from 2023; tickets remain valid. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk
Malton Spring Food Lovers Festival: Look out for the festival guide and map on site
FOOD for thought on the arts and culture front, from street cookery to dance, trailblazing women to Drawsome! artists and musicians, prog-rock and folk greats to coastal Dexys, as Charles Hutchinson reports.
Flavour of the week: Malton Spring Food Lovers Festival, today, from 9am; tomorrow and Bank Holiday Monday, from 10am
ON the streets of “Yorkshire’s Food Capital”, Malton Food Lovers Festival celebrates Yorkshire’s supreme produce and cooking over three days of 120 artisan stalls and street food vendors, talks, tastings, chef demonstrations, brass bands and buskers, festival bar, food shops, sculpture trail, entertainment, blacksmith workshops, vintage funfair and family fun with Be Amazing Arts’ Creativitent, Environmental Art’s Creative Chaos and Magical Quests North.
The live musicians will be: today, Malton White Star Band, 11am to 1pm, The Rackateers, 1pm to 3pm, and Oz Ward, 6pm to 8pm; tomorrow, White Star Training Band, 11.30am to 12.30pm, and The Rackateers, 1pm to 3pm, and Monday, The Acoustic Buddies, 11am to 12pm and 2pm to 3pm. Festival entry is free.
Mary Ward (Augsberg portrait): Foundress of the Bar Convent, featuring in the Trailblazers audio trail
Exhibition launch of the week; Trailblazers of the Bar Convent, Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, opening today
THE Trailblazers of the Bar Convent audio trail focuses on uncovering the stories of key characters from the history of the oldest surviving Catholic convent in Great Britain.
Among them are foundress Mary Ward, who believed that girls deserved an equal education to boys; Mother Superior Ann Aspinal, who determined to build a secret chapel totally hidden from the outside world, and Sister Gregory Kirkus, who set up the convent’s first ever museum. Tickets: barconvent.co.uk.
What a hoot: Gemma Curry and her owl puppet in Hoglets Theatre’s Wood Owl And The Box Of Wonders
Pre-festival show of the week: Hoglets Theatre in Wood Owl And The Box Of Wonders, Fountains Mill, Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, tomorrow, 11am and 2pm
IN an Early Bird event for the 2024 Ripon Theatre Festival, York company Hoglets Theatre presents director Gemma Curry’s solo show Wood Owl And The Box Of Wonders for age three upwards.
A lonely little owl wants nothing more than to fly into the night and join his friends, but how can he when he is made from wood in Gemma’s magical half-term journey of singing owls, fantasy worlds, friendship and an age-old message about love? The 40-minute show featuring beautiful handmade puppets and original music will be complemented by an optional puppet-making activity. Box office: ripontheatrefestival.org.
Lesley Ann Eden and her York School of Dance and Drama pupils: Presenting Pinocchio And Ponchetta at Joseph Rowntree Theatre. Picture: Nigel Holland
Dance show of the week: York School of Dance and Drama in Pinocchio And Ponchetta, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 6.30pm
YORK choreographer and dance teacher Lesley Anne Eden presents her 50th anniversary York School of Dance and Drama show with a company ranging in age from six to 70.
Pinocchio And Ponchetta is Lesley’s take on the old story of Pinocchio and his sister, “full of fabulous dancing and great fun for all the family”, with the promise of her trademark quirky props. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
The cover artwork for York Barbican-bound Richard Thompson’s new album, Ship To Shore
Folk luminary of the week: Richard Thompson, York Barbican, May 27,doors 7pm
GUITARIST, singer and songwriter Richard Thompson showcases his 20th solo album – and first since 2018’s 13 Rivers – ahead of the May 31 release of Ship To Shore on New West Records.
Notting Hill-born Thompson, 75, who made his name with folk rock pioneers Fairport Convention before forming his Seventies’ duo with Linda Thompson, will be performing with a full band. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Yes: Playing York Barbican on Tuesday
Rock gig of the week: Yes, The Classic Tales Of Yes Tour 2024, York Barbican, May 28, 8pm
PROG-ROCK legends Yes perform iconic songs from more than 50 years of groundbreaking music-making, definitely including a 20-minute medley from their 1973 album Tales From Topographic Oceans and “possibly” from latest album Mirror To The Sky too.
In the line-up will be Steve Howe, guitars and vocals, Geoff Downes, keyboards, Billy Sherwood, bass guitar and vocals, Jon Davison, vocals and acoustic guitar, and Jay Schellen, drums. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Kathryn Williams and Withered Hand: Teaming up at Selby Town Hall
Duo of the week: Kathryn Williams & Withered Hand, Selby Town Hall, May 29, 8pm
KATHRYN Williams is the Liverpool-born, Newcastle-based, Mercury Music Prize-nominated singer-songwriter with 16 albums to her name. Withered Hand is singer-songwriter Dan Willson, from the Scottish underground scene.
They first met in 2019 in an Edinburgh Book Festival spiegeltent, prompting Williams to tweet Willson: “What kind of songs would we write together and what would they sound like?” The results can be heard on the album Willson Williams, released on One Little Independent Records on April 26, and in concert in Selby (and Otley Courthouse on May 30). Box office: selbytownhall.co.uk.
Dexys: Heading to the Yorkshire coast on May 30
Coastal trip of the week: Dexys, Scarborough Spa Grand Hall, May 30, doors 7pm
AFTER playing York for the first time in their 45-year career last September, Dexys return to North Yorkshire on the latest leg of The Feminine Divine Live!
Led as ever by Kevin Rowland, Dexys open with a theatrical presentation of last year’s album, The Feminine Divine, to be followed by a second soulful set of beloved hits, from Come On Eileen and Jackie Wilson Said to The Celtic Soul Brothers and Geno. Box office: 01723 376774 or scarboroughspa.co.uk.
Bonneville (York singer-songwriter Bonnie Milnes) promotes her debut album New Lady at Drawsome! 2024 gig at The Crescent
York festival of the week: Drawsome! 2024, Young Thugs Studio, May 31; The Crescent, June 1; Arts Barge, Foss Basin, York, June 2
DRAWSOME! combines exhibitions and workshops with live music each evening. York multi-disciplinary artist Rowan Jackson will be exhibiting at Angel on the Green, Bishopthorpe Road, from 7pm on May 27; Things Found and Made at The Golden Ball, Cromwell Road, from May 31 and Greek-Australian graphic novel artist Con Chrisoulis for one night only at Young Thugs Studio, Ovington Terrace, on May 31 from 7pm, when Ichigo Evil, Plantfood, Mickey Nomimono and Drooligan will be performing.
On June 1, Bonneville, Lou Terry, Captain Starlet and Leafcutter John play at The Crescent community venue, where workshops run from 1 to 4pm, featuring Bits and Bots Recycled Robot, with Tom Brader, and Creative Visible Mending, with Anna Pownall, complemented by Zine Stalls hosted by Things Found and Made, Adam Keay and Teresa Stenson.
On June 2, the Arts Barge presents Dana Gavanski, Kindelan, Moongate and We Are Hannah, after three 11am to 2pm workshops: Poem Fishing with Becca Drake and Jessie Summerhayes, Adana Letterpress and lino printing, and Screenprinting with Kai West. Drawsome! is run in aid of Bowel Cancer UK.
The poster for Drawsome! 2024
In Focus: Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, York Theatre Royal, May 29 and 30, 7,30pm; The Showstopper Kids Show, May 30, 2pm
SHOWSTOPPER! The Improvised Musical heads back to York Theatre Royal in an expanded format with a children’s version of the spontaneous musical comedy for half-term week.
The Showstoppers have 14 years behind them at the Edinburgh Fringe, to go with a BBC Radio 4 series, a West End run and an 2016 Olivier Award for their blend of comedy, musical theatre and, wait for it, spontaneity.
Each Showstopper show is created live on the spot from audience suggestions, resulting in a new musical comedy at each performance, which is then named by the audience.
The cast takes suggestions for the setting, genre and style to transform them into an all-singing, all-dancing production with humorous results. Anything can be expected at a Showstopper show, so if the audience fancies Hamilton in a hospital or Sondheim in the Sahara, The Showstoppers will sing it.
Thursday’s Showstopper Kids Show is for children of all ages, who will see their own ideas being turned into a fully improvised musical right in front of them.
The children will decide where the story is set, what happens next and who the characters are. The Showstoppers will create whatever is suggested, so the characters could be anyone, such as the children’s favourite TV show characters, and the show could be set under the sea or in a doll’s house. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Cherie Gordon in Everyday, on tour at York Theatre Royal in Deafinitely Theatre’s 20th anniversary tour. Picture: Becky Bailey
FROM the Pride parade to Roman festivities, Americana musicians to English prog legends, defiant deaf theatre to bracing art, Charles Hutchinson savours a diverse diary ahead.
Empowering play of the week: Everyday, Deafinitely Theatre, York Theatre Royal, Tuesday and Wednesday, 7.30pm
FOUR people come together to perform a ritual of community and catharsis. Gathering up true stories of deaf women and non-binary people’s experiences of surviving abuse, they form a witches’ coven like no other, replete with a cauldron of newt’s eyes and butterflies, deep scars, and blazing signs.
Commissioned by New Diorama Theatre, Deafinitely Theatre’s playful, urgent, defiant world premiere by writer-director Paula Garfield combines British Sign Language and oral English as it draws on interviews to explore domestic abuse and mental health in the deaf community. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Davina De Campo: Performing at York LGBT Pride at Knavesmire
Fiesta of the week: York LGBT Pride, June 18, from high noon
THE York Pride Parade leaves from outside York Minster at Duncombe Place. Best advice: arrive at 11.45am, ready for departure at 12 noon, with the parade arriving at Knavesmire (Tadcaster Road end) between 1pm and 1.30pm.
On the main stage, hosts Miss Sordid Secret and DJ Kira introduce live music and entertainment from Nadine Coyle, Davina De Campo, Duncan James, Marcus Collins and Jo O’Meara. York Pride is a free family-friendly event, but donations are welcome.
Dolphin Hotel, by David Finnigan, at According To McGee, York
Exhibition launch of the week: Contemporary Painting: Elementals and Synthesis by Freya Horsley and David Finnigan, According To McGee, Tower Street, York, June 18 to July 11
EXHIBITING Freya Horsley, from York, alongside David Finnigan, from Scarborough, is “not so much a duo show, more like two exhibitions in one gallery,” says According To McGee co-director Greg McGee.
“Freya and David are far removed in terms of subject and mark making, but there’s enough intersection to be able to build an event like this.”
Horsley’s Elementals works focus on seascapes full of bristling light and spray, serenity and inner-lit joy; Finnigan’s four new Synthesis paintings are geometric abstractions influenced by sound and modulation.
Sunday’ll be the day for That’ll Be The Day! at Grand Opera House, York
Tribute gig of the week: That’ll Be The Day!, Grand Opera House, York, June 19, 7pm
THIS long-running show, now into its 36th year, celebrates the golden age of rock’n’roll and pop from the 1950s through to the 1980s.
That’ll Be The Day combines comedy sketches and impersonations with stellar vocals and musicianship, fronted by director, producer and vocalist Trevor Payne. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.
Courtney Marie Andrews: Third time lucky for Phoenix singer-songwriter as she returns to Pocklington at last
Americana gig of the week: Courtney Marie Andrews, Pocklington Arts Centre, June 19, 8pm
AMERICAN singer, songwriter, poet, musician and now artist Courtney Marie Andrews makes her long-awaited return to Pocklington this weekend.
Phoenix-born Courtney, 31, twice had to postpone the follow-up to her December 2018 gig. The focus was expected to be on the 2021 Grammy-nominated Old Flowers, but now that she has announced the October 7 release of ninth album Loose Future on Fat Possum, hopefully she will showcase new material too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Yes, it is Yes: Playing Close To The Edge at York Barbican
Progressing to the past: Yes, York Barbican, Wednesday, 8pm
PROG rock pioneers Yes’s Album Series Tour 2022 celebrates the 50th anniversary of Close To The Edge, the September 1972 album inspired by Siddharta and their “state of mind” at the time.
Wednesday’s concert combines the iconic album in full with further Yes classics, performed by Steve Howe, guitars, Geoff Downes, keyboards, Jon Davison, vocals, Billy Sherwood, bass guitar, and Jay Schellen, drums and percussion. Legendary Yes artwork artist Roger Dean opens the show with a video wall of images and graphics and a reflection on his long history with the band. Tickets remain valid from the postponed May 19 2021 date. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The Felice Brothers, James, second from left, and Ian, right, with band members Will Lawrence and Jesske Hume
If you are yet to discover…The Felice Brothers, Pocklington Arts Centre, Thursday, 8pm
THE Felice Brothers, the folk rock/country rock band from the Hudson valley of upstate New York, are led by Ian and James Felice, joined on this tour by Will Lawrence on drums and Jesske Hume on bass.
Inspired equally by Woody Guthrie and Chuck Berry, they began in 2006 by playing subway platforms and sidewalks in New York City and have since released ten albums, the latest being 2021’s From Dreams To Dust. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
Charge! The Eboracum Roman Festival is on its way
Festival of the week: Eboracum Roman Festival, June 25 and 26, all day
THE Legions of Rome take over York Museum Gardens for a packed weekend of outdoor festivities featuring a Roman Living History Encampment between 10am and 5pm each day; the Kids Army and Roman-themed family activities run by Playful Anywhere from 11am to 3pm on both days. Entry is free.
Head inside the Yorkshire Museum to discover Roman treasures, especially the new exhibition The Ryedale Hoard: A Roman Mystery.
Authors of Roman fiction and non-fiction will chat and sign books in the Tempest Anderson Hall from 10am to 4pm each day.
The Chemical Brothers: Get ready for Block Rockin’ Beats at Castle Howard
Big beat of the week: The Chemical Brothers, Castle Howard, near York, nearer Malton, June 26; gates open at 5pm
HEY boy, hey girl, electronic pioneers The Chemical Brothers are taking to the stately-home grass this summer as Manchester big beat duo Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, both 51, galvanize rave diggers.
Expect such dancefloor nuggets as the chart-topping Setting Sun and Block Rockin’ Beats, Hey Boy, Hey Girl, Let Forever Be, It Began In Afrika, Star Guitar, Galvanize, Do It Again. Got To Keep On and Go. Camping will be available. Box office: castlehoward.co.uk.
Yes: Marking the 50th anniversary of Close To The Edge at York Barbican
AFFIRMATIVE! Culture podcasters Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson look forward to Yes’s June 22 gig, then reappraise Fontaines DC’s Skinty Fia album, Francis Ford Coppola’s influential 1983 teen movie Rumble Fish and Harold Pinter’s rather difficult play The Homecoming.
