WEBVTT - Jon Anderson

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Sets podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>My guest today is the one and only John Anderson. John.

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<v Speaker 1>Great to have you on the podcast. So tell me

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<v Speaker 1>how'd you cope with lockdown during COVID.

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<v Speaker 2>I got on with a lot of music, that's for sure.

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<v Speaker 2>The day we were told to stay indoors, away from

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<v Speaker 2>the chaos was I was doing a barbecue and I

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<v Speaker 2>slipped on the top steps near the barbecue is and

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<v Speaker 2>I broke my foot in two places. For the first

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<v Speaker 2>six months of COVID, I was on crushes. But it

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<v Speaker 2>made me want to go in the studio and create.

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<v Speaker 2>And that's what I did.

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<v Speaker 1>And what did you create? And you did it alone?

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<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, I create a lot of stuff, you know.

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<v Speaker 2>I called it the opeless opus, and then I did

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<v Speaker 2>it up to opus opus. And it's a combination of

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<v Speaker 2>the miracle of playing all the white notes on the

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<v Speaker 2>keyboard because I can't play them both at the same time,

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<v Speaker 2>black and white like a normal person. So I just

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<v Speaker 2>played the white notes and I was playing this music,

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<v Speaker 2>and I record little sections and then I record another one,

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<v Speaker 2>and then I record another one. And during the course

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<v Speaker 2>of about two weeks, I recorded about twenty sort of

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<v Speaker 2>musical events if you like. And then I actually went

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<v Speaker 2>on tour I think it was with the Academy of Rock,

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<v Speaker 2>these young teenagers, and we had a great tour and

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<v Speaker 2>we called COVID on the way home, which was crazy.

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<v Speaker 2>But that's the way things happen. But expect the unexpected.

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<v Speaker 2>But the remarkable thing about working with teenagers you feel

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<v Speaker 2>young and vibrant until somebody does a self.

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<v Speaker 1>Or when you look in the mirror.

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<v Speaker 2>And said, wait a minute, you got a couple of

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<v Speaker 2>things going on here.

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<v Speaker 1>Tell me about only being able to play the white

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<v Speaker 1>keys and not the black keys at the same time.

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<v Speaker 2>It's just one of those things. I you know, I

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<v Speaker 2>never learned to play the piano, so I sort of

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<v Speaker 2>made it up and I just used the wine notes

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<v Speaker 2>all the time. So it works for me, you know.

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<v Speaker 2>And and I tell a story that when I was

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<v Speaker 2>doing my solo show, halfway through it, I'd start playing

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<v Speaker 2>the keyboards and singing along with the keyboards, and I

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<v Speaker 2>could never sing with the piano. I played the piano

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<v Speaker 2>book can never sing with it until I actually broke

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<v Speaker 2>my back. I know it's a strange idea, but it

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<v Speaker 2>actually broke my bike putting up Christmas tensely things on

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<v Speaker 2>the front door of our house. And I felt over

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<v Speaker 2>on the wall and brought my back and from that

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<v Speaker 2>moment on I could actually sing at the piano.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, a lot of stuff going on. So you were

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<v Speaker 1>putting up tinsel.

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<v Speaker 2>And sparkly tinsel and the lights on the front door

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<v Speaker 2>because it was Christmas.

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<v Speaker 1>How far did you fall?

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<v Speaker 2>Probably a four foot back backwards onto the wall which

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<v Speaker 2>had a sharp sort of edge to it, And and

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<v Speaker 2>God bless my wife, she phoned up the the ambulance

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<v Speaker 2>to come and get me. And the ambulance came and

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<v Speaker 2>got me, and I kept saying I need some morphine.

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<v Speaker 2>My back is hurting me. And the guy would say, well,

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<v Speaker 2>we'll give you so when we get to the hospital,

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<v Speaker 2>and I said, yep, I need it now because it

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<v Speaker 2>really hurts. And the guy said, oh, are you John Anderson?

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<v Speaker 2>I said, just can be morphine? He said, can I

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<v Speaker 2>have your autograph? Then we're in the bloody back of

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<v Speaker 2>the well. To think about it, We're in the back

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<v Speaker 2>of the ambulance and he's asking me for an autograph.

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<v Speaker 1>And how do they treat it? Broken back? And how

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<v Speaker 1>long did it take to recover.

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<v Speaker 2>A long time. You basically put on a big type

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<v Speaker 2>thing around your chest and sit up a lot. And

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<v Speaker 2>that's when I started creating some music as well.

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<v Speaker 1>I remember, Okay, you live in California. I don't want

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<v Speaker 1>your address, but generally speaking, we're in California.

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<v Speaker 2>Are you in California?

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<v Speaker 1>Yes, I'm in La.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh great, I'm Central California.

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<v Speaker 1>And how'd you end up there?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, it's a nice story actually, because I came to

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<v Speaker 2>work and live in La some thirty years ago doing

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<v Speaker 2>an album called with Yes called The Big Generator, which

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<v Speaker 2>was one of those experiences that I'll never forget. And

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<v Speaker 2>it just happened that I was working on an album

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<v Speaker 2>at the time called Toll Tech, which not many people know,

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<v Speaker 2>which is my invitation to make music about the Native

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<v Speaker 2>American character energy that they are wonderful people, the indigenous

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<v Speaker 2>people of this part of America. And so I was

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<v Speaker 2>making some music and I'd had a lot of meditation

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<v Speaker 2>up until that point in time, and I kept seeing

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<v Speaker 2>this beautiful girl jump up and wave at me halfway

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<v Speaker 2>through the meditation. And so a friend of mine who

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<v Speaker 2>worked at BMI, said, I have a friend would like

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<v Speaker 2>to meet you. She actually writes and organizes the musicians

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<v Speaker 2>with the company. What's the company called? So the problem, Bob.

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<v Speaker 1>It'll come to you. It's a mental role there. You

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<v Speaker 1>got to go through all the pages.

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<v Speaker 2>No, you know, imagine movies, you imagine the company. She

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<v Speaker 2>worked for them, and she came to visit me for lunch,

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<v Speaker 2>and I said I would prepare lunch, and thinking about it,

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<v Speaker 2>I actually prepared local pizza.

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<v Speaker 1>Which was a good.

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<v Speaker 2>And she came in and it was the girl that

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<v Speaker 2>I've been seeing in my meditation. And I remember just

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<v Speaker 2>trying to play some music for her but not quite

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<v Speaker 2>coordinating the idea that I just met somebody I'm going

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<v Speaker 2>to fall in love with and get married to. And

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<v Speaker 2>I didn't tell her that, but it just happened to

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<v Speaker 2>last life. So my wife, Jane and myself got married

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<v Speaker 2>and we've been together thirty years and we still love

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<v Speaker 2>each other like crazy.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, a couple of things.

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<v Speaker 2>No, no, no, pardon sorry.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, I just want to stop you there. You had

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<v Speaker 1>a meditation. You saw her? Yeah, she walked in the

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<v Speaker 1>front door right, a little bit slower. How did the

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<v Speaker 1>romance begin?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, I looked at her, sugar Hans saying, I love

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<v Speaker 2>you we're going to get married. You're incredibly beautiful. I

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<v Speaker 2>said that in my head. I didn't say it very early. Okay,

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<v Speaker 2>is that sugar hand, you know? And I was mesmerized.

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<v Speaker 2>I was totally mesmerized, and thankfully she actually liked me.

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<v Speaker 2>And then her sister lives in central California and we

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<v Speaker 2>went up to visit the town of San Luis Obispo,

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<v Speaker 2>and all of a sudden, I just fell in love

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<v Speaker 2>with the idea of living in this part of the world.

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<v Speaker 2>And that was it. And here we are, still thirty

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<v Speaker 2>years later.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, but going back, she comes to your house to

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<v Speaker 1>hear music. You know you're going to marry her. How

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<v Speaker 1>do you actually convey to her? How does it become

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<v Speaker 1>a romance?

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<v Speaker 2>Well, she said to me. The last thing she said

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<v Speaker 2>to me was send me a cassette of some of

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<v Speaker 2>the music, please, because I was working on this music.

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<v Speaker 2>I said, yeah, I'd love to, so I sent her

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<v Speaker 2>a cassette but also a note saying, would you like

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<v Speaker 2>to go to dinner? Would you like to go to

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<v Speaker 2>the beach, would you like to go and play tennis?

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<v Speaker 2>Would you like to go and see a movie? I

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<v Speaker 2>wrote about twenty things you know that we could do together,

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<v Speaker 2>and she got back to me, here's my phone NUMBERY.

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<v Speaker 2>She phoned me up and we got together two days

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<v Speaker 2>later and that was it. Love.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, you're British, she's American. You know, it's been thirty

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<v Speaker 1>years already. But are there any innate differences in people

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<v Speaker 1>and having a relationship with someone from another country?

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, she's smart and I'm a dumb guy. I'm a singer.

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<v Speaker 2>That's what I do, want a singer in a band.

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<v Speaker 3>And okay, so you wrote this stuff and then you

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<v Speaker 3>went on tour with Paul Green's Rod, Right, how did

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<v Speaker 3>that come together?

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<v Speaker 2>Well? I met Paul sound twenty twenty some years ago. Actually,

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<v Speaker 2>I was on tour with Yes for a little while

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<v Speaker 2>and we're playing at the Philadelphia Forum Spectrum and after

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<v Speaker 2>the show, came outside the dressing room and there were

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<v Speaker 2>some young kids, you know, about a dozen kids with

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<v Speaker 2>T shirts School of Rock. And I said, oh, guys, yes,

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<v Speaker 2>you're in a rock school. And they looked at me

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<v Speaker 2>and said, yes we are. And I said what kind

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<v Speaker 2>of music do you play? We like Frank Zappa and

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<v Speaker 2>we actually like Yes. And I thought, oh, young kids,

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<v Speaker 2>how old you? Thirteen? Fourteen? Fifteen year old. And then

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<v Speaker 2>Paul Green came up and he was the guy who

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<v Speaker 2>Jack Back Black Pet played in the movie. Paul Green

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<v Speaker 2>comes up and says, hey, John, how are you doing.

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<v Speaker 2>These are my students. Would you like to come to

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<v Speaker 2>Philadelphia and work with these kids? And I said I

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<v Speaker 2>don't think so. And then a couple of weeks later,

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<v Speaker 2>he sends me a cassette. In those days we had cassettes,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, and it was the kids playing Hard at

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<v Speaker 2>the Sunrise, which is an incredibly difficult piece of music,

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<v Speaker 2>to say the least. And I called him up and said, well,

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<v Speaker 2>you didn't tell me they were this good. And he said, listen, John,

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<v Speaker 2>we're coming to LA in about three days. Would you

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<v Speaker 2>get up and sing with the band? And I said yeah,

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<v Speaker 2>because they had a documentary that they were promoting in

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<v Speaker 2>Los Angeles, So I said, yeah, I'll get up and sing.

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<v Speaker 2>And it was a great fun They played it so well,

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<v Speaker 2>the song. And then I struck up a relationship with

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<v Speaker 2>Paul and he invited me to go to Philadelphia to

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<v Speaker 2>sort of hang with the kids and sort of teach

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<v Speaker 2>them a little bit about stage presence and that kind

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<v Speaker 2>of thing. So I did, so me and Jane went

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<v Speaker 2>to Philadelphia in the beginning of February, which is the

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<v Speaker 2>coldest month you can ever go to a city, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>But we just enjoyed it. I enjoyed it very much.

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<v Speaker 2>And that's many years ago, twenty four years ago, and

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<v Speaker 2>so it's life, you know. And then I went on

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<v Speaker 2>tour with them for a couple of short tours, one

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<v Speaker 2>in East America and one in the West, and then

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<v Speaker 2>about ten years later went on tour with them again.

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<v Speaker 2>Ten years later went on tour with them again, and

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<v Speaker 2>so I'm staring doing a European tour with them this summer.

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<v Speaker 2>They're just beautiful, young talented people. What can go wrong?

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<v Speaker 2>Twenty four young talunted people.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, I know they're good because I once did their

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<v Speaker 1>convention and they played a Frank zappasong. Blew my mind.

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<v Speaker 1>They even knew it. But okay, they come to you.

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<v Speaker 1>They're teenagers. It's bad enough being on the road with

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<v Speaker 1>twenty something musicians. Yeah, what's it like being on the

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<v Speaker 1>road with all these teenagers.

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<v Speaker 2>Well, it's great fun because they're young, you know, they're fun,

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<v Speaker 2>they're hopeful, they're grateful, they're thankful and so on. That's

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<v Speaker 2>what you are when you're young, when you're fourteen, fifteen, sixteen,

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<v Speaker 2>you know there's no point in getting around it. They

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<v Speaker 2>are youthful, joyful and exuberant people and they can play

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<v Speaker 2>their instruments.

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<v Speaker 1>Okay, so let's just say you decide you're going to

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<v Speaker 1>go on the road with them, which you have a

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<v Speaker 1>number of times. How far in advanced? You give them

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<v Speaker 1>a set list? If you were to call it, how

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<v Speaker 1>many songs do they learn? Is a set list? Set

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<v Speaker 1>in Stone? Yeah?

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<v Speaker 2>Paul Green is brilliant. He is a real character and

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<v Speaker 2>quite remarkable teaching young musicians to get their act together,

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<v Speaker 2>and he does it in such a great way. And

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<v Speaker 2>he's the guy that says, do you want to do

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<v Speaker 2>Close to the Air? I just said, yeah, do you

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<v Speaker 2>want to do on You? And I? Yeah, do you

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<v Speaker 2>want to do Starship Trooper? Yeah? And you know he

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<v Speaker 2>just gives me a list, so see, yeah, I'll sing

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<v Speaker 2>them all. So I got into a thing this last

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<v Speaker 2>tour we did in August just last year, I said,

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<v Speaker 2>why do we do some mashups? You know we could

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<v Speaker 2>do you guys can play Kashmir Zeppelin and it goes

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<v Speaker 2>straight into long distance run around. So Kashmir happens, and

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<v Speaker 2>then I started doing a Yes song, and then we

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<v Speaker 2>started doing Eminem's first hit record. I can't remember what

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<v Speaker 2>it's called, but it sounds so good when the kids

0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:09.160
<v Speaker 2>play it, and that goes into Starship Trooper, so you know,

0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.680
<v Speaker 2>it's like you mashed them together, and we did.

0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.480
<v Speaker 1>So. If you're playing cash miror are they playing instrumentally

0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:17.480
<v Speaker 1>or are you singing.

0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:19.600
<v Speaker 2>The Robbert player, No, no, no, I'm not singing it.

0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:22.560
<v Speaker 2>The girl tests brilliant singer. She sings it, and I

0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:26.840
<v Speaker 2>do some harmony and I'm playing bass very badly.

0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:31.920
<v Speaker 1>And what keeps you on the road at this point

0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:32.840
<v Speaker 1>in your life.

0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:40.520
<v Speaker 2>The adventure of it experiencing audiences. I just finished a

0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.960
<v Speaker 2>tour with the Bang Geeks, a wonderful bunch of musicians

0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:48.880
<v Speaker 2>who live out of Long Island area of New York,

0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.320
<v Speaker 2>and somebody sent me a video of them performing of

0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:55.920
<v Speaker 2>All Things Hard at the Sunrise. This is about a

0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:59.160
<v Speaker 2>year ago, and I kind of freaked out. These guys

0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.400
<v Speaker 2>are so damn good there. It's like note for note

0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:07.120
<v Speaker 2>exactly correct. They sounded like the Yes of the seventies.

0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.600
<v Speaker 2>So and it wasn't that they just they copied the music,

0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:13.800
<v Speaker 2>of course, but they didn't sound like the record. They

0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.880
<v Speaker 2>sounded like them performing it with a certain edge to it.

0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.720
<v Speaker 2>So I thought about it for a month or two

0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.760
<v Speaker 2>and called up. I got the phone number of the

0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:29.640
<v Speaker 2>bass player who runs the show, Richie Castellano, and I said, Richie,

0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:33.680
<v Speaker 2>how you doing? It's John Anderson. They said, hey, is

0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.560
<v Speaker 2>that you John? I said, yes, me. Why don't we

0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:41.240
<v Speaker 2>go on the road and do some classics and epics? Richie,

0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:46.920
<v Speaker 2>he's there. What I want to do is do four

0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.640
<v Speaker 2>epics and the rest of classics. So we do close

0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:55.400
<v Speaker 2>to the edge gates of Delirium Awaken, which is heaven

0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:01.320
<v Speaker 2>and ritual from topographic, and we can do that, and

0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:06.000
<v Speaker 2>then we'll do a bunch of you know, classics like

0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:10.200
<v Speaker 2>I've seen all good people you know, roundabout that kind

0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.960
<v Speaker 2>of thing. So we put together the show. We just

0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.200
<v Speaker 2>did the twelve shows of on the West Coast about

0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.600
<v Speaker 2>a month ago, two months or six weeks ago, and

0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:24.360
<v Speaker 2>that was a great, great fun to work with these guys.

0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:26.800
<v Speaker 2>So hopefully we'll do it every year.

0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:33.480
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you called yourself, Are you your own manager? How

0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:34.200
<v Speaker 1>does it work?

0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:35.840
<v Speaker 2>I'm looking for a manager?

0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.080
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Well you put it out there at this point, Well,

0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:43.280
<v Speaker 1>you know, someone like you, someone like you at this

0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.560
<v Speaker 1>late date obviously has an opinion on managers.

0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:55.240
<v Speaker 2>I can't talk about it anymore. That's about it.

0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.480
<v Speaker 1>So what are you looking for?

0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:07.240
<v Speaker 2>Somebody who understands me, which is a it's a hard

0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:11.520
<v Speaker 2>it's a hard gig, but very interesting.

0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.320
<v Speaker 1>And then who actually books the tours? You have an agent?

0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:22.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we have an agent, really great guy, Steve, And

0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:26.080
<v Speaker 2>of course Paul Green booked the European tour. We start

0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:31.560
<v Speaker 2>off in Budapest and then we play in Amsterdam, and

0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.720
<v Speaker 2>then we play in Madrid and so on.

0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.439
<v Speaker 1>So when you play these gigs with other either the

0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:42.520
<v Speaker 1>Long Island Band or the Paul Green Band, Yeah, what's

0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:46.440
<v Speaker 1>the audience is the audience the fans from the seventies.

0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:50.120
<v Speaker 2>Who comes combination, you get a lot of you know,

0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.639
<v Speaker 2>you get classic yes fans, you know, and they say, oh,

0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:55.480
<v Speaker 2>we're going to go and see Johns to sing again,

0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.800
<v Speaker 2>which would be good. And you know, I always put

0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.200
<v Speaker 2>on a good show whenever work. I love it. And

0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.920
<v Speaker 2>you get some young people coming to see these young artists,

0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:12.080
<v Speaker 2>young teenagers, and they've already done quite a few festivals

0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:17.080
<v Speaker 2>in Europe over the years. There's a classic Frank Zappa festivals,

0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:19.359
<v Speaker 2>so everybody goes on in place Frank Zappa, you know.

0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.119
<v Speaker 2>So it's always a lot of fun to to to

0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:26.160
<v Speaker 2>be around that kind of energy. You're not quite sure

0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.680
<v Speaker 2>the audience are gonna the audience are gonna have a

0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:30.920
<v Speaker 2>good time because we have a good time. And that's

0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:33.560
<v Speaker 2>the way I think about music. If you're having a

0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.800
<v Speaker 2>good time, the audience don't get it. And generally it

0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:39.000
<v Speaker 2>happens that way.

0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.320
<v Speaker 1>And then you know, you were a lot of your

0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:47.920
<v Speaker 1>success was with the band with multiple members, different song

0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.920
<v Speaker 1>writers the seventies. Accounting to what degree did you get

0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:55.040
<v Speaker 1>ripped off or you had a fear shake.

0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.640
<v Speaker 2>Rip off? Herdi mean sorry financially, Oh yeah, that happens.

0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:08.280
<v Speaker 2>You know, nobody escapes that event in the music world,

0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.960
<v Speaker 2>shall we say, or in a kind of world. But

0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:14.719
<v Speaker 2>it never bothered me that much. I have some funny

0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.439
<v Speaker 2>stories about it, But to me, it was like, you know,

0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:19.520
<v Speaker 2>you read what you saw.

0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:22.480
<v Speaker 1>We'll tell a couple of funny stories.

0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:32.120
<v Speaker 2>No, no, I can't tell you well, no, I can't

0:19:32.119 --> 0:19:32.880
<v Speaker 2>think about it now.

0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:40.240
<v Speaker 1>Sorry, Okay, And after all these years, after essentially fifty years,

0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.840
<v Speaker 1>how are you doing financially doing good.

0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.399
<v Speaker 2>You know, We've got a lovely little house here up

0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:49.639
<v Speaker 2>in the hills away from the village. Who life. You know,

0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.399
<v Speaker 2>it's to noisey down there. So we live on this

0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:57.600
<v Speaker 2>hill and surrounded by deer and antelope play, you know,

0:19:57.640 --> 0:19:59.200
<v Speaker 2>with the deer and the antelope play.

0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:00.800
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I got the song reference.

0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.879
<v Speaker 2>And I'm creating all the time, music and stories and

0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:10.120
<v Speaker 2>musicals and all this kind of idea of music being

0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:15.199
<v Speaker 2>forever broadening your mind and thought and so on. I

0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:17.320
<v Speaker 2>just feel that I'm doing what I'm supposed to do.

0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:26.560
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So where exactly did you grow up?

0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:32.359
<v Speaker 2>Originally in Acrington, which is north of Manchester, twenty nine

0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:37.640
<v Speaker 2>miles north of Manchester, a little town called Acrington, which

0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:41.720
<v Speaker 2>is famous for well, probably many things, but the main

0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:47.000
<v Speaker 2>thing they were famous for Acrington's Stanley football team. They

0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:49.919
<v Speaker 2>were one of the first eleven teams that created the

0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:53.480
<v Speaker 2>first league in the history of soccer.

0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.320
<v Speaker 1>And to what degree were you interested in playing soccer?

0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.639
<v Speaker 2>Well, I was the bow boy and I go and

0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:04.800
<v Speaker 2>get the ball and throw it back on the pitch.

0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.120
<v Speaker 2>I was the ball boy and then but I wanted

0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:10.000
<v Speaker 2>to play for Akering to the Stanley that was my

0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:12.800
<v Speaker 2>gig and I had a track suit and I'd play.

0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:17.800
<v Speaker 2>I'd rehearse when when the players were doing there. What

0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.040
<v Speaker 2>do you call it rehearsal? I suppose it is when

0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:23.480
<v Speaker 2>they kick the ball around on them on the car park.

0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:27.639
<v Speaker 2>I'll be there. I'd be there, dribbling away and a

0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.400
<v Speaker 2>little small. I was very small from my age. And

0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:34.119
<v Speaker 2>the guy who was the trainer of ackering to the

0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:38.240
<v Speaker 2>Stanley Leslie Leslie Cocker, who eventually became the trainer to

0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:43.080
<v Speaker 2>England in a World Cup, said to me, John, you're

0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:46.960
<v Speaker 2>good at dribbling, but you're too small. I think you

0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:49.679
<v Speaker 2>shouldn't be playing this game. Just be just be a

0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:52.600
<v Speaker 2>ball boy, okay. And that's what I was. I was

0:21:52.680 --> 0:22:00.000
<v Speaker 2>happily told you can't play for England, and I thought, okay,

0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:03.840
<v Speaker 2>so that I'll join my brother's rock and roll band.

0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.400
<v Speaker 2>He had a rock and roll band called the Warriors,

0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.080
<v Speaker 2>and there were two singers him, my brother Tony, and

0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:14.840
<v Speaker 2>this guy called Charlie who actually gave up singing in

0:22:14.920 --> 0:22:19.719
<v Speaker 2>the band and became a hairdresser. And it just happens

0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:22.600
<v Speaker 2>to be that at that moment in time, the Beatles

0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:26.639
<v Speaker 2>released a song called Love Me Do and Tony, my

0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:31.320
<v Speaker 2>brother who he sang all the Elvis Presley songs in

0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.280
<v Speaker 2>the band, and I joined the band and started singing

0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:40.680
<v Speaker 2>Who's that guy with the dark glasses? Roy Orbison? I

0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:43.280
<v Speaker 2>did all his songs because I'm an auto tenor you

0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:49.320
<v Speaker 2>see cry cry.

0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.280
<v Speaker 1>Okay, let's come back a little bit. How many kids

0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:55.760
<v Speaker 1>are in the family, three boys and a girl? And

0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:57.240
<v Speaker 1>where were you in the hierarchy?

0:22:57.840 --> 0:22:59.359
<v Speaker 2>That was the third boy?

0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:02.720
<v Speaker 1>And what did your parents do for a living?

0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:08.639
<v Speaker 2>They just had a good time living and my dad

0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:13.080
<v Speaker 2>was very he was a traveling salesman. There were ballroom

0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:16.880
<v Speaker 2>champions of Lancashire because there was a big cup on

0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:22.880
<v Speaker 2>the over the fire place, and they were happy and

0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:26.480
<v Speaker 2>it was a wonderful life because I worked on the

0:23:26.480 --> 0:23:29.680
<v Speaker 2>local farm with my brother Tony since I was then

0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:33.680
<v Speaker 2>ten years old eleven years old, and we sang Heavery

0:23:33.880 --> 0:23:37.520
<v Speaker 2>brother songs all the time. It was like, you know,

0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:41.560
<v Speaker 2>in all weathers, I'm serious weather up in the north

0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:43.880
<v Speaker 2>of England you get a lot of snow, a lot

0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:47.440
<v Speaker 2>of rain, more rain and then a lot of snow,

0:23:48.280 --> 0:23:51.280
<v Speaker 2>then sunny days around Easter. It used to be beautiful.

0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:55.600
<v Speaker 2>But we used to deliver milk, milk the cows shovel

0:23:55.680 --> 0:24:01.359
<v Speaker 2>a lot of cow downg what we call shit, a

0:24:01.359 --> 0:24:03.960
<v Speaker 2>lot of poop, and I'd shovel it and put it

0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:07.960
<v Speaker 2>in a wheelbarrow and tip it over into the tip

0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:12.080
<v Speaker 2>And all that was used for spreading all over the

0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:17.399
<v Speaker 2>fields to make the grass grow. It's called I can't

0:24:17.400 --> 0:24:20.600
<v Speaker 2>remember what it's called, fertilizer. Fertilizer.

0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:26.960
<v Speaker 1>Well done, Bob, okay, So let's go back to that era.

0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:29.920
<v Speaker 1>What kind of kid were you were you? Popular? Good student,

0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:30.840
<v Speaker 1>bad student?

0:24:32.400 --> 0:24:34.280
<v Speaker 2>Well, yeah, I was a nice guy. You know. I

0:24:34.359 --> 0:24:38.160
<v Speaker 2>used to run errands from my mom and do this

0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:41.000
<v Speaker 2>and that and the other, go and play football up

0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:46.000
<v Speaker 2>on the car park with local kids, and play cricket

0:24:46.080 --> 0:24:50.080
<v Speaker 2>even on the car park with local kids. And one

0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:52.520
<v Speaker 2>of the guys that I used to play against lived

0:24:52.520 --> 0:24:55.680
<v Speaker 2>a couple of blocks down the water street. His name

0:24:55.760 --> 0:25:00.680
<v Speaker 2>was David Lloyd and he actually played for England cricket

0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:05.440
<v Speaker 2>Test match. He's one of the most famous commentators now

0:25:05.480 --> 0:25:08.280
<v Speaker 2>in cricket. Sweet guy too.

0:25:09.040 --> 0:25:11.520
<v Speaker 1>So did your parents teach you to dance?

0:25:12.600 --> 0:25:17.520
<v Speaker 2>No, the ballroom dancing, you know, is a different, different world.

0:25:17.720 --> 0:25:22.560
<v Speaker 2>It was all that kind of Fred Astaire type dancing.

0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:26.040
<v Speaker 1>Well, did you have to go to them with them

0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:26.800
<v Speaker 1>to the ballroom.

0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:29.680
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we could go down the road and watch them

0:25:29.720 --> 0:25:33.720
<v Speaker 2>dance around and it was really beautiful to watch. But

0:25:33.800 --> 0:25:36.240
<v Speaker 2>I was more interested that. By the time I was

0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:40.560
<v Speaker 2>ten eleven, I was interested in being in a band.

0:25:40.720 --> 0:25:42.879
<v Speaker 2>So I joined the band and it was called the

0:25:42.960 --> 0:25:47.800
<v Speaker 2>Little John Skiffle Group, and I played the washboard and

0:25:47.840 --> 0:25:52.679
<v Speaker 2>we were very loud and noisy. Okay, well, American music

0:25:52.760 --> 0:25:56.399
<v Speaker 2>actually a lot of classic American country music.

0:25:56.760 --> 0:26:01.400
<v Speaker 1>You're born just before the Second World War ends? So

0:26:01.840 --> 0:26:05.200
<v Speaker 1>what was life like in the fifties in England for you.

0:26:09.680 --> 0:26:10.560
<v Speaker 2>Delivery milk?

0:26:11.640 --> 0:26:14.680
<v Speaker 1>Well, I mean in terms of a couple of things.

0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:17.359
<v Speaker 1>In terms of music. You look through a US lens,

0:26:17.480 --> 0:26:20.720
<v Speaker 1>we have Ike Turner, Rock Rocket eighty eight, we have

0:26:20.840 --> 0:26:24.840
<v Speaker 1>Rock around the Clock, then we have Elvis and then

0:26:25.800 --> 0:26:28.800
<v Speaker 1>it's sort of a dry period with teen idols, although

0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:31.240
<v Speaker 1>we have the Beach Boys of Four Seasons and then

0:26:31.359 --> 0:26:35.520
<v Speaker 1>come the Beatles. What was it like from a UK viewpoint?

0:26:35.880 --> 0:26:39.840
<v Speaker 2>Well, what hammer was? My brother had a motorbike. He

0:26:39.920 --> 0:26:45.479
<v Speaker 2>actually you ever see Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones Worse? Yeah,

0:26:45.600 --> 0:26:49.480
<v Speaker 2>that's my brother. He had the helmet. Yeah, no, a helmet,

0:26:49.560 --> 0:26:52.639
<v Speaker 2>didn't use a helmet, had a cap, dark glasses and

0:26:52.720 --> 0:26:57.200
<v Speaker 2>a big shield on this motorbike some being motorbike, which

0:26:57.280 --> 0:27:02.760
<v Speaker 2>is like a shaft driven noisy bugger. And he said

0:27:02.760 --> 0:27:05.600
<v Speaker 2>to me, John, we're going to go and see the Beatles.

0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:11.960
<v Speaker 2>They're playing at Southport. And this is like April sixty three, Yeah,

0:27:11.960 --> 0:27:15.080
<v Speaker 2>around that time. I said, okay. So it rained all

0:27:15.080 --> 0:27:17.040
<v Speaker 2>the way there, because you know where I lived, it

0:27:17.160 --> 0:27:20.160
<v Speaker 2>rained all the time, the North Sea or something like that.

0:27:20.880 --> 0:27:25.399
<v Speaker 2>And so we actually went to see the Beatles performing

0:27:25.680 --> 0:27:32.040
<v Speaker 2>in the Floral Hall in Southport in April sixty three.

0:27:32.160 --> 0:27:34.800
<v Speaker 2>And of course we'd heard on the radio Love Me Do,

0:27:35.080 --> 0:27:38.200
<v Speaker 2>and we all liked it, you know, and we sang

0:27:38.320 --> 0:27:42.880
<v Speaker 2>all the way to the gig and went in and

0:27:43.040 --> 0:27:46.159
<v Speaker 2>they're probably about let's say, five hundred and six hundred people,

0:27:47.080 --> 0:27:50.040
<v Speaker 2>mostly guys and a bunch of girls at the front.

0:27:50.560 --> 0:27:54.160
<v Speaker 2>Mostly guys, sort of you know, teenagers. They were called

0:27:54.760 --> 0:28:02.480
<v Speaker 2>you were raither a rocker or hippie. These were sort

0:28:02.520 --> 0:28:05.480
<v Speaker 2>of a mixture, but it was kind of the energy

0:28:05.560 --> 0:28:10.800
<v Speaker 2>was so powerful and the Beatles sounded so amazing that

0:28:10.920 --> 0:28:13.640
<v Speaker 2>you get involved in it. He started shouting and screaming

0:28:13.640 --> 0:28:17.600
<v Speaker 2>after every song. They didn't scream in when they were playing.

0:28:17.840 --> 0:28:20.600
<v Speaker 2>The girls at the front didn't scream. They just waited

0:28:20.640 --> 0:28:22.800
<v Speaker 2>till they finished the song, you know, twists and shout

0:28:22.840 --> 0:28:29.680
<v Speaker 2>and then yeah, wonderful. And it was a revelation for

0:28:29.800 --> 0:28:32.199
<v Speaker 2>me and my brother because we had a band, and

0:28:32.240 --> 0:28:34.680
<v Speaker 2>so we learned all the first album of the Beatles

0:28:34.720 --> 0:28:38.200
<v Speaker 2>and we played that and felt like we were in

0:28:38.240 --> 0:28:40.880
<v Speaker 2>the Beatles sort of. We even had a Beatle air cut.

0:28:41.920 --> 0:28:46.000
<v Speaker 2>And we went to see them about six months later

0:28:46.120 --> 0:28:50.520
<v Speaker 2>in Blackburn, which is only five miles away from Acaring Town,

0:28:51.120 --> 0:28:56.760
<v Speaker 2>and got to the gig and couldn't hear them. Everybody

0:28:56.840 --> 0:29:02.040
<v Speaker 2>was screaming. Everybody was screaming. You could hardly hear them.

0:29:02.360 --> 0:29:05.800
<v Speaker 2>It's fantastic the being with your brother.

0:29:05.920 --> 0:29:08.840
<v Speaker 1>Were you playing gigs out? Were you getting paid or

0:29:08.880 --> 0:29:10.040
<v Speaker 1>you just hauling?

0:29:10.480 --> 0:29:15.000
<v Speaker 2>No? No, no, we got paid. We played working men's clubs,

0:29:15.080 --> 0:29:18.080
<v Speaker 2>very important men's clubs.

0:29:18.640 --> 0:29:20.400
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what a working men's club.

0:29:20.240 --> 0:29:23.040
<v Speaker 2>Is, Okay. Working men's club is when you go there

0:29:23.520 --> 0:29:27.000
<v Speaker 2>and you set up your kid drum kit and your amplifier,

0:29:27.400 --> 0:29:29.719
<v Speaker 2>and then the first person that goes on stage in

0:29:29.760 --> 0:29:34.960
<v Speaker 2>front of about one hundred local people, all drinking a

0:29:35.000 --> 0:29:37.520
<v Speaker 2>lot of beer and the first guy comes on. He's

0:29:37.520 --> 0:29:39.880
<v Speaker 2>a comedian, tells a few jokes and some of them

0:29:39.920 --> 0:29:42.640
<v Speaker 2>dirty and some not, and the crowd are getting h

0:29:42.800 --> 0:29:46.680
<v Speaker 2>it's fantastic. Where's the stripper and this? So the stripper

0:29:46.720 --> 0:29:49.360
<v Speaker 2>comes on and she does her strippering, and then we

0:29:49.480 --> 0:29:53.560
<v Speaker 2>go on after the stripper, and the problem was that

0:29:53.640 --> 0:29:56.440
<v Speaker 2>she would had to come past us in this whole

0:29:56.520 --> 0:29:59.080
<v Speaker 2>way as we were standing there to go on stage,

0:30:00.120 --> 0:30:06.120
<v Speaker 2>to come past naked, and it was frightening, very frightening,

0:30:06.520 --> 0:30:12.160
<v Speaker 2>three young lad like me. Anyway, we go on and

0:30:12.200 --> 0:30:14.320
<v Speaker 2>play four songs, then come back off, and then the

0:30:14.320 --> 0:30:17.200
<v Speaker 2>comedian will go on, then bingo, and then another stripper

0:30:17.240 --> 0:30:19.160
<v Speaker 2>would go on. And that's a working men's club.

0:30:20.240 --> 0:30:22.600
<v Speaker 1>And do you remember how much they would pay the group.

0:30:23.120 --> 0:30:29.360
<v Speaker 2>Five pounds which paid for the petrol and some fish

0:30:29.360 --> 0:30:29.840
<v Speaker 2>and chips.

0:30:31.320 --> 0:30:33.760
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you work it. How long do you go

0:30:33.800 --> 0:30:34.360
<v Speaker 1>to school?

0:30:36.040 --> 0:30:38.160
<v Speaker 2>Till I was fourteen? And then I said I've had

0:30:38.280 --> 0:30:43.240
<v Speaker 2>enough because I wasn't learning anything in the last two

0:30:43.280 --> 0:30:46.000
<v Speaker 2>months that I was at. The school was actually cool,

0:30:46.080 --> 0:30:49.800
<v Speaker 2>Saint Christopher's, which was kind of nice. The Saint Christopher

0:30:49.920 --> 0:30:52.920
<v Speaker 2>is the patron saint of travel, and that's what I did.

0:30:53.480 --> 0:30:56.800
<v Speaker 2>I traveled. I'm still traveling now.

0:30:57.760 --> 0:31:01.560
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you're fourteen, you stop going to school. Your

0:31:01.600 --> 0:31:02.600
<v Speaker 1>parents are cool with that.

0:31:03.680 --> 0:31:06.960
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, of course, got a job in the on the farm,

0:31:07.000 --> 0:31:10.520
<v Speaker 2>helping to keep the ball rolling at home, and so.

0:31:10.560 --> 0:31:13.600
<v Speaker 1>You know, okay, you're working on the farm. I've actually

0:31:13.640 --> 0:31:16.240
<v Speaker 1>worked on a farm, and it can be it can

0:31:16.320 --> 0:31:20.520
<v Speaker 1>be very hard work. Yeah, so I can't imagine you're

0:31:20.520 --> 0:31:22.960
<v Speaker 1>working on the farm saying well, this is my future.

0:31:23.600 --> 0:31:26.000
<v Speaker 1>So what was what were you thinking in your brain

0:31:26.080 --> 0:31:27.120
<v Speaker 1>as you're doing all this?

0:31:27.800 --> 0:31:31.560
<v Speaker 2>Well, obviously we had the rock and roll band that

0:31:31.600 --> 0:31:38.400
<v Speaker 2>we play every weekend, and then you know, I don't

0:31:38.440 --> 0:31:41.080
<v Speaker 2>know if you don't think about much other than just

0:31:41.520 --> 0:31:45.480
<v Speaker 2>hearing the next hit song on the radio, learning it

0:31:45.640 --> 0:31:49.880
<v Speaker 2>and going on stage and playing it and just getting

0:31:49.920 --> 0:31:53.080
<v Speaker 2>into the idea of maybe one day we can have

0:31:53.120 --> 0:31:56.880
<v Speaker 2>a hit record. And then this, this, this really happened.

0:31:57.320 --> 0:32:00.200
<v Speaker 2>We were actually rehearsing in our little rehearsal room from

0:32:00.280 --> 0:32:04.239
<v Speaker 2>downtown in Acrington there and this this guy came up

0:32:04.240 --> 0:32:07.880
<v Speaker 2>from Manchester and I think he was They call him

0:32:07.960 --> 0:32:10.680
<v Speaker 2>Jack the Lad, a guy that seems to know everything.

0:32:10.800 --> 0:32:13.360
<v Speaker 2>He came in and heard us playing, he says, I

0:32:13.400 --> 0:32:16.520
<v Speaker 2>think you guys are really good. Do you know do

0:32:16.520 --> 0:32:18.200
<v Speaker 2>you want? Do you want to make a hit record?

0:32:18.240 --> 0:32:23.320
<v Speaker 2>And we said yeah, and they said, well, next Thursday

0:32:23.360 --> 0:32:27.040
<v Speaker 2>can you come down to Manchester and play for my friends.

0:32:27.080 --> 0:32:28.680
<v Speaker 2>I have a couple of friends who've got a lot

0:32:28.720 --> 0:32:30.960
<v Speaker 2>of money and they can make sure you have a

0:32:31.040 --> 0:32:36.360
<v Speaker 2>hit record. And I said that'd be great and Tony said, yeah,

0:32:36.480 --> 0:32:41.280
<v Speaker 2>that'll be really good. He didn't talk, but he said

0:32:41.360 --> 0:32:45.360
<v Speaker 2>it'd be really good. And the guy said, so this Thursday,

0:32:45.400 --> 0:32:48.000
<v Speaker 2>cant can you come down to Manchester and play to

0:32:48.120 --> 0:32:52.280
<v Speaker 2>my two friends? And my brother Tony said no, I'm sorry, No,

0:32:52.360 --> 0:32:56.720
<v Speaker 2>We're playing at baddy Ham working Men's Club and the

0:32:56.760 --> 0:33:00.000
<v Speaker 2>guy said, well cancel it. Oh no, I can't cancel it.

0:33:00.240 --> 0:33:04.240
<v Speaker 2>We promised to go and play and the guy said, well,

0:33:04.360 --> 0:33:07.240
<v Speaker 2>screw You'll go and find another band. So he went

0:33:07.280 --> 0:33:10.680
<v Speaker 2>five miles away to Blackburn and got in touch with

0:33:10.720 --> 0:33:13.920
<v Speaker 2>a band called I'll think about it in a minute

0:33:14.120 --> 0:33:22.200
<v Speaker 2>and uh morton, morton, somebody's more than somebody's five morton. Anyway,

0:33:22.520 --> 0:33:25.360
<v Speaker 2>they were called us something and he went to them

0:33:25.720 --> 0:33:28.440
<v Speaker 2>and within six weeks they were top of the charts

0:33:28.480 --> 0:33:32.680
<v Speaker 2>with a song. Yeah, he actually could do it and

0:33:32.480 --> 0:33:36.760
<v Speaker 2>there was as he could buy anything, you know, and Juliet,

0:33:36.840 --> 0:33:45.400
<v Speaker 2>I think the song was and such wonderful moments in

0:33:45.440 --> 0:33:45.920
<v Speaker 2>my life.

0:33:47.640 --> 0:33:50.520
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you've missed this big opportunity. What's your first

0:33:50.560 --> 0:33:52.280
<v Speaker 1>break if there is one.

0:33:52.600 --> 0:33:59.680
<v Speaker 2>There wasn't one. I brought my nodded. Well. Basically what

0:33:59.720 --> 0:34:04.800
<v Speaker 2>we did was kind of cool because we decided to

0:34:04.880 --> 0:34:10.480
<v Speaker 2>go to play in clubs in Germany and Scandinavia. It

0:34:10.600 --> 0:34:13.960
<v Speaker 2>was the way to be able to learn your trade

0:34:13.960 --> 0:34:17.960
<v Speaker 2>if you like, you know, you go and play in Cologne, Frankfurt,

0:34:19.239 --> 0:34:26.200
<v Speaker 2>Hamburg and then Helsinki and you do two weeks in

0:34:26.239 --> 0:34:30.680
<v Speaker 2>each a city and they go around. You go round

0:34:30.719 --> 0:34:33.799
<v Speaker 2>and round doing that. And of course that was an

0:34:33.920 --> 0:34:37.360
<v Speaker 2>incredible time. It was like the mid sixties. There was

0:34:37.400 --> 0:34:41.600
<v Speaker 2>so much music around everywhere you looked and listened. It

0:34:41.640 --> 0:34:46.160
<v Speaker 2>was great music. And we became a good band, you

0:34:46.160 --> 0:34:51.400
<v Speaker 2>know at that time, I thought, and we were doing

0:34:52.480 --> 0:34:57.240
<v Speaker 2>basically you played from seven to midnight and fifteen minute

0:34:57.280 --> 0:35:01.760
<v Speaker 2>breaks and the the manager of the club will definitely

0:35:01.760 --> 0:35:04.799
<v Speaker 2>give you some pills to keep you awake. So we

0:35:04.840 --> 0:35:08.439
<v Speaker 2>started on that train of let's take a pill now man,

0:35:08.600 --> 0:35:10.600
<v Speaker 2>you know, he said, yeah, but you're not supposed to

0:35:10.680 --> 0:35:12.759
<v Speaker 2>take into later on in the night. No, I want

0:35:12.760 --> 0:35:17.480
<v Speaker 2>to take it now. It makes me speed. It's called speed,

0:35:18.200 --> 0:35:20.080
<v Speaker 2>and that's what we all did. And we did all

0:35:20.120 --> 0:35:22.800
<v Speaker 2>these gigs around and round and around, go around in circles.

0:35:22.880 --> 0:35:27.040
<v Speaker 2>And then the greatest thing that happened was Sergeant Pepper

0:35:27.080 --> 0:35:32.719
<v Speaker 2>came out. So by then we were on speed marijuana.

0:35:34.239 --> 0:35:40.320
<v Speaker 2>It's called hashies in Europe and LSD. I said, okay,

0:35:40.400 --> 0:35:46.360
<v Speaker 2>let's try this stuff. And then we put on Sergeant Pepper.

0:35:47.280 --> 0:35:51.239
<v Speaker 2>That really blew everybody's mind in the world, I think,

0:35:51.960 --> 0:35:56.720
<v Speaker 2>because it was brilliant. I just wanted to be a beetle.

0:35:59.239 --> 0:36:02.320
<v Speaker 1>How did you get the these gigs in Germany and Scandinavia.

0:36:02.600 --> 0:36:06.160
<v Speaker 2>Oh, there's an agent. There's always an agent. There's always somebody,

0:36:06.280 --> 0:36:08.440
<v Speaker 2>you know, you ask ask around, you know.

0:36:11.200 --> 0:36:14.640
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you hear Sergeant Pepper, which really was mind blowing,

0:36:15.120 --> 0:36:17.120
<v Speaker 1>especially there were no singles on it. It was a

0:36:17.160 --> 0:36:22.880
<v Speaker 1>thing to itself. And you're doing these European tours. What's

0:36:22.920 --> 0:36:24.000
<v Speaker 1>the next step for you?

0:36:25.760 --> 0:36:31.720
<v Speaker 2>Well, the next step was we we we played show

0:36:32.680 --> 0:36:41.000
<v Speaker 2>in Sweden, No Copenhagen, beautiful place, and we had to

0:36:41.040 --> 0:36:42.960
<v Speaker 2>do this one more show. Before we went to the

0:36:43.000 --> 0:36:47.000
<v Speaker 2>next town, which was Clone, and then down to Munich

0:36:47.040 --> 0:36:50.640
<v Speaker 2>and then up to Hamburg, same same thing. And I

0:36:50.760 --> 0:36:54.240
<v Speaker 2>just hattened to take Lstta and I went to see

0:36:55.560 --> 0:37:00.800
<v Speaker 2>one of the greatest movies ever. It was Dr Schivago,

0:37:02.560 --> 0:37:05.360
<v Speaker 2>so Doctor Chibago. I was so in love with that woman,

0:37:05.400 --> 0:37:12.279
<v Speaker 2>whatever her name was. Anyway, I went to see that

0:37:12.400 --> 0:37:15.680
<v Speaker 2>and then went to the gig, and I noticed that

0:37:15.719 --> 0:37:20.640
<v Speaker 2>everybody in the band takes somewhere ste so we'd look

0:37:20.680 --> 0:37:22.839
<v Speaker 2>at each other. We're supposed to be playing music. We're

0:37:22.880 --> 0:37:25.399
<v Speaker 2>standing there on the stage and there's people looking at

0:37:25.480 --> 0:37:28.840
<v Speaker 2>us saying, well, come on, then get on with the music.

0:37:28.880 --> 0:37:31.239
<v Speaker 2>And we're all looking at each other saying, how do

0:37:31.320 --> 0:37:35.880
<v Speaker 2>we do this? We couldn't put it together, you know, mentally,

0:37:36.160 --> 0:37:39.600
<v Speaker 2>we couldn't put it together. It's just not possible. So

0:37:39.680 --> 0:37:41.920
<v Speaker 2>the guy fired us and we went down to Cologne

0:37:41.960 --> 0:37:46.839
<v Speaker 2>and carried on with doing seven hours of singing and

0:37:46.880 --> 0:37:51.520
<v Speaker 2>playing every night. And then one day I just had

0:37:51.520 --> 0:37:57.200
<v Speaker 2>a vision, a musical vision, and I just had this

0:37:57.320 --> 0:37:59.880
<v Speaker 2>idea we were a pretty good band. I thought we

0:37:59.880 --> 0:38:03.240
<v Speaker 2>were a pretty good band of warriors, you know, And

0:38:03.760 --> 0:38:09.160
<v Speaker 2>so I went to the bedroom and woke everybody up. Say,

0:38:09.360 --> 0:38:14.160
<v Speaker 2>come on, guys, let's rehearse. Guys, go away, John please,

0:38:15.880 --> 0:38:21.480
<v Speaker 2>they all said, in unison and go away. But guys,

0:38:21.800 --> 0:38:24.399
<v Speaker 2>we've got to rehearse. Man. We can be really good.

0:38:24.440 --> 0:38:27.320
<v Speaker 2>I've got some ideas musically. We could do a little

0:38:27.320 --> 0:38:31.919
<v Speaker 2>bit of John. Will you go away please? They said

0:38:31.960 --> 0:38:36.120
<v Speaker 2>in unison, And I said, okay, I'm packing my bags,

0:38:36.120 --> 0:38:40.960
<v Speaker 2>I'm leaving, which I did. I left, I got my

0:38:41.000 --> 0:38:45.239
<v Speaker 2>suitcase and I went to Munich. And the rest is

0:38:45.239 --> 0:38:49.560
<v Speaker 2>in my autobiography. It's a good story though.

0:38:51.200 --> 0:38:53.960
<v Speaker 1>Okay, at what point in this story do you start

0:38:54.040 --> 0:38:56.280
<v Speaker 1>playing original material?

0:38:57.800 --> 0:39:02.239
<v Speaker 2>Probably not until I got to London. I was a

0:39:02.280 --> 0:39:05.520
<v Speaker 2>couple of great things happened where I had a visitation.

0:39:07.280 --> 0:39:11.480
<v Speaker 2>Where I was sitting in this beautiful English gardens in Munich,

0:39:12.000 --> 0:39:15.640
<v Speaker 2>and I was mumbling to myself over and over why

0:39:15.680 --> 0:39:16.160
<v Speaker 2>am I here?

0:39:17.239 --> 0:39:17.479
<v Speaker 1>Why?

0:39:19.120 --> 0:39:21.399
<v Speaker 2>Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing?

0:39:21.480 --> 0:39:26.120
<v Speaker 2>What's going on? What's going on? And the voice said, John,

0:39:27.880 --> 0:39:34.040
<v Speaker 2>nothing matters? And I thought, who the heck was that.

0:39:34.160 --> 0:39:36.400
<v Speaker 2>There's nobody around me. I'm in the middle of a garden.

0:39:37.160 --> 0:39:45.319
<v Speaker 2>And the voice said, John, nothing matters. Well, that did it?

0:39:45.760 --> 0:39:51.800
<v Speaker 2>I said, Oh, my god, somebody's watching me or watching

0:39:51.840 --> 0:39:54.440
<v Speaker 2>over me. What the heck's going on? I'm thinking. But

0:39:54.560 --> 0:39:59.560
<v Speaker 2>something really beautiful happened that I ran to the department

0:39:59.560 --> 0:40:02.920
<v Speaker 2>that I was staying in and there was a telegram

0:40:02.960 --> 0:40:05.160
<v Speaker 2>on the floor. When I opened the door, the telegram

0:40:05.320 --> 0:40:08.959
<v Speaker 2>who was from my mom and it said, John, there's

0:40:08.960 --> 0:40:11.479
<v Speaker 2>a band in Frankfurt want you to sing with them,

0:40:12.239 --> 0:40:15.120
<v Speaker 2>and here's the number. And that was it. It was like,

0:40:15.800 --> 0:40:19.319
<v Speaker 2>somebody wants me, because that's why I was so screwed up.

0:40:19.360 --> 0:40:21.839
<v Speaker 2>I just thought nobody wanted me, but they did, and

0:40:21.880 --> 0:40:23.680
<v Speaker 2>I went to work with them for three months, and

0:40:23.719 --> 0:40:27.320
<v Speaker 2>then I went to London and that's where I met Chris.

0:40:28.160 --> 0:40:29.440
<v Speaker 1>How did you meet Chris Squire?

0:40:30.200 --> 0:40:33.480
<v Speaker 2>Well, I was working at a bar over the Marquee Club,

0:40:33.840 --> 0:40:37.600
<v Speaker 2>a very famous club in London, and all the people

0:40:37.600 --> 0:40:40.840
<v Speaker 2>that played the Marquee came up to the club, you know, normal,

0:40:41.560 --> 0:40:44.799
<v Speaker 2>and I clean up and wash up and help help

0:40:44.840 --> 0:40:51.480
<v Speaker 2>around to survive, and you know, people like who they

0:40:51.600 --> 0:40:57.280
<v Speaker 2>wander in have a few drinks and then even everybody

0:40:57.280 --> 0:41:01.239
<v Speaker 2>who played at the Marquee Club would pop up to

0:41:01.239 --> 0:41:06.640
<v Speaker 2>the club and he met all the greats at that period.

0:41:06.760 --> 0:41:11.080
<v Speaker 2>It was like sixty eight sixty nine. So I was

0:41:11.120 --> 0:41:15.040
<v Speaker 2>there cleaning up one evening and the guy that ran

0:41:15.080 --> 0:41:19.600
<v Speaker 2>the club, a really nice guy, said, I know you're

0:41:19.640 --> 0:41:22.080
<v Speaker 2>looking for a band, John. I said, yeah, I'm looking

0:41:22.080 --> 0:41:23.959
<v Speaker 2>for a band. I said, well, there's a bass player

0:41:24.040 --> 0:41:26.440
<v Speaker 2>over there. I think he might be looking for a singer.

0:41:27.280 --> 0:41:30.040
<v Speaker 2>I thought, okay. So I went toward to this very

0:41:30.080 --> 0:41:32.719
<v Speaker 2>tall guy and said, Hi, my name is John and

0:41:32.719 --> 0:41:36.080
<v Speaker 2>he said my name is Cruse. And I said, so

0:41:36.160 --> 0:41:39.640
<v Speaker 2>you have a band. He said you're what's the band called?

0:41:39.640 --> 0:41:46.319
<v Speaker 2>He said Mabel Greer's Toy Shop. Oh really, yeah, what

0:41:46.360 --> 0:41:48.040
<v Speaker 2>do you want to do? I said, well, I love

0:41:48.120 --> 0:41:53.040
<v Speaker 2>singing and I love pu you know Paul McCartney. Of course,

0:41:53.080 --> 0:41:56.440
<v Speaker 2>you know. I liked his voice and my voice is

0:41:56.520 --> 0:42:01.040
<v Speaker 2>high like that. And he said what kind of music

0:42:01.080 --> 0:42:02.799
<v Speaker 2>do you listen to? Though? I said, oh, I love

0:42:02.880 --> 0:42:05.560
<v Speaker 2>Simon and gar Phone Call. I think all Simon's really

0:42:05.600 --> 0:42:09.040
<v Speaker 2>got his chops together a songwriting wise, you know. And

0:42:09.080 --> 0:42:11.799
<v Speaker 2>they said do you write songs? And said, well, mess

0:42:11.840 --> 0:42:15.200
<v Speaker 2>around with my guitar. I'm not not good. He said, well,

0:42:15.200 --> 0:42:19.480
<v Speaker 2>why did you come to rehearsals of my band Mabel

0:42:19.560 --> 0:42:25.040
<v Speaker 2>Greeners Toy Shop tomorrow and I said okay. Then, and

0:42:25.400 --> 0:42:27.640
<v Speaker 2>before before we partied, he said, why don't we come

0:42:27.680 --> 0:42:31.040
<v Speaker 2>back to my appointment, Well, we'll jam and we wrote

0:42:31.040 --> 0:42:34.080
<v Speaker 2>a couple of songs and I thought, this guy's really nice,

0:42:34.160 --> 0:42:36.680
<v Speaker 2>you know. And the following day I went to the

0:42:37.000 --> 0:42:43.800
<v Speaker 2>rehearsal place to work with his band Match and the

0:42:43.880 --> 0:42:50.360
<v Speaker 2>drummers left because he was getting paid. Nobody got paid

0:42:50.360 --> 0:42:53.680
<v Speaker 2>in this band. But he went to Paris to work

0:42:53.719 --> 0:42:57.759
<v Speaker 2>in another band. So I got a copy of the Maybe,

0:43:00.400 --> 0:43:03.479
<v Speaker 2>I got a copy of Melody Maker, and I looked

0:43:03.480 --> 0:43:08.480
<v Speaker 2>for drummer looking for band, and there it was as

0:43:08.560 --> 0:43:12.040
<v Speaker 2>a love Week kit and a van. My name is

0:43:12.080 --> 0:43:17.280
<v Speaker 2>Bill Bruford, I said, he's the guy. So we phoned

0:43:17.360 --> 0:43:19.520
<v Speaker 2>him up and he came the following day and he

0:43:19.640 --> 0:43:22.640
<v Speaker 2>joined the band. And then the question was, well, what

0:43:22.640 --> 0:43:27.920
<v Speaker 2>are we going to call ourselves? Because Chris said, well,

0:43:28.040 --> 0:43:31.480
<v Speaker 2>maybe Grease Toy Shop is pretty cool, and I said no,

0:43:33.600 --> 0:43:36.919
<v Speaker 2>the best band that I ever heard was an Irish name,

0:43:37.080 --> 0:43:42.879
<v Speaker 2>an Irish band. They called themselves the Do you remember then?

0:43:43.080 --> 0:43:47.160
<v Speaker 2>Of course that I thought that was perfect, very Irish.

0:43:48.920 --> 0:43:53.880
<v Speaker 2>So we rehearsed and rehearsed and did a show. We

0:43:53.960 --> 0:43:57.680
<v Speaker 2>did most of the show, just doing a funky version

0:43:57.760 --> 0:43:59.880
<v Speaker 2>of Midnight Hour.

0:44:01.680 --> 0:44:04.440
<v Speaker 1>And at this point we're Tony and Peter in the band.

0:44:05.680 --> 0:44:08.800
<v Speaker 2>Tony who oh Tony? Yeah, Tony was a keyboard player.

0:44:08.920 --> 0:44:13.840
<v Speaker 2>Peter Banks was the guitar player. Yeah, it's just the

0:44:13.920 --> 0:44:18.759
<v Speaker 2>drummer left. How would I get a thing or you know?

0:44:19.520 --> 0:44:21.880
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, you believe you know, that's basically it.

0:44:23.400 --> 0:44:26.160
<v Speaker 1>So you play this funky version of in the Midnight Hour?

0:44:26.520 --> 0:44:27.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?

0:44:28.480 --> 0:44:29.920
<v Speaker 1>Where does it go from there?

0:44:30.080 --> 0:44:32.520
<v Speaker 2>For about an hour, well, we just had to make

0:44:32.600 --> 0:44:35.720
<v Speaker 2>up time. We knew four songs, one of them we'd

0:44:36.080 --> 0:44:40.040
<v Speaker 2>written I'd written with the with Chris that first night,

0:44:40.600 --> 0:44:43.440
<v Speaker 2>and then another song that Chris had, and then we

0:44:43.920 --> 0:44:48.799
<v Speaker 2>did Midnight Hour. It was just a show tour. It

0:44:48.920 --> 0:44:52.160
<v Speaker 2>was just our first show together and we thought we

0:44:52.160 --> 0:44:55.920
<v Speaker 2>were pretty good, you know, And.

0:44:55.920 --> 0:44:58.080
<v Speaker 1>How does it become yes? And how do you get

0:44:58.120 --> 0:44:58.839
<v Speaker 1>a record deal?

0:44:59.400 --> 0:45:05.160
<v Speaker 2>Well that's story. And it was just generally okay, everybody

0:45:05.200 --> 0:45:08.759
<v Speaker 2>put a name of the band in a art. Okay,

0:45:09.440 --> 0:45:12.560
<v Speaker 2>because I started to become the boss, they used to

0:45:12.560 --> 0:45:17.480
<v Speaker 2>call me Napoleon because I was small, and so I'd organized.

0:45:17.480 --> 0:45:20.399
<v Speaker 2>I said, okay, everybody write down a name. I wrote

0:45:20.440 --> 0:45:25.000
<v Speaker 2>down World. Chris wrote down live, it's gotta be short,

0:45:25.640 --> 0:45:29.520
<v Speaker 2>and Peter Banks wrote down yes, and that was it

0:45:30.000 --> 0:45:33.520
<v Speaker 2>because we went through, we went through what we put

0:45:33.560 --> 0:45:34.759
<v Speaker 2>in there with what's this?

0:45:35.080 --> 0:45:35.319
<v Speaker 1>Yes?

0:45:36.000 --> 0:45:39.840
<v Speaker 2>Is it the yes? Peter said no, no, it's just yes,

0:45:41.239 --> 0:45:46.759
<v Speaker 2>and we looked at each other and said, yes, that

0:45:46.920 --> 0:45:47.239
<v Speaker 2>was it.

0:45:54.160 --> 0:45:56.840
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you have a name, you played one gig long

0:45:56.960 --> 0:45:59.560
<v Speaker 1>version of Midnight Hour. How do you end up getting

0:45:59.600 --> 0:46:00.840
<v Speaker 1>a record deal with Atlantic?

0:46:01.600 --> 0:46:07.480
<v Speaker 2>Oh, that's that's another story. The great thing happened was

0:46:10.080 --> 0:46:14.040
<v Speaker 2>Ertigan is coming from New York to see you guys.

0:46:14.840 --> 0:46:17.799
<v Speaker 1>That was wait wait wait wait wait, that's a big thing.

0:46:18.120 --> 0:46:21.400
<v Speaker 1>You're nobody's who is the connection with Armit?

0:46:21.920 --> 0:46:26.759
<v Speaker 2>Okay, here's the story. So what happened was we were

0:46:26.800 --> 0:46:30.720
<v Speaker 2>doing pretty good. We started doing gigs in and around London.

0:46:31.000 --> 0:46:33.120
<v Speaker 2>We did some of Manchester and then we did some

0:46:33.280 --> 0:46:39.160
<v Speaker 2>up north and of England and we were we got tired,

0:46:39.440 --> 0:46:42.640
<v Speaker 2>you know, we started playing good and you know, Bill

0:46:42.719 --> 0:46:47.120
<v Speaker 2>and Chris were really rocking and we got going and uh,

0:46:48.480 --> 0:46:51.440
<v Speaker 2>I go to a phone call from our friend who

0:46:51.680 --> 0:46:57.760
<v Speaker 2>ran that club, the Shaft Club, Chase, and he said this,

0:46:57.760 --> 0:47:00.920
<v Speaker 2>this guy wants your phone number. We have phone numbers,

0:47:00.920 --> 0:47:02.680
<v Speaker 2>He said, can you can you phone him? He wants

0:47:02.719 --> 0:47:06.800
<v Speaker 2>to see if you can play tonight at the the

0:47:07.560 --> 0:47:13.120
<v Speaker 2>pretty famous speakeasy club in London. And he said, they

0:47:13.200 --> 0:47:17.040
<v Speaker 2>want you to play tonight because the band that's supposed

0:47:17.080 --> 0:47:20.640
<v Speaker 2>to be there just got stopped from getting on a

0:47:20.680 --> 0:47:26.320
<v Speaker 2>plane in New York. And we said, so who who

0:47:26.360 --> 0:47:29.960
<v Speaker 2>who do How are we going to replace? He said,

0:47:32.840 --> 0:47:36.160
<v Speaker 2>somebody in the Family Tree and we said, what the

0:47:36.200 --> 0:47:38.920
<v Speaker 2>heck's that? There's a band called the Family So we

0:47:39.000 --> 0:47:42.239
<v Speaker 2>got went to the club and started setting god to

0:47:42.239 --> 0:47:44.680
<v Speaker 2>do our little show that we had, and all of

0:47:44.760 --> 0:47:47.440
<v Speaker 2>a sudden people started coming in there row people at

0:47:47.480 --> 0:47:51.120
<v Speaker 2>Pete Townshend came in and a couple of other guys

0:47:52.239 --> 0:47:56.560
<v Speaker 2>from the big bands, and I said, who are we replacing?

0:47:57.440 --> 0:48:03.880
<v Speaker 2>Said Slide in the Family Stone? Oh fuck, what are

0:48:03.920 --> 0:48:06.799
<v Speaker 2>we gonna do? Well, let's just play, man, Let's just

0:48:06.920 --> 0:48:09.680
<v Speaker 2>do it. Let's just do it, and people, Paul McCart,

0:48:09.719 --> 0:48:12.760
<v Speaker 2>it was all these people came, these droves of people

0:48:12.840 --> 0:48:17.319
<v Speaker 2>came to see Sli in the Family Stone. So we

0:48:17.360 --> 0:48:20.839
<v Speaker 2>did our show. You know, we were we were kind

0:48:20.840 --> 0:48:24.520
<v Speaker 2>of nervous and frightened, but we played hard and we

0:48:24.640 --> 0:48:29.320
<v Speaker 2>got it there. The show a midnight hour yeah, that'll

0:48:29.320 --> 0:48:32.799
<v Speaker 2>do it. I can't remember the songs that we were doing,

0:48:32.840 --> 0:48:35.280
<v Speaker 2>but we were doing some good, good music at that time.

0:48:35.840 --> 0:48:42.399
<v Speaker 2>We're doing actually variations on kind of themes like Yes

0:48:42.480 --> 0:48:46.520
<v Speaker 2>became famous for, which is creating introductions to a song

0:48:46.640 --> 0:48:49.759
<v Speaker 2>and then middle sections and building it up and you know,

0:48:49.920 --> 0:48:54.600
<v Speaker 2>like structure using structure, And it kind of worked and

0:48:55.280 --> 0:48:57.800
<v Speaker 2>went down very well, and we passed a lot of

0:48:57.880 --> 0:49:01.160
<v Speaker 2>joints around it and make sure everybody was happy in

0:49:01.160 --> 0:49:05.880
<v Speaker 2>the Stone. Oh boy, what a night. And that was

0:49:05.920 --> 0:49:09.839
<v Speaker 2>the beginning of our friendship with the manager of that

0:49:09.960 --> 0:49:15.920
<v Speaker 2>club and a really sweet guy, and he was the

0:49:15.920 --> 0:49:19.200
<v Speaker 2>one that got in touch with somebody Atlantic Records, and

0:49:19.239 --> 0:49:22.239
<v Speaker 2>they said, we heard about what happened you. You did

0:49:22.239 --> 0:49:26.000
<v Speaker 2>a great job for sliding the family Stone and Roy

0:49:26.440 --> 0:49:30.480
<v Speaker 2>Roy was the manager, and he said, I think I

0:49:30.560 --> 0:49:33.920
<v Speaker 2>might be able to get you to meet rma Urtigan

0:49:34.760 --> 0:49:39.880
<v Speaker 2>and maybe you could be on Atlantic Records. And I thought,

0:49:40.840 --> 0:49:44.600
<v Speaker 2>any record come pretty I don't care who it is,

0:49:45.320 --> 0:49:47.520
<v Speaker 2>but we need to make a record sort of thing

0:49:47.920 --> 0:49:50.160
<v Speaker 2>because I thought we were playing pretty good on stage.

0:49:50.160 --> 0:49:52.320
<v Speaker 2>It would be good to record some of the show,

0:49:54.719 --> 0:49:56.239
<v Speaker 2>put it out as a record and see how we

0:49:56.680 --> 0:49:58.239
<v Speaker 2>go and We had a couple of songs that we

0:49:58.280 --> 0:50:05.200
<v Speaker 2>thought were commercial but not really, and I think commercial

0:50:05.480 --> 0:50:09.640
<v Speaker 2>became sort of dare I say a nasty word in

0:50:09.640 --> 0:50:13.120
<v Speaker 2>my mind, We're never going to be commercial. I don't

0:50:13.160 --> 0:50:16.040
<v Speaker 2>want to be commercial. I'm too old. I was twenty

0:50:16.080 --> 0:50:16.839
<v Speaker 2>seven years old.

0:50:17.000 --> 0:50:17.239
<v Speaker 1>Something.

0:50:18.280 --> 0:50:20.360
<v Speaker 2>I feel too old. I don't want to be a

0:50:20.400 --> 0:50:24.279
<v Speaker 2>pop star sort of thing. So we carried along the

0:50:24.400 --> 0:50:28.120
<v Speaker 2>train of writing music that became a time in a

0:50:28.200 --> 0:50:30.680
<v Speaker 2>word and things like that. From the second album. I

0:50:30.680 --> 0:50:33.840
<v Speaker 2>can't remember much about the first album, even though.

0:50:33.920 --> 0:50:35.839
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I got a few questions about the first album. Okay,

0:50:35.880 --> 0:50:39.080
<v Speaker 1>so we get there, Ahmed comes to see you, and

0:50:39.120 --> 0:50:40.080
<v Speaker 1>then what happens.

0:50:40.400 --> 0:50:45.600
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I've mentioned this many times and I'll mention it again.

0:50:46.120 --> 0:50:54.040
<v Speaker 2>Well armored, incredibly dressed, very Turkish guy, beautiful, he looked immaculate,

0:50:54.760 --> 0:50:59.959
<v Speaker 2>like a million bucks. And he was producing the great people,

0:51:00.040 --> 0:51:02.680
<v Speaker 2>oh you know he was at that time. He was

0:51:02.719 --> 0:51:08.000
<v Speaker 2>producing Ray Charles and of course I wish I could

0:51:08.000 --> 0:51:10.960
<v Speaker 2>remember their names. How we'll do in a minute, all

0:51:11.000 --> 0:51:14.759
<v Speaker 2>the great people that were on Atlancet Records. Unbelievable, And

0:51:14.800 --> 0:51:18.000
<v Speaker 2>he came to see us. Anyway, we played our little

0:51:18.080 --> 0:51:21.560
<v Speaker 2>four songs and I went to the lute, have a

0:51:21.640 --> 0:51:25.520
<v Speaker 2>p and Roy happily comes running in and starts with

0:51:25.600 --> 0:51:28.040
<v Speaker 2>a peer. I said, John, I'm really going to get

0:51:28.080 --> 0:51:31.200
<v Speaker 2>this guy, this American guy. I'm gonna make sure you

0:51:31.239 --> 0:51:33.040
<v Speaker 2>can make a lot of money. I'm going to get

0:51:33.040 --> 0:51:35.640
<v Speaker 2>you the best contract. And at that moment in time,

0:51:36.120 --> 0:51:39.080
<v Speaker 2>somebody pulled the chain in the toilet next to us,

0:51:39.560 --> 0:51:44.799
<v Speaker 2>and out it comes home. A article said, oh, well

0:51:44.800 --> 0:51:52.080
<v Speaker 2>that blew that. Oh that's a great story, so it is.

0:51:52.160 --> 0:51:52.719
<v Speaker 1>Interested.

0:51:53.400 --> 0:51:57.719
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he signed us up for ten years, you know,

0:51:58.200 --> 0:52:00.560
<v Speaker 2>three points whatever it was in those days. But we

0:52:01.120 --> 0:52:05.200
<v Speaker 2>managed to slowly but surely get better deal along the way.

0:52:05.239 --> 0:52:08.040
<v Speaker 2>When it took us a couple of albums to make

0:52:08.080 --> 0:52:11.120
<v Speaker 2>any sense about what we're doing. And then we did

0:52:11.120 --> 0:52:14.040
<v Speaker 2>the Yes album, and that was really when we sort

0:52:14.080 --> 0:52:18.680
<v Speaker 2>of felt we're in the game. We're in the game.

0:52:19.719 --> 0:52:21.760
<v Speaker 2>We're hammling okay, tour.

0:52:22.160 --> 0:52:24.279
<v Speaker 1>Well, let's start with the first album, which is where

0:52:24.280 --> 0:52:28.640
<v Speaker 1>I come in. How'd you decide to cover every little

0:52:28.680 --> 0:52:29.959
<v Speaker 1>thing by the Beatles?

0:52:30.440 --> 0:52:35.040
<v Speaker 2>Every little thing she does? It's a great song, you know,

0:52:35.200 --> 0:52:38.399
<v Speaker 2>and we did it very well. You know. That's when

0:52:38.520 --> 0:52:44.560
<v Speaker 2>Yes started to sort of expand an original song into

0:52:44.560 --> 0:52:48.600
<v Speaker 2>something a little bit more rocking and jiving or whatever.

0:52:49.920 --> 0:52:54.280
<v Speaker 2>Dun but that was the whole idea. I think Chris

0:52:54.400 --> 0:52:59.000
<v Speaker 2>was brilliant at letting me, you know, listening to me,

0:52:59.680 --> 0:53:02.680
<v Speaker 2>and then letting the band try it out, because you know,

0:53:02.800 --> 0:53:06.399
<v Speaker 2>there was not doubters at all. They just say, John,

0:53:06.880 --> 0:53:09.239
<v Speaker 2>why do you want to do this? Why do you

0:53:09.280 --> 0:53:12.399
<v Speaker 2>want to do this? And I'd say, just try it out,

0:53:13.880 --> 0:53:17.680
<v Speaker 2>just try it out. So we had a song that

0:53:17.760 --> 0:53:21.440
<v Speaker 2>I was writing, yours Notice Grace, and they're trying to

0:53:21.520 --> 0:53:25.359
<v Speaker 2>start a beginning of it. Anyway, that's the third album.

0:53:26.480 --> 0:53:28.800
<v Speaker 1>So on the first album, you do that every little

0:53:28.840 --> 0:53:31.040
<v Speaker 1>thing that was not you know, there are certain songs

0:53:31.040 --> 0:53:32.719
<v Speaker 1>by the Beatles that are covered all the time. I

0:53:32.760 --> 0:53:35.399
<v Speaker 1>didn't know another cover at that particular point in time,

0:53:35.640 --> 0:53:37.960
<v Speaker 1>and you rearranged it and made it your own. I

0:53:37.960 --> 0:53:39.959
<v Speaker 1>mean it was just utterly fantastic.

0:53:40.200 --> 0:53:44.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that was part of my experience of listening to

0:53:44.920 --> 0:53:47.359
<v Speaker 2>at that time. I was listening to a lot of

0:53:48.760 --> 0:53:53.000
<v Speaker 2>music by no I hadn't got to Sibelius by them,

0:53:53.040 --> 0:53:56.799
<v Speaker 2>but I'd listened to the Planet Suite and things like that,

0:53:56.960 --> 0:54:02.239
<v Speaker 2>the very commercial symphonic music and drag ideas out of

0:54:02.280 --> 0:54:05.400
<v Speaker 2>that and who is it did that as well, King Curmson.

0:54:05.440 --> 0:54:09.480
<v Speaker 2>You know, they were doing all sorts of stravinskyisms here there.

0:54:09.520 --> 0:54:14.279
<v Speaker 2>Everybod started listening to the classic music was written one

0:54:14.360 --> 0:54:18.279
<v Speaker 2>hundred fifty years ago, fifty years ago, symphonic music, and

0:54:18.320 --> 0:54:21.759
<v Speaker 2>they try to bring it into the modern rock and roll.

0:54:21.800 --> 0:54:24.760
<v Speaker 2>And that's basically what happened. It was just the idea

0:54:24.800 --> 0:54:29.120
<v Speaker 2>of structure. Structure will make it work. If you've got

0:54:29.120 --> 0:54:31.000
<v Speaker 2>a good intro, you can always play in the middle

0:54:31.000 --> 0:54:33.680
<v Speaker 2>and then at the end, you know, okay.

0:54:34.160 --> 0:54:36.520
<v Speaker 1>But there are some originals on that first album I

0:54:36.520 --> 0:54:40.480
<v Speaker 1>think are just great yesterday and today looking around.

0:54:40.719 --> 0:54:47.600
<v Speaker 2>Survival, Yeah, I love Survival. Survival that story. That's going

0:54:47.640 --> 0:54:53.680
<v Speaker 2>to be my title of my autobiography, Survival and other Stories.

0:54:55.120 --> 0:54:59.200
<v Speaker 1>So the first album comes out, I mean it was

0:54:59.239 --> 0:55:01.719
<v Speaker 1>like a mystery in America. I was actually turned on

0:55:01.800 --> 0:55:05.399
<v Speaker 1>by my dentist, which is something that didn't happen back then.

0:55:06.000 --> 0:55:09.880
<v Speaker 1>But what was the album comes out? What was your experience.

0:55:11.320 --> 0:55:13.600
<v Speaker 2>Do you know? I don't remember very much about it.

0:55:13.640 --> 0:55:15.879
<v Speaker 2>I think everything was a blair at that time. Because

0:55:15.920 --> 0:55:19.320
<v Speaker 2>you were doing interviews. People wanted to know what you thought,

0:55:21.080 --> 0:55:24.400
<v Speaker 2>which was not very much, but just general people wanting

0:55:24.440 --> 0:55:27.160
<v Speaker 2>you to great. Guy called Chris Welch. He was a

0:55:27.200 --> 0:55:31.400
<v Speaker 2>big fan of our beginnings and the Melody Maker. You

0:55:31.680 --> 0:55:36.960
<v Speaker 2>do interviews about this and that, and it's just one

0:55:36.960 --> 0:55:41.880
<v Speaker 2>of those things you pull apart an album you've just

0:55:42.000 --> 0:55:44.880
<v Speaker 2>made it, and then you look back and think it

0:55:44.920 --> 0:55:47.920
<v Speaker 2>wasn't that good. And the second one was Time of

0:55:47.960 --> 0:55:50.960
<v Speaker 2>a Word that wasn't that good. You know, you just

0:55:51.000 --> 0:55:53.400
<v Speaker 2>got through that emotion of doing it, thinking it's really

0:55:53.440 --> 0:55:55.800
<v Speaker 2>really good, Oh, it really sounds great, and then you

0:55:55.880 --> 0:55:59.240
<v Speaker 2>listen back to it anything within a couple of three months,

0:55:59.280 --> 0:56:03.759
<v Speaker 2>yet you bore it's not working. Are you're performing it,

0:56:04.560 --> 0:56:06.759
<v Speaker 2>but you're thinking about the next step you're going to take.

0:56:07.360 --> 0:56:12.680
<v Speaker 2>And that's been my juxtaposition as a singer in a band.

0:56:12.719 --> 0:56:14.640
<v Speaker 2>I don't play anything. I just have to sing all

0:56:14.640 --> 0:56:19.520
<v Speaker 2>the time and pretend I can play the guitar, which

0:56:19.520 --> 0:56:24.040
<v Speaker 2>I could hardly play. But I was always thinking about

0:56:24.040 --> 0:56:26.919
<v Speaker 2>what we've gotta be doing a bit better. And then

0:56:27.239 --> 0:56:31.440
<v Speaker 2>people come into your life. I met we were doing

0:56:31.760 --> 0:56:36.680
<v Speaker 2>a TV show in France, and it was so funny

0:56:36.719 --> 0:56:41.520
<v Speaker 2>because we were told not to be too loud. Of course,

0:56:41.560 --> 0:56:47.800
<v Speaker 2>we were very loud at that time, and so we

0:56:48.200 --> 0:56:53.720
<v Speaker 2>started playing I think it was yours noticed Grace, and

0:56:51.360 --> 0:56:58.480
<v Speaker 2>the credits came up. They cut us off. We'd waited

0:56:58.520 --> 0:57:02.279
<v Speaker 2>their whole day to do this song. At the end

0:57:02.280 --> 0:57:04.239
<v Speaker 2>of this it was a it was a sort of

0:57:04.320 --> 0:57:08.799
<v Speaker 2>a game like come on Down, you know that kind

0:57:08.800 --> 0:57:13.880
<v Speaker 2>of TV show, and so we waited a day, makeup

0:57:13.880 --> 0:57:17.000
<v Speaker 2>and everything to play it, and just when we started playing,

0:57:17.040 --> 0:57:20.320
<v Speaker 2>it was too loud, so they faded us out and

0:57:20.360 --> 0:57:22.960
<v Speaker 2>the credits came up at the end of the And

0:57:23.040 --> 0:57:27.520
<v Speaker 2>that night I met Keith Charrett and that really yeah,

0:57:27.600 --> 0:57:30.680
<v Speaker 2>because he was playing in a trio on the TV

0:57:30.840 --> 0:57:33.880
<v Speaker 2>show and he said to me, do you want to

0:57:33.880 --> 0:57:36.520
<v Speaker 2>come and see my I'm gonna I'm gont on the

0:57:36.560 --> 0:57:37.960
<v Speaker 2>left bank, you know, I'm just going to do a

0:57:38.040 --> 0:57:41.560
<v Speaker 2>jam session tonight, And I thought, charm session. That's really cool.

0:57:41.800 --> 0:57:44.760
<v Speaker 2>So I went just to see him. I sat by

0:57:44.840 --> 0:57:48.760
<v Speaker 2>myself and he came in and started playing the piano,

0:57:49.480 --> 0:57:52.920
<v Speaker 2>and the drummer was there playing the drums, and he

0:57:53.680 --> 0:57:56.080
<v Speaker 2>kind of looked at the drum and said, what's the

0:57:56.080 --> 0:58:00.760
<v Speaker 2>bass blake? The drummer said, I don't know, I don't know.

0:58:01.280 --> 0:58:06.560
<v Speaker 2>I'm French. And so they're playing when he's Keith Charis

0:58:06.600 --> 0:58:10.440
<v Speaker 2>just diving away on the piano and I couldn't believe

0:58:10.520 --> 0:58:12.840
<v Speaker 2>how good this guy was. He was eighteen years old.

0:58:13.520 --> 0:58:15.760
<v Speaker 2>And then the bass player came. He was six foot

0:58:16.040 --> 0:58:19.200
<v Speaker 2>so handsome, and he brought a real big stand up

0:58:19.240 --> 0:58:25.280
<v Speaker 2>bass and he starts. So jaris playing away with the drummer,

0:58:25.560 --> 0:58:32.040
<v Speaker 2>and he starts tuning up his bass and I can

0:58:32.080 --> 0:58:35.040
<v Speaker 2>see kit Jar going, what the fuck are you doing? Man?

0:58:35.400 --> 0:58:39.200
<v Speaker 2>We're playing jazz, And all of a sudden the bass

0:58:39.200 --> 0:58:41.520
<v Speaker 2>play went but boom boom boom boom boom boom boom

0:58:41.560 --> 0:58:45.160
<v Speaker 2>boom boom boom boom, brilliant. All of a sudden he

0:58:45.280 --> 0:58:48.760
<v Speaker 2>was locked in and Jarrett screamed and they carried on

0:58:48.800 --> 0:58:52.320
<v Speaker 2>playing for an hour. It was like magic. He learned

0:58:52.320 --> 0:58:55.600
<v Speaker 2>about jazz, real jazz. When you see that happen.

0:58:57.520 --> 0:59:04.280
<v Speaker 1>Okay, first album comes out America almost good Time, and

0:59:04.320 --> 0:59:06.560
<v Speaker 1>a word comes out. It's like a secret. You can

0:59:06.600 --> 0:59:10.720
<v Speaker 1>barely find it in the record story. Where does Brian

0:59:10.800 --> 0:59:11.680
<v Speaker 1>Lane come in?

0:59:12.000 --> 0:59:14.920
<v Speaker 2>Well, we had we had a manager, Roy who was

0:59:14.960 --> 0:59:20.600
<v Speaker 2>a really great guy, just not working in tandem with

0:59:20.760 --> 0:59:25.000
<v Speaker 2>what we were trying to do musically, say, and so

0:59:25.720 --> 0:59:30.320
<v Speaker 2>we were just invited to meet this company that actually

0:59:30.680 --> 0:59:34.280
<v Speaker 2>it was the company that created a movie, a very

0:59:34.320 --> 0:59:42.800
<v Speaker 2>famous movie called Platoon. They were pretty big in the

0:59:42.840 --> 0:59:47.000
<v Speaker 2>business world. You know. We were very lowly and who

0:59:47.040 --> 0:59:50.120
<v Speaker 2>are we to even it goes through their front door

0:59:50.200 --> 0:59:52.959
<v Speaker 2>sort of thing. But we went through the front door

0:59:53.000 --> 0:59:56.560
<v Speaker 2>and then we were introduced to Brian, and Brian started

0:59:56.560 --> 0:59:59.520
<v Speaker 2>the managers along with other people. There's a lot of

0:59:59.520 --> 1:00:03.680
<v Speaker 2>people in. It wasn't just this band and that was that.

1:00:03.880 --> 1:00:09.280
<v Speaker 2>And from then on it was just knowing that, gosh,

1:00:09.360 --> 1:00:16.240
<v Speaker 2>we are sort of stable, shall we say, but a

1:00:16.280 --> 1:00:21.000
<v Speaker 2>little bit awkward at times, and where we're going musically,

1:00:21.080 --> 1:00:23.480
<v Speaker 2>who's who wants to go this way? There was that

1:00:23.600 --> 1:00:26.920
<v Speaker 2>story when when I went to say, come on, we've

1:00:26.920 --> 1:00:29.800
<v Speaker 2>got to rehearse. Guys got to rehearse, felt like Pinocchio,

1:00:30.200 --> 1:00:32.360
<v Speaker 2>come on, you got to rehearse. Let's do that, and

1:00:32.400 --> 1:00:36.960
<v Speaker 2>they say not John, just leave leave us alone. I mean, see,

1:00:37.040 --> 1:00:41.200
<v Speaker 2>that sort of thing happened in a way that it

1:00:41.360 --> 1:00:45.640
<v Speaker 2>just happened that I felt out of balance, if you like.

1:00:45.840 --> 1:00:49.160
<v Speaker 2>And it's a funny way of thinking it that I

1:00:49.240 --> 1:00:52.440
<v Speaker 2>was in this speakeasy and it was very early in

1:00:52.480 --> 1:00:58.040
<v Speaker 2>the night and I walked past this band there was

1:00:58.080 --> 1:01:00.000
<v Speaker 2>nobody in the club. I think there's two or three

1:01:00.120 --> 1:01:03.560
<v Speaker 2>people drinking, and they were playing really good. But the

1:01:03.600 --> 1:01:07.240
<v Speaker 2>guitarist was really good. And he was playing what you

1:01:07.280 --> 1:01:10.240
<v Speaker 2>would call one of the most beautiful guitars I've ever seen.

1:01:11.080 --> 1:01:16.200
<v Speaker 2>It was a Gibson, wonderful shaped guitar and he was

1:01:16.240 --> 1:01:17.760
<v Speaker 2>playing the hell out of it, and you know, and

1:01:17.800 --> 1:01:19.600
<v Speaker 2>they were doing good music. I don't know kind of

1:01:19.680 --> 1:01:22.520
<v Speaker 2>music they were doing, but he was good. And I

1:01:22.640 --> 1:01:27.680
<v Speaker 2>mentioned it to Chris that where are we going musically,

1:01:27.960 --> 1:01:31.680
<v Speaker 2>because I don't know, you know. Chris said, well, you know,

1:01:31.760 --> 1:01:35.120
<v Speaker 2>we need to decide. Sometimes you got to change one

1:01:35.160 --> 1:01:39.240
<v Speaker 2>of the guys in the band if things aren't rolling correctly,

1:01:39.320 --> 1:01:42.280
<v Speaker 2>you know. And I said, well, I just saw this

1:01:42.360 --> 1:01:47.760
<v Speaker 2>guy in the band called Bodhast and Chris said, yeah,

1:01:47.800 --> 1:01:51.880
<v Speaker 2>I know, I know, well, I know him, I've seen him,

1:01:52.160 --> 1:01:54.480
<v Speaker 2>so let's try it out. So he try somebody out,

1:01:54.520 --> 1:01:59.200
<v Speaker 2>and the shape of the band evolves, one might say.

1:02:00.280 --> 1:02:06.480
<v Speaker 2>Another musician comes in. And that's when I linked together

1:02:06.520 --> 1:02:10.360
<v Speaker 2>with Steve, and all of a sudden I was in

1:02:10.640 --> 1:02:14.400
<v Speaker 2>musical heaven because we could write music together very quickly.

1:02:15.200 --> 1:02:17.920
<v Speaker 2>With Chris, it was now and again music we'd write something,

1:02:18.320 --> 1:02:21.080
<v Speaker 2>but with Steve is like every day we're writing a

1:02:21.080 --> 1:02:23.200
<v Speaker 2>couple of ideas, a couple of ideas, a couple of

1:02:23.320 --> 1:02:25.560
<v Speaker 2>and more and more and more. So it was a

1:02:25.600 --> 1:02:33.240
<v Speaker 2>spontaneous combustion of musical energy that got us into the

1:02:33.280 --> 1:02:34.160
<v Speaker 2>fragile world.

1:02:35.320 --> 1:02:39.400
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so does Brian Lane come in after the first

1:02:39.440 --> 1:02:41.880
<v Speaker 1>two albums? Is that approximately when he comes in?

1:02:42.200 --> 1:02:42.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?

1:02:43.200 --> 1:02:46.480
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Steve Howe comes in. How do you get rid

1:02:46.520 --> 1:02:48.120
<v Speaker 1>of Peter Banks? And what does he say?

1:02:49.960 --> 1:02:52.320
<v Speaker 2>Well, of course he was upset. You know, I think

1:02:52.360 --> 1:02:55.360
<v Speaker 2>we were. I was upset anyway that we had to

1:02:55.400 --> 1:02:58.920
<v Speaker 2>think about changing somebody in the band. It's just one

1:02:58.920 --> 1:03:01.920
<v Speaker 2>of the things you kind of live with it and

1:03:02.000 --> 1:03:04.360
<v Speaker 2>sit down and say, well, what is the best for

1:03:04.440 --> 1:03:07.960
<v Speaker 2>the future of where we're going, and that's what you do.

1:03:08.360 --> 1:03:12.280
<v Speaker 2>And even talked to him about what he would do now.

1:03:12.320 --> 1:03:13.880
<v Speaker 2>He had a couple of guys he wanted to work

1:03:13.920 --> 1:03:15.760
<v Speaker 2>with anyway, so he wanted to go with this other

1:03:15.840 --> 1:03:19.040
<v Speaker 2>band and he said, yeah, that'd be that would good luck?

1:03:19.080 --> 1:03:20.720
<v Speaker 2>You know, what are you going to do? Good luck?

1:03:21.880 --> 1:03:25.400
<v Speaker 2>And okay, so then you get on with it.

1:03:25.800 --> 1:03:28.800
<v Speaker 1>The Yes album is a great leap forward from what

1:03:28.840 --> 1:03:32.200
<v Speaker 1>had come before. Yeah, we have yours is no disgrace

1:03:32.320 --> 1:03:38.080
<v Speaker 1>Starship Trooper. I've seen all good people. Did these all

1:03:38.080 --> 1:03:40.880
<v Speaker 1>come from you now? Meeting and writing with.

1:03:40.960 --> 1:03:44.920
<v Speaker 2>Steve, Yeah, it was a combination of My suggestion was

1:03:45.000 --> 1:03:49.120
<v Speaker 2>very simple, let's get out of London. Let's go and

1:03:49.200 --> 1:03:53.840
<v Speaker 2>find a farmhouse, cottage, rental and we can be somewhere

1:03:53.880 --> 1:03:56.840
<v Speaker 2>totally different than where we are now. And we found

1:03:56.840 --> 1:04:00.120
<v Speaker 2>a place in Devon. We all went there to work.

1:04:01.000 --> 1:04:06.240
<v Speaker 2>You're there, you connect, you become more than what you

1:04:06.360 --> 1:04:10.200
<v Speaker 2>were before because you're getting to know each other, know

1:04:10.280 --> 1:04:16.040
<v Speaker 2>each other O. There's a good parts, quirky parts, nice parts, whatever,

1:04:16.520 --> 1:04:20.480
<v Speaker 2>but you're you're you're, you're connected. And I thought that

1:04:20.560 --> 1:04:26.000
<v Speaker 2>was the way to go. And I have some great

1:04:26.040 --> 1:04:30.919
<v Speaker 2>memories of being in that farmhouse, which Steve Ole lives

1:04:30.920 --> 1:04:36.120
<v Speaker 2>there now. And the memories were really good because it

1:04:36.200 --> 1:04:40.240
<v Speaker 2>was it was like very to say the least, it

1:04:40.280 --> 1:04:43.320
<v Speaker 2>was kind of jazz rock. We we would go there,

1:04:43.440 --> 1:04:50.280
<v Speaker 2>we would try this, we would try that, and the

1:04:50.360 --> 1:04:56.480
<v Speaker 2>idea of working as a group became more like a family.

1:04:56.640 --> 1:05:00.160
<v Speaker 2>If you're like, Okay, we're here, we're stuck together. You know,

1:05:00.240 --> 1:05:03.520
<v Speaker 2>somebody's gonna make breakfast. That we had a roady who

1:05:03.680 --> 1:05:06.640
<v Speaker 2>made breakfast and things like that, but you're actually together

1:05:07.560 --> 1:05:13.160
<v Speaker 2>for the first time without any outside influence. And that

1:05:13.320 --> 1:05:16.840
<v Speaker 2>was really crucial for me at that time because I

1:05:16.920 --> 1:05:21.600
<v Speaker 2>knew these were great talented people. I felt very comfortable

1:05:21.600 --> 1:05:24.880
<v Speaker 2>about writing lyrics and melodies. I was a melody crazy,

1:05:25.400 --> 1:05:28.640
<v Speaker 2>you know. Every time I every time I heard it,

1:05:28.840 --> 1:05:31.920
<v Speaker 2>I start writing a melody in my head and singing ideas.

1:05:32.760 --> 1:05:35.280
<v Speaker 2>So I felt very comfortable about where we were going.

1:05:36.080 --> 1:05:40.360
<v Speaker 2>And it worked out. I said, basically, we'll learn all

1:05:40.360 --> 1:05:42.880
<v Speaker 2>this music as well as the songs that were pretty

1:05:42.960 --> 1:05:47.120
<v Speaker 2>getting known for America. Every little thing was that went

1:05:47.160 --> 1:05:50.000
<v Speaker 2>in the show. These new songs we should we should

1:05:50.000 --> 1:05:53.800
<v Speaker 2>go on the road and play the play them as

1:05:53.880 --> 1:05:57.600
<v Speaker 2>as a practice to go in the studio, rather than

1:05:57.880 --> 1:05:59.880
<v Speaker 2>go in the studio and start start off with the

1:06:00.040 --> 1:06:02.560
<v Speaker 2>drums and the kit and the bit to No. I

1:06:02.560 --> 1:06:05.880
<v Speaker 2>think we've got to play it in the studio. So

1:06:06.000 --> 1:06:07.880
<v Speaker 2>the only way we can play in the studios go

1:06:07.920 --> 1:06:11.040
<v Speaker 2>on the road as a band playing some new music

1:06:11.080 --> 1:06:13.480
<v Speaker 2>as well as this old music from the first couple

1:06:13.520 --> 1:06:18.760
<v Speaker 2>of albums. And that was the way the way it worked.

1:06:18.800 --> 1:06:22.880
<v Speaker 2>And by then we had a feeling that we were

1:06:24.000 --> 1:06:26.960
<v Speaker 2>getting great reaction from the audiences. They would come in

1:06:27.040 --> 1:06:29.920
<v Speaker 2>to see us again and again. So no matter if

1:06:29.920 --> 1:06:32.000
<v Speaker 2>we went up to play Birmingham, you'd always see the

1:06:32.200 --> 1:06:35.520
<v Speaker 2>similar crowd of people would come and I think you

1:06:35.680 --> 1:06:40.200
<v Speaker 2>just feel, you know, it's like Bob, Yeah, you just

1:06:40.240 --> 1:06:43.000
<v Speaker 2>feel that everything is happening. You go, well, this is

1:06:43.040 --> 1:06:47.280
<v Speaker 2>definitely better than we were six months ago. And then

1:06:47.440 --> 1:06:53.800
<v Speaker 2>we went in and recorded what became the y S album,

1:06:53.840 --> 1:06:55.320
<v Speaker 2>and then the fragile.

1:07:03.160 --> 1:07:07.200
<v Speaker 1>Okay See recorded the Yes album. In America, it was

1:07:07.400 --> 1:07:10.920
<v Speaker 1>commercially more available. You didn't hear it on the radio.

1:07:11.560 --> 1:07:14.440
<v Speaker 1>I know you were doing interviews, et cetera. Was what

1:07:14.520 --> 1:07:17.800
<v Speaker 1>was your experience on the inside relative to the success

1:07:18.360 --> 1:07:22.280
<v Speaker 1>of the Yes album?

1:07:22.360 --> 1:07:23.560
<v Speaker 2>How do you mean sorry?

1:07:24.480 --> 1:07:27.560
<v Speaker 1>It seems artistically it's a great leap forward from the

1:07:27.560 --> 1:07:32.800
<v Speaker 1>two previous albums, especially the second album, and in retrospect

1:07:32.880 --> 1:07:36.240
<v Speaker 1>everyone can see how great it was. Did you feel

1:07:37.000 --> 1:07:39.960
<v Speaker 1>from the end standpoint of your band that wait a second,

1:07:39.960 --> 1:07:42.480
<v Speaker 1>we're blowing up or did you still feel a way

1:07:42.520 --> 1:07:43.800
<v Speaker 1>we got a big hill to climb.

1:07:46.600 --> 1:07:51.520
<v Speaker 2>I think we were just feeling good about we had

1:07:51.560 --> 1:07:55.040
<v Speaker 2>a really good album. We were performing it and audiences

1:07:55.080 --> 1:08:00.400
<v Speaker 2>were great. The next step, I have to get myself

1:08:00.400 --> 1:08:05.680
<v Speaker 2>in chronic. I can't say the word chronological order. After

1:08:05.760 --> 1:08:11.560
<v Speaker 2>the the S album was to go into the Fragile album, right, but.

1:08:12.080 --> 1:08:15.000
<v Speaker 1>Before we get the fragile, how does Rick Wakeman get

1:08:15.000 --> 1:08:15.520
<v Speaker 1>in the band?

1:08:16.080 --> 1:08:19.519
<v Speaker 2>Well? That's that. That was the the reason we called

1:08:19.560 --> 1:08:22.440
<v Speaker 2>it fragile is because being in a band was very fragile,

1:08:23.280 --> 1:08:25.599
<v Speaker 2>never quite sure what's going to happen next, and something

1:08:25.760 --> 1:08:30.000
<v Speaker 2>was going haywire on the on the American tour. When

1:08:30.040 --> 1:08:33.920
<v Speaker 2>we went on tour doing the S album we were

1:08:33.920 --> 1:08:38.160
<v Speaker 2>doing with Jethro tell I think we were on tour

1:08:38.240 --> 1:08:43.320
<v Speaker 2>and magnified in front of five thousand people all of

1:08:43.400 --> 1:08:48.720
<v Speaker 2>a sudden, ten thousand people. Is you're magnifying your your

1:08:48.960 --> 1:08:52.840
<v Speaker 2>your creativity and how big can we get and how

1:08:52.920 --> 1:08:55.720
<v Speaker 2>big should we be? And you know, shouldn't we have

1:08:58.280 --> 1:09:02.920
<v Speaker 2>great lighting systems and things like that, and so you're growing,

1:09:03.200 --> 1:09:07.120
<v Speaker 2>You're just growing, and you're thinking, well, the music's got

1:09:07.240 --> 1:09:12.040
<v Speaker 2>to grow as well. At that time, the Mug had

1:09:12.160 --> 1:09:14.960
<v Speaker 2>just come out with a new system and Moog and

1:09:15.000 --> 1:09:18.120
<v Speaker 2>them sounds you could get, and Keith Emerson was playing

1:09:18.120 --> 1:09:23.479
<v Speaker 2>a Moog and stuff, and it just happened that We

1:09:23.520 --> 1:09:26.160
<v Speaker 2>did a track I think it was Yours Nice Grace

1:09:26.240 --> 1:09:30.320
<v Speaker 2>with the Moog theme and everything, and just happened that

1:09:32.400 --> 1:09:35.559
<v Speaker 2>Tony wasn't that interestry at that time in creating other

1:09:35.680 --> 1:09:38.360
<v Speaker 2>sounds other than the organ, which he played amazingly well.

1:09:38.400 --> 1:09:42.080
<v Speaker 2>But it just happened that at that time we'd actually

1:09:42.120 --> 1:09:48.280
<v Speaker 2>done a show with Rick Wakeman's band. You probably know

1:09:48.400 --> 1:09:52.040
<v Speaker 2>and you remember the name. I don't, ah, and I

1:09:52.160 --> 1:09:56.720
<v Speaker 2>just thought this Rick Wakeman is He's quite brilliant, and

1:09:56.760 --> 1:09:58.320
<v Speaker 2>that was the next step. You're going to bring in

1:09:58.360 --> 1:10:03.520
<v Speaker 2>another musician, musician who's going to upgrade you musically speaking

1:10:03.840 --> 1:10:09.920
<v Speaker 2>and sound wise. And that's that's basically what happened. We

1:10:10.080 --> 1:10:14.920
<v Speaker 2>just got on with the next album, which again you

1:10:15.000 --> 1:10:17.600
<v Speaker 2>call fragile because everything is so fragile. You don't know

1:10:17.680 --> 1:10:20.800
<v Speaker 2>if you're going to be here today or tomorrow. There

1:10:20.880 --> 1:10:24.840
<v Speaker 2>was just so much surrounding. Yes, at that time it

1:10:24.880 --> 1:10:31.080
<v Speaker 2>was pretty intense at times, and just wanted to get

1:10:31.120 --> 1:10:33.080
<v Speaker 2>on with the next piece of music.

1:10:34.560 --> 1:10:39.320
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you talked earlier, you're twenty seven years old, you

1:10:39.400 --> 1:10:43.680
<v Speaker 1>don't want to be commercial. Suddenly round up how it

1:10:43.760 --> 1:10:48.920
<v Speaker 1>becomes like this gigantic worldwide hit. And I must say

1:10:48.960 --> 1:10:51.840
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't sound like anything else on the radio, and

1:10:51.920 --> 1:10:54.120
<v Speaker 1>no one would have predicted it would have become that hit.

1:10:54.160 --> 1:10:58.000
<v Speaker 1>But it becomes a worldwide hit. So what was your experience.

1:10:58.760 --> 1:11:03.280
<v Speaker 2>I remember we were and that it's Pennsylvania rehearsing, and

1:11:03.320 --> 1:11:05.680
<v Speaker 2>we went for a drive to go for dinner or

1:11:05.680 --> 1:11:08.760
<v Speaker 2>something like that, and on the way the roundaback came

1:11:08.800 --> 1:11:11.360
<v Speaker 2>on the radio. We never heard ourselves on the radio.

1:11:11.360 --> 1:11:14.680
<v Speaker 2>Went turn it up, turn it up, and then all

1:11:14.720 --> 1:11:17.960
<v Speaker 2>of a sudden, the middle section of roundabout wasn't there

1:11:18.000 --> 1:11:20.080
<v Speaker 2>and it went straight to the organ solo, and I went,

1:11:20.120 --> 1:11:24.759
<v Speaker 2>wait a minute, they've edited it. Well, they could have asked,

1:11:25.400 --> 1:11:29.920
<v Speaker 2>you know, it's like so they got a big persiszk

1:11:30.680 --> 1:11:34.040
<v Speaker 2>take the middle out. And it was correct because it worked,

1:11:34.720 --> 1:11:38.400
<v Speaker 2>and it was brilliant and it sounded great, and it

1:11:38.479 --> 1:11:40.439
<v Speaker 2>was just like all the movies you've ever seen of

1:11:40.560 --> 1:11:44.400
<v Speaker 2>the band hearing themselves or artists hearing themselves on the

1:11:44.520 --> 1:11:48.960
<v Speaker 2>radio for the first time. It's freaky, it's wonderful, and

1:11:49.520 --> 1:11:52.760
<v Speaker 2>you feel like we made it at last, We made it.

1:11:53.760 --> 1:11:54.559
<v Speaker 2>Little did we know?

1:11:55.160 --> 1:12:02.960
<v Speaker 1>You know? Okay, it's unbelievable success. Meanwhile, there's a change

1:12:03.000 --> 1:12:06.360
<v Speaker 1>in the band. You know, because we're all hungry for

1:12:06.479 --> 1:12:10.160
<v Speaker 1>rock press. At that point, Rick Wakeman comes out with

1:12:11.040 --> 1:12:15.680
<v Speaker 1>seven keyboards, he's wearing a cape, and then he goes on,

1:12:15.800 --> 1:12:17.879
<v Speaker 1>I'm the only person who eats meat in the band.

1:12:18.400 --> 1:12:18.639
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

1:12:18.720 --> 1:12:20.599
<v Speaker 1>Were you all taking this with a grain of salt?

1:12:20.720 --> 1:12:22.439
<v Speaker 1>Or was everybody saying, well, you know, he's kind of

1:12:22.439 --> 1:12:23.439
<v Speaker 1>an attention hog.

1:12:23.840 --> 1:12:32.160
<v Speaker 2>No, here's Rickman. Oh he's sparky and capes and and

1:12:32.280 --> 1:12:36.080
<v Speaker 2>he plays so damn good. He was. He was quite brilliant,

1:12:37.000 --> 1:12:41.280
<v Speaker 2>and he's brilliant as as he's proved over the years.

1:12:41.280 --> 1:12:45.439
<v Speaker 2>He's played on so many records that are very well known,

1:12:46.600 --> 1:12:52.639
<v Speaker 2>and you can't take that away from him. He's brilliant.

1:12:53.640 --> 1:12:54.479
<v Speaker 2>He's Rick Wakeman.

1:12:56.040 --> 1:12:59.720
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So next comes close to the Edge. This is

1:12:59.760 --> 1:13:02.880
<v Speaker 1>real kind of a breakthrough in that there's one song

1:13:03.000 --> 1:13:07.040
<v Speaker 1>that's a complete side long. Did you feel liberated by

1:13:07.080 --> 1:13:11.720
<v Speaker 1>your commercial success and said I'm gonna do whatever I

1:13:11.800 --> 1:13:15.839
<v Speaker 1>want to? How did you approach close to the Edge.

1:13:16.439 --> 1:13:21.240
<v Speaker 2>It's very simple. We were on tour with Fragile, and

1:13:21.280 --> 1:13:26.400
<v Speaker 2>no matter where we went, people played, especially the radio

1:13:26.439 --> 1:13:33.320
<v Speaker 2>stations in the university cycle. We go to university. After university,

1:13:33.439 --> 1:13:36.080
<v Speaker 2>do a show and go to the radio station and

1:13:36.120 --> 1:13:38.920
<v Speaker 2>they put on yours notice Grace. You know, don't think

1:13:39.000 --> 1:13:43.040
<v Speaker 2>about making it short. It's nine minutes long.

1:13:43.080 --> 1:13:43.240
<v Speaker 1>You know.

1:13:43.320 --> 1:13:46.120
<v Speaker 2>It's like all of a sudden, wait a minute. FM radio.

1:13:46.439 --> 1:13:51.240
<v Speaker 2>That's the key, that's the key. The key is radio

1:13:51.439 --> 1:13:56.120
<v Speaker 2>can play your music now because FM radio accept long

1:13:56.160 --> 1:13:59.640
<v Speaker 2>form pieces of music, and they would play all the

1:13:59.680 --> 1:14:03.600
<v Speaker 2>Heart of Sunrise and all this kind of thing without

1:14:03.600 --> 1:14:06.280
<v Speaker 2>a blinking of an eye. They actually played it. And

1:14:06.320 --> 1:14:09.639
<v Speaker 2>I started talking to Steve because we'd sort of bonded

1:14:09.960 --> 1:14:13.879
<v Speaker 2>pretty tightly about songwriting ideas and things, and we started

1:14:14.760 --> 1:14:20.599
<v Speaker 2>coming up with an idea. I've been reading hermann Hesse

1:14:20.920 --> 1:14:26.560
<v Speaker 2>Journey to the East, which is a beautiful book of enlightening, enlightenment,

1:14:27.280 --> 1:14:31.680
<v Speaker 2>and so I just started thinking, yeah, we'll just go

1:14:31.880 --> 1:14:35.280
<v Speaker 2>let's just go for it. You know, you do. You

1:14:35.280 --> 1:14:37.760
<v Speaker 2>can only fit twenty minutes on a record because after

1:14:37.800 --> 1:14:41.439
<v Speaker 2>twenty minutes it goes wonky the sound because it's vinyl,

1:14:41.600 --> 1:14:48.400
<v Speaker 2>you know. And that was the trials and tribulations of

1:14:49.479 --> 1:14:53.040
<v Speaker 2>being in a band where everybody agrees and then doesn't

1:14:53.120 --> 1:14:56.559
<v Speaker 2>really agree, and then you kind of you go sort

1:14:56.560 --> 1:14:59.000
<v Speaker 2>of a left and then a bit of a right

1:14:59.160 --> 1:15:02.120
<v Speaker 2>swing and Then all of a sudden, we'd finished close

1:15:02.160 --> 1:15:03.880
<v Speaker 2>to the edge and I got a phone call from

1:15:03.920 --> 1:15:10.320
<v Speaker 2>Bill Bruford. I'm leaving the band, said Bill, could you

1:15:10.320 --> 1:15:15.519
<v Speaker 2>say that again? I'm leaving the band? Why? Well, I've

1:15:15.520 --> 1:15:19.160
<v Speaker 2>had enough. Okay, what are you going to do? Is

1:15:19.200 --> 1:15:25.120
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to join King Crimson? Bill, you bastard. I

1:15:25.160 --> 1:15:28.400
<v Speaker 2>didn't say that, but I just thought, what's wrong with us?

1:15:28.760 --> 1:15:31.000
<v Speaker 2>That really freaked me out. I thought there was something

1:15:31.120 --> 1:15:34.519
<v Speaker 2>really badly wrong with us. If he was going to

1:15:34.640 --> 1:15:39.400
<v Speaker 2>leave after creating what I think personally is a wonderful

1:15:39.400 --> 1:15:42.120
<v Speaker 2>piece of music, why did he leave?

1:15:42.200 --> 1:15:43.639
<v Speaker 1>What was there?

1:15:44.680 --> 1:15:47.200
<v Speaker 2>What was wrong with me? I thought it was me.

1:15:48.280 --> 1:15:49.280
<v Speaker 2>I just thought it was.

1:15:51.080 --> 1:15:54.040
<v Speaker 1>You know, well fifty years later, what was it?

1:15:55.880 --> 1:15:58.240
<v Speaker 2>Well, he wasn't getting old with Chris as much as

1:15:58.280 --> 1:16:01.799
<v Speaker 2>I thought he was. He wasn't like it, wasn't enjoying. Uh,

1:16:01.880 --> 1:16:06.720
<v Speaker 2>you know, Christmas said, there's the beat. People said, no,

1:16:06.760 --> 1:16:10.640
<v Speaker 2>it's there, just to the left, but three inches to

1:16:10.680 --> 1:16:13.599
<v Speaker 2>the left. No, that's where the beat is. I think

1:16:13.640 --> 1:16:16.879
<v Speaker 2>they had a couple of jives like that in their recording,

1:16:17.360 --> 1:16:19.360
<v Speaker 2>but I didn't take it seriously. I just it was just,

1:16:20.000 --> 1:16:25.439
<v Speaker 2>you know, people not quite understanding where the beat is.

1:16:26.360 --> 1:16:29.120
<v Speaker 2>But God bless them.

1:16:29.120 --> 1:16:34.320
<v Speaker 1>You know, he had a parapatetic career and then he

1:16:34.400 --> 1:16:35.640
<v Speaker 1>ultimately retired.

1:16:35.800 --> 1:16:40.559
<v Speaker 2>Nobody I know, I know, I wrote a book, Well,

1:16:41.080 --> 1:16:45.840
<v Speaker 2>it's life. You know, he has had an exceptional life.

1:16:46.360 --> 1:16:49.320
<v Speaker 2>When he was out there with his last band, I

1:16:49.360 --> 1:16:53.760
<v Speaker 2>thought they were just so good. I can't remember the name,

1:16:53.800 --> 1:16:59.439
<v Speaker 2>but yeah, very very good, because in those days, you know,

1:16:59.520 --> 1:17:05.639
<v Speaker 2>you you sort of I remember doing around that time.

1:17:05.720 --> 1:17:08.360
<v Speaker 2>It was probably around the time of fried Child tour,

1:17:09.920 --> 1:17:13.439
<v Speaker 2>or maybe six months or earlier, but we were opening

1:17:13.520 --> 1:17:20.120
<v Speaker 2>up for The Kinks in a gig in Albany area

1:17:20.800 --> 1:17:24.840
<v Speaker 2>University of New York there, and the opening band was

1:17:24.880 --> 1:17:28.080
<v Speaker 2>a band that we hadn't heard about called Mavish Orchestra,

1:17:29.200 --> 1:17:35.200
<v Speaker 2>and we were there early to soundcheck and we knew

1:17:35.560 --> 1:17:37.559
<v Speaker 2>Mavishni were going to do a sound check at six

1:17:37.680 --> 1:17:40.760
<v Speaker 2>thirty something. So me and Chris stood there and my

1:17:40.960 --> 1:17:46.519
<v Speaker 2>Joe just dropped. I went, Oh, my god, these these

1:17:46.560 --> 1:17:49.800
<v Speaker 2>guys have got something. I could not believe what they had.

1:17:49.880 --> 1:17:54.040
<v Speaker 2>My Vish New Orchestra was on another planet and within

1:17:54.120 --> 1:17:56.200
<v Speaker 2>three months they were headlining around the world.

1:17:57.439 --> 1:18:04.760
<v Speaker 1>It was like, Wow, So how does Alan White get

1:18:04.760 --> 1:18:05.240
<v Speaker 1>in the band?

1:18:07.280 --> 1:18:10.599
<v Speaker 2>Well that was that was that big problem that Bill

1:18:10.640 --> 1:18:14.679
<v Speaker 2>had left. And I was in limbo and uh Eddie Offred,

1:18:14.720 --> 1:18:19.360
<v Speaker 2>our wonderful producer dude, said well, I know this kind

1:18:19.360 --> 1:18:22.680
<v Speaker 2>of Alan White. And I said, Alan White. Didn't he

1:18:22.720 --> 1:18:29.799
<v Speaker 2>play on uh Friday, what was it called John Lennon album?

1:18:29.840 --> 1:18:36.200
<v Speaker 2>He said yeah, yeah, So I said, gosh, would he

1:18:36.240 --> 1:18:40.040
<v Speaker 2>be interested? I wasn't quite sure if he would be interested,

1:18:40.120 --> 1:18:43.240
<v Speaker 2>you know, And he said, yeah, you know, I'll get

1:18:43.280 --> 1:18:45.760
<v Speaker 2>him to come down this afternoon at rearsal place we

1:18:45.800 --> 1:18:50.080
<v Speaker 2>had in Shepherd's Bush and he came in. Joyful guy,

1:18:50.280 --> 1:18:53.080
<v Speaker 2>sweetest guy in the world. And man, he could play

1:18:53.120 --> 1:18:56.160
<v Speaker 2>the hell out of their arms. He really really could

1:18:56.240 --> 1:18:59.160
<v Speaker 2>do it. And not only that, we because we were

1:18:59.160 --> 1:19:01.519
<v Speaker 2>going on touring two weeks. He learned the whole tour,

1:19:01.680 --> 1:19:06.479
<v Speaker 2>the whole show in ten days. Ridiculous and he was

1:19:07.000 --> 1:19:10.120
<v Speaker 2>my best man at my wedding. Really good man.

1:19:11.040 --> 1:19:15.160
<v Speaker 1>Stylistically. What was different having Alan in the band as

1:19:15.200 --> 1:19:16.120
<v Speaker 1>opposed to Bill.

1:19:17.960 --> 1:19:19.800
<v Speaker 2>You know, I don't know. I don't know that much

1:19:19.840 --> 1:19:26.320
<v Speaker 2>about there was. There was less paradials. I don't know

1:19:26.320 --> 1:19:28.800
<v Speaker 2>what to say. He was just so on top of it.

1:19:29.040 --> 1:19:34.799
<v Speaker 2>He played it magnificently. A great, great drummer, there's no question,

1:19:35.080 --> 1:19:38.599
<v Speaker 2>as Bill was. But Bill was always semi jazz groove,

1:19:40.840 --> 1:19:42.960
<v Speaker 2>whereas Alan was straight on it, you know. And he

1:19:43.439 --> 1:19:49.120
<v Speaker 2>just learned everything and performed everything quite brilliantly on that tour,

1:19:49.479 --> 1:19:52.880
<v Speaker 2>and we became fast friends, and I say he was

1:19:52.880 --> 1:19:53.559
<v Speaker 2>my best man.

1:19:54.920 --> 1:19:58.479
<v Speaker 1>So nextis Tales from Top of Graphic Oceans. It took

1:19:58.560 --> 1:20:01.920
<v Speaker 1>close to the edge one step further. It's a double album,

1:20:02.000 --> 1:20:06.160
<v Speaker 1>long song, ultimately controversial. Can you tell us about that?

1:20:07.920 --> 1:20:13.040
<v Speaker 2>In short, it was, it was very well received by

1:20:13.160 --> 1:20:20.240
<v Speaker 2>Yes fans, very very well received. I went through I

1:20:20.240 --> 1:20:24.160
<v Speaker 2>don't know what it was it was. When I think

1:20:24.200 --> 1:20:27.800
<v Speaker 2>about it, I was really scared about what I'd done,

1:20:28.080 --> 1:20:30.840
<v Speaker 2>and I pushed everybody over the hell over the hill,

1:20:32.520 --> 1:20:35.000
<v Speaker 2>pushing them up the mountain. Come on, everybody, we can

1:20:35.080 --> 1:20:37.000
<v Speaker 2>do this. Come on, What the hell? It's only four

1:20:37.000 --> 1:20:39.720
<v Speaker 2>pieces of music? What the hell? What the hell sort

1:20:39.760 --> 1:20:44.400
<v Speaker 2>of attitude, you know. And then as I looked back

1:20:44.800 --> 1:20:48.519
<v Speaker 2>over the first year and the terrible press that we got,

1:20:49.200 --> 1:20:54.360
<v Speaker 2>and the whole thing, the whole idea, the whole idea

1:20:54.439 --> 1:20:59.200
<v Speaker 2>of the dream sort of fell apart in my state

1:20:59.200 --> 1:21:01.639
<v Speaker 2>of consciousness at that time, and I had a rough

1:21:01.680 --> 1:21:06.800
<v Speaker 2>time when that I happened, and and then you know,

1:21:07.640 --> 1:21:12.200
<v Speaker 2>we can leap from that moment because there was something

1:21:12.320 --> 1:21:15.320
<v Speaker 2>going on that I just felt was wrong, and I

1:21:15.320 --> 1:21:19.360
<v Speaker 2>don't I don't quite. I could never pinpoint why things

1:21:19.840 --> 1:21:23.600
<v Speaker 2>just didn't sail along so beautifully into the sunset. It

1:21:23.760 --> 1:21:27.920
<v Speaker 2>just did not happen. But a lot of people enjoyed

1:21:27.920 --> 1:21:32.960
<v Speaker 2>the album. And the interesting thing was that over the

1:21:33.200 --> 1:21:37.599
<v Speaker 2>over the next year or so, I I I lost

1:21:37.640 --> 1:21:40.599
<v Speaker 2>a lot of confidence in what I was thinking about

1:21:40.680 --> 1:21:46.240
<v Speaker 2>music until I seemed I seemed to get my act together,

1:21:46.880 --> 1:21:51.599
<v Speaker 2>and then we did going for the One. I had

1:21:51.640 --> 1:21:54.920
<v Speaker 2>a feeling that that was a very important song. You

1:21:54.920 --> 1:21:57.280
<v Speaker 2>have to go for it and make it right and

1:21:57.280 --> 1:21:59.960
<v Speaker 2>make it work. So by the end of the seventh

1:22:00.240 --> 1:22:06.800
<v Speaker 2>is I had to somehow struggle through a couple of

1:22:06.880 --> 1:22:10.760
<v Speaker 2>albums and not really knowing where I'm going in the

1:22:10.800 --> 1:22:12.960
<v Speaker 2>hope that I was going in the right direction. And

1:22:13.000 --> 1:22:19.200
<v Speaker 2>then we did Awaken, and that for me was and

1:22:19.439 --> 1:22:24.960
<v Speaker 2>is so important to my state of mind because it

1:22:25.040 --> 1:22:31.400
<v Speaker 2>really rejoined the band and the angel sang it was.

1:22:31.439 --> 1:22:36.720
<v Speaker 2>It was just a remarkable feeling at the end of

1:22:36.800 --> 1:22:41.080
<v Speaker 2>that album, having gone through a lot of doubt, and

1:22:41.560 --> 1:22:47.719
<v Speaker 2>fear and frustration. Am I doing the right thing I'm singing?

1:22:47.760 --> 1:22:50.320
<v Speaker 2>Am I singing the right thing? I'm saying the right thing?

1:22:50.439 --> 1:23:02.320
<v Speaker 2>And thankfully at the end of that period seventies, it

1:23:02.360 --> 1:23:09.800
<v Speaker 2>was it was really sobering experience for me to wake

1:23:09.920 --> 1:23:11.360
<v Speaker 2>up and still.

1:23:11.160 --> 1:23:17.000
<v Speaker 1>Dream Now Rick left and then he came back. What

1:23:17.160 --> 1:23:18.000
<v Speaker 1>was going on there?

1:23:18.360 --> 1:23:23.480
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that was well. We we went through the experience

1:23:23.520 --> 1:23:26.800
<v Speaker 2>of making an album with another keyboard player who was

1:23:26.960 --> 1:23:33.160
<v Speaker 2>very very talented, very very strong. It is jazz fusion concept.

1:23:33.160 --> 1:23:39.000
<v Speaker 2>Great player. He just had different h Swiss, so he

1:23:39.040 --> 1:23:43.080
<v Speaker 2>has a different perception of where maybe I was going

1:23:43.160 --> 1:23:45.200
<v Speaker 2>or I think I thought I was going, or I

1:23:45.240 --> 1:23:48.000
<v Speaker 2>was trying to go. I was I was just going

1:23:48.040 --> 1:23:52.439
<v Speaker 2>through a very sulways said a difficult time.

1:23:53.960 --> 1:23:57.200
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so you have relayered not so good, you have

1:23:57.280 --> 1:23:59.920
<v Speaker 1>going for the one, which is a big comeback, then

1:24:00.040 --> 1:24:03.519
<v Speaker 1>there's Tormatto, which is not as successful, and then you

1:24:03.640 --> 1:24:06.640
<v Speaker 1>leave the band. How do you end up leaving the band?

1:24:07.120 --> 1:24:10.240
<v Speaker 2>Well, because it is it had lost its balance. There

1:24:10.280 --> 1:24:17.120
<v Speaker 2>was no balance. It was it was it was you know,

1:24:17.479 --> 1:24:20.720
<v Speaker 2>a couple of the balance. The balance was gone and

1:24:20.760 --> 1:24:25.600
<v Speaker 2>I couldn't I couldn't bring it back together. So that

1:24:25.760 --> 1:24:29.400
<v Speaker 2>was the end of that. It was like like when

1:24:29.439 --> 1:24:31.559
<v Speaker 2>I came, I said, well, the guys, we've got to rehearse,

1:24:31.560 --> 1:24:36.040
<v Speaker 2>we've got to rehearse. Oh, John, just off okay, because

1:24:36.040 --> 1:24:39.160
<v Speaker 2>that's what they said when I left the band in Germany,

1:24:39.560 --> 1:24:43.360
<v Speaker 2>f off very loudly. Then I said, okay, I'm going.

1:24:43.880 --> 1:24:46.200
<v Speaker 2>And that's what I did. I just let go, you know,

1:24:46.360 --> 1:24:46.720
<v Speaker 2>let go.

1:24:47.600 --> 1:24:51.280
<v Speaker 1>Let God you left loudly because you thought you could

1:24:51.280 --> 1:24:51.920
<v Speaker 1>wake them up.

1:24:53.880 --> 1:24:56.080
<v Speaker 2>No, I didn't. I didn't wake I didn't think about

1:24:56.080 --> 1:24:59.200
<v Speaker 2>it at all. I just know that we were in

1:24:59.240 --> 1:25:02.840
<v Speaker 2>Paris trying to make an album and we brought in

1:25:03.000 --> 1:25:08.600
<v Speaker 2>the wrong producer and that was it. And then it

1:25:08.760 --> 1:25:13.040
<v Speaker 2>just happened to Alan was out there skating ice skating

1:25:13.360 --> 1:25:16.320
<v Speaker 2>or or roller skating with his girlfriend and he broke

1:25:16.360 --> 1:25:21.840
<v Speaker 2>his ankle. That's it. Okay, home we go, and that

1:25:21.960 --> 1:25:24.960
<v Speaker 2>was the end of that. It was very obviously, very

1:25:25.040 --> 1:25:29.599
<v Speaker 2>disappointing for me, because, as I said earlier, I really

1:25:29.640 --> 1:25:33.400
<v Speaker 2>believed in everybody, and when everything falls apart, you think

1:25:33.439 --> 1:25:36.040
<v Speaker 2>it's fuerful. You have that feeling of.

1:25:38.000 --> 1:25:47.920
<v Speaker 1>What did I do? How did Roger Dean end up

1:25:47.960 --> 1:25:49.839
<v Speaker 1>doing all that? He didn't do the first two albums,

1:25:49.840 --> 1:25:51.479
<v Speaker 1>then he did all of them. How did that come

1:25:51.520 --> 1:25:53.559
<v Speaker 1>to be except for going for the one?

1:25:54.200 --> 1:25:59.360
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but he was definitely perfect timing to have an

1:25:59.479 --> 1:26:03.720
<v Speaker 2>artist project the band. You know, I'd say, you know,

1:26:03.760 --> 1:26:06.400
<v Speaker 2>all the paperwork in the office should be Roger Deanism's

1:26:06.600 --> 1:26:11.360
<v Speaker 2>a bit which never happened, but the idea was there.

1:26:11.600 --> 1:26:15.200
<v Speaker 2>We've actually got an emblem and Roger creates it. God

1:26:15.240 --> 1:26:19.280
<v Speaker 2>bless Roger. Steve how knew him and he came along

1:26:19.280 --> 1:26:20.680
<v Speaker 2>and he said, what's the name of the album? I

1:26:20.680 --> 1:26:26.719
<v Speaker 2>said Fragile and I just said, think of porcelain, and

1:26:26.800 --> 1:26:29.240
<v Speaker 2>he said okay, and he came back with this lovely,

1:26:29.280 --> 1:26:33.240
<v Speaker 2>beautiful little world that look for a fragile. It's a

1:26:33.280 --> 1:26:33.880
<v Speaker 2>great idea.

1:26:35.080 --> 1:26:39.240
<v Speaker 1>Okay, you leave, You're doing your own thing. How did

1:26:39.280 --> 1:26:43.479
<v Speaker 1>you feel that the band continued under the Yes name

1:26:43.560 --> 1:26:44.759
<v Speaker 1>with completely different people?

1:26:45.680 --> 1:26:49.000
<v Speaker 2>And I'm not interested. I just I have no interest.

1:26:50.320 --> 1:26:53.120
<v Speaker 1>I'm talking about it at that time because you ultimately

1:26:53.160 --> 1:26:54.760
<v Speaker 1>come back to the band.

1:26:55.439 --> 1:26:58.360
<v Speaker 2>Only because it just happened. And I'll tell you this story.

1:26:58.400 --> 1:27:00.800
<v Speaker 2>Then I got a go bob. But here's this the

1:27:01.320 --> 1:27:06.320
<v Speaker 2>this is life. I was down in silence, France, enjoying

1:27:07.160 --> 1:27:12.559
<v Speaker 2>the wonderful, beautiful, beautiful part of the world. And I

1:27:12.680 --> 1:27:20.719
<v Speaker 2>was working on a project that will eventually come to fruition.

1:27:20.840 --> 1:27:24.679
<v Speaker 2>You tend to start creating stuff after a certain period

1:27:24.680 --> 1:27:27.439
<v Speaker 2>of your career where you you put it to you

1:27:27.479 --> 1:27:29.439
<v Speaker 2>finish it, and you put it to one side, and

1:27:29.479 --> 1:27:30.840
<v Speaker 2>then you have another one and you put it to

1:27:30.920 --> 1:27:32.800
<v Speaker 2>one side. So you finish it with a drawer full

1:27:33.920 --> 1:27:36.320
<v Speaker 2>of things that you know you're going to do and

1:27:36.400 --> 1:27:39.400
<v Speaker 2>finish down the line. And I've got a dozen of

1:27:39.439 --> 1:27:42.439
<v Speaker 2>them sitting in a drawer over there in the studio

1:27:42.520 --> 1:27:44.240
<v Speaker 2>here that one day I'm going to get on with

1:27:44.280 --> 1:27:48.639
<v Speaker 2>them and finish them. And that's when you realize, Okay,

1:27:48.720 --> 1:27:53.559
<v Speaker 2>you're you're you're creative dude. Uh, it'll happen when it happens.

1:27:53.640 --> 1:27:57.960
<v Speaker 2>That became my flagship. You know, it'll happen when it happens.

1:27:57.960 --> 1:28:02.360
<v Speaker 2>And then I've got to call from from Steve. Oh no,

1:28:02.400 --> 1:28:05.280
<v Speaker 2>it was sorry, it was Chris. And Chris said, I

1:28:05.320 --> 1:28:07.559
<v Speaker 2>hear you coming to London this weekend. I said, oh, yeah,

1:28:07.560 --> 1:28:10.080
<v Speaker 2>I'm coming to London see the family and everything. And

1:28:10.120 --> 1:28:13.080
<v Speaker 2>I went to London and Chris said, I want to

1:28:13.080 --> 1:28:16.760
<v Speaker 2>play you something and I said, oh, really, you've been

1:28:16.800 --> 1:28:18.960
<v Speaker 2>working with anybody? He said, oh, yeah, we've been working

1:28:19.000 --> 1:28:21.760
<v Speaker 2>with Trevor Horn. And I said, oh, he's the guy

1:28:21.800 --> 1:28:26.840
<v Speaker 2>that did Duck Rock with Malcolm McLaren, very very good album.

1:28:27.600 --> 1:28:32.160
<v Speaker 2>He's a very smart guy. What's his name. He says

1:28:32.280 --> 1:28:38.080
<v Speaker 2>it's Trevor Horn. I said, oh, good, and Trevor Ravens

1:28:38.120 --> 1:28:42.640
<v Speaker 2>in this ensemble. We're going to be called Cinema. I said, oh,

1:28:42.640 --> 1:28:45.719
<v Speaker 2>good for you. Anyway, he came by the house and

1:28:46.479 --> 1:28:49.439
<v Speaker 2>sitting in his Rolls Royce, of course, and I came

1:28:49.479 --> 1:28:51.639
<v Speaker 2>out to meet him and sat in the Rolls Royce

1:28:51.680 --> 1:28:55.240
<v Speaker 2>with him, and he started playing me this hate trick

1:28:56.000 --> 1:28:58.599
<v Speaker 2>of the music that became nine oh one two five,

1:28:58.640 --> 1:29:04.200
<v Speaker 2>and I went, wow, this is so good. Chris, well done.

1:29:04.640 --> 1:29:07.160
<v Speaker 2>And it's called Cinema. He said, yeah, yeah, we're gonna

1:29:07.200 --> 1:29:11.559
<v Speaker 2>call it Cinema. Well these are This is a great song,

1:29:11.640 --> 1:29:15.160
<v Speaker 2>you know, on of a lonely hard chorus song. The

1:29:15.240 --> 1:29:18.320
<v Speaker 2>song the verse is not so but the chorus is here,

1:29:18.400 --> 1:29:20.000
<v Speaker 2>you know. He said, yeah, we think it's going to be.

1:29:21.040 --> 1:29:23.120
<v Speaker 2>Then he played a couple of other tracks and I'm

1:29:23.160 --> 1:29:27.559
<v Speaker 2>just saying, man, this is so good. And Chris said,

1:29:28.400 --> 1:29:31.600
<v Speaker 2>do you want to sing on it. And I said,

1:29:32.160 --> 1:29:35.559
<v Speaker 2>what do you mean sing on it? Yeah, because like

1:29:35.640 --> 1:29:38.400
<v Speaker 2>you say, it needs a definitely needs a better verse

1:29:38.479 --> 1:29:41.040
<v Speaker 2>and one of the lonely heart. Maybe you could come

1:29:41.080 --> 1:29:46.880
<v Speaker 2>in tomorrow to the studio and sing it. I said, well,

1:29:47.080 --> 1:29:48.880
<v Speaker 2>you know, if I do, it will sound like yes.

1:29:49.840 --> 1:29:53.799
<v Speaker 2>He said, yeah, that's what we want, and I said, okay,

1:29:54.320 --> 1:29:56.400
<v Speaker 2>you got the gig. I got the gig, and I

1:29:56.439 --> 1:30:02.200
<v Speaker 2>felt so refreshed that I was yes. And that's the

1:30:02.320 --> 1:30:05.040
<v Speaker 2>end of my story, Bob. But it was a good

1:30:05.080 --> 1:30:08.880
<v Speaker 2>story because the album did great. Owner of a Lonely

1:30:08.880 --> 1:30:12.040
<v Speaker 2>Heart was a monster hit around the world. We played

1:30:12.080 --> 1:30:15.280
<v Speaker 2>in front of half a million people in Brazil, which

1:30:15.320 --> 1:30:19.760
<v Speaker 2>is ridiculously wonderful, along with Rod Stewart and lots of

1:30:19.800 --> 1:30:22.080
<v Speaker 2>other big stories. But to play in front of half

1:30:22.120 --> 1:30:25.200
<v Speaker 2>a million people, it's as far as you can see,

1:30:26.360 --> 1:30:28.599
<v Speaker 2>and the rest is history.

1:30:29.120 --> 1:30:32.680
<v Speaker 1>Well, you know, it was great. Is Owner of a

1:30:32.680 --> 1:30:36.080
<v Speaker 1>Lonely Heart is? The rest of the album is unbelievable.

1:30:36.439 --> 1:30:38.800
<v Speaker 1>You have hold on and leave it.

1:30:39.200 --> 1:30:44.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, everyone a winner I got. I got to walk

1:30:44.080 --> 1:30:46.519
<v Speaker 2>in and start singing it and writing lyrics a bit

1:30:46.560 --> 1:30:48.320
<v Speaker 2>here and there. It's kind of change the lyrics. Yeah,

1:30:48.360 --> 1:30:50.720
<v Speaker 2>of course, John, do what you want, okay, thank you

1:30:50.800 --> 1:30:54.200
<v Speaker 2>very much. And that's then all of a sudden, I

1:30:54.240 --> 1:30:56.160
<v Speaker 2>was I was six foot tall from then on.

1:30:56.840 --> 1:31:02.519
<v Speaker 1>Okay, the music was totally done at that Yeah, and

1:31:02.640 --> 1:31:04.160
<v Speaker 1>were there any lyrics?

1:31:05.000 --> 1:31:08.200
<v Speaker 2>There was? There was in honor of a Lonely Heart.

1:31:08.240 --> 1:31:11.720
<v Speaker 2>There was a song which which was sitting in the

1:31:12.200 --> 1:31:15.519
<v Speaker 2>track rather than sitting on top of the track. So

1:31:15.600 --> 1:31:17.439
<v Speaker 2>I just said to Trevor Abe and I said, look,

1:31:17.680 --> 1:31:24.000
<v Speaker 2>why don't we just go Jutta Murda did dada da dada,

1:31:24.080 --> 1:31:28.040
<v Speaker 2>because that's what the band was, the bunk. And he said, oh,

1:31:28.120 --> 1:31:31.759
<v Speaker 2>that's good. Just write that down. Lose yourself. You always

1:31:31.800 --> 1:31:34.160
<v Speaker 2>live your life and he said, never thinking of the future. Yeah,

1:31:34.280 --> 1:31:36.360
<v Speaker 2>never thinking of the future. So John, get on with it.

1:31:36.880 --> 1:31:39.160
<v Speaker 2>So I just got on with it, you know. And

1:31:39.240 --> 1:31:41.960
<v Speaker 2>then the next one, with another song, Heart's another song.

1:31:42.560 --> 1:31:46.560
<v Speaker 2>You start opening up and saying, yeah, well this worked beautifully.

1:31:46.600 --> 1:31:50.280
<v Speaker 2>I'm happy to sing that. And Trevor Horn was very

1:31:50.360 --> 1:31:52.639
<v Speaker 2>good and everybody was so nice and happy.

1:31:54.520 --> 1:31:56.600
<v Speaker 1>Did you have any idea it was going to be

1:31:56.680 --> 1:31:58.200
<v Speaker 1>as successful as it was?

1:31:59.479 --> 1:32:02.200
<v Speaker 2>I just felt, well, the Owner was a hit. It

1:32:02.360 --> 1:32:06.519
<v Speaker 2>depends if, of course. At that point in time we

1:32:06.600 --> 1:32:08.479
<v Speaker 2>had to make a video standing on top of a

1:32:08.600 --> 1:32:13.080
<v Speaker 2>skyscraper in London and MTV started, so everything changed in

1:32:13.160 --> 1:32:16.320
<v Speaker 2>a way. So from that moment, I just felt, Oh,

1:32:16.600 --> 1:32:19.040
<v Speaker 2>I'm on top of the world. Thank you very much, God.

1:32:19.800 --> 1:32:22.160
<v Speaker 2>I really be a better boy next time.

1:32:23.040 --> 1:32:27.479
<v Speaker 1>Okay. There was an amazing tour. Okay, and that's the

1:32:27.600 --> 1:32:31.920
<v Speaker 1>first tour I've ever seen where the lighting rig descended

1:32:32.120 --> 1:32:34.639
<v Speaker 1>to the stage at one point.

1:32:35.280 --> 1:32:35.479
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.

1:32:36.439 --> 1:32:40.639
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, was that something you were involved in or somebody?

1:32:40.880 --> 1:32:44.160
<v Speaker 2>Well, originally it was the idea that I wanted to use.

1:32:44.400 --> 1:32:47.679
<v Speaker 2>I'd seen Vangelis, which is another story of my life,

1:32:48.040 --> 1:32:52.120
<v Speaker 2>was I'd seen a photograph of him in Paris with

1:32:52.400 --> 1:32:55.840
<v Speaker 2>laser beams and it'd never been used ever, and he

1:32:56.160 --> 1:32:58.400
<v Speaker 2>was the first guy to use them as a show.

1:32:59.040 --> 1:33:00.680
<v Speaker 2>And I kept saying that to the guys, We've got

1:33:00.720 --> 1:33:02.800
<v Speaker 2>to get some laser beams. Got to get some laser beams.

1:33:03.080 --> 1:33:06.960
<v Speaker 2>And that's when these all the staging in design, because

1:33:07.000 --> 1:33:09.800
<v Speaker 2>I was that kind of guy who always said, look,

1:33:10.240 --> 1:33:12.760
<v Speaker 2>there's a lot of people way over there. When you're

1:33:12.760 --> 1:33:14.800
<v Speaker 2>playing for a ten thousand people, a load of people

1:33:14.800 --> 1:33:17.400
<v Speaker 2>are way over there and they can just about see me.

1:33:17.520 --> 1:33:21.720
<v Speaker 2>I'm two inches high. They should see a big spectacle

1:33:22.040 --> 1:33:27.280
<v Speaker 2>of light and color. That's another That's another interview, Bob.

1:33:28.680 --> 1:33:30.360
<v Speaker 1>And then how do you meet Van Gelis?

1:33:31.240 --> 1:33:32.760
<v Speaker 2>That's another interview, Bob.

1:33:33.439 --> 1:33:35.719
<v Speaker 1>Okay, then I'll ask you just a couple of questions

1:33:35.760 --> 1:33:38.840
<v Speaker 1>and I'll let you go. Tell me about writing State

1:33:38.920 --> 1:33:39.760
<v Speaker 1>of Independence.

1:33:40.640 --> 1:33:45.920
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, I just as life would have it.

1:33:46.760 --> 1:33:49.960
<v Speaker 2>I was told not to go near the band by

1:33:50.040 --> 1:33:59.479
<v Speaker 2>Trevor horn Lessen when they're rehearsing new songs. So I was, Okay,

1:34:00.040 --> 1:34:04.360
<v Speaker 2>then I'll just twiddle my thumbs for a month or two,

1:34:04.400 --> 1:34:07.680
<v Speaker 2>which I did and started writing some song ideas that

1:34:07.800 --> 1:34:11.200
<v Speaker 2>I had. And Van Gelis was in Paris, so I

1:34:11.280 --> 1:34:15.120
<v Speaker 2>went to Paris for a while, and then I went

1:34:15.200 --> 1:34:23.160
<v Speaker 2>to see Yes in this gothic castle and they've been

1:34:23.240 --> 1:34:25.280
<v Speaker 2>there a couple of months and not much had happened.

1:34:25.320 --> 1:34:29.519
<v Speaker 2>A lot of just wasn't happening on different levels. And

1:34:29.680 --> 1:34:31.960
<v Speaker 2>then I was there. I came up with some ideas

1:34:32.080 --> 1:34:34.679
<v Speaker 2>for the next ideas that da Dad, and the following

1:34:34.760 --> 1:34:36.960
<v Speaker 2>day Trevor Horne said, I think the guys would rather

1:34:37.000 --> 1:34:42.559
<v Speaker 2>you don't be here anymore. Don't be here anymore, f off,

1:34:44.400 --> 1:34:47.639
<v Speaker 2>So I said, okay, and I went to to Paris

1:34:47.760 --> 1:34:51.320
<v Speaker 2>and I went to the studio where vang Gellis was

1:34:51.360 --> 1:34:53.600
<v Speaker 2>and I'm walking in and he's doing this goo goo

1:34:53.720 --> 1:34:57.200
<v Speaker 2>goo goo goo goo goo goo goo cuckoo sound, and

1:34:57.320 --> 1:35:00.519
<v Speaker 2>I said, it's the microphone on. He said, yeah, it's all.

1:35:01.040 --> 1:35:03.960
<v Speaker 2>So I went to over sorry, singing trying to think

1:35:03.960 --> 1:35:04.800
<v Speaker 2>of the sona.

1:35:05.360 --> 1:35:08.160
<v Speaker 1>But I need of life, May I live, may I Love?

1:35:08.840 --> 1:35:11.439
<v Speaker 2>Coming out of the sky, I named me her name

1:35:12.960 --> 1:35:15.920
<v Speaker 2>coming up Silver were for it is it is the

1:35:16.160 --> 1:35:19.479
<v Speaker 2>very nature of the sound of the game. And I

1:35:19.600 --> 1:35:22.480
<v Speaker 2>went all the way through the song lyric and everything.

1:35:23.360 --> 1:35:24.960
<v Speaker 1>Just came out of you, just like that, off the

1:35:25.000 --> 1:35:31.639
<v Speaker 1>top of your eyes like that, and it blew my mind. Okay,

1:35:31.880 --> 1:35:34.400
<v Speaker 1>there was a little bit of adoption of that song

1:35:34.600 --> 1:35:38.320
<v Speaker 1>by the Landscape, but ultimately on her first gath in

1:35:38.360 --> 1:35:42.880
<v Speaker 1>the album with Quincy Jones, Donna Summer Donna Summers Yeah,

1:35:43.120 --> 1:35:45.600
<v Speaker 1>which is a good version, but I actually prefer the

1:35:45.760 --> 1:35:48.880
<v Speaker 1>version by Mood Food on the Mood Swings Out Mood

1:35:48.920 --> 1:35:53.000
<v Speaker 1>Swings Mood Food with Chrissy Hind.

1:35:53.000 --> 1:35:56.880
<v Speaker 2>It's just she's great. She's great. But you know, Donna

1:35:57.040 --> 1:35:59.960
<v Speaker 2>was brilliant And did you notice who sang on that song?

1:36:01.479 --> 1:36:03.439
<v Speaker 1>Remind me I own the album. I can't remember.

1:36:04.200 --> 1:36:11.439
<v Speaker 2>Here they go, I gotta remember Michael Jackson, Diana Ross,

1:36:15.240 --> 1:36:23.920
<v Speaker 2>Stevie Wonder, who's the guy in America's got talent on

1:36:24.080 --> 1:36:29.240
<v Speaker 2>the ceiling? Was dancing on the ceiling? Anyway? A dozen

1:36:29.400 --> 1:36:33.320
<v Speaker 2>of the top singers ever sang on that song. And

1:36:33.439 --> 1:36:39.559
<v Speaker 2>I feel blessed that I saw the photograph. But if yeah,

1:36:39.640 --> 1:36:43.800
<v Speaker 2>if you just google Michael Jackson instead of Independence, yeah,

1:36:43.920 --> 1:36:44.360
<v Speaker 2>i'll see.

1:36:44.439 --> 1:36:47.320
<v Speaker 1>I'm seeing if I can find it right now.

1:36:47.640 --> 1:36:48.200
<v Speaker 2>They're there.

1:36:48.720 --> 1:36:50.760
<v Speaker 1>Did you know that?

1:36:52.000 --> 1:36:52.160
<v Speaker 2>Oh?

1:36:52.280 --> 1:36:55.280
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, lit of Richie Richie?

1:36:55.320 --> 1:36:55.600
<v Speaker 2>That was it?

1:36:55.720 --> 1:37:02.040
<v Speaker 1>Sorry, Diana Ross, Brenda Russell, Christopher Krawan, Cannon, James Ingram,

1:37:02.120 --> 1:37:06.040
<v Speaker 1>Kenny Loggins, Penny Lipton, Patty Austin, the great Michael McDonald

1:37:06.160 --> 1:37:08.080
<v Speaker 1>and Stevie Wonder, all the.

1:37:08.120 --> 1:37:10.960
<v Speaker 2>Great sing on the song that I wrote. I'm so blessed,

1:37:11.040 --> 1:37:12.360
<v Speaker 2>Thank you very much God.

1:37:14.320 --> 1:37:17.320
<v Speaker 1>And then it also says here in Wikipedia Summer's version

1:37:17.439 --> 1:37:19.839
<v Speaker 1>is one of Brian Edo's favorite songs.

1:37:20.240 --> 1:37:21.559
<v Speaker 2>Excellent, well done, Brian.

1:37:22.360 --> 1:37:25.720
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so did you know that they were covering it

1:37:26.000 --> 1:37:27.559
<v Speaker 1>or just one day you got the record?

1:37:28.080 --> 1:37:32.839
<v Speaker 2>No, It's funny that our good friend Lee A. Brams

1:37:34.040 --> 1:37:42.160
<v Speaker 2>sent Quincy the album before Thriller, because if you if you,

1:37:42.520 --> 1:37:48.439
<v Speaker 2>if you read that album, it's it's a carbon copy

1:37:48.520 --> 1:37:51.360
<v Speaker 2>of and Quincy always says that, yes, John, we just okay,

1:37:51.439 --> 1:37:56.000
<v Speaker 2>we stole it. Okay, because they used voiceovers, because we

1:37:56.160 --> 1:37:59.240
<v Speaker 2>you know, in Friends of Mister Cairo there was voiceovers

1:37:59.320 --> 1:38:03.479
<v Speaker 2>of Peter Lauri and all the greats, and then that's

1:38:03.520 --> 1:38:09.240
<v Speaker 2>what they used in Thriller. Of course, everybody, everybody is

1:38:09.439 --> 1:38:11.439
<v Speaker 2>part of everything, you know, it's just.

1:38:11.479 --> 1:38:15.479
<v Speaker 1>The way of the world. And okay, so as you

1:38:15.560 --> 1:38:18.200
<v Speaker 1>moved on, hold on, that was it.

1:38:18.479 --> 1:38:20.080
<v Speaker 2>That's the end of my story, Bob.

1:38:20.400 --> 1:38:22.400
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I got one more question and then we're going

1:38:22.479 --> 1:38:26.960
<v Speaker 1>to go. So you know, you leave Yes. You work

1:38:27.040 --> 1:38:30.759
<v Speaker 1>with members of Yes. At this point in your life.

1:38:30.960 --> 1:38:34.880
<v Speaker 1>To what degree is it frustrating that you have to

1:38:35.040 --> 1:38:38.920
<v Speaker 1>play the old music live as opposed to the new music?

1:38:39.320 --> 1:38:43.280
<v Speaker 2>Bob said, perfect question. I just came off tour with

1:38:43.400 --> 1:38:48.120
<v Speaker 2>the Bank Geeks. These Bank Geeks are there's five six

1:38:48.240 --> 1:38:59.840
<v Speaker 2>sorry great on two six players, five players, two keyboard players, drummer, bass, guitar.

1:39:00.439 --> 1:39:07.080
<v Speaker 2>Unbelievable people, unbelievable musicians. Somebody sent me a rendition of

1:39:07.560 --> 1:39:10.960
<v Speaker 2>Heart of the Sunrise again with them playing it, and

1:39:11.120 --> 1:39:13.840
<v Speaker 2>I just went crazy and said, I got to work

1:39:13.880 --> 1:39:15.960
<v Speaker 2>with these guys. I've got to go on to with

1:39:16.080 --> 1:39:18.120
<v Speaker 2>these guys and play all the music from the seventies

1:39:18.400 --> 1:39:23.040
<v Speaker 2>because that's the great music of yes, and that's what

1:39:23.160 --> 1:39:23.640
<v Speaker 2>we just did.

1:39:24.240 --> 1:39:27.920
<v Speaker 1>And do you feel frustrated that you can't go live

1:39:28.200 --> 1:39:30.320
<v Speaker 1>and play your new music to a large audience.

1:39:30.960 --> 1:39:35.960
<v Speaker 2>No. Eventually, whatever I'm doing now will evolve into what

1:39:36.080 --> 1:39:40.200
<v Speaker 2>it's going to be. And I have great feelings and

1:39:40.600 --> 1:39:44.120
<v Speaker 2>dreams like any normal guy, and that these things will

1:39:44.160 --> 1:39:49.479
<v Speaker 2>come to pass and people will hear my latest work,

1:39:49.640 --> 1:39:53.559
<v Speaker 2>and I have great dreams about it as well, where

1:39:53.560 --> 1:39:55.120
<v Speaker 2>it's going to be played, and so on and so on.

1:39:55.880 --> 1:39:59.559
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So as you and myself or in the sunset

1:39:59.600 --> 1:40:03.040
<v Speaker 1>of our years, and you're a deep think or metaphysical guy,

1:40:03.880 --> 1:40:06.160
<v Speaker 1>So what ultimately happens to us at the end of

1:40:06.200 --> 1:40:07.000
<v Speaker 1>our lives.

1:40:07.320 --> 1:40:09.679
<v Speaker 2>Well, we go to the next level, in the next

1:40:09.840 --> 1:40:13.400
<v Speaker 2>level of consciousness. It's very been well written throughout the

1:40:13.479 --> 1:40:16.000
<v Speaker 2>ages as that we keep forgetting that we go to

1:40:16.120 --> 1:40:18.840
<v Speaker 2>the next level of consciousness. That's all there is to it.

1:40:19.720 --> 1:40:22.720
<v Speaker 1>Take it or leave it, buddy, Okay, I think we're

1:40:22.720 --> 1:40:24.720
<v Speaker 1>gonna leave it. Dear John, I want to thank you

1:40:24.840 --> 1:40:27.760
<v Speaker 1>for taking all the time tell us so much about

1:40:27.800 --> 1:40:32.439
<v Speaker 1>yourself and your career than to Bob in any event.

1:40:33.080 --> 1:40:35.719
<v Speaker 1>Till next time. This is Bob left sets