YES, Yes really did play York Barbican on Wednesday. Or, rather, Yes featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman, as they now have to call themselves, did so with their elongated name distinguishing this Yes from guitarist Steve Howe’s Yes.

Yes have always been a Yes or No band; yes, you either loved the prog rock behemoth’s ornate, gravely serious musicality or, no, you thanked ratty Johnny Rotten that punk restored the urgent wonder of the three-minute rock hit in 1976.

Yet Yes have rolled on for 50 years and this latest touring line-up embraces their prime eras: founder member Anderson, he of the wondrous high voice, from the Sixties; lanky lord of the keyboard Wakeman, hair still long, omnipresent cape even longer, from the Seventies; and Rabin, an intense figure over his guitar, from the Eighties.

York Press:

Trevor Rabin performing at York Barbican on Wednesday. Picture: Simon Bartle  

For this “Quintessential Yes” 50th anniversary tour, the Yes three are augmented by enthusiastic bassist Lee Pomeroy and unflappable Philadelphian drummer Louis Molino III, who slotted seamlessly into the expansive soundscape of a Yes show, and how the York Barbican full house lapped up all their Yes-terdays over two sets on Wednesday night.

Anderson, singing from his plinth with his hands ever expressive, flowed in and out of the complex, oft-changing song structures built by Rabin’s surging guitar and Wakeman in his kingdom of keyboards. Behind them video projections took to the night skies of a far-off galaxy, as songs travelled on an equally long journey, much to the delight of T-shirted lifelong devotees in the crowd, who would rise to their feet at the end of each magnum opus to roar their appreciation.

Quintessentially Yes? Yes indeed.