YESYEARS (DVD)

This video was done at the same time as their former labels (Atlantic and Atco) were preparing the "Yesyears" 4 CD Box Set. There was also an additional release of the Box Set which included this video in the same package. It was almost like a last obligation for the band for Atlantic / Atco , as their next new album ("Union") was released by Arista Records (but Atlantic/Atco continued to release more YES compilation albums in the 90s).This video has interviews with the "Union" line-up members: Anderson, Bruford, Howe, Kaye, Rabin, Squire, Wakeman and White, plus appearances in the excerpts of the songs (played live or taken from promotional videos) of Banks, Downes, Horn and Moraz.It is a good documentary about the history of the band, but not everything was "wonderful" during the making of the "Union" album and the "Union Tour". Bruford, in particular, looks like reading a script at the end of the video, saying how wonderful was the opportunity to rejoin YES in 1991, when in later years, in other interviews he spoke the truth, at least about his role in the "Union" tour and album, saying that he only rejoined YES "for money", not for good musical reasons, as he wasn`t really interested in playing again "very old songs". So, the 8 members appear smiling in the interviews, but I read some interviews in the Internet on which some of the members spoke with more freedom about the difficulties of touring together in 1991.So, in these video interviews they are very "diplomatic" and "polite" while talking about the history of the band. There are other scenes of the band rehearsing for the "Union Tour", saying jokes, and some live in concert images of that tour, like excerpts of them playing "Heart of the Sunrise", "Awaken" and "Rhythm of Love".There are also images of the band filmed during the recording of the "Going for the One" and "Tormato" albums. Also there are some very early images of the original YES line-up (filmed in 1970), playing for a TV broadcast the song "No Opportunity Neccesary, No Experience Needed", and in those images I saw how good was Bruford as a drummer since his early years a professional musician, and the rest of the line-up was also impressive, and those images also show that YES was a very original band since the beginning.

The progress of Yes

The time of the Union tour, when the Yes line-up of the 80's featuring Chris Squire, Alan White, Tony Kaye, and Trevor Rabin joined forces with Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman, and Steve Howe (who had just made an album together that was a Yes album in all but name), was the pefect time to look back and document the history of the band so far. Having all those people under the same roof at the same time provided the makers of this documentary ("rockumenary") with the optimal conditions to create this film.

Covering the history of the band from the beginning in 1968, through the 70's and 80's, and up to the Union tour in the early 90's when the film was made, this film is interesting, well-made, and provides a valuable insight into the evolution of the band. There are no detailed analyses of each album, tour, single, etc. but the important line-up changes and transformations of the band up to that point are documented, for example when Steve Howe replaced Peter Banks, when Rick Wakeman replaced Tony Kaye, when Alan White replaced Bill Bruford, when Kaye returned and Trevor Rabin joined. Lots of interesting footage is shown throughout.

Unlike many other band documentaries I've seen this one bears multiple viewings and I've watched it several times. It is hard to rate a release like this one as it is after all a documentary film and as such is impossible to compare to music albums and live concert films and the like. On the one hand, taken for what it is, it is an excellent documentary an as such deserves a high rating. But on the other hand it is a documentary and as such may be of interest only for fans of the band. Given this I think three stars is an appropriate rating.

A four CD box set of the same name was released at the time and these two releases belong together. Indeed, this film could easily have been included in the box set Yesyears.