New Interview With Alan in Drummer's Review Xtra

[ragtime]

I don't know if this has been posted yet. Some interesting comments and insights.

[Yorkshire Square]

"We are really looking forward to taking the new album out and playing it to our fans."

You'd better follow up on that!

[rabin105]

while i doubt it would happen I personally would love a Relayer + The Quest in full tour.

[soundchaser09]

while i doubt it would happen I personally would love a Relayer + The Quest in full tour.

I'm hoping they do Ice Bridge, Dare to Know, Leave Well Alone and Western Edge I think they are my favourites, but the whole album is very enjoyable!

[Gtkgasman]

"We are really looking forward to taking the new album out and playing it to our fans."

You'd better follow up on that!

And if he doesn’t.......who cares. He owes you nothing.

[Davy]

I'm hoping they do Ice Bridge, Dare to Know, Leave Well Alone and Western Edge I think they are my favourites, but the whole album is very enjoyable!

The Ice Bridge, Dare To Know, A Living Island, and maybe Future Memories are pretty likely at some point. Alan also mentioned Minus the Man in a different interview, and Sister Sleeping Soul could be great live. But for the Relayer tour I'm guessing two songs from The Quest tops.

[Gilly Goodness]

Open with TIB. Close with ALI.

From fanfare to forevermore!

[Mr. Holland]

The Ice Bridge, Dare To Know, A Living Island, and maybe Future Memories are pretty likely at some point. Alan also mentioned Minus the Man in a different interview, and Sister Sleeping Soul could be great live. But for the Relayer tour I'm guessing two songs from The Quest tops.

Yeah I agree. Most probably The Ice Bridge and Dare to Know.

[mikemiller48]

I'm not so sure about that. Relayer is only 40 minutes. If there's no opening act, it's safe to assume 130-140 minutes of playing time. The Quest's songs are shorter for the most part. I can see 4 songs being played.

[Mr. Holland]

I'm not so sure about that. Relayer is only 40 minutes. If there's no opening act, it's safe to assume 130-140 minutes of playing time. The Quest's songs are shorter for the most part. I can see 4 songs being played.

The tour is billed as "featuring their 1974 Relayer album in its entirety together with a selection of other classic YES favourites". So I'm really not expecting that many new songs from The Quest to be played. I don't think promoters would accept too many new/rarity stuff when Relayer is already played in full. The touring business is very much that a business and promoters don't care about whether the new album is promoted, because they don't make money from album sales, they make money from ticket sales, so they want the tour to be as commercial as possible.

[Gtkgasman]

The tour is billed as "featuring their 1974 Relayer album in its entirety together with a selection of other classic YES favourites". So I'm really not expecting that many new songs from The Quest to be played. I don't think promoters would accept too many new/rarity stuff when Relayer is already played in full. The touring business is very much that a business and promoters don't care about whether the new album is promoted, because they don't make money from album sales, they make money from ticket sales, so they want the tour to be as commercial as possible.

I see it that way, and happening, also.

But, business aside for the heck of it: Although I’m lukewarm on The Quest, like it, not in love with it, I would much rather see as much of TQ as possible live, the more the better, along with Relayer of course, vs just all the “same ole” classic tracks. Yeah, A couple classics, and at least one “new” classic.

[PeterCologne]

Alan White said in an interviw with german prog-magazine eclipsed that they will see, if they can integrate two, maybe three songs from the new album in the setlist. And I can not imagine that they will play the entire Relayer - one of my very favourite but not the most popular one of the classic albums - and bigger parts of a new album. wasn't there also talk about playing In The Silent Wings Of Freedom? Almost hard to imagine that they would do whole relayer, two new songs and Silent Wings, great songs, but unfortunately not a classic as well.

[mikemiller48]

Styx played 4-5 tracks from their new album last year, and I can't see Styx as being under any less pressure to not spend a lot of time playing new music live than Yes. It was solved cleverly in that one short song basically served as an overture and another (already short) one tacked on as an intro to "Come Sail Away". There are creative ways to integrate new music such as snippeting. Much as I love Styx, they are a good notch or two below Yes as a touring draw and it would be a little disappointing to have Yes bested by them in that respect. That being said, I suppose every live act will have to re-establish themselves in the COVID-aftermath world. The Yes demographic is probably changing its behavior more due to COVID than the Styx fan base.

[Mr. Holland]

Styx played 4-5 tracks from their new album last year, and I can't see Styx as being under any less pressure to not spend a lot of time playing new music live than Yes. It was solved cleverly in that one short song basically served as an overture and another (already short) one tacked on as an intro to "Come Sail Away". There are creative ways to integrate new music such as snippeting. Much as I love Styx, they are a good notch or two below Yes as a touring draw and it would be a little disappointing to have Yes bested by them in that respect. That being said, I suppose every live act will have to re-establish themselves in the COVID-aftermath world. The Yes demographic is probably changing its behavior more due to COVID than the Styx fan base.

I see what you mean. However Styx, unlike Yes, wasn't already playing a full album, unlike Yes will do. And Relayer might be very popular with diehard fans, but isn't exactly the most popular Yes album with the more regular Joe's (TYA-Fragile-CTTE are probably the most popular from the classic albums). Promoters will be probably want that balanced out with classics/hits, as the tour banner also suggests.

[mikemiller48]

I actually wonder if the COVID situation has changed the balance of power at all, presumably in the artist's favor (corresponding to the general megatrend of a labor-friendly marketplace). There doesn't exactly seem to be an oversupply of acts on the road. It's not like last decade when the local theater had Guy Fieri or some shit every night of the week (nothing against Guy, really, just saying that several years ago, people would go out to watch seemingly anything...). Not all artists are able or willing to deal with all the hassle. Many would rather just do a Vegas residency. In view of the fluid situation in Europe, Yes could conceivably end up sitting out this year, too, or at least the first three quarters. Anyway, I can see promoters being happy to have a diehard road band like Styx out there to play for the possible plurality of people in Middle America who are eager to go out and put their butts in seats.