Well I do have quite a few excuses as to why this GORR is so late, so just to bore you all, I'll go through them!

First of all, I don't carry a laptop with me on tour and I don't have an iPad or tablet thing, so am reliant on hotel computers whenever they are available......realize that I have to join the 21st Century and intend to treat myself to a tablet whilst I'm here......and get one of the crew to explain how it works!

I also wanted to let the tour get underway so I could give a proper report as to how I view how it's all going and finally.....the tour, interviews and travelling have taken up so much time, here in Boston is the first time I have had a chance to sit down and get writing!!!

We started rehearsing on the 19th September in Orlando and worked solidly through until the show at the Hard Rock which for a first show was really good. Lots of enthusiasm both on stage and off stage too......we all came off stage feeling extremely positive and happy except for the fact that we were being chased by Hurricane Matthew!

We then left immediately for Tampa as the hurricane pounded everywhere a few miles to our east......and then when we flew up to Durham it appeared the edge of the hurricane was in our flight path and amazing credit to the pilot who managed to keep the plane as level as possible and making an amazing landing.

The shows continued with us returning to Hollywood in Florida on the 12th to play the show that had been cancelled earlier because of the hurricane. Then things went back to normal although Pittsburgh has now been moved to the 30th of October.

Playing Philadelphia is always special as that is where YES initially "broke" thanks to a great DJ called Ed Sciarky, sadly no longer with us. It was lovely to get a visit from Michael Tate from Tate Towers who has played such an important part in the history of YES mainly throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

We are now 8 shows into the tour and ARW are truly playing so well....biased I know, but this is far and away the finest line up I've ever been part of playing YES music. Lee Pomeroy is wowing the audiences with his "The Fish" tribute which audiences love to bits.

Lou Molino III is one hell of a drummer. Rocks like crazy and has a technique the like of which I haven't heard since Bill Bruford. Jon is singing like an angel and his voice is on top form and Trevor is just amazing. What a phenomenal player and it's a joy to be on stage with all of them. There's smiles all round on stage from start to finish.

We are looking very seriously at producing a live album from the tour as there are already some very poor quality bootlegs appearing on the internet. We hate these and it's very annoying that people just don't have an ounce of decency or respect for the music but there's nothing you can do so we feel the best answer is to produce a high quality recording ourselves and hope that people would rather wait for that than buy poor quality illegal stuff.

As for a new album with new music. That's definitely going to happen next year and we are already discussing how we are going to do it. We already have some music well on the way that we have been exchanging.

The world tour is growing all the time.......Israel now booked for march 7th and Japan in April. A second show has been added in London at the Hammersmith Apollo in March as the first one is sold out as indeed are many of the UK shows. We then go into Europe and in the summer it's back to America.

I really would genuinely like to thanks everybody who has supported ARW and what we stand for and how we want to progress. Without you all, this just couldn't happen.

Finally, it has just been announced that YES have once again been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame......My feelings about this are pretty well known, but the real sadness for me is that it should have happened years ago and should the induction happen, then for me it will be severely tainted by Chris Squire not be able to be there.

I won't go into it any more as to my feelings as to how and why bands are chosen for induction, except to say that it needs a radical overhaul in my view.....Deep Purple inducted so late for example and Jon Lord not there to celebrate.....similarly John Entwhistle and the Who.....

That's it for this month...more to report in a few week’s time for the November GORR.

Enjoy Autumn!!

Cheers,
Rick

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