Yes - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Friday Rock Show, Wembley Arena, London, Britain, 10-28-1978

I explained in previous posts that the British prog rock band Yes performed for the BBC frequently from 1969 to 1971. But then the band's popularity soared, and they seemingly decided they didn't need much BBC promotion anymore. However, they did have two full concerts played on BBC radio in 1975 and 1978. I'm posting the 1978 one here.

In 1976 and 1977, music trends shifted dramatically with the rise of disco, punk, and new wave. Most prog rock bands like Yes struggled to stay popular and relevant. Yes put out a commercially and critically successful album in 1977, "Going for the One." But in 1978, their next album "Tormato" flopped. Lead vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman left the band after the tour supporting that album. Yes would have a big resurgence in 1983 with their huge hit "Owner of a Lonely Heart," but they would have a few years of poor sales and personnel changes before getting there.

Given that background, it's understandable to see that if the band thought they were too big to need much BBC promotion from 1972 to 1977, they changed their minds in 1978 and approved the radio broadcast of this concert. Although "Tormato" isn't considered one of the better Yes albums, it did have some good songs on it, and only three songs from it are included here: "Circus of Heaven," "Don't Kill the Whale," and the medley "Madrigal - On the Silent Wings of Freedom." So it's actually a good time for a live album from the band, featuring the best of their 1970s material right before two key members left and the band went through some significant changes.

Two of the performances here have been officially released. "Don't Kill the Whale" was included on the live album "Yesshows," and "I've Seen All Good People" was also on that album, but only as a bonus track. Although everything else is unreleased, the sound quality is so high that you can't tell the difference between the released tracks and the others.

This album is an hour and 58 minutes long.

UPDATE: On May 30, 2023, I updated the mp3 download file. But the only change I made was to the album title, since I discovered a 1975 BBC concert I'd previously missed. But that meant changing the cover art and all the mp3 tags.

01 Intro - Siberian Khatru (Yes)
02 talk (Yes)
03 Heart of Sunrise (Yes)
04 Circus of Heaven (Yes)
05 Time and a Word (Yes)
06 Long Distance Runaround (Yes)
07 The Fish [Instrumental] (Yes)
08 Survival - Perpetual Change (Yes)
09 Soon (Yes)
10 Don't Kill the Whale (Yes)
11 Clap (Yes)
12 Starship Trooper (Yes)
13 Madrigal - On the Silent Wings of Freedom (Yes)
14 Piano Intro - Awaken (Yes)
15 I've Seen All Good People [Your Move - All Good People] (Yes)
16 Roundabout (Yes)

https://www.imagenetz.de/kF9ii

The cover photo comes from a 1978 Yes show, but a different one, in Hamburg, Germany.