YES is excited to announce that drummer Alan White, who had to sit out the band’s recent U.S. summer tour due to back surgery, will officially rejoin his band mates Steve Howe (guitar), Jon Davison (vocals), Billy Sherwood (bass) and Geoff Downes (keyboard) on their Japanese tour this November. Jay Schellen, the band’s good friend who sat behind the kit all summer, will also travel to Japan and sit in until White is fully healed.
“I’m greatly looking forward to getting back on stage with my bandmates to play YES music once again for our devoted audiences” says drummer Alan White.
The 6-date trek, beginning November 21 in Tokyo, will feature YES performing the 1973 album YESSONGS, the band’s first live album, as well as sides one and four of 1973’s double album TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS, which received rave reviews throughout their 28-date U.S. outing this summer. Of the Tales portion of the show, Chicago Tribune Community Contributor Raymond Britt raved, “The pieces were nothing short of a tour de force of musical ambition, complexity and remarkable synchronicity. It sounded outstanding.” Britt also added, “This version of Yes seems to play at a higher level, a more powerful level, like they’ve been together a decade or more. These guys are on no nostalgia tour. They play it like they mean business, with little intention of slowing down” (8/31/16). For their upcoming Japan tour, YES will perform at the Tokyo Orchard Hall on November 21, 22, 28 and 29, the Osaka Orix Theater on November 24 and Zepp Nagoya on November 25./