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Yes
9012 Live
(Warner Music Vision)

Yes in their ‘80s production heavy period (featuring stalwarts Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, and Alan White with pre Rick Wakeman keyboard prodder Tony Kaye and Steve Howe replacement Trevor Rabin), but then Yes were never ones to hold onto any kitchen sinks if they could be lobbed into proceedings and consequently tracks like ‘Owner Of A lonely Heart’, whilst dripping in ‘80s production gloss still have enough convoluted time signatures and ethereal wailing to keep Yes luddites - many of whom believed Rabin and producer Trevor Horn dragged their beloved prog dinosaurs up a bland Journey and Foreigner cul-de-sac – happy. Jon Anderson is still the most uncomfortably looking front person in rock and on occasion this show does look and sound uncomfortably like the Trevor Rabin show, but the swooping 3D computer graphics, interspersed with old black and white footage ensured things footle along nicely enough, but if the truth be known the best moments are, and greatest audience responses still elicited by, classic early Yes moments like ‘Starship Trooper’, ‘I’ve Seen All Good People’ and bonus track ‘Roundabout’. Those of you not enamoured by ‘80s style computer generated jiggery-pokery also get the whole show graphically denuded, plus some access-all-areas extra footage.

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Neil Young
Rust Never Sleeps
(Sanctuary Midline)

Notoriously ramshackle live concert production which regardless of the barely contained pandemonium surrounding it still went on to become widely regarded as one of the best filmed live performances ever. So why is it that a film dotted with clunky interludes, huge great chunks of dead air (dead that is, aside from amplified crashing and banging), and a concept that is best described as impenetrable is held in such esteem? Simple really, Rust Never Sleeps succeeds because it’s crammed to overflowing with some of the greatest songs ever written, and performed by a singer/songwriter and band in astonishingly good form. From the opening acoustic solo section (Sugar Mountain, Comes A Time, After The Goldrush) to the thunderous Crazy Horse assisted wind up set (Powderfinger, Cortez The Killer, Cinnamon Girl, Like A Hurricane) this live show positively sizzles with passion, Young in particular excelling whether coaxing gentle fragile ballads from his acoustic guitar, piano and harmonica or wreathing songs in huge great feedback laden solos. Acts like the Talking Heads and Metallica would later play with stage production to far greater effect, but in 1978 this was as good as it got

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Neil Young
Greendale
(Sanctuary)

Welcome to a world of badly cut and pasted newspaper mock ups, firemen that wear their helmets in the pub, artists in berets and the most tenuously linked set of songs cobbled into a storyline this side of Tommy. In brief Grandpa and Jed sit on the front porch, Jed then drives around in a car loaded with class A’s, is visited by the devil and shoots a policeman, this prompts Grandpa to lose his rag with the intrusive media and die from a heart attack. For reasons that are never made entirely clear a painter who can’t flog his paintings then takes the devil to Alaska, and Sun Green (the female heroine), try’s to wake the world up to war being a bad thing by making big signs with hay and bringing the worlds attention to ecological problems in Alaska by chaining herself to a big metal eagle in the town hall. Add to this a short lived relationship between Sun and Earth Brown (are you getting the subtext yet?) and what you have is… Well a mess frankly. However it is an engaging enough mess and some of the songs are great. Probably one for Neil Young fans only though.

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