Yes – Yale Bowl '71

Been through two copies both with seam splits on the top where the glue separated from the seam.

The image on the front of the sleeve is taken at the Crystal Palace Bowl London in June 1971, not at the Yale Bowl.

I attended this concert, just out of high school. As the opener for Grand Funk Railroad, Yes stole the show. Nobody had ever heard of Yes before that evening, but lots of people bought The Yes Album the next day! On this 2024 release, too bad the organ was recorded (or remixed?) very low in volume, almost inaudible at points; and not very dynamic. My copy of the record (the pressing itself) is very good.

Pretty lousy pressing but weren't all 70's era bootlegs pressed cheaply? I have many of the Amazing Kornyfone label boots in my collection, and they are all of dubious pressing quality. The program info was a piece of xeroxed paper slid inside the shrink, and usually the labels had something like "The Glory Singers Sing Gospel Hits".

IMO Rhino recreated the classic bootleg with this Yes record. It's great to hear the band in what would basically be their infancy, opening for Grand Funk, an American band, who were all over the radio waves back then. Yes gets the short set, with half the crowd milling around the beer stand waiting for the headliners to go on. The skip in "All Good People" is definitely a tape dropout, not the vinyl.

The quality of the pressing is really very bad. Mine even has a piece missing from the edge. It looks like it's broken off! It wouldn't have happened 30 years ago. It's a shame that there are no more quality controls. I also miss the rest of the concert, but when you find out here that the tape was stolen, it's not surprising. It's actually a disgrace to press a record from it.

most probably sourced from one of The Tooleman's widely available digital remasters. sounds as fantastic as it ever will. i love it, and im happy to now give of Yes and Chris Squire's estate some royalties in exchange for an officially released LP thats now in my collection.

as for the pressing, i tend to get really nit-picky with anything pressed by GZ because, to put it mildly, their pressing quality tends to be flawed on every single release ive ever bought, and this one is far from perfect. but it does seem to be mastered quite well. ill just chalk up the minor lacquer and/or plating flaw that i heard on the side A lead-in groves as an accidental attempt to replicate a cheap bootleg pressing, and the noise goes away as soon as the audio fades in. worry not, though! theres random fzzzz, clicks, and pops throughout the rest of the entire record. not in the least bit surprised, though. also, i'm glad that the rather obvious fuzzy piece of paper thats pressed into the outer edge of the record doesnt affect the play or throw my needle off the surface, either. my friends, this is not a high quality pressing.

and to set the record straight, the audio fades in at the start because the first note of YIND is clipped off on the original tape and sounds a bit wobbly from tape damage for the next second or so after that. a nice easy way to get around flaws that are inherent in the source, but i'm a "warts and all" kind of guy so it kind of annoyed me. but, hey. at least this is now officially available, sounds as great as it ever will, and it really is a fantastic performance. Highly Recommended!!

5 starts for the fantastic live Yes performance that any fan of the band should have in their collection, but a very weak 3 stars for the pressing quality; or lack thereof.

"Have a good time with Grand Funk!" (is this Steve or Chris who says this?)

This from Kevin Garrity who recorded the show and owned the original reel/s (it reads as though the tape was never returned to him);

"My employer had the contract to do sound for the entire Summer Series at Yale Bowl, I was ready to go, then every act came with it’s own touring PA and I was stuck with a full season backstage ;)

I had a small 5” Sony TC-800 Reel to Reel so I sat down in front of the board and found an unused mix buss out, jacked in and left the deck under my seat. I was expecting to record Grand Funk, Yes wasn’t on the tickets or in any of the advertising.

I turned down a thousand dollar offer for that tape in 1972, I explained to the gentleman that musicians are my friends, they have a hard enough time paying their bills.

Short story, I loaned the tape to a great friend, in his excitement he lost track of it and the next thing I knew it was on Napster and Limewire…….Now you know the story"

(Extract taken from Forgotten Yesterdays)

Not the best-sounding live release but as a casual fan, I was intrigued by an early live YES record and I love Bruford's drumming. Totally worth the purchase!

bootleg copy from a stolen copy they should go to Kevin Garrity the sound guy who has the masters