Yes - Live at QPR (DVD Bootleg - 1975)

El blog cabezón sigue con grandes sorpresas. Una de las grandes Historias de la Música: el eterno rock sinfónicos de los Reyes del Progresivo en su inolvidable época de oro, en otro aportazo de Pedro Rock que queda para la historia. Un recital en el estadio de fútbol Queens Park Rangers, en Inglaterra, en la época de Patrick Moraz, y con él Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire y Alan White. Uno de los pocos videos disponibles junto a Patrick Moraz, y uno de los mejores exponentes del mejor momento de la banda en la década setenta. A diferencia de Yessongs, se puede apreciar el modo particular en que Moraz re-interpreta las piezas de Wakeman con su espontanea originalidad.

Artista: Yes

Álbum: Live at QPR (DVD Bootleg)
Año: 1975
Género: Rock sinfónico
Nacionalidad: Inglaterra

Lista de Temas:
1. Introduction - Igor Stravinsky: Firebird Suite - Sound Chaser
2. Close to the Edge
3. To Be Over
4. Gates of Delirium
5. I've Seen All Good People: Your Move
6. Long Distance Runaround 
7. The Clap
8. And You and I
9. Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil)
10. Roundabout
11. Sweet Dreams
12. Yours is No Disgrace

Alineación:
- Jon Anderson / vocals, guitar, percussion, drums, whistle
- Steve Howe / guitar, lap steel guitar, Portuguese guitar, classical guitar, tympani
- Chris Squire / bass guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals, tympani
- Patrick Moraz / keyboards
- Alan White / drums, percussion

No vi el DVD, ni me lo alcancé a descargar, pero antes que nada les dejo un comentario de parte de Pedro Rock para que después no digan que no les avisamos...

COMENTARIO IMPORTANTE:
Si en el menú selecciono "Play" voy a ver la primera parte del recital y diré como me pasó a mi, está cortado. Sepan que en donde dice "Song Index" podemos seleccionar tanto la parte uno como la parte dos.

Algunas de las escenas fueron transmitidas originalmente en The Old Grey Whistle Test, un influyente programa musical de BBC2 (1971-1987) para promover los nuevos exponentes dela música de vanguardia. El bootleg estuvo disponible durante muchos años hasta que el ex manager Brian Lane coordinó en 1993 la liberación de un VHS doble también disponible en Laser Disc sin ninguna consulta a los miembros de la banda, ya que anticipo que rachazarían su descargo por la mala calidad del audio para los estándares de la banda. En 2001, el video es vuelto a editar solo que en formato DVD.

Y hablando de los videos de los genios de Yes, les aviso que Pedro Rock nos mandó un DVD de Rick Wakeman que el Pirata Morgan se está encargando de reseñar apropiadamente... así que estén atentos porque todavía falta muuuucho para presentarles.

Otro registro alucinante de la Gran Historia del Rock que queda grabado a fuego en el blog cabazón.
Quizás el sonido de la mezcla no es que podríamos esperar sino de un bootleg, en parte debido a que es extraído de un recinto abierto y con mala acústica, como podría esperarse de un estadio, no obstante es muy superior a ciertas tomas de la audiencia para otra presentaciones de esta gira.

Yes: Live – 1975 at Q.P.R. is a video release of a 1975 concert by the group Yes at Queens Park Rangers' Loftus Road stadium in England. Some of the footage was originally broadcast on The Old Grey Whistle Test. The performance was available for many years as a bootleg before former Yes manager Brian Lane co-ordinated a 1993 2-volume VHS release without any input from, or consultation with, the band members. In 2001 the video had a 2-disc DVD release.

Wikipedia

Y de extra, traemos algunos comentarios en inglés, si es que podría llegar a hacerle falta a alguien.

I agree with the sound problems early on in Sound Chaser & Anderson's guitar sounds louder than Howe's during To be Over. But Close to the Edge sounds amazing. The guitar intro in beyond belief! Close to the edge was played before To Be Over.

Wurm

A great concert but agree on the poor support - don''t remember it raining at all and Joan Armatrading was on the bill as well.My anal retentive brother made a note that it started at 7.05 pm and finished 9.30pm.Too early for the early part of the light show but caused by local council rules as QPR is surrounded ny houses.
The show was actually filmed by the BBC and later partially broadcast as an OGWT special.I was told by someone in the know that the early sound problems were caused by something blowing in Howe''s guitar system early on in Sound Chaser - if you listen carefully you can hear it and almost sense the rest of the band''s concern as Anderson and Squire look over - and the engineers had to spend the next 30 mins fixing it,which is why Howe''s guitar is too far back in the mix compared to Moraz (and even Anderson''s electric guitar)on CTTE and To Be Over.
You can hear them start to bring Howe''s guitar back as a lead instrument during the early/mid stages of Gates and from then on it sounds pretty damn good to me.All that is needed is a proper remix and remaster - it was mid 70s afetr all.
Personally I thought this was a classic concert with a stunning stage show and it continues to disappoint me that Yes don''t do a Led Zep and really spend some love and attention on assembling,restoring and releasing properly packaged DVDs- including this one - rather than a constant diet of short,poor quality DVDs ( Philadelphia,Beat Club,70s etc) that are a real rip off.As far as I know ,they haven''t even remastered the Yessongs DVD for godssake,which makes QPR sound like the highest quality release....

Phil Hooper

I have the video of this show on two VHS tapes. It's a good representation of Yes at an outdoor venue in the '70s. 'Live at QPR' is kind of like the 'Songs From Tsongas' of the '70s. Here are some highlights of the show:
Sound Chaser: This song had a good intro after 'Firebird Suite'. Though the mix has problems, it's great to see how they performed it. This is the only officially released video of Yes performing this song. The audio of "Sound Chaser" at a different show is on 'The Word Is Live', which I have yet to hear.
To Be Over: Like "Sound Chaser", this is also the only official video source of the whole song. Whether it's studio or live, "To Be Over" is still emotional. This is a better video representation of the song than the instrumental one on 'Live at Montreux 2003'.
The Gates of Delirium: The 'Symphonic Live' version is great, but this is the only version to show Patrick Moraz. Though audio of "Gates" from the 1976 tour is available on 'Yesshows', this is a good visual representation.
Long Distance Runaround: At this show, Yes performs an emotional acoustic version of this song. This beats the version on 'Yes Acoustic: Guaranteed No Hiss'.
Patrick Moraz Solo: This medley includes "Papillion" ('Refugee', 1973) and 'Chachaca' ('Story of I', 1975). You get to see Pat's style here.
Ritual: Possibly the only '70s footage of "Ritual". 'Yesshows' may have the audio of this song from the 1976 tour, but this version is different in that it has a few lines from "The Remembering" after the intro. The climax of "Ritual" sounds spacier than the studio version. When I saw the climax of "Ritual" when I was little, I thought the stage was on fire.
Sweet Dreams: This, along with 'Songs From Tsongas', is the only source of a live version of this song. The audio of this song from QPR made it onto 'The Word Is Live'.
Yours Is No Disgrace: The song begins with a tapping sound and the shiny circle from 'Yessongs' rotating. The song is pretty good, almost as good as the 'Yessongs' version.

Steven Shinder

I remember reading my programme about 200 times too! Agree that the support line up was pretty poor, except S&C, would have been much better with SAHB to liven things up.
Yes took to the stage early evening. By the time dusk fell the stage lighting and effects were quite magical. Roger Dean's work was fantastic. It was my first concert so a pretty special experience - inspite of the support bands - I was just 17 at the time.

Clive Griffiths

I was there and from what I can remember i thought Yes were brilliant, Seals and Crofts were pretty good and ACE were pretty routine till they played 'how long?' the highlights were Ritual and Gates of delirium, but like other reviewers I found them breaks between sets tedious.

Mark S.

I was at this concert, but as far as I was concerned Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel were supposed to appear but didn't turn up. However my memory maybe complete crap after decades of abuse. Seals and Crofts started slow, but then it began to rain and a lot of folk (including me) who were on the pitch decided to go under cover in the stands. Suddenly, their set turned from normality to sheer brilliance, and I wondered at the time whether they thought the exodus was due to their playing which spurred them into a much better performance.
I had never heard an acoustic version of Long Distance Runaround before, and it blew me away.
There must have been other bands there as the concert lasted over 8 hours. I'm sure that a band called Wally performed pretty early in the afternoon.

John

My recent tradition of reviewing Yes concerts never attended using recorded media carries on.
I didn't even know who Yes were until 1977 and so regret it since their work during Moraz' tenure eventually became my favorite. At least I was lucky enough to catch one of the breathtaking Tormato concerts.
Though Relayer and its era were on top by about 1979 I waited years to acquire the DVD mentioned in several submissions below, largely because fragments I had seen on Yesyears and various boots were of terrible quality. I decided one day I'd get it anyway as it did feature an entire Relayer show, but continued waiting until DVD availability was confirmed.
Meantime every last Yes DVD widely available fell well short of what a Yes DVD should be by one measure or another or several. 70s footage was limited to Yessongs and Philly '79 with one badly filmed and directed and both of almost hopelessly poor fidelity.
When this summer [2004]a vendor in England reported a legit, US-compatible QPR DVD he also adamantly reported stunning quality missing from all other DVD offerings. Nearly perfect video and audio fidelity missing from the other already sparce 70s selections, thanks to the original 2" master tape actually being available and well preserved. A yes concert filmed as or nearly as a Yes concert should be, with no MTV-style attention deficit disorder camera direction and no silly graphics as everything post-70s suffered from in one combination or another. Yes' very stage presence and concert aura finally captured or mostly so, and during their 70s peak no less.
I was persuaded to finally order and was floored in the first 30 seconds of playback. Not only was everything my British friend said about it true, it was better than he let on. Sound and video quality and clarity rival anything 21st century. Having a complete Relayer show speaks for itself, but we also finally get to see things like Alan White's true virtuosity on full display as in no other Yes footage from any era. In QPR we have a performance of YIND on video like absolutely no other, together with our only visual record of Sound Chaser and To Be Over.
Someone below correctly observed what I'd say qualifies as QPR's only real problem, a strangely unbalanced mix in the first 40 minutes or so having of all things Anderson's backing guitar and Moraz' keys nearly drowning everyone else out at times. This didn't result from multigeneration copying or careless DVD production as so many other Yes productions did however. It had to be an onsite recording engineer's mistakes. For an overall production so complete and true to source I can easily live with that one problem.
While I must disagree with one or two comments below as overly negative I'd say most of the observations are correct, so no real need to add further. I'll close with a simple recommendation to any FY visitors disappointed or downright unhappy with all other Yes DVDs available, as I am, they seek out the QPR DVD right away. Be sure it's the Singaporean issue since one from Hong Kong I'm told may not be first generation from master and may have more problems. That might also explain why some comments below were less enthusiastic.

D. A. Payne

I remember the concert incredibly well. Probably because at 13 years old it was the first gig I'd been to apart from a Greenslade / Rare Bird Saunday night Roundhouse show the previous Autumn.
We were sat in the Ellerslie Road stand (stage right)through three uninspired support acts (Stoke City FC got Alex Harvey and for some reason we got Seals and Crofts) and suffered change-overs longer than most of the sets.
Gryphon aside it was an afternoon of the worst kind of soft rock. A festival bill rivalled only by a Budgie, Curved Air, Hawkwind and Status Quo line up the following summer for sheer tedium.
A British rather than mid Atlantic line up of say Fairports or John Martyn, SAHB and Man would have been more welcome. How we hated country rock! I must have read the pale blue covered programme about 100 times.
So, to answer an earlier question, I think Gryphon started at about 2.30pm and Yes were onstage around 7.30pm so they came on in the early twilight but it was dark by the time the show hit its climax. 5 hours to turn around three support acts seems excessive even for 1975!I guess the band were rightly determined to have their stage set and lighting seen (and filmed) in the best possible circumstances.
I remember people hanging over the edge of the balconies of the council flats at the School End of the ground listening to the show and the excitement of knowing that BBC's OGWT show would be screening highlights from the Yes set later in the summer.
There was a real sense that this was a pinnacle moment and that it couldn't possibly get any better than this. In many ways it didn't. Not for Prog.
Although the Going For The One Wembley Arena shows were also memorable (not least for the return of Rick Wakeman)the QPR set seemed to have that perfect combination of theatricality, musicianship and a wealth of great material with none of the three elements overwheming the other two. Essentially it was my beloved 'Yessongs' album brought to life with the bonus of Ritual, Sweet Dreams and the Relayer material. Pre-discovering girls and the other delights of an experimental late 70s adolescence this was a defining experience of my early years of musical exploration.
It wasn't until I stumbled across Coltrane and Ornette at age of 17 that my perception of what was possible in music was as radically affected as it was that night in west london.
Of course the advent of Sex Pistols, The Clash and Punk Rock was just 12 months away and both Mick Jones and Paul Cook only lived within a mile or so of QPR. It amuses me to think they may have been in the crowd plotting a musical revolution while the ruling party whooped it up.

TomR

I thought I would post a few comments about the Queens Park film, as I recently acquired these on DVD, and hopefully give a balanced view for those tempted to purchase them. Though Yes are one of my favourite bands, I would in no way describe myself as an absolute fanatic - King Crimson will always be number on Im afraid! - whether this will make you respect my view more or less will understandably be a subjective decision!
Firstly, as a period piece, the film is a remarkable document of a band at the height of their powers, both as composers and as a performing unit. One look at the occasional crowd shots is a valuable testament as to how the musical landscape has changed since these concerts - a lot of beards, bad clothes and very few women! In many respects this is like a snapshot of a different universe - both performer and audience willing to experience and become involved in popular music way more epic, ambitious, complex and ultimately more demanding than perhaps has ever been heard since.
The quality of the picture is, considering its age, really excellent, and there are enough camera shots to get good views of all band members and keep things 'moving' as it were. The stage comes more into play as afternoon becomes evening and the lights and dry ice kick in - the only complaint is that the stage appears a little cramped for all the set that has been crammed on to it.
The sound, as mentioned in a previous post, is not perfect. This is particularly prominent in Sound Chaser which opens the concert - Howe is at times inaudible, whereas Moraz appears to be in the front room right next to you. This is by no means the case throughout the concert though, and though it never achieves anything like a perfect mix, if you have the sound going through a decent amp which allows you to increase bass a touch, then it is respectable. Everything after Sound Chaser is perfectly listenable.
The performance itself is great, the band are in excellent form, Moraz in particular, closely followed by Anderson, whose vocals are almost faultless. Squire has a tremendous jam during Ritual and the drum freak-out during this song is ace! The melancholy acoustic version of Long Distance Runaround is a vast improvement on the studio version, giving the song a previously unheard of poigniancy.
Sweet Dreams opens with a funky almost disco work out (ahead of their time again!) and is a pounding version, as is Starship Trooper, a tremendous encore
In finality, I think despite its drawbacks, this DVD is well worth owning - where else are you going to get something like this? Where else will you see such fine satin stage wear - many a cry of 'Spinal Tap' from my girlfriend and some degree of laughter at the stage set - the unbeleivers, they'll never understand!
Unlike Fripp and King Crimson, Yes do not seem to take such a careful interest in their legacy of recordings - I would of thought a Yes Collectors Club for rare films and recordings would be a prospect relished by many fans - anyone listening?

Nick Green

I remember before the QPR gig the sudden concern from the compere, when it was announced that Yes would be on in about 10 minutes - the already very cramped crowd on the pitch, decided to move forwards quite a lot to get a better view and nearly knocked over the lighting tower in the middle. We were told that if we didn't move back, Yes wouldn't come on at all - that worked -the crowd moved back instantly !! It was in the days of the Roger Dean stage sets and quite honestly, as a 15 year old kid, I had never seen anything as amazing before as the illuminated fibre glass "crab" above Alan White, the "rib cage" above Patrick Moraz and various glowing "lumps" on the floor in front of the others.....and Chris Squire with his "Cruft's poodle" style boots(has he still got them?). I hadn't realised that amazing music wasonly a part of the package and that the unique presentation completed it. It's a shame that Yes don't do that anymore.

Paul French

Muchas eran las sorpresas para esta semana, se los habíamos prometido, como verán, no les fallamos. Ya saben dónde conseguir esto.