Post by xx_Ceaușescu on Oct 11, 2024 1:13:24 GMT
I want to preface this by saying that this is an instance of lost media that I cannot prove exists. However I believe I have good reasons to believe it does which I will get to later. I'm a huge fan of the progressive rock band Yes, who are most well known for their 1983 hit Owner of a Lonely Heart as well as their 1971 track Roundabout (the intro of which became famous for being associated with the "To Be Continued" meme a few years ago). Throughout the band's over 50 year history they've been on many concert tours. Like with every famous band some concert tours go great, others do not. Without a shadow of a doubt the most disastrous tour Yes every did was their 1980 tour promoting their 10th studio album Drama. A tour so bad it caused the band to break up early the next year (ok, it wasn't the only cause, but it was one of them) before reforming in 1983.
A bit of a backstory as to what was going on with Yes at the time: In 1979 the lead vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman left the band over a financial dispute. This was pretty bad for the band, not only because they no longer had a lead singer and a keyboardist, but also because Anderson's iconic and unique voice and Wakeman's godlike keyboard wizardry were defining characteristics for a lot of Yes fans. But if Yes was going to go on they had to replace the unreplaceable. In 1980 Trevor Horn was brought in as the lead vocalist and Geoff Downes was brought in as the keyboardist. You might recognize those two as the pop duo The Buggles whos song Video Killed the Radio Star became the first song ever played on MTV the previous year. The same year Yes began recording their 10th studio album Drama. Drama released on August 18th, 1980 and the promotional tour began 10 days later on the 29th. Nothing went well.
Imagine your favorite band, now imagine out of nowhere the lead vocalist disappears and is replaced by some one-hit-wonder pop singer. You'd be pretty upset, right? Well that's exactly how fans felt. Drama became the lowest charting and lowest selling album in the band's history. It did do pretty well critically however, and most fans today do consider it one of the best Yes albums, myself included. Trevor Horn has even performed with Yes again a few times since. So it has had a bit of a "redemption arc" so to speak.
But this isn't about the album, it's about the tour.
The promotional tour ran for 65 shows across the UK, Canada and the United States from August 29th to December 18th, 1980. Overall the reaction to it was pretty negative, considering its how some fans found out about Anderson and Wakeman's departure. (Brief tangent: Imagine your favorite band's lead vocalist got replaced, and only finding out live at a concert. I can only imagine the gut-wrenching disappointment). Audio recordings and pictures exist for most of these shows, what I've been unable to find are video recordings.
Now you may be thinking "A lot of concerts aren't recorded, officially or otherwise." While that's true I have two reasons to assume video footage of at least a couple of the shows exists or existed. The first (and biggest reason for me) are the pictures from the shows. Some of these pictures look more like frames from a VHS recording rather than photos taken from a camera. I've attached a few and I'm hoping someone who knows more about VHS stuff then I do could give me an opinion. Secondly, they played at some big venues during the tour. If I got to see a concert at some place like Madison Square Garden, I'd try to record it. I've also found a lot of bootleg video recordings from other concerts at some of the venues from before and after Yes's Drama Tour.
I want to reiterate that I don't have any concrete proof that video recordings do exist, but if they do I'd like to find them. Both because I'm a Yes fan and it's also an important part in the band's history. I might do some deeper research later, if there's any interest I will update this thread.
TL;DR: Old prog band did a tour for a bad album, maybe someone filmed it idk.
A bit of a backstory as to what was going on with Yes at the time: In 1979 the lead vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman left the band over a financial dispute. This was pretty bad for the band, not only because they no longer had a lead singer and a keyboardist, but also because Anderson's iconic and unique voice and Wakeman's godlike keyboard wizardry were defining characteristics for a lot of Yes fans. But if Yes was going to go on they had to replace the unreplaceable. In 1980 Trevor Horn was brought in as the lead vocalist and Geoff Downes was brought in as the keyboardist. You might recognize those two as the pop duo The Buggles whos song Video Killed the Radio Star became the first song ever played on MTV the previous year. The same year Yes began recording their 10th studio album Drama. Drama released on August 18th, 1980 and the promotional tour began 10 days later on the 29th. Nothing went well.
Imagine your favorite band, now imagine out of nowhere the lead vocalist disappears and is replaced by some one-hit-wonder pop singer. You'd be pretty upset, right? Well that's exactly how fans felt. Drama became the lowest charting and lowest selling album in the band's history. It did do pretty well critically however, and most fans today do consider it one of the best Yes albums, myself included. Trevor Horn has even performed with Yes again a few times since. So it has had a bit of a "redemption arc" so to speak.
But this isn't about the album, it's about the tour.
The promotional tour ran for 65 shows across the UK, Canada and the United States from August 29th to December 18th, 1980. Overall the reaction to it was pretty negative, considering its how some fans found out about Anderson and Wakeman's departure. (Brief tangent: Imagine your favorite band's lead vocalist got replaced, and only finding out live at a concert. I can only imagine the gut-wrenching disappointment). Audio recordings and pictures exist for most of these shows, what I've been unable to find are video recordings.
Now you may be thinking "A lot of concerts aren't recorded, officially or otherwise." While that's true I have two reasons to assume video footage of at least a couple of the shows exists or existed. The first (and biggest reason for me) are the pictures from the shows. Some of these pictures look more like frames from a VHS recording rather than photos taken from a camera. I've attached a few and I'm hoping someone who knows more about VHS stuff then I do could give me an opinion. Secondly, they played at some big venues during the tour. If I got to see a concert at some place like Madison Square Garden, I'd try to record it. I've also found a lot of bootleg video recordings from other concerts at some of the venues from before and after Yes's Drama Tour.
I want to reiterate that I don't have any concrete proof that video recordings do exist, but if they do I'd like to find them. Both because I'm a Yes fan and it's also an important part in the band's history. I might do some deeper research later, if there's any interest I will update this thread.
TL;DR: Old prog band did a tour for a bad album, maybe someone filmed it idk.
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