To mark what would be John Lennon’s 80th Birthday, on the 9th October, progressive rock band Yes has released a live rendition of ‘Imagine’ as a new single, taken from their forthcoming The Royal Affair Tour album.
Yes drummer Alan White was a founder member of The Plastic Ono Band with John and Yoko Lennon, Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann, on the Phil Spector produced album of the same name. The Lennon estate gave Yes permission to show footage of the recording of Imagine when they performed the song on The Royal Affair Tour last year.
You can listen to ‘Imagine’ on the video presented here at RAMzine.
2019’s The Royal Affair Tour across the USA was conceived as a celebration of the best of British progressive music. Guests on the tour were Asia (with YES keyboardist Geoff Downes and a special appearance by Steve Howe), John Lodge of The Moody Blues and Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy featuring Arthur Brown, and headlined by YES who will be releasing a live album soon commemorating the event.
YES drummer Alan White said: “The Royal Affair Tour album, being released in October, is a welcome new chapter in the wide expanse of YES live recordings. I hope you enjoy it.”
Guitarist Steve Howe added: “Having the opportunity to bring together the band members in the development of a well refined set of songs that captures the bands true potential is simply an honour for me.”
The show featured many classic tracks across the 1970 – 1980 period, the set opened with ‘No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed’, the Richie Havens cover from the second album Time And A Word (released in 1970) taking in tracks from all their iconic mid-70s albums. There was also a rare live performance of their cover of Paul Simon’s ‘America’ and a cover of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ that Alan White had played on prior to joining the band, and featured John Lodge shared vocals for this live performance.
The Royal Affair Tour live set and album, was recorded at the Hard Rock Hotel, Las Vegas, on 26th uly 2019. The tour also featured an exhibition of original art by Roger Dean whose artwork is synonymous having designed the iconic YES logo and the band’s best-loved album covers. Dean recently painted The Royal Affair Tour album artwork live on Facebook while also fielding questions from fans.
The line-up for the tour was Steve Howe (guitar) who joined in 1970, Alan White, drums since 1972, Geoff Downes (keyboards) who first joined in 1980, vocalist since 2011 Jon Davison, Billy Sherwood, who played guitar/keyboards in the 1990s and was the late Chris Squire’s choice to take over bass/vocals in 2015, and who also played with Asia on this tour, with additional drums played by Jay Schellen.
Songs featured on The Royal Affair Tour – Live in Las Vegas are: ‘No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed’, ‘Tempus Fugit’, ‘Going For The One’, ‘I’ve Seen All Good People’, ‘Siberian Khatru’, ‘Onward, ‘America’, ‘Imagine’, ‘Roundabout’ and ‘Starship Trooper’.
The album was mixed by Sherwood and is released by BMG Records. Those ordering direct from the YES Store will receive their albums prior to general release from 30th October. You can pre-order the album from here.
