March- April 2022 USA??

[Gtkgasman]

I guess it’s me , but seems it’s getting to be time to announce something if this were going to happen.

Im thinking it won’t. I won’t be upset if I’m wrong. But the state of affairs in the world is starting to be, for lack of a better term, difficult, once again.

Was on another thread we were just hoping we could finally see shows from other bands postponed from 20 and 21. Lol.

There is no way I can get to the Relayer tour abroad in May and June. I really really hope that still goes well for all of you folks ‘over there’! And we in the US get Relayer at the end of 2022

[Davy]

Even if Omicron turns out to be relatively mild, I doubt there will be much touring in 2022. Geoff just attended a show a couple days ago and said it might be the last show he sees for a long time.

[Gtkgasman]

Even if Omicron turns out to be relatively mild, I doubt there will be much touring in 2022. Geoff just attended a show a couple days ago and said it might be the last show he sees for a long time.

Ugh. That’s disheartening.

[josuev80]

No way a US tour is happening before the European tour if that even happens.

[Gtkgasman]

Yeah. I believe you are correct.

[downbyariver]

No way a US tour is happening before the European tour if that even happens.

The one scenario that might contradict that which I could see the potential of unfolding (Though I view it as unlikely) is that if the pandemic forced the further cancellation or postponement of European dates, a band like Yes could in theory attempt to stage an American tour in parts of the United States with state and local governments that don't really care about public health and might allow them to do that. That would probably put it where the European dates are now calendar wise, not the date cited in the thread title.

However, regardless of what dates we're discussing, I would really hope a band of 50, 60, and 70-somethings with an older audience (or, really, any band, but especially one that meets Yes' general description) would think twice about attempting to tour in the hypothetical circumstances described.

I really wouldn't want to lose any of these guys because they felt some sort of impetus or obligation to risk their lives to play "Roundabout" in Alabama for the zillionth time. It's not worth risking their lives to play a rock concert. Its also not worth risking one's life to go hear one. If Europe stops allowing touring again because of coronavirus, I think we can probably guess that the situation in the United States medically won't be any better than over there (and will likely be worse), even though some states will insist on going on as if the pandemic is over.

There is also the matter of, financially speaking, whether a tour would make sense anymore if they could only play certain states due to public health restrictions. It'd mean fewer dates and higher insurance premiums, certainly.

Setting aside pandemic related issues, generally Yes tours in the United States in recent years have been late summer/early fall affairs, often kicking off at the beginning of August, IIRC. If the band and public health authorities are alright with it, I could see a US tour in August and September following the May and June international dates as being a likely possibility that the band and it's management may have written in pencil on a planning board somewhere, possibly in cordination with a potential promoter.

This winter is shaping up to much worse than was expected pandemic wise back in the summer. There may be some seasonal patterns asserting themselves, in which case maybe May-September might be a time where concert going to deemed safer than during the winter months, but it could also simply be that the bad winters are not due to the season, or only partially due to the season, but are actually these new variants, in which case, we might just as easily have a rough summer as a rough winter. God only knows what the next variants will be like.

Taking finances out of the picture and just looking at ways to keep busy and keep fans engaged without risking the band's (and their tour workers) health or the fans' health, I think maybe something like Circa: did about 10 years ago could be worth another try.

Basically, Circa: had a live stream of a concert without an in person audience live from Billy Sherwood's studio or someplace like that. Fans could pay $10 a pop and listen to the songs, as well as, I think, request songs and ask the band questions using some sort of a chat feature. I don't think it got much traction at the time, but I think fans might be more interested now, especially if live concerts are not possible.

I also, if I might offer a suggestion, would say that tossing in an MP3 download of all the tracks played, delivered digitally perhaps a week or two after the concert, as sort of a live album to people who pay the $10 to stream it live could be the pot sweetener needed to make people see it as worthwhile as if could be pointed out that the live album is worth that by itself. For me, that might be the most exciting part.

Just based on where everyone is resident, I don't think they could (during a lockdown) get everyone they need to call it Yes and still match up with the ongoing Yes that put out The Quest, but they could have Circa: doing something from the United States and an ad-hoc version of Asia doing something from the UK.

I don't know if Circa:'s entire current lineup lives in the LA area, but Sherwood and Kaye seem to, and those are the two mainstays. I think fans would be pretty forgiving if, you know, Scott Connor couldn't make it and they had to use Jay Schellen on drums (With a cameo by Corca's first drummer, Alan White?), or Rat Tierney wasn't able to get there (Although hopefully they both could) and they had to reshuffle and move Billy Sherwood from lead guitar back to bass and have Jimmy Haun or Johnny Bruhns do the concert- or, really, any fill-in.

They might even luck out and get a famous fill-in or guest who knows Billy, liveas in the same area, and just wants get out of the house, like Steve Lukathor.

Song selection could a mix of Circa:, Yes, Asia, Prog Collective, World Trade, solo albums, and various other bands tbat whomever can get there to play in the cyber concert has played in, that Yes has connections to, that Yes fans might like, or whatever. Some covers of some The Police, Genesis, and those type of bands might be cool.

Meanwhile, I think Howe, Downes, and Palmer all live in the UK, which is enough to call the UK branch of the concept Asia for just one night. Maybe cover some Yes, ELP, Buggles, and Beatles songs.

Actually, Bumblefoot might be able to get to Sherwood's thing and not the Asia thing.

Both things could be cross-promoted with each other.

I didn't mention Davison simply because he doesn't seem to really live in either of the two sort of nexuses of active Yes people, but it might be neat to hear him with John Lodge and/or whomever's on band.

They could start building up piles of great new studio music and releasing it as they're able to- Yes albuma, Asia albums, Circa: albums, Arc of Life albums, etc.. That would be much better than a concert live from someone's basement- thought it's not an either/or thing.

Anyway, most of that is very improbable and I know it. It's just a late night thought experiment more than anything else.

[Gilly Goodness]

Admire the energy you put into that post. Just got back from Xmas trip to see the sisters. had a sore throat and cough there. Now just got tested. will find out tomorrow. Will effect their travel plans,
Am so over this whole thing. Am resigned to years of this. Hope I'm wrong but the days of massive world tours are over. For the next few years. A decade? Is that too pesssimistic? The world is broken.

PEOPLE HAVE TO PIVOT.

So a few things you said was spoton. Jon Anderson has decided that the way forward is home-based archive/live stream patreon.

U2 have been very quiet about the whole touring thing. Coldplay went all virtuesignalling with green energy. Now they have given up new music after 2023.

Might be a decade of local music/gigs/internet metaverse involvement.

Time to work on your avatar.

[downbyariver]

Admire the energy you put into that post. Just got back from Xmas trip to see the sisters. had a sore throat and cough there. Now just got tested. will find out tomorrow. Will effect their travel plans

I hope your illness turns out just to be a cold or flu. Half the reason I've been getting flu shots each year lately has been so that I'm less likely to get the flu and have to worry about it being Covid (When it might in fact just be the flu- Plus, getting the flu and Covid simultaneously is a thing that can happen, and can't be good.), though there are actually very solid public health reasons for everyone to get their flu shot (Reduces strain on overloaded medical resources during the pandemic), and I have some chronic health stuff where I really should have been getting it every year anyway (In reality, pre-pandemic I was getting it some years and not others basically at random, if my doctor's appointments feel on the right months and I remembered to mention it, essentially.). Of course, I got the Covid vaccines and the booster, too. If there was a 4th shot, I'd sign up for that as well (I suspect they'll be at least annual and probably twice annual recommended boosters as this wears on, some tailored to new variants or projected characteristics of future variants, the way each year's flu shot targets different strains of the flu based on what they project each region will see the most of in the coming flu season). This whole pandemic is a nightmare, and I'll take anything modern science can invent for me to try to avoid being infected at this point.

Am so over this whole thing. Am resigned to years of this.

It's certainly looking like this is going to be the status quo for a while. The unanswerable question is what would have happened had we gone hardcore lock down and followed every possible restriction and more from day one, and had everyone gotten vaccinated the second vaccines were available to them, could this pandemic be over by now and the coronavirus obliterated? We'll never know now, but keep in mind in that scenario, less spread and fewer mutations (Maybe no Delta or Omicron), so ending it would not have necessarily been as hard in objective terms as it is now.

Hope I'm wrong but the days of massive world tours are over. For the next few years. A decade? Is that too pesssimistic? The world is broken.

When it comes to rock bands touring, the question may be more cultural and societal than medical and scientific. A lot of national and local governments seem to have practically just declared the pandemic over or to have never happened at all and people just walk around maskless and vaccineless and congregate for football games and concerts that way. A lot of them get sick and die, but few take that as a cautionary tale for some reason. Some people are literally on ventilators in the ICU claiming with their last breathes that they don't have Covid. Honestly, I think whole segments of entire societies are exhibiting symptoms of what appears to be a psychological disorder where they just refuse to process reality- maybe it's a coping mechanism.

The question may at some point become as much a question of what the members of the band think about the downside of potentially getting Covid relative to the mental and financial rewards of touring, as much or more so than as a straight-forward risk assessment. I wouldn't be shocked to see some of these older bands come out with massive lineup changes- like, you know, half of them say "No way we're touring in this" and the other half are eager to hit the road, and in some bands the eager half sort of win the power struggle, and the cautious half quits. One might even see, you know, like, eager-to-tour members of bands that lose internal power struggles join their philosophical peers in other bands where that side won.

I don't know that that type of divide exists in Yes. Though the band has always toured a ton, the current lineup mostly strikes me as cautious types. Also, it's Steve Howe's call. Geoff Downes is conservative, so one could see him going out there with Asia, though that's a lot of the same people, so... Plus, Geoff strikes me as a relatively reasonable conservative. He was against Brexit because he understood what a hassle it'd be for British bands to tour the EU afterwards. He may also understand that a pandemic isn't a great time to be traveling extensively and playing before massive audiences.

Finances could come into play as well, though (Not saying for Geoff or Yes specifically, in general for any given musician or band, depending on how they've handled their money over the years).

And of course, as this starts to seem like the new status quo, people start gauging things like "Do I really want to never again do x?" and may be more likely to risk things than when they thought they were just waiting out a 6-12 month pandemic. I have to admit I tentatively scheduled a small family gathering for like 5 weeks from now- everyone will be taking Covid home tests beforehand, but I'm still feeling nervous about it (It doesn't help that a minority of them refuse to vaccinate). In my case, I was sort of isolated from the family even before the pandemic due to estrangements with two people who were at all the family gatherings (So I wasn't for a few years), and I've finally been able to persuade some of the ones I'm on good terms with to do a little gathering with me as an annual event (Pre-pandemic, I'd see some of them if they were in town, but as individual sub-families as they could fit me in). There are nieces and nephews I haven't met, etc.. I think cautious controlled risks like that might be tough to avoid from a quality of life perspective, even for diehard (No pun intended) cautious coronavirus-phobes like me as the years stretch on. It'll be the first time I'll not be wearing a face mask in a public or semi-public setting in years, assuming it goes forward.

Besides, my golden retriever seems like he's on the verge of a meltdown from lack of socializing. If you've ever met a golden retriever, you know.

So a few things you said was spoton. Jon Anderson has decided that the way forward is home-based archive/live stream patreon.

With Jon's history of respiratory problems, his doctors probably quite correctly read him, or would have read him, the riot act if he so much as hinted at another tour. He's making the right decision being careful. Respiratory issues really hurt one's chances of avoiding the worst outcomes if one contracts the virus.

I've been exercising great restraint in not commenting on the Patreon so far. I'll opt to continue to do that in this post.

Time to work on your avatar.

Yeah, maybe so. That's actually a picture I took in 2018. I got really lucky with the guy with the hands framing it so perfectly when I took it. Someone on the old Yesfans either said that was him or that he had been sitting right by where I was sitting (Without either of us knowing it at the time) because he had also seen the guy with the hands live.

[Gilly Goodness]

Meant your Metaverse avatar. You know, the one who will actually go to gigs. Talk to Zuckerberg.

Yeah, had a rapid antigen test before seeing my sisters. Negative. After having a rough night with a sore throat had another RAT. Negative again. But they are not 100%, so went to a walkin testing facility. Will know in a few hours time. Am feeling much better today. Think it was only a bad cold.

Really hope YES can tour Relayer.
Am fine to just follow the band remotely and, hold on to your horses, hope for new music every 2 years or so from current band and then NextGen YES afterwards.

Will be a long time before I go mask-free at the supermarket. And forget touching door handles and shaking hands.

[kkleinschmidt]

No way a US tour is happening before the European tour if that even happens.

Yup this is the way I'm seeing it.

Meant your Metaverse avatar. You know, the one who will actually go to gigs. Talk to Zuckerberg.

Yeah, had a rapid antigen test before seeing my sisters. Negative. After having a rough night with a sore throat had another RAT. Negative again. But they are not 100%, so went to a walkin testing facility. Will know in a few hours time. Am feeling much better today. Think it was only a bad cold.

Really hope YES can tour Relayer.
Am fine to just follow the band remotely and, hold on to your horses, hope for new music every 2 years or so from current band and then NextGen YES afterwards.

Will be a long time before I go mask-free at the supermarket. And forget touching door handles and shaking hands.

Sorry to hear about your illness GG. We're still masking up and taking precautions but unfortunately we're about the only ones in our small part of the world. School restarts for Betsy on Monday so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

[Gilly Goodness]

No worries K-shmitty. Got positive PCR test result so indeed have the 'rona. But feel good. Only had a mild cough and sore throat. In iso amusing myself on chat forums. Out of iso this Tuesday. Son has ordered groceries online. So society is moving more to RATs and briefer iso. No test needed to go out. Just have no symptoms. Getting my booster in 2 weeks.

Welcome 2022.

Hope it's better than last year. And people get to see
Relayer.

[Homemade Parachute]

No worries K-shmitty. Got positive PCR test result so indeed have the 'rona. But feel good. Only had a mild cough and sore throat. In iso amusing myself on chat forums. Out of iso this Tuesday. Son has ordered groceries online. So society is moving more to RATs and briefer iso. No test needed to go out. Just have no symptoms. Getting my booster in 2 weeks.

Unironic thoughts and prayers, my friend!

[PeterCologne]

No worries K-shmitty. Got positive PCR test result so indeed have the 'rona. But feel good. Only had a mild cough and sore throat. In iso amusing myself on chat forums. Out of iso this Tuesday. Son has ordered groceries online. So society is moving more to RATs and briefer iso. No test needed to go out. Just have no symptoms. Getting my booster in 2 weeks.

Hey, I send you special New-Years-Wishes... but seems you will be fine anyway, no doubt, so enjoy the next Yesyear

[Gilly Goodness]

Cheers all. All good. Though iso has meant me looking for things to snack on before the groceries arrive. Haven't eaten spam for 50 years or so. But opened tin. Had a sandwich. Now so bored, whenever I walk past the fridge, just poke a finger in the opened tin and munch on it straight from the tin. Oh, the humanity!

[Grey Wolf]

Spam, spam, spam, spam,
Spam, spam, spam, spam,
etc.