YesSpeak
traces the band roots back to London, 1968, when vocalist Jon Anderson met up
with bass guitarist Chris Squire as the former worked in a bar and the latter
was performing at the Marquee Club with his band, "Mabel Greer's Toy Shop".
Anderson joined along with the other band members Peter Banks and Tony Kaye
and they had to decide on better songs and a much more memorable name. The
prog-rock gods were born...
The review of the new DVD can be found
here
and we're very proud to present this interview with Yes member, solo artist and
all-round TV presenter including Live at Jongleurs on Paramount and
several appearances on BBC2's Never Mind The Buzzcocks as well as the
Grumpy Old Men series which is getting a Xmas special on BBC2 along with
repeats of the entire series.
1. Who are you?
"Rick Wakeman, May 18th 1949, Perivale, Middlesex.
Strawbs: April 1970 - July 1971
Yes: August 1971 - May 1974, November 1976 - January 1980,
including Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe 1988-1992, 1997-2002.
Rest of the periods were solo periods."
2. I went to see Yes at the Birmingham NEC on your 1991 tour which brought
all 8 members of the band back together. Which was your favourite tour/concert?
"The Union tour was a great tour and really unique. Nothing like that will
ever happen again. I think that tour would haev to go down as a real favourite
with the last tour we have just done, also up there in the 'Great Tour' charts."
3. Are there any tracks you'd like to have included on the recent "Ultimate
Collection" release, which were left out?
"I would have liked to have had the opportunity to have remixed some of the
tracks from 'Tormato' which I think was a great album with some pretty decent
music on board but had the worst production of any Yes album after 'Union'!
Overall, I thought it was a pretty good mix on the 'Ultimate Collection'
release."
4. Throughout your career with Yes, which has been the most satisfying album
to make?
"'Going For The One'. It was way ahead of its time, both technically and
also musically in so many ways. I like the idea of a band being all together
in one neutral place and working together. I think it produces the best out of
any band and certainly worked in Switzerland for us. I'd love to have recorded
the next album in a similar environment."
5. Are there any albums which didn't come out the way you'd have liked,
and what would you have done to change it?
"'Tales From Topographic Oceans' could have been a great album for me if we
had not set ground rules about the length of the music. There are some nice
melodies that were never worked upon enough and there was more padding than
in the average small-breasted woman's bras, but I'm just as much to blame for
that as anyone else.
'Tales...' is an album you either love or hate... suffice to say I left the band
after this album because I couldn't offer anything to this kind of music that
Yes were producing at the time."
6. Which do you prefer - working solo or in a band?
"Equal. Whatever I'm doing, whether it's television, stand-up comedy, solo
concerts with my band or with Yes or even the one-man show, I enjoy them all
and whatever I'm doing at the time gets all my focus. I don't think I could ever
survive with just one outlet for music.
7. Since making your mark guesting on TV shows such as "Grumpy Old Men",
"Countdown" and "Never Mind the Buzzcocks", have you any aspirations to move into
this line of work full-time?
"I do love doing television, I must admit. It's a format I really enjoy, but
as I mentioned earlier, I love the variety of life that I am lucky enough to
have and hope that there will always be choices... but who knows what the
future may hold?"
8. Have you any plans to bring together all past members of the band in the
way you celebrated the Union tour back in 1991?
"Absolutely not!! There is about as much chance of that happening as there
is of the Pope putting condom machines in the Vatican."
9. What is the happiest moment/s you can recall in your life?
"I have many happy memories that stretch back to childhood, but making music
produces the most happiest of moments. I suppose I'm in love with music more
than anything else in my life if the truth by known."
10. Are you going to bring your planned solo tour to the UK with your mix
of music and anecdotal humour?
"Afraid not. I did a lot of it in the UK for many years and felt it had run
it's course. The UK is a very difficult country to play as the cost of putting
on any show is so expensive. I have "propped" up tours of the UK financially
for years and years and sadly I can't do that any more. Divorces leave you
rather financially short you know!
I love playing the UK, but apart from Yes shows I honestly don't know where my
solo performances stand in the UK anymore. I never say never though because
none of us know what's going to happen in the future. I'm lucky enough to be
able to play all over the world with both Yes and my own band as well as solo
one-man shows, but it just gets so hard to perform in the UK mainly because of
a great lack of media support. Radio plays nothing and the music press are just
cynical whenever they do write a few words. Sad really."
11. What is your funniest joke?
"Not one I can tell in print!!"
12. What was it like working alongside so many gorgeous women in the
horror flick, "Alone"?
Really difficult... I hated every minute of it... it was a terrible
experience. Oh come on, what do you think!! It was fantastic of course!!"
13. Why have you decided to make and release the forthcoming DVD 'Yes Speak'?
"Because we wanted to do something different. Yes DVDs so far have been very
ordinarily produced and in my opinion, not of the standard that Yes should have
been involved with. I believe that YesSpeak is a great step forward in
presenting the band to fans both new and old with information and thoughts
that pretty much tell the story of why we are still going today. I'd like to
see more "Speaks" , such as "Tull-Speak" and "Who-Speak"
for starters. I'd buy them!!"
14. Did you feel back in the mid 70's you were in competition with the likes
of Genesis and Emerson Lake & Palmer as to who could release the longest
lasting song in recorded history?
"Absolutely not. We were not in competition at all and never felt as such.
We were all individual bands and musicians and respected each other accordingly."
15. Do you look back now at some of their more "colourful" stage clothes
and sets and maybe wince just a little?
"Not at all. I wince at some of the questions journalists ask me though!!"
16. What was your initial reaction when punk came along in 1976?
"My reaction was that it was the right time for a revolution. Revolutions
happen at least every 10 years in music as a new generation appears. In the
long run it is healthy, although transitions are always difficult."
17. Are your lyrics just as important as their music?
"They have to compliment each other that's for sure."
18. Just what is a topographic ocean?
"Ask Jon Anderson. He wrote the lyrics!!"
The 2003 'best of' compilation,
the underrated Big Generator album and 1991's Union collaboration.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
1. Who are you?
4. Throughout your career with Yes, which has been the most satisfying album
to make?
7. Since making your mark guesting on TV shows such as "Grumpy Old Men",
"Countdown" and "Never Mind the Buzzcocks", have you any aspirations to move into
this line of work full-time?
13. Why have you decided to make and release the forthcoming DVD 'Yes Speak'?
