San Luis Obispo County Telegram-Tribune
Tuesday, March 5, 1996


YES

 Band's fans welcome
reunion with one word

By Dave Wilcox
Telegram-Tribune

  SAN LUIS OBISPO - D.J. Crotteau
knelt on the damp Monterey Street
sidewalk next to his dinged-up van
Monday night and stirred a pan of
steaming spaghetti cooking over a
camp stove.
  It was hard not to smile thinking
about the turn of events in the last
five days.
  In about an hour Crotteau and his
wife, Laura, would walk inside the
Fremont Theatre for a Yes concert
some had waited 16 years to see.
  "I'm blown away," said Crotteau.
  That giddy, mesmerized sensation
hung in the soggy evening air outside
the theater as Yes fans from across the
nation and other countries swapped
stories about earlier concerts.
  Among them was a network of
cyberbuddies meeting in the flesh for
the first time, brought together in San
Luis Obispo by a shared passion for a
band first formed in England 18 years
earlier.

  "You are Sarah?" asked Scott
Beard, turning to greet fellow on-line
Yes fan Sarah Dowless.
  Dowless, of Charlotte, N.C., was
standing with a group of others
excitedly chatting.
  "Nobody here I've ever met," she
said.
  Beard, known to others on-line as
YesChef, traveled from Springfield,
Ill., with two friends to catch all three
shows.
  "There's YesMama aol.com," he
said, pointing out a woman who
traveled with her husband from Wes-
tlake Village.
  Beard explained that only locals or
Yes fans hooked up to the Internet
probably even knew the trio of con-
certs were scheduled.
  "Sitting down in front of the Mac
for two hours and I had everything
done," he sald of how he secured
tickets and made travel arrange-
ments.
  How D.J. and Laura Crotteau
wound up eating spaghetti on a
sidewalk Monday night was much
more fortuitous.

  The Charlottesville, Va., couple„
on a sabbatical from their jobs „
traveled through San Luis Obispo
about three weeks ago. They decided
to return Thursday after visiting
Yosemite for another peek at the cool
guitar D.J. had spotted at Blue Note
Music on Higuera Street.

  There they ran into Yes guitarist
Steve Howe. It wouldn't be the last
time.

  He told them about Monday night's
show„added after two other shows
sold out„and the couple camped
outside Boo Boo Records for 21 hours
to get tickets.

  At about midnight Saturday, Howe
joined the growing line and knocked
out a couple of tunes„"Roundabout"
and "Mood for a Day," among them„
on an acoustic guitar.

  Crotteau happened to have his
guitar handy.

  "D.J. jammed with him," marveled
his wife.

  Not since the band's 10th Anniver-
sary Tour in 1979 has the lineup that
took the Fremont Theater stage Mon-
day night performed live.

  "This is the crew right here
that ... everybody dreams of
seeing," said Kevin Martin.

  Martin stood at the box office as he
spoke, among the first to buy one of
the 50 or so tickets that went on sale a
couple of hours before Monday night's
show.

  Tickets for the concert, like the
shows planned for tonight and
Wednesday night, sold out quickly.
  But Bruce Howard, president of K-
Otter radio station, said the extra
seats became available when stage
equipment didn't take up as much
space as was expected.

  Having the handful of tickets go
unused, he said, was better than the
alternative„selling the seats and
then telling the ticket-holders that
they can't get in.

  No one seemed to mind that people
could walk up minutes before the
show and snare a couple of tickets
after their own anxious moments
fearing being shut out.

  A man who gave his name as George
who drove down from San Francisco
said he pulled a lot of strings to get
tickets for Monday night's show.

  Sitting inside a van parked just
behind the Crotteau's cookout with
three other friends drinking beer,
George didn't mind.

  "Fanatic, faithful, devotee, pick one
of those," he suggested.

  George saw Yes in various incara-
tions throught the 1970s and 1980s
but said there was something special
about these shows. He never expected
the chance to see what he„and most
others„considers the group's core
lineup to perform again.

  "That's why I'm elated to be down
here. This is a big-time surprise. I
would have driven twice as far."

  Many others did, and then some.
  "We had a planes, trains and
automobiles day," said Janet Headen,
whose Illinois license plate reads Yes
Fan 6. She was accompanied by her
friend Muffy Hamilton„that's right,
Yes Fan 7.

  "We have husbands and children
and everything," said Hamilton.

  Like so many others, the pair heard
about the concerts via their comput-
ers.

  Then there was Paul Jackson.
  He last saw Yes perform live in
1979. That happened to be the last tour
featuring the lineup of members who
performed Monday night at the Fre-
mont Theatre.

  Jackson, a baker in a small, Canadi-
an town north of Vancouver, had
tickets for shows tonight and Wednes-
day, but was contemplating putting
up another $55 to see them Monday.
  "I'm not missing them this time."


[Three photos, captions:

TOGETHER AGAIN:  A reunited Yes - from left, 
Steve Howe, Alan White, Jon Anderson, 
Chris Squire and Rick Wakeman - 
plays to a packed house Monday
night at the Fremont Theatre.  It was the first of
three San Luis Obispo concerts.

ON GUITAR: Steve Howe, the
band's second-in-command
to Anderson, played a variety
of exotic instruments in addi-
tion to his specialty.

FRONT MAN: Dressed in an
outfit of white including a full-
length coat, lead singer Jon
Anderson had an almost spir-
itual quality about him.]


[Transcribed by YESMAN, who is not responsible for errors!]