Oh yes

Ok, so I now like a bit of Above and Beyond, and I can number Sucker DJs and Thievery Corporation among my iPod favourites; but still, show me a Yes gig and I'll be there, which is what happened tonight when
Sav, Sav's son Christopher, Welsh Pete and I went to see Yes at Hammersmith Apollo.

This has been an oft-travelled journey for Sav and me but it was a new experience for the others.

Some of the shine was taken off the occasion since this time there was no Jon Anderson - due to a combination of illness and a fallout with the rest of the band. For those of you unfamiliar with Yes (and I hope that won't be many of you once this post inspires you to discover their work...), it's the coupling of Jon Anderson's child-like voice with the big, complex layers of sound that makes Yes sound so unique. So Yes without Jon Anderson is a bit like Liverpool without Torres. Or The Wire without McNulty.

It was a relief, then, to find that the replacement singer was not bad at all, and sounded pretty much like the original.

I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say it was a fine show, featuring the old favourites, a few surprises, and ending with an epic encore of Starship Trooper with enough bass to power a small city.

But no Jon Anderson. Maybe next time...