After the successful return with Rick Waksman for the “Going for the One“ tour, Yes returned with “Tormato” in the round. Yes was the perfect band to tour arenas on a rotating tage as every member of the band was a virtuoso performer worthy of fixating on at any point of a Yes concert and every seat was now a good one. Joe Fisk, Steve Schaefer and I were huge Yes fans and we collectively agreed that this would be a great time for our first tock and roll toad trip. I do not remember how we managed to pull it off but we had really good seats in the orchestra for at least a few of these shows back before anyone had thought to institute tiered pricing and when ticket prices for any given concert were uniform throughout a venue. In Springfield we were looking for a bar that afternoon and found ourselves outside of an unassuming nondescript brick building. On the outside it looked like a dive bar, perfect for us, but when we went inside we found that it was rather nice, almost too nice, considering the uninviting exterior. It turned out we three 18 year old rock fans from New York had innocently wondered into a Springfield gay bar. As I recall I think it was pretty empty this particular afternoon and we may have stayed for a beer, It was a learning experience; looks can be deceiving and in 1978 the bars and clubs frequented by the gay community were sometimes nondescript so as to keep a low profile in their sometimes intolerant communities.

I think it was at the New Haven Coliseum the next day that we arrived at the arena early in the afternoon and we heard Yes rehearsing on stage from the lobby. Unbelievably somehow we could peer through and actually saw Yes in civilian clothes playing “Arriving U.F.O.”, a song that I fo not think ever made the set list.

As we sat in front for some of these gigs, at some point in all this we sort of made acquaintance with Claude who took care of Steve Howe’s guitar equipment. Years later the movie “Almost Famous” would capture some of the essence to our own personal adventure. In true rock star fashion, while we were still hanging out outside the New Haven venue we saw Claude walking up from a truck entrance sporting a girl on both arms. Since he had no choice but to acknowledge us At some point as we would shout out to him as he performed his pre-show rituals, Claude gave us a back stage pass to I think one of the Madison Square Garden concerts where I exuberantly interrupted Alan White’s conversation with a rich looking couple so I could tell him that I saw the show in Springfield. Alan had a deer in headlight look and I quickly moved on. The Madison Square Garden shows are all a blur at this point but it was one of the MSG in the round concerts where I leapt over the short wall into the orchestra with security guards at my heals. I dashed across the back of the Garden orchestra, hopped the wall on the opposite side and ducked into a restroom. Unfortunately I had managed to tick off The head of security supervisor during my attempt to move upfront so they did not give up so easily and located me in a bathroom stall unsuccessfully trying to wait them out. Some may think rock and roll is a spectator enterprise but I prefer to think of it as a contact sport. The adrenaline rush when hundreds of thousands of fans congregate to experience their favorite performers play music that matters to them is unparalleled and requires audience participation to fully engage. The communal rights of passage of tock and roll are as important as any lessons learned in a school and create memories and bonds that last a lifetime.
Close to the Edge

Rock on!

GQ