Singer Jon Anderson talks Yes reunion, touts new solo album and tour (original) (raw)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Former Yes frontman Jon Anderson’s new album, “1000 Hands” was close to 30 years in the making, and contains a spark of hope for fans longing for a reunion of the classic Yes lineup.

Anderson will play the St. George Theatre on July 26.

Anderson began recording the solo material in 1990 in Big Bear, Calif., working with musicians that included then-bandmates in Yes, bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White.

“We actually just wrote these songs and never got them finished,” Anderson told the Advance during a recent phone interview. “The tapes stayed in my garage until 26 years later.”

The album, produced by Michael Franklin, includes a who’s who of rock and jazz luminaries, such as violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, who has worked with Anderson in the past; Return to Forever pianist Chick Corea; flutist Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull; drummer Carmine Appice, and Tower of Power.

“Extraordinary people,” Anderson said. “I bumped into all these people in my career along the way, and always thought they were amazing. And there they are on the album, which is fantastic.”

Fans took notice that Yes guitarist Steve Howe plays on one song on the album, “Now and Again.”

“There was sort of a space for a guitar, and I thought, I’ll call up Steve and ask him if he wants to play on it,” said Anderson. “I’d sung on his solo album about 20 years ago, and I thought, he always said he wanted to play on mine.”

Anderson said, “As soon as I heard his guitar, I started singing. Me and Steve getting together musically after 30 years was kind of a treat.”

Founded in 1968, Yes released a string of seminal progressive rock albums, including “Fragile” and “Close to the Edge.” The classic lineup included Anderson, Howe, Squire, White and keyboardist Rick Wakeman. Songs like “Roundabout,” “Long Distance Runaround” and “I’ve Seen All Good People” remain FM radio staples.

The band fragmented in the early 1980s, although an Anderson-fronted version that also included Squire and White scored a smash radio hit with “Owner of a Lonely Heart” in 1983.

In recent years, Anderson has toured with a Yes band featuring Wakeman and Trevor Rabin, while Howe has continued to appear with a Yes incarnation including White and Geoff Downes.

Anderson’s version of Yes has been on hiatus recently.

“I think the idea is one day we’ll get together again and do some more work together,” Anderson said. “But I’m not sure when, where or how.”

He said that he’d written songs with Rabin and with Wakeman for that lineup, but, “we’d never gotten into the studio to do them. That’s the way life goes sometimes.”

So is the recent Anderson/Howe collaboration on “1000 Hands” a harbinger of a real Yes reunion? Anderson doesn’t say no.

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“When it happens, it’ll happen,” Anderson said.

Founding member Squire passed away in 2015. Anderson called the bass player “a real gentleman” who had “lived life to the full.”

“He had such a strange sense of humor,” Anderson said. “And he was always late! He drove Trevor crazy. Late for the plane, late for the car, late for the bus. Late on stage. He turned around one day and said, ‘I want it on my tombstone: The late Chris Squire.’”

Anderson and his eight-member touring band play songs from the new album, as well as from Anderson’s other solo work, including music he did with “Blade Runner” and “Chariots of Fire” composer Vangelis.

Anderson is also for the first time playing selections from his first solo outing, 1976’s “Olias of Sunhillow.”

And the set of course includes a handful of Yes songs, including “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” and “Yours Is No Disgrace,” which open the show.

Said Anderson, “I’m always very grateful for the fans of Yes and anybody who knows my music and who’s stayed the course, because we’re all in this together.”

Jon Anderson plays at the St. George Theatre on July 26. For tickets, visit Ticketmaster or click on the St. George box office or call 718-442-2900.

Prog rock pioneers Yes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

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