YESSPEAK

I have had this DVD since Christmas 2003 and is amzing if you want to know what's happening with Yes plus a few treats also.

This DVD focuses on their 35th annerversary tour. Each individual member is interviewed and gives details of the tour and their pasts etc. Sadly you don't get to see an entire concert, but photo stills are used alongside some of their legendary tunes. All from the 1970s so early fans will be pleased.

People who may have lost faith in YES during the 80s with their poppy stuff will be glad they have gone back to their Prog roots on this DVD.

The best of all is the ultimate line-up is back, you guessed it, Rick Wakeman, Chris Square, Jon Andersson, Steve Howe and Alan White.

Talk

Yesspeak is, as is implied by the title, the band members talking about the band and its history. This is not an audio/video recording of a live concert. The band members talk at length, both individually and collectively about their time in the band, and various happenings along the way. Many of the anecdotes have been heard before, either on previous DVDs such as "YesYears", or in band biographies like the excellent book "Close to the edge, the story of Yes" by Chris Welch.

The interviews are backed by live Yes tracks, taken from their current tour at the time. One of the main gripes about the DVD is that the music is too far forward in the mix, making it difficult at times to make out what the band members are saying. While there is no interviewer as such, an unseen Roger Daltrey (of the WHO) acts as master of ceremonies, performing the role with gushing enthusiasm.

Each band member is afforded a considerable amount of time (over 20 minutes), each being filmed in a different location. Alan White for example chooses his boat on Lake Washington in Seattle, while his offspring frolic in the water behind him. Rick Wakeman comes across very much as the joker of the pack, belying the "Grumpy old man" image he has recently decided to groom for television.

While the interviews are interesting and in reasonable depth, one does get the impression that we are only getting a superficial view of the band members, and that a lot of juicy stories remain untold, perhaps being held back for the band member's autobiographies. The anecdotes appear to have been carefully sanitised, to ensure that none of the members who contribute are seen to be criticised by their peers. This feeling is exacerbated by the fact that only the five current members are included, with former members such as Bill Bruford, Tony Kaye, Patrick Moraz, etc., being notable by their absence.

The two DVDs are best watched in bite sized chunks, each of the ten sections being sufficient for a single sitting. Understandably, this is not the sort of DVD which bears repeated viewing, once every couple of years would probably be sufficient. In years to come, "YesSpeak" will constitute a useful historical document. Personally, although it is somewhat older, I found "YesYears" to be more rewarding, but younger fans of the band in particular will find the background information provided here to be particularly interesting. Those old enough to have lived through it will consider the DVD to be very much akin to reminiscing about the old days down at the pub. (The days when no self respecting schoolboy would be seen without carrying an LP such as "Close to the edge" under his arm).

Among the DVD bonus features are a full length audio recording of an entire concert performed during the then current tour. Among the highlights are a superb performance of "South side of the sky", featuring a fine duel between Wakeman and Howe.

This video is basically a rehash of "YesYears" but of lesser quality and content. Narrated by the aging Roger Daltrey with sweet, sickening amplified enthusiasm, it was filmed during the progress of the 35th anniversary tour (2003) and has interviews with the members of the classic lineup. They describe, in brief some of the key events in their early development, or muse about the famed Yes incidents. There are several "parts" which depict stages in the career of the band.

The second disc is an AUDIO disc, a recorded concert with several pictures being slided across the screen, which is terrible, a CD would have been alot more convenient. (Though the DTS is nice)

If you want a nice biography of the band, get Yes Years.

I don't know where you are standing in terms of Yes. If you think this is your prog hero, this DVD must be a MUST for you as it tells a lot of stories about the band and its classic line up. As this is one f my prog heroes, I consider owning this DVD is a must. Because the focus of this DVD is on the SPEAK therefore you should not be surprised that this DVD comprises a series of "let me tell you my story" kind of thing. For me personally, this is a very enjoyable DVD set. I can see clearly the story behind YES. The DVD contains 10 chapters that build into the history of Yes Past and Present.

I would have expected this DVD should cover all members who contributed to Yes until today and not just focusing on Jon Anderson, Alan White, Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire, Steve Howe. What about Peter Banks who initiated band name as YES? What about Bill Bruford - the drummer who has a very unique tom and snare sounds? What about Trevor Rabin and Trevor Horn who replaced Jon Anderson during Drama? Why Tony Kaye leaving the band? What about Patric Moraz who contributed to the making of Yes the most magnificent track ever: "The Gates of Delirium"?

Then it's okay as the Director has decided not to include the other line-up. I enjoy watching this DVD as in every "speak" there must be YES in concet as background featuring all repertoires of their past until present like "Siberian Khatru", "Magnification", "Don't Kill The Whale", "Southside of The Sky". I enjoy the part when each member of the line-up was interviewed under the "Sacred Ground" and "Full Circle".

Overall, this is a MUST for YES fans.

Inside Yes!

Last friday while i was waiting for someone, i took a look at my DVD collection which is pretty limited, i don't really own a lot of them, but i have some Yes' DVD's, i saw this documental called Yesspeak which was released some in 2003 when the band toured for their 35th anniversary, one of the oldest bands in the whole world and one of the first bands i listened to when i came to the prog rock realm, so despite i actually don't listen to them as much as i used to, their music still causes me goosebumbps and great memories, the only time i saw them was back in 2004, as a part of that 35th anniversary tour, and it has been one of the best concerts i have ever been to,this DVD reminds me a lot to the concert and i clearly remember i was impressed by their way of playing, they were monsters on stage, i remember when they finished the performance of Ritual i jumped out of my seat and began to scream and give them lots of applauses, because i felt terribly excited and what is better is that i felt tha with a song i had never listened to, seeing those musicians playing the same or better that when they were youngs, it's a unique experience.

Well now the DVD, first i will say that this is not a concert of a video DVD, but a documental narrated by Roger Daltrey( yes, the same Roger Daltrey you know) which lasts almost 3 hours and contains great band's experiences and a lot of stuff that any Yes fan would be pleased to know about.

Yesspeak is divided in 10 chapters, and as i said above it was recorded during their 35th anniversary tour, mainly when they toured Europe, it is a very interesting documental where the musicians are the considered classic line-up (not original line-up) with Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Alan White, probably the line-up that most of Yes fans will remember as the best. The first chapters talk about the places where each member lives or love to be, what they like to do when not touring, their family and rea life out of the pressure that a tour carries, it is interesting to know a little bit more about this people, i mean not as a musicians, but as a single person.

Then there are 5 chapters that are dedicated to every of the 5 members, all of them say a lot of memories, in the case of Anderson and Squire, how did they create Yes, or in the case of the others how did they came to Yes, what were they doing at the moment and what did they think about the band at the moment, believe me there are curious stories, this kind of interview documental as a background has several Yes songs recorded in the same 35th anniv tour, so we are listening to their classic tunes while also listening to the members speaking.

This is a deep documental that shares a bit (or a lot) of every of that 5 members, their different personalities and ideas, their versions of how come Yes has lastes 35 long years, their respect to each other, a lot of things that any Yes fan will love, the only thing i could say i would love to see that is not here, is a brief interview with all the members that Yes have had during the years, you know Banks, Kaye and Bruford for instance who were founder members, that is the only thing i would have liked to see.

So i, being a lover of their music have enjoyed a lot watching to this DVD, and i would say 3 things, the first is that if you consider a fan of this icon of prog rock, you must have this DVD, if you like Yes but are not a real fan, it is however highly recommendable to you, and if you don't like Yes music, then don't even look at this.

My final grade is 3 stars, you choose if you want to see it or not but for me it was worth it. Enjoy it!

When I bought this DVD a few years ago I did not pay attention to the title of the job but instead of that I read the list of tracks and I though this was a live execution of Yes with all their excellent classics. When I got home and start playing the disc I realized about my mistake and a little disappointed because I never found in the cover a warning about this was a collection of interviews instead of live musical execution. I think I have seen the interviews no more than twice since I got the album, but I must say at the same time recently I started to appreciate the audio tracks and found well recorded live versions with an excellent Dolby 5.1 recording which creates a great surrounding atmosphere. If this was just an audio DVD I would assign 5 stars but I do not think the interviews say something different to the fans we have followed the Yes works for years. I am rating as good but not essential.

I find this to be a very frustrating DVD. Whilst I was perfectly aware through the title that this would mainly be a documentary, I was greatly attracted by the monumental set listing advertised on the cover.

This is not a concert DVD, although the viewer will hear segments of some Yes numbers in the background, and then occasionally a minute or two of an actual concert will appear on screen. It was this that I found to be extremely annoying. Just as I'm really getting into a live track, BANG, off goes the picture and the interview, with say Alan White is back on. This could have been so much better had they played FULL tracks, interspersed with the interviews. Whilst excerpts of some pieces are really short, fortunately, quite a lot of the live performance of Awaken, my favourite Yes track, is included!

As to the actual interviews, each member of the classic line-up is interviewed at length by Roger Daltrey, who does a decent job as interviewer. The actual content is interesting, but once you've seen this once it will be some time before you feel the need to see it again.

For the keen Yes fan, this is well worth having, especially if you get it cheap like me!! For anybody else, I could not really recommend it.

This deserves 2.5 stars, however I will have to round this down to 2 stars. It is a shame, as this DVD could have been so much better.

In early 2004 I drove down to Philadelphia to see a special premier of this film in a theater. I believe a local rock station was sponsoring it (at least partly) and there was even a little trvia station where I won a t shirt (which I eventually gave to my sister-in- law). The film was hosted by the late legendary Philadelphia dj Ed Sciaky ( a big champion of Yes and one of the reasons they broke big when they did- I chatted with him briefly after the film but unfortunately he passed away three days later). Anyway, for whatever reason they didn't show the entire film since it is about 3 1/2 hours long but they showed most of it. Some guy sitting near me was making loud whooping sounds every so often so I eventually changed my seat (too bad the guy wasn't thrown out since it was so disruptive). This was my first experience with this film. I even picked up a bunch of free posters too. There was a really big deal made about it there maybe because it was used as a promotional device for Yes's upcoming tour (I saw them twice in 2004). About a year ago I was able to buy this online for a good price and finally see this again.

Yesspeak is basically a behind the scenes kind of documentary and as such I think it's really geared towards those who are already big fans of the band. Those who are brand new or who are only casual fans would probably be better off with something like Yesyears or one of their other dvds (concert or otherwise). This film is narrated by legendary singer for the Who, Roger Daltrey. If you ask me he is sort of an odd choice for narrator and I couldn't help but wonder half the time if he actually believes most of what he is saying on here. He tends to go on and on about how huge Yes were (or are) and while I do think Yes were a major band at one point, these days most younger folks probably have no clue who they are. Many older music fans have probably forgotten about them too. It's really only those who stuck with the band or progressive rock fans who know them now which you could say qualifies them as a cult band. I don't deny that in the 70s they were probably well beyond cult status but to be honest I can't remember the last time I saw someone wearing a Yes t shirt.

Other than Roger kind of acting like a cheerleader for the band he doesn't do a half bad job as narrator as odd as it is hearing his voice on this. The main focus of course is on the band themselves. However, for the purposes of this film, they focus almost exclusively on Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Steve Howe and Alan White and each of them gets their own little segment. I suppose that's understandable since this was released to coincide with their 35th anniversary tour which featured that lineup. However, I do think they made a mistake by not mentioning other members a bit more. I don't remember Trevor Rabing being mentioned and I think Jon only mentioned Pete Banks because he came up with the Yes name. Bill Bruford was only mentioned once also (I think just to say that Alan White replaced him though). Because of all of this this doesn't represent a very good history of the band (other Yes documentaries are better for that especially the aforementioned Yesyears).

Another thing that I find annoying is that much of the time when one of the band members is speaking, the music in the background is usually too loud and I can barely hear what Jon or Rick, or whoever, is saying; at least it's Yes music but I still find this to be rather distracting. Also, most of them are often talking about things that are mostly inconsequential to all but the most ardent Yes fan. I found Steve's discussion about his guitars to be especially boring but there were other moments where I sort of lost interest as well and I'm someone who considers himself to be a pretty big Yes fan. I guess I just don't need to know that Steve slept with his guitar or some of the other trivial stuff on here that sometimes comes across as rambling (at least to me).

Overall, this was still a pretty good film/dvd and there are plenty of clips of the band playing their classics. Most of it centers on the material that Alan White didn't even originally play on but being that it makes up a good portion of what they played live at this point in time it's understandable it would be represented here in such large quantities. A good addition to your prog dvd collection if you are already a big Yes fan. Otherwise, start with Yesyears.