Meeting One of My Musical Heroes
Tonight my friend David and I went to see Jon Anderson (lead singer and co founder of Yes) play a solo acoustic show at The Regency Grand Ballroom* in San Francisco and it was simply wonderful. Jon is quite spiritual in nature yet he sang with a power, as if every note mattered. And it does indeed matter : for years, Jon had been rumored to be quite sick but tonight he spoke of it from the stage -- the first I'd heard how really grave the situation in fact was (see below for more on that +) . Tonight however, Jon was in great form. His voice sounded big and pure as ever, as he ran through a wide range of songs from all facets of his career with Yes, solo and with Vangelis. He mostly strummed casually on a nylon string acoustic guitar -- at times it was like a campfire "sing-a-long with Yes" show! -- and he played a few songs on Mountain Dulicimer and a lovely sequence on piano. But really, the night was all about his voice.
We waited out by the backstage door for an hour after the show and a small group of us got to meet Jon. He graciously accommodated everyone's requests for autographs despite being clearly tired and eager to get into the car with his wife for the long drive home (he lives in the San Luis Obispo area). My friend David caught some great shots of Jon performing (above) and also with me (below) after he'd signed my copy of Tales From Topographic Oceans (now only needing Rick Wakeman to have the complete set of band signatures on it!). I gave Jon a CD of my musical and our last single (called "Dove") as a token of my appreciation. You can see it there in his hand in the pic -- it'll probably be tossed out but I thought on the off chance that he does check it out, I think he might enjoy the song "Dove" on the little DVD).
+ Jon didn't go into great detail from the stage apart from playfully revealing that he'd technically died a couple times during treatments at Stanford. Another fan outside later told me that Jon indeed had suffered from respiratory failure! That is serious stuff folks so it is not surprising he would not want to even consider going on tour at this stage with Yes. This was much more than the little throat problem most people were talking about -- he was literally at death's door and spent the last half of the decade recovering. I just get annoyed how thousands of Yes fans bemoaned the fact that he wouldn't tour. And it makes the fact that the other band members hired a new singer from a Canadian Yes tribute band to tour with them AS YES all the more disrespectful. Come on guys. Go on tour sure but respect your band made without whom there really would not be a group called Yes. Just my humble opinion here.
* The Regency is the restored version of the legendary Avalon Ballroom from the 1960s and the place where Janis Joplin made her San Francisco debut in 1966!
We waited out by the backstage door for an hour after the show and a small group of us got to meet Jon. He graciously accommodated everyone's requests for autographs despite being clearly tired and eager to get into the car with his wife for the long drive home (he lives in the San Luis Obispo area). My friend David caught some great shots of Jon performing (above) and also with me (below) after he'd signed my copy of Tales From Topographic Oceans (now only needing Rick Wakeman to have the complete set of band signatures on it!). I gave Jon a CD of my musical and our last single (called "Dove") as a token of my appreciation. You can see it there in his hand in the pic -- it'll probably be tossed out but I thought on the off chance that he does check it out, I think he might enjoy the song "Dove" on the little DVD).
+ Jon didn't go into great detail from the stage apart from playfully revealing that he'd technically died a couple times during treatments at Stanford. Another fan outside later told me that Jon indeed had suffered from respiratory failure! That is serious stuff folks so it is not surprising he would not want to even consider going on tour at this stage with Yes. This was much more than the little throat problem most people were talking about -- he was literally at death's door and spent the last half of the decade recovering. I just get annoyed how thousands of Yes fans bemoaned the fact that he wouldn't tour. And it makes the fact that the other band members hired a new singer from a Canadian Yes tribute band to tour with them AS YES all the more disrespectful. Come on guys. Go on tour sure but respect your band made without whom there really would not be a group called Yes. Just my humble opinion here.
* The Regency is the restored version of the legendary Avalon Ballroom from the 1960s and the place where Janis Joplin made her San Francisco debut in 1966!