Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Yes 90125
    Yes 90125
    Yes 90125
    Ebook114 pages1 hour

    Yes 90125

    By Stephen Lambe

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    90125, released towards the end of 1983, was Yes’ best-selling album. A combination of commercial necessity and luck saw an album by a new band called Cinema – featuring Yes stalwarts Chris Squire, Alan White and Tony Kaye alongside talented multi-instrumentalist Trevor Rabin – become Yes, following the last-minute recruitment of vocalist Jon Anderson. A US number one hit single, ‘Owner Of A Lonely Heart,’ led to a triple platinum record and a massive world tour, giving this band a new lease of life into the 1980s.
    Featuring new interviews with Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye, current Yes bassist Billy Sherwood and Atlantic executive Phil Carson, this book traces the story of the album from its roots in Rabin’s garage in 1981, via Trevor Horn’s turbulent production, up to the end of the world tour in early 1985. 90125 is reviewed in full, and the book also includes a detailed look at the somewhat complex and contrived process that created it, as well as the videos that promoted it. The book also discusses the album’s legacy and the remarkable afterlife of its innovative number-one single.
    The 90125 story is possibly the most astonishing in this legendary group’s nearly six-decade history. This is how it happened.


    Stephen Lambe is a publisher, festival promoter and freelance writer. A former chairman of The Classic Rock Society, he now owns Sonicbond Publishing. His piece about 90125 for Prog magazine was the inspiration for this, his eleventh book. The other ten include two other books about Yes, and the best-selling Citizens Of Hope And Glory – The Story Of Progressive Rock for Amberley in 2011. He has also written several volumes of local history. He lives in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSonicbond Publishing
    Release dateAug 16, 2024
    ISBN9781789520149
    Yes 90125

    Read more from Stephen Lambe

    Related to Yes 90125

    Related ebooks

    Music For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      John Taylor

      Dec 7, 2021

      With over 100 million albums sold over their 43-year career, Duran Duran could quite easily have retired to their own luxury island decades ago. Instead, they’re still creative, still touring, and—judging by their new album, Future Past—still as full

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Free All Right Now

      Nov 19, 2021

      Free All Right Now
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Pat Metheny

      Sep 8, 2023

      Pat Metheny
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Let's Borrow Chords

      Jan 4, 2022

      The concept of modal interchange is actually very simple: a song borrows chords from a parallel scale. By parallel we mean a different type of scale built on the same tonic, so for example we use chords from the key of C major, but then we may also u

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Caged System

      Mar 8, 2024

      The Caged System
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Freak Out! Nile Rodgers

      Oct 21, 2020

      When you think of great guitarists, certain names inevitably crop up. The rock genius of Hendrix, Clapton and Beck, the lyrical blues phrasing of BB King and Albert Collins, the pyrotechnics of Van Halen, Vai and Satriani, and the awesome riffs of He

      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Going Big

      Jul 26, 2022

      Going Big
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Whole TRUTH

      Mar 7, 2023

      IN JULY 29, 1968, Jeff Beck, along with a kick-around vocalist, a future Rolling Stone and a drummer with a lot of bash released Truth. The album was a miracle of fury and berserk beauty, a testament to the jaw-dropping chops of a 24-year-old guitari

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Charming Hostess

      Jun 11, 2022

      Charming Hostess
      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Three-note Soul Lines

      Mar 1, 2022

      Three-note Soul Lines
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Marcus Miller

      Dec 7, 2021

      Marcus Miller
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Drive Time

      Jan 4, 2022

      Drive Time
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      I’m Your Woman

      Jan 13, 2022

      I’m Your Woman
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      St. Vincent

      Jan 11, 2022

      NNIE CLARK IS perhaps the most beguiling guitarist to emerge in the past 20 years. The artist known as St. Vincent makes music that is a collision of adept, otherworldly guitar arrangements and propulsive electronica, a mix that has made her a leadin

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Back To The 80s

      Oct 6, 2021

      All modern electronic music – pop, dance, hip hop, or anything else – has some roots in the music of the 1980s. That’s the decade when electronic music went mainstream, and the sounds, styles, and technology of those times are still totally valid tod

      16 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      It’s All A Blur…

      Sep 5, 2023

      It’s All A Blur…
      14 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Nylon String Guitar

      Jul 29, 2022

      Hands up who has a classical guitar gathering dust in the loft or locked away in a cupboard? Okay, now put your hand down and go and show your neglected nylon string a little love, just as we are here with a couple of lessons that’ll help you think d

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Lou Reed

      Jul 21, 2022

      Lou Reed
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      WOLFGANG A. MOZART Marriage Of Figaro: Duettino

      Feb 7, 2024

      Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is easily one of the most recognisable names in the history of Western music, and for good reason. Mozart was as prodigious as they come, writing his first piece of music (Menuet No.1 in G Major) at the ripe old age of five. I

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Vernon Reid

      Sep 5, 2023

      Vernon Reid
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Use Di Boxes Correctly

      May 24, 2022

      Hello bassists! Let’s talk DI, or direct injection/ input, boxes. Some of you will know them well, from studio or live use; for others, these may be new territory, merely viewed as those strange little boxes you’re plugged through at gigs. Either way

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Band

      Feb 9, 2022

      The Band
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Strange Case of THE MISSING BEANO

      Feb 9, 2021

      ERIC CLAPTON’S WORK on the 1966 John Mayall album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton inspired an entire generation of would-be blues guitarists as he defined the tone and expression that a great guitarist can achieve. And this particular great player f

      14 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      AtoZ

      Aug 16, 2024

      GHOST BOX 8/10 Guests assemble for Lisbon group’s phantasmagoric third The hole left by the late Trish Keenan’s hauntologic pop project Broadcast feels greater and more profound by the day. Unusually, the group who come closest to filling it is a ban

      22 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      George V. Johnson

      Feb 4, 2023

      George V. Johnson
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Yes 90125

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Yes 90125 - Stephen Lambe

      Yes 90125

      Yes 90125

      Rock Classic

      Stephen Lambe

      Sonicbond Publishing

      Sonicbond Publishing Limited www.sonicbondpublishing.co.uk Email: [email protected]

      First Published in the United Kingdom 2024 First Published in the United States 2024

      British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:

      A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright Stephen Lambe 2024

      ISBN 978-1-78952-329-4

      The right of Stephen Lambe to be identified

      as the author of this work has been asserted by him

      in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

      stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from Sonicbond Publishing Limited

      Graphic design and typesetting: Full Moon Media

      Contents

      Social Media

      Acknowledgments

      Foreword

      Author’s Note

      Introduction

      1. 1981. No Yes

      2. 1982. Cinema

      3. 1982 Becomes 1983

      4. The Album. Song By Song

      5. The 90125 Videos

      6. Release, Commercial Performance, Reception And Legacy

      7. The 90125 Tour, Video And Live Album

      8. 90125 Played Live Over The Years

      9. What Happened Next?

      Conclusion

      Bibliography And Other Sources

      Social Media

      Follow us on social media:

      Twitter: https://twitter.com/SonicbondP Instagram: www.instagram.com/sonicbondpublishing_/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/SonicbondPublishing/

      Linktree QR code:

      This book is dedicated to the memory of rock’s greatest rhythm section – Chris Squire and Alan White.

      Acknowledgments

      This book grew out of a cover piece I wrote that appeared in Prog Magazine in November 2023. I’d like to thank Jerry Ewing for asking me to write it. His leap of faith in me is much appreciated.

      I’d also like to thank the Yes alumni that I interviewed for that article (or for other reasons) for their time and kindness: Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin (twice), Billy Sherwood and Phil Carson. I’d particularly like to thank Tony Kaye for going above and beyond to find time to talk to me about this period quite late in the writing process during May 2024. All of these gentlemen were a delight to talk to.

      Thanks also to Kevin Mulryne and Mark Anthony K of the Yes Music Podcast for their deep dives into a couple of aspects of the 90125 story, which I have stolen from mercilessly for this book and Doug Curran for important bits of information along the way. Thank you also to Peter Woolliscroft for some vital information about 1980s samplers.

      Thanks to Julian Stockton and Billy James for their PR assistance on both sides of the pond.

      Finally, many thanks to Dave Watkinson for his encouragement, knowledge, memories and photos.

      Foreword

      It was simple in the 1970s.

      When Yes created their best-known progressive rock albums between 1969 and 1978, their method was relatively simple. A process of writing – often on the road – led to a further period of rehearsal and arrangement, followed by recording. Simple.

      Of course, it was never quite as easy as that, as those who witnessed the arguments between Bill Bruford and Chris Squire in Advision Studios circa 1972 will attest. Yes never did things in a straightforward way, but the point is that for them – and hundreds of other bands across that decade – the process – the recording and touring cycle itself – was straightforward. Bands went on the road, then they recorded and released another album, and then they went back on tour again. Whether they had the capacity to fill arenas or clubs, that was what they did. It’s what everyone did.

      By the end of the 1970s, the pressure for hits was on. Recently, I looked at the sales of albums that we considered best-sellers in the 1970s compared to their equivalents in the 1980s. Close To The Edge – the album that made Yes an arena band in the USA – is a platinum album in the USA, which means it’s sold a million copies over time. Let It Bleed by The Rolling Stones (the subject of the first book in this very series) is now double platinum with sales of over two million. Pretty good, right?

      However, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the best-selling album of the 1980s released in 1982, is 34 times platinum. Album sales were at their height in the 1980s for bands and artists that were at the top of the tree. But for those that had been nurtured with a view to long-term sales in the 1970s, the pressure was on. Sell albums and singles on a much greater scale or perish. Once again, this process was a relatively simple one, and the choices those bands had were stark. Adapt or die.

      This book is about the album that took Yes closer to the Thriller stratosphere. It spawned a number-one hit single in the US. Yet, when it comes to the bestselling albums of the 1980s, it doesn’t even make it into the top 100.

      Nonetheless, this was the album that threw the usual tour-album- tour process out of the window. In some respects, it’s one of the most contrived recordings of all time. No album that was created in this way should have been as good or as successful as it was. Yet, somehow, it succeeded, becoming the band’s biggest-selling album of all time by some considerable margin.

      This is how it happened …

      Author’s Note

      Human beings have a great capacity to skew facts in their favour. This does not necessarily mean that they are lying as such. It simply means that their view of any given situation is seen from their own perspective. As with any story, not every narrator in this one is completely reliable and just occasionally, the information is completely contradictory, meaning that one or more correspondents are misremembering (if we are being kind). In those situations, I have pointed out where the contradiction arises and given all points of view so that readers can make up their own minds.

      It is also a natural assumption amongst music fans that musicians are in control and – especially amongst major rock bands – that record label interest is a given. With Cinema and even when the band renamed itself Yes, this was not the case. Atlantic stalwart Phil Carson and, to a lesser extent, the band’s manager at the time, Tony Dimitriades, are vital players in this story. The band – then called Cinema – that recorded the initial version of the 90125 album did NOT have a record contract. Phil Carson, it’s true, was working on the assumption that they would be resigned by Atlantic eventually, but imagine the pressure on Carson as he bankrolled the band for months, including the cost of recording, without any firm knowledge that he’d see any return on that investment.

      This book includes a lot of the material from the piece about 90125 that I wrote for Prog magazine in the autumn of 2023, plus sections from my two other pieces about Yes in the same magazine: my interview with Trevor Rabin in the autumn of 2023 and a piece about the Talk album in summer 2024. It also includes a few bits and pieces from my other book on the same period, Yes In The 1980s.

      Unless stated otherwise, any quotes from Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye, Phil Carson and Billy Sherwood are drawn directly from conversations with the author. Comments from Trevor Horn are largely taken from his superb autobiography Adventures In Modern Recording but are attributed throughout, and I have also drawn extensively from interviews in the Yes Classic Artists documentary.

      Introduction

      The Story So Far

      The chances are that if you are reading this book, you have a reasonable grounding in Yes’ history in the 1970s.

      In some ways, the story of the band is similar to many others. Like a multitude of groups formed in the mid to late 1960s, the fledgeling band – all of whom had served apprentices in other groups except for their youthful drummer Bill Bruford – began to experiment with the form and structure of rock music. To begin with, this was via

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1