The Gonzo Daily: Yes is not a band that says no to challenges

Saturday 17 August 2013

Yes is not a band that says no to challenges

The first time Yes drummer Alan White had to play songs from the 1973 album “Close to the Edge,” it was under less-than-ideal circumstances. He was replacing Bill Bruford, who had recorded the album, and he had all of three days to learn the songs from that album, as well as other material Yes planned for its tour behind “Close to the Edge,.”

“It was pure insanity,” White recalled in a recent phone interview. “You wake up quite a lot, all day eating and sleeping Yes music. And I didn't really have any hands-on rehearsal with the band. I think we did play together for an hour once, and then the equipment had to leave or something. So, for me, it was like jumping into the deep end. All of a sudden I was in front of 10,000 people in Dallas all screaming their heads off and I had to play everything right.

“The first show, actually, I got pretty much everything right, and the band was kind of relieved because everybody was kind of worried about it,” he said. “And then the second, third and fourth shows, I made a few more mistakes, but, by about the fourth or fifth show, I was kind of getting everything down.”

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