Addicted To Vinyl Musical thoughts from the open road, with headphones on

Good Listening: Yes – Richfield Coliseum – 9/19/78 – 30 Years Ago Today

In 1997, I learned officially exactly what it was that people loved about "classic Yes." After growing up as a fan of 90125-era Yes, I had free tickets to see "classic Yes" at Music Hall.

It was a show that despite my relative unfamiliarity with their 70s back catalog, I couldn't pass up.

Post-show, Yes had made me a believer. I finally got it, and realized what I had been missing all of those years, thanks to a little song called "Heart of the Sunrise." For a bunch of geezers playing classic rock, they sure could play.

A short time later, the radio station switchboard patched an important call through to me from a gentleman here in Cleveland named Bill M. (Bill of course has a last name, but I won't share that here in this particular story.) Bill was a Yes fan, looking for a copy of a Yes concert that the radio station had broadcast live from Richfield Coliseum in 1978. I had a good grip on what was in the archives at that point, and knew we didn't have it. Beyond that, I wasn't even aware of the broadcast's existence.

I officially had a new quest, and something new to find.

Doing some quick research on the internet, I was excited to discover that there was a bootleg of the show, called Madrigal Mystery Tour. I was disappointed when I got it, to find that the sound was average, as one would expect for a show recording from the time period. The source recording was obviously several generations removed from the original recording of the broadcast. But the show was amazing, and it had an epic version of "Heart of the Sunrise." I got in touch with Bill, we had lunch, and I gave him a copy of the bootleg - he was thrilled, and my quest went on.

After putting the word out to tapers that I was looking for someone that might have taped the show, I got several replies, all of which ended up being copies of the same bootleg that I already had. As the years passed, I would occasionally come across a copy of the show that had promise, but ultimately wound up at the same dead end, same bootleg.

Until last year when a recording surfaced online that had a description that sounded so good, that it HAD to be good. When I heard the opening moments, I had at last received a copy of a show in the quality that I had wanted to hear for so long.

From the show notes that accompanied the posting:

Yes Live In Cleveland Ohio. Live At The Richfield Coliseum. Also Known As The Slab. September 19th. 1978.Tuesday @ 8:00 P.M.

This recording has not seen the light of day for 28 years, 7 months and 21 days.

The above tape sounds just as good as the many reel-to-reel masters I've heard from other groups/shows in the same time period. Like some of the REALLY special legendary Cleveland concert broadcasts over the years, this is a broadcast that really puts you in the seats of the Coliseum on that September night in 1978.

Some people have a ticket stub to remember a classic show, and then there are others that stayed home from the show to capture something even better than good stories and the ticket stubs attached to them.

This one comes from one of those nights, courtesy of a Yes fan and his tape recorder that was paying special attention to that night's broadcast.

Here it is, 30 years later for your enjoyment...

P.S. - Bill and I fell out of touch in recent years, and it is my hope that one of these days, I'll be able to track him down to catch up on life, and share this long awaited discovery with him. So if you're reading this, drop me a line!

Yes
Richfield Coliseum
Richfield, OH
9/19/78

Disc One:

complete zipped download

Close Encounters/Siberian Khatru
Heart Of The Sunrise
Future Times-Rejoice
Circus of Heaven
Time and a Medley
Don't Kill The Whale
Madrigal/The Clap

Disc Two:

complete zipped download

Starship Trooper
On The Silent Wings Of Freedom
The Six Wives Of Henry The 8th.
Awaken
I've Seen All Good People
Roundabout

Steve Howe, guitars
Alan White, drums
Rick Wakeman, keyboards
Chris Squire, basses
Jon Anderson, vocals, harp, other noises

Thanks to eggplant2 for the incredible source!