On Friday, August 7th, legendary Prog Rock band Yes will begin a new tour. Co-headlining with Toto, the tour will hit twenty-six cities, beginning in Connecticut and wrapping up in British Columbia. And although combined these bands have sold close to a hundred million records, what makes this tour stand out from all the others in the past forty-plus years of the band is that bass player Chris Squire will not be onstage with them, a fact that adds a hint of melancholy to what is usually an exciting event. Squire, a founding member who has appeared on every one of the band’s twenty-one studio albums, passed away this year on June 27th from a rare form of leukemia. The band members knew that Squire’s treatment would prevent him from participating in the North American tour so former Yes member Billy Sherwood was handpicked to take his spot. “The other guys and myself have agreed that Billy Sherwood will do an excellent job of covering my parts and the show as a whole will deliver the same Yes experience that our fans have come to expect over the years,” Squire said in a statement in May.
So with the tour looming on the August horizon and their third annual cruise from November 15-19, the band has reconvened to share the magic and wonderment of a band called Yes. Glide had the honor of speaking with longtime keyboard player Geoff Downes a few days ago about the future of Yes and what it was like when he first came into the band in 1980 following his tenure in the Buggles, whose 1979 catchy yet quirky “Video Killed The Radio Star” was used to launch MTV on August 01, 1981.
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