The Rotterdam Experience:
24 & 25 November 1977:
About a week after the concert I received a
2 cassette package
contaning the full 24 november concert in questionable (B-) quality. However, being one of the very few Yes concerts
I had, I listened to it very much.
With the internet, the surprise was great when spotting a A- quality rated tape of
the same concert. I ordered it and in fact the quality was much better than I had.
So for this, this must be the ultimate Yestape to have.
Unfortunately the new tape I acquired has a lot of omissions, at the start of the concert,
at the end, in between tracks and even quite a few cuts in tracks.
So I sat up at the task restoring the full concert from the sources I have. As a pleasant
circumstance the Firebird opening and Parallels are available at the official Yesshows recording.
I've recreated the full concert, mostly from the A- tape, but I had to put in some parts
of the B- tape. Note that the tapes are from a different source.
To let you follow what I've done and not be disappointed by some quality differences,
here's the full editing list:
CD1, Tracks 1 & 2: From the official Yesshows CD.
CD1, Tracks 3, 4 (first 4 minutes), 6: From the B- tape.
CD1, Tracks 4 (16 minutes), 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11: From the A- tape.
CD2, Track 1 (first minute): From the B- tape.
CD2, Track 1 (last 4 minutes), 2, 3, 4: From A- tape.
A few snippets from the B- tape had to be interspersed in the above A- tape, most notably on the first disc
at the first and last bar of And You and I and about 30 seconds in Going for the One.
On the second disc a small part of Awaken (middle section) and the end of Yours is no disgrace was also
interspersed.
It was a lot of work to do, but a nice job indeed, restoring what is possible from this remarkable
concert, sometimes nominated for the best Yes concert ever. I hope you enjoy listening to the result and forgive the edits I had to do.
A last word to Chris Squire perhaps: Why don't you release this concert as a whole, from the Yesshows
CD we know it was recorded in excellent quality.