Portrait: Roger Kisby
Speaking in the latest issue of MOJO, Jon Anderson has revealed that the door is open for a reunion with his former Yes bandmates Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe.
“I was talking to [Anderson’s current touring band] The Band Geeks and said, Hopefully we can play in London and Steve will get up and do a couple of songs with us, maybe Rick too…” Anderson tells MOJO’s Mark Blake. “It just means talking. When I’m out there singing on my own I still think I’m part of Yes. They still feel like my songs.”
Although he has previously toured with Wakeman in 2010 and 2017, Anderson hasn’t worked with Howe or under the Yes banner since the band’s 35th anniversary tour in 2004
“We’re still friends but we’re not connected,” says Anderson. “The first time I realised it wasn’t going to continue was when I discovered you could send MP3s on the computer. So I e-mailed Steve and Chris, saying, Why don’t we send music to each other – we’re on the same planet? And they never replied. Maybe they never got the e-mail.”
Chances of a reunion of the classic ‘70s Yes line-up passed with the deaths of founding bassist Chris Squire in 2015 and drummer Alan White in 2022.
“Life is full of experiences and meeting people, and you look back and think, I used to know him so well, but not anymore,” reflects Anderson of his former bandmates. “Alan was best man at my wedding [to second wife, Jane, in 1997]. I’ve had dreams about them both. I was in Maui when I dreamt about an angel pointing upwards and there was Chris looking up into the sky with tears running down his face. I found out the following day he’d left the earth.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Anderson recalls getting signed to Virgin at the same time as prog rocker turned pop star, Phil Collins and how he might be reviving a shelved solo project into a musical with Fraiser star Kelsey Grammar.
“I met Richard Branson on his boat and he signed me the same week they signed Phil Collins. All of a sudden there’s Phil making Face Value, one of the greatest solo albums of all time, and Virgin are sending two punks with dyed black hair and eye make-up down to the south of France to see what I was doing,” says Anderson.
“[I was] writing music for an album about the great [French-Russian] artist Marc Chagall, and another piece based on a book called A True Fairy Tale by Daphne Charters. These guys didn’t like what they were hearing. There was nothing wrong with the music, but they just weren’t interested. I said, OK, but this is what I want to do. So I paid the advance back. I’m working on it again, though, and we’re looking at a possible musical or film, The Story Of Chagall. [Frasier actor] Kelsey Grammar is interested and has talked about directing it.”
“There was me speeding away like a lunatic – Come on everybody, let’s try this!” Pick up the latest issue of MOJO to read the interview in full and hear more about Yes’ musical explorations, the time Vangelis almost replaced Rick Wakeman in the band and how Anderson nearly abandoned music to play for his beloved Accrington Stanley FC. More info and to order a copy HERE!
