Rolling Stone Magazine
August 28, 1975

"Yes Affirms:  There's Life after Wakeman" 
	By Elliot Cain

SAN FRANSCISO-  The massive backstage area of the Cow Palace was
eerily quiet as the two limousines pulled through the lading dock and
the members of Yes filed out.  Opening act Ace had already finished, and it
was only a few minutes before a tape recording of Stravinsky's _Firebird
Suite_ announced the band's entrance onto a blinking, flaming, smoking
stage.
        Their performance was impressive.  As they waded through lush
and complex material like "Close to the Edge" and "Long Distance
Runaround" with nearly flawless musicianship, departed keyboard whiz
Rick Wakeman was not particularly missed.  His replacement, Swiss-born
Patrick Moraz, played with total command of the electronic music idiom.
The evening's surprise was how much the five-man group sounded like
Yes before the departure of Wakeman.
        When Wakeman left in the summer of '74 to pursue his grand-scale
solo touring plans, many critics wrote off the group.  Although he
didn't join Yes until after their third release, _The Yes Album_, in 1971,
Wakeman, with his long blond hair, onstage flamboyance and keyboard savvy, had
become the center of attention.  Nowadays, bass player Chris Squire
plays down Wakeman's role in the group, labeling his presence a "decoration,"
and lead singer Jon Anderson has hinted that the group regarded
Wakeman's departure with something less than apprehension.  "These
things happen all the time," Anderson said.  "If some guy doesn't seem
to want to fit in, and all of a sudden he decided to go, thatÍs it.  You
look for someone else."
        That someone else turned out to be Moraz, a classical and
jazz-influenced musician and film score composer.  "An old friend of
mine told me 'You must listen to this Patrick,'" Anderson recalled.  "So I
listened to the album he did with Refugee and I enjoyed it very much.
It wasn't even a week later when he came over.  He just sat there the first
day and watched what we were doing.  He hardly played anything at all, just
a few runs on the moog, but it just felt right.  He's a marvelous player,"
Anderson said about Moraz, who joined Yes in August of '74.
        Moraz admitted that he'd felt some pressure in replacing Wakeman,
"I knew I could do the job, otherwise I wouldn't have taken it."  He
seemed excited about the group's new "freaky-conscious" direction.
"I've never been so happy and the group's never been so happy.  There's a
great feeling of communion among us."  Evidently, that feeling was lacking
during the tenure of Wakeman, whose penchant for partying clashed with
the sedate nature of the Yes men.  Back at the hotel for a post concert
dinner- a tour ritual- Moraz chuckled over the vegetarian Greek cuisine:
"All that's missing is the string  quartet."
        Later, as everyone sipped cognac in Moraz's suite, they were
entertained by a full-scale orgy- on the television.  Xaviera
Hollander's My Pleasure is My Business aired, but the only live debauchery in the room
was confined to one sofa, where an intoxicated woman was smothering one
of Ace's entourage with kisses.  Everybody looked on, amused.
        "We like to keep it quiet," Anderson explained later.  "One thing
we were perhaps lacking with Rick in the band was for everybody to want
this atmosphere.  It seems to be the best way for us, to try to save our
energies for what really matters- the gig."

-Rolling Stone, August 28, 1975


Transcribed for the museum by Laura <dnsmith@cybertron.com> - Thank you!