Solo songs that could have been Yes songs - Part 1 - Steve Howe - 705
Yes Music Podcast
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius This week Mark and I began a mini series on songs that appear on Yes members' solo albums but could have been re-worked as effective Yes songs. It was interesting to listen to our first subject, Steve Howe's first 3 solo albums, Beginnings, The Steve Howe Album and Turbulence back-to-back. There are plenty of differences to enjoy, plus some singing from Steve. We compared notes on several songs and also assigned what we called a 'Yesability score' to each song. All will be revealed in our conversation. Which Howe...
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Yes Indeed - Yes without Jon Anderson - with author, Preston Frazier - 704
Yes Music Podcast
Established in 2011 and produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller This week Mark and I welcomed our longstanding friend, Preston Frazier, onto the show to talk about his (relatively) new book, ‘Yes Indeed - Yes without Jon Anderson’. It’s a fascinating and very different kind of Yes book, as you’ll discover. As always, Preston was full of fun, even when we posed him some of the most difficult questions we have ever asked on the YMP. He took these in his stride, of course and I’m sure you will enjoy the conversation as much as we did. Why did Preston...
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50+ years of Fish Out Of Water - 703
Yes Music Podcast
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius Mark and I return for the first time in the 15th year of the YMP this week to discuss some of what we believe are the most important aspects of the classic Chris Squire solo album, Fish Out Of Water. I do mention that it’s 50 years since its release but, as you probably know, we are a bit late to the party. The official release date was November 1975 but that doesn’t affect any of the points we make in our conversation. As we didn’t celebrate the real 50th anniversary, we are making up for that today. Do let us...
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - 702
Yes Music Podcast
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius Here is a short selection of Yuletide messages and other pieces of audio to finish off 2025. Many thanks to Michael Handerhan for his review of the (fairly) recent Yes show he attended and to Stephen Lambe for his audio feedback on last week's quiz. Thank you to everyone who has listened and/or been in touch in any way this year including all patrons for their support and producers. We are very much looking forward to 2026 and the fifteenth anniversary of the YMP. Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, I hope...
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A Yes Connections Quiz - or actually a Christmas Quiz - 701
Yes Music Podcast
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius This week Mark and I recorded what turned into a Christmas quiz. As you will hear, we even diverted into other aspects of the holiday season at the end, so look out for that. As a dedicated Yes fan, you’ll want to take part in the quiz yourself by keeping track of your own answers and scores and then adding them to the show notes for this week. Does Kevin or Mark win the quiz? How did you do? What is the Christmas diversion at the end of the show?
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Episode 700 - a celebration! - 700
Yes Music Podcast
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius Well, here we are - 14 years and 700 episodes of the Yes Music Podcast. Thank you to Miguel Falcão who has created the new jingles for 700 episodes and thank you to everyone who has sent messages of congratulation. I’ve inserted the audio ones fairly randomly throughout the show but I’ll start with a few written ones. Over on Twitter or X, Oliver Wakeman said, “A fantastic achievement. I’ve been fortunate to be a guest on a number of occasions. Congratulations!” Thank you Oliver. Julio Scissors...
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Rotten Tormatoes? The Wembley Recording, 1978 - 699
Yes Music Podcast
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius The Yes-a-verse went into meltdown this week over a new release of the Wembley BBC concert recording. As you will hear, it’s a bit of a twisted tale so I was grateful to have Mark to help me wade through the marshy world of bootlegs. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this release, the BBC concert recording from 1978 or anything else to do with Yes bootlegs. Please leave your comments on the show notes for this week's episode. What is this new release? Is it official? What was the original broadcast like? Next...
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Yes Guess Who II - 698
Yes Music Podcast
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius This week, Mark and I had a lovely time trying to outwit each other with another round of the Yes Guess Who game. I simplified the rules, as you’ll hear, and it went rather more smoothly as a result. What fun we had. Do play along yourself and let us know how you did in the comments on this week’s show notes. Who did we choose? Were the questions too easy or too hard? Who won?
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YesKit Part 4 - Jon Anderson Edition - 697
Yes Music Podcast
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius From a tiny idea I had about Jon Anderson’s use of instruments live with Yes, Mark and I managed to bang on for ages again this week. Hopefully, you will find the discussion as interesting as we did, particularly as I noticed some definite links between the band’s sonic changes over the decades, Jon’s development as a musician and the instruments he used. In order to create some kind of helpful structure to the conversation, I managed to find the earliest examples of each kind of instrument Jon uses live in the...
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Yes (sort-of) Unplugged - 696
Yes Music Podcast
Produced by Joseph Cottrell, Wayne Hall, Ken Fuller and Jeffrey Crecelius As you will hear, I was looking at one of the amazing photos in the Barry Plummer Calendar (available now from ) recently, when I noticed something peculiar about Chris Squire. I think what Barry has captured is a unique moment in Yes concert history. I don’t think Chris ever did this in any other situation than the shows on the 1975 Relayer tour - and maybe not all of those performances. I have watched the QPR video many times but I hadn’t realised exactly what was going on until I saw this photo and then...
info_outlineThis week Mark and I had all sorts of fun thinking about whether there are any short Yes epics - or if this idea is even possible. We set ourselves the restriction of only choosing Yes songs less than 6mins in duration so can you guess what we came up with and how we justified our choices?
It was sad to hear that Ozzy Osbourne died this week, only a few weeks after performing his last ever concert with his Black Sabbath bandmates. I can’t say I was a dedicated fan of Ozzy or Sabbath but my introduction to heavy metal was when a friend of mine took me up to his room in a slightly creepy Victorian mansion and played me the self-titled album by the Birmingham band. How appropriate the setting was. I also learned to play Paranoid on the drums when I was a teenager and my younger son taught my daughter, when she was a toddler, to sing the alphabet to the riff from War Pigs. My elder son was a true fan so he was upset when we heard the news.
As you know if you’ve read the new Tales book or get your information from many other sources like Matthew Paine on Facebook, Rick Wakeman was a huge fan of Ozzy who he met at Morgan Studios while Yes were recording Tales. He ended up playing keys on 2 songs on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath which was being recorded over the road in another Morgan studio at the time. Eventually, Ozzy returned the favour by singing on Rick’s "The Return to the Center of the Earth", as pointed out by Paul Graf also on Facebook.
Our own Doug Curran interviewed Ozzy for his radio show in 1981 so do make a point of reading his reflections on that on the YMP Facebook discussion group.
Rest in Peace Ozzy.