Nick Green
01-02-2004, 12:09 PM
Just copied this over from the Forgotten Yesterdays site...whet your appetite at all?
"I've debated many times to relate this since I have no way of verifying any of it, but in '86 I was friendly with a guy that worked in a music store in Calgary, I was living there at the time. He seemed to have vast knowledge of all things Yes, and what he told me, to the best of my memory, was this:
Brian Lane hired a Canadian company to film 2 shows on the 76 tour. Not the whole tour, just 2 shows. Lane was cheap, the company was merely 2 brothers who aspired to be filmmakers. Prior to the filming, the brothers attended one of the shows & did some preliminary testing. They told Lane that the lighting was inadequate for film & there were 2 choices--add substantially more lights or use a faster film, but being 16MM instead of 35, faster film would produce a grainy image that would look poor onscreen & recommended more lights. Lane agreed to add more for the shows to be filmed. When the brothers arrived to film the shows, Lane had added maybe 12 pars to the sides of the stage, still nowhere near what was needed. The footage for *one* show was shot. When Lane saw the developed film, either some or all of it, he freaked, it was far too dark & little could be seen onscreen. Lane cancelled the project & fired the filmmakers. The filmmakers wanted paying for the work they'd done so far, Lane refused so the brothers refused to hand over the footage, Lane threatened legal action if the footage was used in any way, the brothers faded from the picture at this time, still in possession of the film but never being paid a penny for any of it.
So the film, if it still exists, this "holy grail" of Yesdom, is apparently too dark to be of any use to anyone. The audio for the recorded show was not recorded by the filmmakers but by others, so the film, if it exists, is silent & would need the corresponding audio for that show. Could modern technology brighten it up to the point where it would look good? Probably. But the guys who filmed it were the ones that got shafted, not the band, if what I was told is in fact true, and to be honest, I don't doubt that it is, this guy was the Loeslin/Potts of the 80's to me, he knew *everything* about Yes."
"I've debated many times to relate this since I have no way of verifying any of it, but in '86 I was friendly with a guy that worked in a music store in Calgary, I was living there at the time. He seemed to have vast knowledge of all things Yes, and what he told me, to the best of my memory, was this:
Brian Lane hired a Canadian company to film 2 shows on the 76 tour. Not the whole tour, just 2 shows. Lane was cheap, the company was merely 2 brothers who aspired to be filmmakers. Prior to the filming, the brothers attended one of the shows & did some preliminary testing. They told Lane that the lighting was inadequate for film & there were 2 choices--add substantially more lights or use a faster film, but being 16MM instead of 35, faster film would produce a grainy image that would look poor onscreen & recommended more lights. Lane agreed to add more for the shows to be filmed. When the brothers arrived to film the shows, Lane had added maybe 12 pars to the sides of the stage, still nowhere near what was needed. The footage for *one* show was shot. When Lane saw the developed film, either some or all of it, he freaked, it was far too dark & little could be seen onscreen. Lane cancelled the project & fired the filmmakers. The filmmakers wanted paying for the work they'd done so far, Lane refused so the brothers refused to hand over the footage, Lane threatened legal action if the footage was used in any way, the brothers faded from the picture at this time, still in possession of the film but never being paid a penny for any of it.
So the film, if it still exists, this "holy grail" of Yesdom, is apparently too dark to be of any use to anyone. The audio for the recorded show was not recorded by the filmmakers but by others, so the film, if it exists, is silent & would need the corresponding audio for that show. Could modern technology brighten it up to the point where it would look good? Probably. But the guys who filmed it were the ones that got shafted, not the band, if what I was told is in fact true, and to be honest, I don't doubt that it is, this guy was the Loeslin/Potts of the 80's to me, he knew *everything* about Yes."