Benoit David up to much these days?

[soundchaser09]

Haven' t heard anything about his goings on really since he left Yes- I am glad that From a Page got released for his and Oliver's sake.

[John Vehadija]

I think he's pretty much retired unless Oliver convinces him to guest on his next album

[luvyesmusic]

I believe he is still doing his leather, and canvas mobile repair business. If I ever make my way up that way on a vacation, I will definitely try to look him up, and offer to take him out to lunch.

He sounded really fantastic on the Live at Lyon album. I appreciated what he and Oliver contributed, helping to bring the good shop YES, once again out of dry dock. In fact Chris himself responded to my welcome thread, at the time, on yesfans.com.They were some great shows. The first initial shows had some really good/great jam sessions, that I never expected to hear live from YES, ever
Oliver, too, who more often than not was way too low in the mix at shows. His Turn the page stuff sounds awesome, and more in line with a YES sound. I felt really bad for him, his last show. I knew it was his last show, and all he wanted to do was soak it in for another minute, but Steve, who has a lot of history with Oliver, had to put his arm around him, say something to him, and lead him off stage.

He told me he uses the rhythm section from Threshold on some of his recordings.

So back to Benoit. He really impressed me the first time I got to hang out a bit, with a friend's and family pass Scotty Squire provided. Someone told him he had some big shoes to fill. Benoit lifted his foot, and told the guy, "I have my own shoes to fill".

Fortunate to hang out with Benoit one night after Mystery performed at ROSfest. His vocals on the three Mystery albums are exceptional, and are in his actual natural range. Very nice guy. On tour with YES, he really wasn't allowed to hang out. Anyhow, Joe had his famous YES margarita jug, Benoit really doesn't drink, and he:s a diminutive sized guy. We twisted his arm, and perhaps he had one or two more, than the initial one he had planned on. Got a great pic of the three of us toasting. He also was taking a look at my camera while I was scrolling through the pic.s. He spotted some pic.s of a recent Jon Anderson show I had attended. He asked to look at them. He asked how Jon was doing and told me he had never met the man. I know he wanted to, and that he looked up to Jon, and his singing. Sometime later, I had a poster made of the toasting and had sent it to him before a show. Scotty told me later, when she went to his room, he showed it to her, and he was very happy.

Benoit never deserved the flack he got. He is a great father, and man, and was a heck of a singer, too. Trevor taught him to sing in his style on that record, and then later, after Trevor's wife died, he rerecord the vocals, and YES put out the album, again, with YES, pretty much doing a Sharon Osbourne.

[Grey Wolf]

I really love the From A Page songs a lot. I hope Benoit still sings somewhere, he really had a wonderful voice (just not made for heavy touring).


P.S. Hey, what happened to my signature???

P.P.S. Now it's back?

[Witeskyn7]

I purchased every Mystery album that had Benoit on vocals when I heard he had retired from singing.

I imagine he became a full time family man and left the spotlights behind him.
I am happy to have both versions of Fly From Here,
I love BOTH of them for very different reasons.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/yes-...vid-statement/

Last thing from him regarding Yes.

Although I had read that he was asked if he'd be okay with the making of FFH-RT
of which he gave his blessing.

[downbyariver]

Though I respect that Benoit David is retired, I would enjoy hearing his voice on a track or two from one of Billy Sherwood's future projects with a large amount of guest stars like a Prog Collective album, or like the first Citizen album Billy made, if that's something Benoit would be willing to.

Sherwood basically writes those entire albums and lays down demo tracks of all the instruments and vocals, and then sends stuff to the famous guest stars to record their versions of, sometimes including their own explorations of the topic (i.e. He sent a song to Rick Wakeman called "The Great Depression", with the intent to have Wakeman do a keyboard solo in the middle, and Wakeman sent it back with that but also added some piano early in the track that suits the song perfectly, which Sherwood kept in the final version.).

So, Benoit David would just sing the lyrics Billy writes and lays out guide tracks for, over the instruments already played, and could cut a track in a day, maybe, if that. He wouldn't have to really come out of retirement. He could just do it on a Saturday sometime. Maybe Sherwood could get Oliver Wakeman for the same track. It'd be fun. We've never heard David and Sherwood together. And you know it'd sound kind of Yes-like.

Another plus for David is that if he does a Prog Collective album, he'll never be expected to tour it or do it live. He'll just sing over the guide vocals, send them back to Billy, and that's it. Not something that would remind him too much of more stressful days (In fact, he's never even worked with Sherwood AFAIK) or risk damaging his voice through repetition.

It also might be cool to hear David do a track remotely for Glass Hammer, which of course had Jon Davison for three albums plus a partial fourth album and a re-recording of a few older tracks on a re-release of a fifth album before he joined the band, and has had Jon Anderson do "vocalizations" on a track in the past. If they can get David to do a song, they only need Trevor Horn to complete the set of all of Yes' lead singers.

I don't personally like Mystery as much as some of the bands and projects I mentioned, but of course that could be an option for David, too, especially if he wants to get up on stage sometime and sing something live as a guest without having to do any travel or make any commitments.

[luna65]

I imagine he became a family man and left the spotlights behind him.

He was already a family man when he joined Yes, he's got two sons, IIRC.

[alex peters]

I saw 2 shows with Benoit as singer. One was a great show and Benoit was fantastic. The other show was bad and it is the only Yes show and I have seen in over 50 years that I left before it was over. Benoit is a wonderful man but unfortunately he lost his voice. Yes was over touring doing 3 to 4 shows per week at small venues and Benoit's voice did not hold up.

[Gilly Goodness]

Made me smile when doing Machine Messiah Live he would turn his acoustic guitar into an AR15 automatic assault rifle and mow down the audience as Steve shredded. Bullets of love! And the vest. Always the vest



ELECTRIFY EVERYTHING

[John Vehadija]

Yes, I remember that, fun times!

[Witeskyn7]

He was already a family man when he joined Yes, he's got two sons, IIRC.

What I meant was a 'full time family man'.

Sorry I wasn't being clear.

[luna65]

Ah okay. 👍

[True]

He has a great voice. Like Trevor Horn, I think he wasn't appreciated as much during his time with the band as he was after. I really enjoyed his singing on the Mystery records. And FFH, of course. And the amazing thing is that when Benoit left Mystery, Mystery found a replacement (Jean Pageau) who sounds just like Benoit. Maybe with a bigger voice. So perhaps one day Jean Pageau can join Yes when they want to tour the Fly From Here album in full!

[Old Frothingslosh]

I was looking online for anything on Benoit recently and didn't see much of anything. Seems he really is retired. I would love to see a post where Oliver and he hooked up for an album as they seemed to work well together. I wonder if he knows how many fans really enjoyed his time in the band?

[pianozach]

Though I respect that Benoit David is retired, I would enjoy hearing his voice on a track or two from one of Billy Sherwood's future projects with a large amount of guest stars like a Prog Collective album, or like the first Citizen album Billy made, if that's something Benoit would be willing to.

Sherwood basically writes those entire albums and lays down demo tracks of all the instruments and vocals, and then sends stuff to the famous guest stars to record their versions of, sometimes including their own explorations of the topic (i.e. He sent a song to Rick Wakeman called "The Great Depression", with the intent to have Wakeman do a keyboard solo in the middle, and Wakeman sent it back with that but also added some piano early in the track that suits the song perfectly, which Sherwood kept in the final version.).

So, Benoit David would just sing the lyrics Billy writes and lays out guide tracks for, over the instruments already played, and could cut a track in a day, maybe, if that. He wouldn't have to really come out of retirement. He could just do it on a Saturday sometime. Maybe Sherwood could get Oliver Wakeman for the same track. It'd be fun. We've never heard David and Sherwood together. And you know it'd sound kind of Yes-like.

Another plus for David is that if he does a Prog Collective album, he'll never be expected to tour it or do it live. He'll just sing over the guide vocals, send them back to Billy, and that's it. Not something that would remind him too much of more stressful days (In fact, he's never even worked with Sherwood AFAIK) or risk damaging his voice through repetition.

It also might be cool to hear David do a track remotely for Glass Hammer, which of course had Jon Davison for three albums plus a partial fourth album and a re-recording of a few older tracks on a re-release of a fifth album before he joined the band, and has had Jon Anderson do "vocalizations" on a track in the past. If they can get David to do a song, they only need Trevor Horn to complete the set of all of Yes' lead singers.

I don't personally like Mystery as much as some of the bands and projects I mentioned, but of course that could be an option for David, too, especially if he wants to get up on stage sometime and sing something live as a guest without having to do any travel or make any commitments.

Benoit, as a one-off album vocalist, never really worked WITH Sherwood in Yes did he? Sherwood wasn't back in the Yes picture during Fly From Here. Benoit sang with YES from 2008-2011. Sherwood started his association with YES way back on the Union album, then touring with the band for the TALK tour, then as a full fledged member until 2000, but also worked on and off with Squire and Kaye (and White?) in various side projects.