LIVE IN PHILADELPHIA 1979

Don't get me wrong with the rating. I just want to use the rating system appropriately. I'm a great fan of Yes but I will not recommend you to have this DVD in your collection unless you really a die-hard fan of the band. Even, if you have this DVD, I'm sure that it's gonna serve you as a documentary thing. It applies to me really. I rarely watch this video because of one good reason: the audio quality is poor. It's not that the sound is not high fidelity as in the case of Yessongs DVD; but the audio volume is inconsistent - sometime is loud and the outher time is soft.

The definitive aim for me to have it, in additoon to the 'big-fan' factor, is the footage of "Circus of Heaven" in this live set. As you know, when I reviewed Yes "Tormato" my firrst love with the album was with this song. So I was so curious to see how it's like being performed live. Recorded on videotape at the Philadelphia Spectrum on June 21, 1979, this Yes concert finds the band during the summer leg of their "In the Round" tour, which was the last to feature the band's "classic" lineup of vocalist Jon Anderson, guitar wizard Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire, drummer Alan White, and keyboardist Rick Wakeman. With this in mind, it's a historic live performance, isn't it? Yeah, it is for me. What followed, as you know it, Rick and Jon left the band and they were absent for YES "Drama" album.

Don't expect that "The Ancient" performed in this live set is as full coverage track of the original album! It's only the acoustic guitar part with vocal and without the stunning acoustic guitar solo - just rhythm section. Too bad. "Starship Trooper" is performed excellently with great keyboard solo. There is also short drum solo by Alan White augmented with Rick's keyboard effects.

It's only good for completionists who want to collect anything YES. Keep on proggin'!

Progressively yours, GW

Well, I really must agree with Gatot above: not only the sound, but the image of this DVD is really poor. In fact, I found this one in a supermarket's cheap cest! The performance is brilliant, though, it features some very nice Wakeman/Howe improv on STARSHIP TROOPER and ROUNDABOUT, and of course, this is original YES, in the good days! That's what makes it so valuable for collectors, but if you're looking for good sound and image, you should get KEYS TO ASCENSION or YESSONGS.

-Guilherme Baldin

Could this DVD bring someting more to YesShows? Apparently NO I'm afraid... Some bootlegs have a better sound!!! What about the choice of the songs? UN-understandable!!! Where are On the silent wings of freedom, Awaken or Ritual??? Nowhere, but you'll see some unsurprising versions of old songs already released on Yessongs with a worst sound. A song like Circus of Heaven was difficult enough to hear in its original version, so WHY to destroy the song with such a bad production??? All the beauty of the song is flown away. The drum solo is original, nothing more, and very short (one minute) The Ancient is the most hard to hear, it is just become as an interlude. During this time, WE (all the fans of YES) are still waiting for an official and COMPLETE recording of the Solos Tour, including Relayer and experts from the solo albums performed by the band. Is it so difficult to product instead of such of a pathetic thing???????

I could give two stars just for the performance of Syberian Khatru and Starship throoper, but I give at least just one, because the sound is really too poor, but as it was not enough, it is even not one hour length.

One word... STEALING!!!

AS A MATTER A FACT IT'S GREAT! I don't know why everyone is so negative when it comes down to this DVD... People complain about the quality of sound and picture...ccc... I'd rather watch this concert -when they were on top of the world, then some new one,like house of blues-where they haven't got that fire like in the old days. This concert is a unique chance to every Yesfan to see them at their best!! The setlist is short for the band like Yes,but there's no bad song here... The version of Siberian khatru here is maybe the best they ever performed,closest to the original. I must say that this type of stage(revolving one) fits Yes the best, mainly because it's not big. Anderson is not the type of singer who needs 20km of stage to run all over it.No! Their focus is on music.Always was,and will remain. The imperfection of the production of this DVD shouldn't turn back all of Yesfans. Just ask those who have been there '79. I bet everyone of them has this DVD.

My low rating is not for the performance of the band, which I believe was probably excellent. My rating is for the extremely low quality of the finished product. The picture quality is murky, and when I say murky I mean really murky. Even compared with most other concert films from the 70's I have ever seen. Even the Yessongs video has excellent picture quality compared to this. The sound quality is also not the best, the mix is not quite what it ought to be (or maybe just the best you could do given the source material). But maybe the biggest problem of all is the short running time. This is very far from a complete show.

To me this release is a strictly historical document and not one for listening/viewing pleasure. I can recommend it only to Yes scholars and serious collectors and even to them only after having invested in all other Yes DVD's out there. I have quite a few Yes DVD's myself (I think I have most of them) and this one is among the very worst.

Avoid!

Yessongs but circular

Was this show filmed on a home video camera? The quality is very poor, both in terms of sound and visually. The band were probably doing fine on that evening but this recording doesn't do them justice. I'm confused as to why it was released in the first place, especially considering how short it is; there's only about 40 minutes of footage and five and a half songs. It can't possibly be the full show. Having said that, 'Starship Trooper' is great (keytar!) and White treats us to a little drum solo.

Definately non-essential, unless you were there. Stick with Yessongs.

*Oh and Chris Welch's introduction isn't really relevant, even though he is a nice man.

An energetic and very good live concert by Yes filmed at The Spectrum in Philadelphia, in 21 June 1979, during their last tour from the seventies. It is a shame that the quality of the video and more particularly of the audio of this concert video are not very good, in fact sounding very distant, like a bootleg sometimes despite being an official release. They still play at their peak as musicians, with a lot of enthusiasm, looking like really enjoying their playing. The audience also sounds and looks very happy. It is also a shame that it only has a few songs from the set list they were playing then. Anyway, it still is a good historical document from the late seventies.The band was playing "in the round" then (with a revolving stage placed at the centre of the auditoriums) and it seems that the stage really revolved at a high speed as can be seen in this video. The most interesting parts of this concert video are "Circus of Heaven", a song from their "Tormato" album (one of my favourite songs from that album), played very well, and a very good version of "Starship Trooper" played with very good solos by Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman (who used a keytar, which is a portable keyboard, to play part of his solo while Jon Anderson also played a bit of background keyboards). I hope that this concert video and their QPR concert video with Patrick Moraz from 1975 could be remixed and improved to be released again in the DVD and /or Blue Ray formats. I think that maybe they could improve both videos a lot using the modern digital technology available in the present.