As they practiced in London's Townhouse studio, the Buggles seemed to be on the way to becoming stars. Next door to them were three established musicians who were trying to cope with a major splintering of members from their band, Yes. Keyboardist Rick Wakeman had left for the second time and founding vocalist Jon Anderson had been asked to leave the progressive rock group.
Remaining were founding bassist Chris Squire, long time guitarist Steve Howe and percussionist Alan White. Their breakup had not been under amicable circumstances. Jon had been pushed out as his lyric writing became 'too bizarre' for Squire and Howe, while Wakeman left as the animosity stalled work on a new album.
Geoff and Trevor were both big fans of Yes, having been to several concerts in the past. Together they went to Yes' studio to sell them a song, 'We Can Fly From Here', which they felt would complement Yes' style of; music. Chris Squire was familiar with the Buggles album The Age of Plastic, and offered an opportunity to jam with the other members. At the time, Yes had been feverishly working on several instrumental riffs in the hopes of creating a new album. They were contemplating touring as a trio, with Squire taking over lead vocals.
Yes and the Buggles
It certainly wasn't Trevor's dream, it was Chris's dream actually. He just couldn't take Jon's songs and sing them as beautifully as Jon could." -Steve Howe (1991)
"I guess you could say it was my first experience in live rock and roll. Chris was very supportive, as you can understand I was a little green at the thought of playing my first major rock concert in front of 18,000 people." -Geoff Downes (1992)
"I like the opportunity to write songs for Yes. When I was with the Buggles I had to come up with smarty-pants lyrics. This gives me a chance to write more in the style I like." -Trevor Horn (1980).
"I didn't go to any of the shows, but I heard they were throwing things (at Trevor), poor guy." -Eddie Offord, producer.
As they practiced in London's Townhouse studio, the Buggles seemed to be on the way to becoming stars. Next door to them were three established musicians who were trying to cope with a major splintering of members from their band, Yes. Keyboardist Rick Wakeman had left for the second time and founding vocalist Jon Anderson had been asked to leave the progressive rock group.
Remaining were founding bassist Chris Squire, long time guitarist Steve Howe and percussionist Alan White. Their breakup had not been under amicable circumstances. Jon had been pushed out as his lyric writing became 'too bizarre' for Squire and Howe, while Wakeman left as the animosity stalled work on a new album.
Geoff and Trevor were both big fans of Yes, having been to several concerts in the past. Together they went to Yes' studio to sell them a song, 'We Can Fly From Here', which they felt would complement Yes' style of; music. Chris Squire was familiar with the Buggles album The Age of Plastic, and offered an opportunity to jam with the other members. At the time, Yes had been feverishly working on several instrumental riffs in the hopes of creating a new album. They were contemplating touring as a trio, with Squire taking over lead vocals.
The Buggles performed quite well in rehearsals, still unaware that Jon and Rick had parted ways from the band a few months earlier. Squire was impressed by Geoff and Trevor's existing knowledge of the Yes music and lyrics. As Trevor was a vocalist and Geoff played keyboards, they theoretically assumed the vacancies left by Anderson and Wakeman. Within a week of their meeting, Squire offered the Buggles the opportunity to become members of the band.
This threw both of the Buggles into a state of shock. Trevor was understand- ably concerned about having to fill in Anderson's spot, but Chris Squire persuaded the newcomers that the era of Anderson 'was now behind them' and that they were looking forward to creating a new image and sound for Yes. With an album contract deadline looming, the quintet rushed to put words to the riffs created by the Squire-Howe-White trio. From this came the songs, 'Tempus Fugit'; 'Does It Really Happen?'; and a completed collaboration song, 'Run Through The Light'. The latter song had been initiated by Anderson as 'Dance Through The Light' during the Paris sessions.
Downes wrote a brief instrumental called 'White Car', in which he played all of the instruments on his Fairlight synthesizer, with Trevor providing a brief vocal solo. The Buggles contributed a song destined for their second album, called "Into the Lens". The leading 'epic' song on the album, 'Machine Messiah' was primarily written by Trevor, Chris and Alan.
Neither Geoff nor Trevor had played in concerts before large audiences as Yes had done regularly for years. Although the band wanted to primarily play tracks from the newly released album, now titled Drama, select older 'war horse' songs would have to be played to appease the fans.
Initially Chris Squire had informed Trevor not to feel pressured to fit into Jon's shoes on stage. As a baritone, Trevor strained to sound like Jon on the studio album, which worked thanks to overdubs and editing. Live performances were a different matter, as Trevor would only have one shot at getting songs right. He wanted to sing older songs in a lower key, but Squire changed his stance, insisting that Trevor attempt songs in Jon's range.
On August 28 - ten days after the release of the album, the band began it's tour in Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens before a full house. Many of the fans who went to the early shows were unaware of Jon and Rick's departure. They were needless to say, shocked when Geoff and Trevor stepped out from beneath the illuminated curtain that covered the center of the revolving stage at the beginning of concerts.
Horn performed reasonably well on the Drama material as well as adequately; covering most of the older material. The one exception was Parallels, which was horribly botched in the middle chorus section. The awkward performances of this song led to it's rapid removal from the set list.
Only one concert from the tour was ever broadcast, the September 6th show from New York City's Madison Square Garden. However, the broadcast was muffled due to interference from a severe thunderstorm which erupted over the city that night. That concert was a landmark for the band, as it marked Yes' 16th consecutive sellout of the famous arena, moving them past Led Zeppelin for 'most consecutive Madison Square Garden concert sellouts.' (eventually broken in the late 1980's by the Grateful Dead)
Prior to the show, the members were presented with customized commem- orative Rangers hockey sweaters in honor of their feat. Although they had sold out all three shows in New York, the tickets had been sold months before the lineup change was announced. Several thousand ticket holders showed their discontent with the new Yes and elected to stay home. Although Trevor's singing was not the highlight of the performance, Chris and Steve were absolutely on fire with their guitar work. Machine Messiah was the highlight, as Alan's drum riser was elevated on a hydraulic lift and rotated counter clockwise to the stage. The New York audiences gave the lineup a loud ovation at the end of the three performances.
As the tour drove on, news of the lineup changes had become common place knowledge. A fan in Chicago hung banners from the upper rafters with an inquiry, 'Where's Jon and Pat?'. People who attended the later U.S. concerts commented that Chris was drinking more than usual on stage, in one instance - nearly falling off the stage at the end of Roundabout. Trevor's voice was becoming ragged from the continued strain.
When the tour came to England in November, Horn's throat had become infected. By the end of the tour, many fans were leaving quite early in the performance, unwilling to watch the dead-hoarse vocalist struggling through the songs. Some fans were worse, loudly booing and in some cases, throwing beer cans on the stage. In London, England, a fan loudly elled, 'Bring Back Wakeman!' just as Geoff began his solo piece. The keyboardist didn't take lightly to the comment and returned a one finger salute. The atmosphere of negativity broke the morale of the band, leading to their decision to part ways in 1981.
Geoff and Steve departed to enter a newly forming Asia. Chris Squire and Alan White decided to enter a project of their own, which produced the Christmas-time 1981 solo, "Run With The Fox". Meanwhile, Trevor Horn completed the second Buggles album, 'Adventures In Modern Recording' then entered the role of producing other artists.
