INTERVIEW- Madrid, 21th April 1999
[ Page 4 ]
Topographic sessions at Manticore Studio, 1972.
YM: There is a story that claims that you, the members of YES, made a sort of agreement during the Topographic Tour, back in the 70's, to work together as a band in the 21st Century. Is it true?.
RW: Jon Anderson always says that is true!. The rest of us are not sure, because during the Topographic Oceans period I was full, not of hope for the future, but very full mainly of whisky, so I can't remember very much. No, this came about when we were in San Louis Obispo recording "Keys to Ascension", and we were having dinner, all of this, and Jon said: "Do you remember... when we did "Topographic Oceans" we all said that we would be together in the year 2000?. And actually there was something, because we all remember signing on a table cloth, in a restaurant, we all signed something in the table cloth.
YM: But...not in a paper?.
RW: No, no, on the table cloth, yeah.
YM: And you took it out of the restaurant...
RW: Nobody knows where is it...
YM: It's like the Holy Shroud of YES fans!!.
:-)))))))
RW: Nobody knows where is it or what happened to. It was taken, but nobody knew what happened. And a journalist heard about this and wrote it, so it became that YES would be together in the millennium, and there is always going to be a YES in the millennium, whether is the five people who signed that.
YM: So, are you interested in working again as a member of YES in the future?.
RW: It's very difficult for me, because... Sometimes is hard for people to understand that even now, when I was in the band and not in the band, I'm still a fan, and a great fan of YES. I love YES really, so I have very strong views on the direction which YES needed to take in the last part of the 90's. And basically I was the only one who really would feel the way that YES should go. And I did not agree with what everybody wanted to do.
"Keys To Ascension" recordings at San Luis Ovispo.
YM: Can you give some details?.
RW: Yeah!, OK. When we did "Keys to Ascension" and "Keys to Ascension 2", I listened very carefully to the albums, and I thought: OK, we have here everybody is playing very well. Steve is playing great guitar, Jon is singing well, Chris is playing great, Alan is playing his best drums for many years, and I'm playing well. But for me there was something ... and I went back and listened to an early album, and I know what it is. With all of the older albums, we were not only playing well, but pushing new ground, there was always a new idea that came in. An nearly all of the songs started with Jon with a melody line, a great melody, and I like the "And You And I" melody, and that's what started everything up to make some music. Nearly all of the music, reasonably, has been started from a rhythm bass with Jon adding on the top, which limits very much what Jon can do with a great melody. And I thought: Why is this?. And it's because perhaps is too close between albums. For a band like YES we need time to go on and work with other people until work with other ideas. Jon was at his strongest when he... He went to live with the Hopi Indian. And came back with lots of ideas. I went off working a lot of solo stuff, working with a lot of people with new keyboard ideas. And Alan was at his best when he was ... "I've been in Africa, I've found this new ideas". So we're still good players, but we come back with new ideas this time. And I said : "You know guys?, I really feel we need to spend time apart, and work with other people, so when we come back, we're not better players still, but we've got lots of great new ideas to put in, so we can put YES music in a new direction. And they were talking of doing another sort of re-launch of YES doing a theatre tour. And I said: "For me YES is not a theatre band, YES is an arena band, with a fantastic production, a great great show". And I said: "I cannot go round the theatres, you know, playing all the old hits, which I love doing. When we have done them , back in the "Union" Tour in the arenas was fantastic. It is just how YES needs to be presented, so, wouldn't it be a great idea if we spend two years, all getting new ideas and then come together really excited with lots of new music, lots of ideas, put it all together, make a fantastic album to go into the millennium, with a big arena show to go with it. And nobody agree. No, no, no, we just want to go out now, let's do another album... And it's another album for me of not going forward with YES. For me we should go forward. Nobody agrees, so I say: "OK, I'm going off anyway because I want to do my "Return to The Centre of The Earth", is important for me to do". And they said: "Fine". They did the tour, you know, when they came to England they telephoned me and said: "Would you like to make the tour?". And I said: "You know, I wish you much success, but this is not how I see YES, this is not right. For me it's like Real Madrid playing football in the park -Note: Real Madrid is a Spanish football team-. You know?. You understand?.
YM: Yeah!. It deserves something better.
RW: Is not right. It deserves something better!. Is a very very very special band. And it deserves something special and it deserves ...
YM: But do you really think it's possible because of the industry?.
RW: Not anymore. I think could it be possible if we were well prepared and a good management, and in YES for me has not good management for years. And I think it needed a good management to go to record companies and say: "Listen, YES are not doing anything for three years, they're going to go away, they can prepare an album for the millennium, and do some arena dates". I think the record company would say: "Yeah, OK". I think that could it be done. But it can't be done now, and I don't think it will ever be now, and I don't know what could happen. But I love the band, you know, they are recording another album now. You know, I know how long it takes to write music for big productions, it has only been less than one year since their last one. Is not possible for a quality YES album to do this.
YM: I can tell you that YES fans have been waiting for a long time to get an album, as you say, with more time of production, and we're still waiting for that.
RW: I can tell you, what is sad for me is I'm a fan as well, even when I'm not in the band. Whatever they may say, whatever they like me or hate me, I love the band, I love the guys very much. It upsets me when I see the record sales come right down low, I see the concerts come right down low, and it makes me sad because I know that the support for the band is there. But it's because the band is for me, and including when we did "Keys to Ascension", is not delivering what fans expect to be delivered. And that is for me what is sad. And I am to blame as much as anyone, I'm not saying is their fault, I am to blame because when we did "Keys to Ascension" and we put the new material there, "Keys to Ascension" shouldn't have been what it was meant to be because the live performance, which is like to say "Hey, werÚ back together", this is just a stop to get to tell you we're back together, were now gonna spend time, a lot of time putting together a really good studio album. But the record company push, the management push: "No, no, do it now, do it now!" , and we were not ready!. And I am as much to blame as everybody else because I should stood up and say "No". But I didn't.
YM: Jon Anderson has said that he is very interested in doing a revision of Tales from Topographic Oceans with an orchestra. Would you be interested in that?.
RW: No. I think "Topographic Oceans" would have to be completely re-written. Because there is not enough substance, melody, or ideas to make it interesting for an orchestra.
YM: You know?, I used to love the album, and still I do, but I read some commentaries you did about it, and thought about it and tried to see the things from a different perspective and I think you were right.
RW: And Jon actually agree. Jon and I agree in a lot of things, but if CDs have been available in 1973 when "Topographic" was done, there were never have been a problem, because on "Topographic Oceans" there is about 50 minutes of good music, and we would have made 50 minutes of "Topographic Oceans", of four pieces, maybe 12 minutes-10 minutes long. But because there was the confines of an album, we had too much music for one album, not enough for two. So instead of bring it down to one, we just -what I call- padded it out to make two. And Jon and I, Jon want it very much to get Atlantic to let him edit to make a CD of 50 minutes, and Atlantic records said: "No, no, no. It stays as it is". So is very interesting that the big arguments were because of the confines of what we were actually doing. But I can tell you, because, as an orchestra you could do it, anybody can orchestrate as it is for an orchestra, but it would not sound very interesting because there is not enough, it would have to be re-written for an orchestra. What I would like to do it!. If I could do one thing with any YES album, I would like to take "Tormato" and completely re-mix "Tormato", because there was some fantastic playing, and specially from Steve on that album, and great songs. But the mix, the production, was terrible. Because there was so many engineers and producers, that the sound ended up so compressed that it was a very very bad sound. And I would love to be able to re-mix that album. And the other thing I would love to do it, but I don't think it will ever happen, will be to get hold of the original tapes from the sessions in France in 1979...
Tormato Tour 1978.
YM: Oh, I was just about to ask you about that!.
RW: ...and for Jon, I would like to go with Jon into a studio and finish it.
YM: But the tapes are missing, isn't it?.
RW: Nobody knows where they are. But I would love to get hold of them, and maybe would it be a nice album for me, would be to take "Tormato" remixed, and take the songs from the France sessions and put it together to make a 70 minutes CD, because it was almost the same period , during 78 and 79, and it's a good period and would match very nicely. I would love to do that, but I don't think Atlantic would let me, and I don't think anybody knows where the tapes are, and I've heard all sort of stories. What is quite interesting is that, I've heard that all the original tapes and film footage from the "Union" tour has now been bought by somebody, and I think will be released later this year. And I heard there is a complete video, and a complete soundtrack for CD. I think that is great, because I think that the "Union" tour was very very important.
CREDITS:
Interview by : Koldo Barroso -Topographic Sounds-
Asisted by : Manuel Macâa.
Special thanks to : Pablo Gonzalo Seoane, and Pilar Garcâa -EMI Classics-
This is a Topographic Sound's work for YES MUSEUM.
PHOTO CREDITS
1, 7: Manuel Macâa.
3: F.Fabregas.
5: Sky Bergman.
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LINKS:
-Mellotron: Mellotron Archives
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