9012LIVE: THE SOLOS

As it says on the sleeve, this live album focuses on solo performances by the band members. Taken out of the context of a complete concert and bundled together in this way, such pieces can quickly lose much of the appeal they had in that environment. A lengthy bass solo can sound wonderful when placed between a couple of classic tracks ("The fish" on "Yessongs" is a fine example), but much less so when it comes after keyboards solo, a guitar solo, and a preceding bass solo! It should also be noted that this is the "90125" line up, and as such does not feature Rick Wakeman or Steve Howe. On the plus side though, the first track on each side of the LP is actually a band performance albeit from the "90125" album.

The recordings are primarily from a gig in Edmonton, Canada which was filmed for the film of the same name. Three of the pieces though, those featuring the solo slots of Anderson, Kaye and Rabin; were recorded in Dortmund, Germany.

We open with a decent rendition of "Hold on", not one of the band's best known songs by any means, but it does feature strong harmonies, and sounds pretty good in a live environment. Quickly though, we are then into three solo spots in a row. Tony Kaye keeps his brief both in title ("Si") and substance, being little more than a synthesiser fanfare. Trevor Rabin's "Solly's beard" is an acoustic guitar flourish reminiscent of the Steve Howe's solo spots. Jon Anderson's solo is the soft vocal section from "The gates of Delirium" subtitled "Soon". It is a lovely part of the track, but sounds all the better when contrasted against the bombastic chaos which usually precedes it.

Side two has just three tracks. "Changes" is the band song on this side, and the most orthodox Yes song on the album. Trevor Rabin takes on the initial lead vocals, his voice sounding rather like John Wetton's, leading to a bit of an Asia feel. Chris Squire's turn at centre stage is a short feedback laden rendition of "Amazing grace" followed by a duet with Alan White entitled "Whitefish". The title reflects Alan's surname and Squire's Fish nickname. The track itself is not really new though, being an 8 minute variant on Squire's solo spot on "Fragile", an elongated version of which previously appeared on "Yessongs".

Not an album for anyone this one is really for the Yes faithful, and even then the absence of Wakeman and Howe will cause many to question further this album's validity. Despite all its faults though, there is enough here to make this a Yes album worth having.

At a mere 33 minutes, the album hardly offers good value for money. Surely it would have been easy enough to add a Yes classic or two to the album to break up the solo spots.

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