Anderson and Wakeman Sage Gateshead 8 November 2010
Will and I went to see Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman on Monday at the Sage Gateshead. The two former members of Yes have toured before together, however this is the first time that they have come to the North East and hence the first time that Will and I had seen them in this formation. The show was billed as The Project 360 Tour and featured a selection of new songs form their new album The LivingTree (they called this part of the show the “recital”) and many old Yes favourites (the “recycle”!). The show was in two halves with a short internal between. Will and I had wondered on the way through whether the two guys would be accompanied by a band; in fact there was no band. The show was centred around Rick on two keyboards and Jon on acoustic guitar and vocals. We were treated to lots of banter between the two of them, which highlighted their very different personalities; Jon still very much an old hippy, Rick a bloke who would be more at home in the local pub.
The new songs sounded OK, and were very Yes like, but it was the Yes classics that the pretty full house had come to see. These included Yours is No Disgrace, Sweet Dreams, Time and a Word, Roundabout, Starship Trooper, And you and I, Owner of the Lonely Heart; I amsure I will have missed some.
The first thing that I must say is that Jon’s voice is amazing; still as strong as it always was, and that he had no problems at all in reaching any of the notes. The arrangements of the Yes songs took some getting used to for me. I missed hearing a band; but having said that it was still great to hear those wonderful songs sung by Jon again.
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