YES
Tour Crew, Managers, and Roadies!
By David Watkinson
The music press over the years have very rarely covered the subject of a bands crew, or managers, well unless it was the Beatles of course. But I for one find it an interesting subject, because they all helped in the making of YES. Here we look into the inner world of the touring band, I delve a little into some classic touring names from the past, some of which you will know well.
The article idea came about due to some fabulous memorabilia finds in the last two years, that absolutely needed to be shared. It just goes to show that if you keep looking for these rarities, with determination, the luck keeps coming. Also a few long-lost road crew, have excitedly told their stories, sharing some telling tales while with the young touring YES.
Firstly though, looking at the music business from a current perspective and a touring band like YES, you see it being a quite a heady exhausting endeavour. The cost of touring has significantly increased year on year, and the complexity and management of world touring is far more challenging now with wars, exchange rates, viruses, border challenges, Brexit, new leaders, and visa issues. As we all know touring a band is not for the faint hearted or for those of a timid disposition, as you are entering a very odd world, and one which multitasking was made for. Plus now in the 2020s, touring for bands has become the primary income field, which wasn’t always the case.
Cast your mind back then to the first decade of YES‘ career. At the very start the simplicity was there, all the YES managers had to do was phone the venue up, confirm a date, send a conformation contract letter, phone the YES lads up, tell them to get in the van and drive, yes it had to be managed, but the world was a different place. Whether its 1968/9/70 or 2025 managing a band, their needs, wants, their personalities is always a challenge, but life on the road is also a joint thrill, full of recognition, and heart-warming meetings, and spine-tingling musical moments.
The basic arrangement for the crew on tour in the simple years, would be the manager, singular for the main position, a handful of forever expanding technical crew, and a variety of roadies, and this never stopped as the years went by, it just grew. At the start then the dream coming together of an eager, forward looking YES, and their first help on tour, with the genius of Mr Michael Tait, the early kingpin that changing YES for the better, in so many ways. Now a fifty-year friend of the band, his enthusiasm and technical know-how helped to make YES what they were at the start but also made them leaders in the live show arena.
When you look at the amazing people YES had around them, there had to be something special going on, magical, mystical, was it the positive name of the band that just drew people in, like a moth to a flame, it had to be, as so many exceptional people gathered around the YES flame. Quality and professional people attracted more of the same, I guess.
The opportunity to cover all the heady important figures from these early days would mean an even larger article than it turned out to be, and this is probably large enough I would guess. A cut off point had to be reached, and a deeper dive into the 1970’s, or other key names such as, Eddie Offord, Jack Barrie, John Roberts, Roy Flynn, or more crew such as John Cleary, Frank Levi 111, would have to be for another day. Some information is out there for the keen fan to keep digging into, but for now at least, we can have a look at just a few of these special YES crew members and friends.
Michael Tait
Above: Michael in the early 1970s from the YESsongs booklet. (Atlantic Records/David Gahr/Martin Dean)
Above: A mid 1970s company shirt for the Tait Towers Lighting company USA. (David Watkinson Collection)
Michael just about created everything the YES lads needed on stage and more. Designing this and that, to problems as they arose, he had a limitless imagination, that was there developing not just for YES, but for the whole industry. Whether it was, speakers, wires, cables, lights, sound ideas, pedal boards, recording, mixing, or even driving the car, and booking places, the steady thinker that got things done, was crucial at the start, and now of course in 2025, YES still use his company.
Next onboard was Llewy, who you can see was in the pay chart, doing the standard lifting, lugging, portering and building the stage equipment. Philip Hepple joined up and was doing pretty much the same, but it would seem he fit in well enough to be the right person to progress up the YES ladder in time. YES had a few part time roadies hook up to help, and it would appear a young man called Phil Collins, yes that one, also helped Bill Bruford, but all things worked out you could say for the superstar Phil, and so being a roadie for YES became less of an interest, Ha. Sporadic helpers came in the form of Dermot Bassett, Terry, and Jed. Others such as Keith and Nu Nu would join the crew with some becoming legendary names in those 1970’s YES tour programmes.
Dermot Bassett
I caught up with a YES helper and part time roadie Dermot Bassett in 2024 and he recalled some of the old days of YES on tour and in the studio:
“My friend and I were quite smitten with YES and started going to gigs in other areas than around London, getting to the venues early. Their road tour manager was Michael Tait, and we offered to help unloading the truck which was gracefully received. Michael employed Clyde (Llew or Llewy) Llewellen with my friend and I, assisting whenever we could. After a couple of years, my friend dropped out, and I found myself sat in the truck with Philip and Llewy a lot, going up and down the motorways. Philip Hepple joined in due to a driver not turning up. I continued doing what I was doing, which I loved, but when it was without my friend, this was when I became an ad hoc crew member.
Better still, I was in Advision Studio a lot of the time, where everything was really happening. Watching the band’s progression was special. Then there was the day Phil Collins came in just sat at the kit and started playing. Chris quickly grabbed his bass and joined in. They played the riff from, “I want to Take You Higher”, by Sly and the Family Stone round and around. The highlight for me though was Jon and Steve coming in one day, going into the control room and playing a delicate little acoustic song. The next day I went to America for three weeks and on my return, I walked into the studio and was greeted by a thunderous sound! When it got to the vocal it was the same little acoustic song, it was ‘Heart Of The Sunrise’! It really was the happening place to be.
I liked Llewy but Philip was different, he stood up to Michael! Sometimes Michael would ask Philip to do something then walk away. If Philip didn’t agree he’d follow Michael quickly calling “Michael, Michael” until he got an answer. I can still hear him now, all these years later! To Philip Hepple, I was a crew member and that was how he treated me. Philip nearly got us all arrested once. We were going up the M1 and got pulled over by the police. No reason, just a check. The policeman asked what was in the truck and Philip replied “Gear” (slang for drugs). You should have seen the coppers (policeman) face light up! They thought it was their lucky day, but Philip quickly added “musical instruments”. What a disappointment it was for them!
Another memory I have of him was when the band were playing Manchester and Leeds University’s on consecutive days. I joined them at the pickup spot and Philip said we had to pick up some scaffolding! I said why do we need scaffolding? Philip replied “Don’t know. Michael wants it.” When we got to Manchester we unloaded the gear plus the scaffolding. Michael, always ahead of other people, wanted us to put up scaffolding at the back of the hall to mix the band from there, so we ran a multicore across the ceiling from the front to the back. Only problem was, it didn’t quite reach the back! Michael got up there anyway and I remember Philip shouting “Michael, Michael, the punters want to see the band not up your arse!”
True of course, but it put YES ahead of the competition and became the way mixing was done. From the back of the venue. YES, became bigger and the crew grew. Philip always included me. When the photos for the YESsongs album were taken, I stood to one side, but Philip pulled me into it. Sadly that photo wasn’t used, and they used individual photos instead. As YES’ career continued, I gradually lost touch with them all, I often wondered what happened to the guys.”
Right: At the Crystal Palace gig in the UK, crew member Dermot Bassett and Claude Johnson-Taylor on the right. (Roger Dean/Doming-Hamilton)
Dermot Bassett adding another memory from the 1970s, “I was standing on the side of the stage with Robert Fripp (King Crimson). He applauded as much as anyone at the end of the YES concert, joining the calls for an encore. When the band came back on, he looked at me and said “It worked” in that broad West Country accent.”
Clyde Llewellyn (Llew/Llewy)
Above: The well-known portrait of Llew from the YESsongs album booklet. (Atlantic/David Gahr/Martin Dean)
Llew wearing the very rare CTTE T-Shirt, it’s maybe the only official image of Llew in his time with YES, and interestingly this image along with the other crew pictures that were taken, were done so at a session in the YES storage building. As an aside, you can see on every picture a dark bar or section. The photographer apparently messed up by having the wrong sync flash setting on the day.
Speaking in 2025 on all things YES, after fifty plus years, Llew takes us through his YES connections and stories:
What were you doing in the 1960s, and 1970s, and how did YES come along?
“I was born in London in 1950 and lived most of my life in Pimlico. I attended grammar school in Chelsea and left at seventeen to join the GPO telephone service as an apprentice engineer. Because I lived in the heart of Central London, I could easily attend the Marquee Club, a short bus ride away, and between the ages of 16 and 19 I attended many shows, often twice a week. I saw Hendrix supported by the The Nice, early shows by Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, AC/DC. The Move and the Nice in their own weekly residencies. I eventually befriended Neat Change, who had a series of Saturday residencies at the Marquee.
I became their full-time roadie, for very little pay, but it was what I wanted to do, and when guitar player Brian left, I suggested that they take on Peter Banks, who I had met at La Chasse, a semi-private drinking club just down the street from the Marquee. The Syn had broken up and he was looking for work. Neat Change had begun to switch from their R&B set list to a more California West Coast sound which suited Peter’s playing, but that only lasted a month before Neat Change called it a day. I was out of a job, so I took work at a delicatessen in Soho which continued to allow me easy access to the Marquee, where I saw YES for the first time.
So on 3rd May, 1969, I saw they were playing at Chelsea Art College, and after the gig I approached them and begged for a job. Five days later, Mike Tait and I were lugging a Hammond organ up the steps into Scarborough’s Penthouse club. Eventually, I did close to 300 YES gigs with the band before settling full-time in California.”
Above: The early YES press releases from Paragon, with one having quite an amazing review by drumming legend Buddy Rich.
How was touring, and were there any YES gigs that stood out from the 300?
“Some early gigs I really remember were the Harrods Way Inn boutique(!) An arena in Essen, Germany, when someone drove a Volkswagen bus through the plate glass entry windows. A riot in another arena in Paris when the crowd broke into the bars, and someone tossed a full bottle of Johnny Walker scotch from the balcony level. It bounced unbroken next to me, and I thought, Thank you very much, Ha!
In the summer of 1969 the band was booked to play a private party in Holland Park, London, hosted by Prince Rupert Loewenstein, financial manager for The Rolling Stones. It was supposed to be a dress in all‐white party, observed by most guests ‐ except Marianne Faithfull, who conspicuously turned up all in black. YES played second on an open-air stage in a covered back garden. The neighbours heard every note. It was impossible to drag the equipment through the house when finished, so we had to come back the following morning, which was when Tony Kaye was discovered in a bathtub, his hair covered in vomit after indulging in way too much champagne. We were booked in Barnstaple that night, a long drive in those days. Tony had to travel with the band in that state.
The band were becoming popular, on a small scale because we worked a lot of gigs up and down the country. Still relying heavily on cover songs to flesh out the show, just done the YES way. One I remember clearly was the 5th Dimension’s ‘Paper Cup’, “Here inside my paper cup everything is looking up”, not an obvious choice really.
Despite the number of gigs, there was very little money to be had. We travelled seven of us in a Ford Transit van with all the gear in the back, with only three licensed drivers Mike, Chris and Jon. No matter how far away the gig was, we always had to travel back to London that night after the show. There was no money for hotels, B&Bs or things like that, that came later. That sucked heavily when booked into places like Newcastle, Haverfordwest or Plymouth, especially in those pre-motorway days.”
Above: Details in this correspondence for one the strangest venues for a YES gig ever, they share the night with the American country rock band The Flying Burrito Brothers.
Would it be true to say that the crew was just winging it daily, dealing with whatever came their way with very little training?
“Yes, his went on for a while until Philip Hepple joined as the third roadie. Manager Roy Flynn gave the band his own Volvo for their personal use. That allowed Mike, Philip and I to travel in the Transit. Still, Tony Kays leg was broken when the Volvo crashed on the way back from a gig in Plymouth. Mike Tait had previously been involved in a business that went around picking up used developer from photography studios to recycle any silver nitrate. After moving south from Middlesbrough, Philip was hired as the driver to replace Mike and then joined YES, to relieve his driving duties.”
Above: Broken drums lead to compensation being paid, payments to Mr Tait and towing a broken vehicle are all part of a month managing YES. (David Watkinson Collection)
YES on tour were always on the hunt to be better in all areas, what did you see as they progressed?
“The equipment at that time was very minimal. The sound system sucked – two WEM bass cabinets with Marshall 8 x 10s on top, driven by a god knows what amp, and a WEM Audiomaster mixer – which was not a good thing for a band that relied heavily on harmony vocals. This was to change in a big way later. The worst time with that crappy PA was the ‘Time And A Word’ concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with a small orchestra. Mike had cobbled together the YES PA with stuff borrowed from Fleetwood Mac, courtesy of their crew chief Dinky Dawson.
The show was an unmitigated disaster. At that time, no one really knew how to mic an orchestra with a loud band, Shure SM57s somehow strung over the string section was not the way to go. I should note at this time that neither Peter or Steve were/are real singers, which is why they were used for the lower end of the harmonies arranged by ex-choirboy Chris. Lots more wiggle room in the bottom end.”
Mike Tait was the go-getting tech head, plus could dream up ideas and fix anything, how was that for the band?
“The band’s rehearsal space was at Roy Flynn’s house on Putney Hill in his basement, a space with no window to speak of. I remember this did not sit well with his live-in girlfriend. To save money, Mike and I would manufacture some of the road cases to protect the band’s equipment, especially Bill’s silver sticky-paper-covered drums as I recall he had no real cases, perhaps one for the snare.
We made a wooden box for the bass drum. We found a steel travel trunk to stuff in the hardware and tom-toms. You can see them in the BBC Hemel Hempstead video, with yours truly bare-chested and long-haired, setting up the drum kit by pulling stuff from that steel trunk.
Mike designed a double Leslie cabinet for Tony, built in his flat, powered by a crappy Selmer PA amp. A million flat head screws that I installed by hand. No cordless drills in 1969. He later had me replace the steel screw with stainless ones. Then we discovered it was too big to get out of his flat. Disassemble. I’ve hated flat head screws ever since.”
YES are known for their band member changes right from the start! What did you witness?
“Indeed, well I was there when Jon decided that Pete was no longer to be a member of the band, and he was fired. Chris Welch, writer for Melody Maker, and a good friend to the band was later to describe Jon as ‘The hippy with an iron fist in a velvet glove…’
I do remember sitting with Chris Squire in a gig somewhere on the South Coast – possibly Weymouth – when he was pressing me to think if I can think of any guitar player that may be suitable to fit the upcoming missing spot in the band. Because I was single and living at home, my twelve pound a week wages went a lot further than Mike’s or Philip’s, who had to pay rent and I was always at different shows when YES were not working, e.g. the Marquee (free entry!), UFO, The Roundhouse, The Lyceum.
I do remember telling him that I had just seen Steve Howe playing at the Speakeasy just the week before with his band Bodast. We knew that Steve had a good reputation around town. He’d been the guitarist in the band Tomorrow, and he was a very good player, probably better than Peter, although very different and I think perhaps Chris took the idea to Jon and the next thing I know Steve had joined the band.”
How did that change the band do you think?
“Mid-summer, it was decided that the band should take some time and move out to a house in the country which was just becoming a thing to do back then as Traffic had done it. We moved down to Devon, with the aid of the local promoter, ending up in a farmhouse that Steve eventually bought, and I travelled with them as the only crew member, while Mike and Philip stayed in town. We were there for about a month, and I was the chief cook, and bottle washer.
There was still very little money, and Jon had to go to the owners of the farmhouse to borrow some cash, so I could be taken into town by the farmer’s wife to purchase food so we could eat. Roy Flynn came down to the farmhouse and was informed that he was no longer needed as the manager. Tony – who did not have a driver’s license and was tripping on acid at the time – drove Roy to the train station in Barnstaple as dawn broke so he could return to town.
I felt sorry for Roy at the time. He had invested a lot in the band but out came the velvet glove again. He did retain a small interest in the band, hence Bill’s tune “Five Percent for Nothing” on ‘Fragile’.”
The YES machine began to succeed, so what can you recall about studio work?
“This of course was the beginning of the band’s real success with The Yes Album, and the beginning of the band’s relationship with the always ready to do a deal Brian Lane.
If you ever wondered if the song ‘Starship Trooper’ had anything to do with the Robert Heinlein book, let me tell you this. My father was a member of a science fiction book of the month club, and I had taken a copy of said book with me to the farmhouse, along with my crappy stereo, some albums and several other science fiction titles. Starship Trooper was laying around in the common area, easily picked up by anyone. Jon was never one to let a good opportunity pass by.
Apart from my cheap stereo with limited albums, the only other entertainment in the farmhouse was a small black and white TV in the corner of the common area. I’m pretty sure this is where someone spotted the opening theme to a crime show called Gideon’s Way. The opening to ‘Yours is no Disgrace’ is lifted almost note-for-note. I recall we all piled into the car to Barnstaple, me to drop of that same crappy Selmer PA amp that Tony was using for repair. Damn thing would constantly blow capacitors and turn into a motorboat.
The band spread out looking for a record shop so they could find a copy of Simon and Garfunkel’s album Bookends to read the lyrics of ‘America’. Although worked upon on the farm, and played live, that song never appeared on a YES album. At the insistence of Atlantic UK’s chief Phil Carson, it did end up on an Atlantic Records sampler, The New Age of Atlantic in 1972.
Many times I went off to Advision Studios, along with Eddy Offord, but it was a terrible place if you weren’t in the studio itself. No lounge, only a cold reception area. The album took off almost immediately in the UK. Turns out later there was some Brian Lane shenanigans involved in initially getting it into the charts. Well reported elsewhere, but at the time way above my pay grade.”
YES always toured hard and wanted the best, can you talk about the sound system?
“With the success of The Yes Album we were back on the road, grinding it out all over the UK and Europe all through 1970. Life was good. But 8th of January 1971 was a turning point in the story of YES.
It was in Eindhoven, Holland, the opening dates of YES supporting Iron Butterfly organized by Atlantic UK’s Phil Colson. Iron Butterfly was promoting their new album Metamorphosis, which I highly recommend, but in that theatre in Eindhoven when the ‘Theme for 2001’ came blasting out of the U.S. sound system, imported by Iron butterfly, our jaws just dropped. This was a system consisting of W-bins – folded horns for the bass – separate horns for midrange and treble. All powered by Crown amps. It was so unlike anything we had ever heard. The usual at that time in the UK was bands stacking up masses of WEM 4×12 speakers, powered by these 100watt amplifiers, of which you could pick up half a dozen with one hand and maybe mixed by WEM Audiomasters ganged together on the side of the stage. This US sound system was so far advanced of anything like that.
It had a long mil-spec multi cable which stretched way out into the audience area so that you could mix from the front of house rather than the side of the stage. It also had compressor and limiters built in which enabled much more clarity for the vocals, essential for YES. And there were monitors! The band could actually hear themselves for the first time. This was unknown in the UK. And now every instrument could be mic-ed. Especially the drums. While the Altec mixers are now considered pretty primitive, this was now far and away the best sound system in the UK.
At tour’s end, YES bought the system from owner Don Hartwig’s D-Hi Sound. Don was from San Antonio Texas, and later went on to Showco Sound, who became a major touring sound company in the US for a very long time. This same PA was used by Elvis on tour.”
With the YES personal changing again with Tony Kaye leaving, what did you make of his replacement Rick Wakeman?
“The first any of the crew knew about was Rick when we were hauling his Hammond up the stairs into a rehearsal studio in Mayfair, London, which turned out to be the top floor of a well-known knocking shop. “Lots of young ladies in fur coats” said Bill later.
Having worked up some fresh material it was back into Advision studios with Eddie Offord to begin recording Fragile. Rick still had many outstanding gigs to complete for his session work and I vividly remember him sitting in the very cold and austere reception area very early in the morning, frantically trying to stay awake while writing charts for an upcoming session.
Despite other accounts on recording Fragile, Ricks organ solo in “Roundabout” did not come in the first and only take. It took many takes, going well into the early hours of the morning, Rick playing at a faster and faster speed to try and find something that would appease his new band members tastes, until finally you can hear the finished product on the album. Bill’s contribution to the album was ‘Five Per Cent for nothing”. He was still mad at the deal cut with Roy Flynn.”
Do you recall any inside stories not told before from the studios or live?
“Well as for the name of the album Fragile, I’ll take some tiny credit for that. The monitor speakers that came along with the new PA system were not built that well. They were rickety, nailed together and to stop stagehands chucking them around too much I had stencilled FRAGILE in very large letters across all of them. When Brian Lane was talking to the press and they asked for the name of the new album, he was sitting in his office and looked up at the poster of Steve Howe pinned up on the wall and in front of Steve was one of the monitor cabinets with my stencil FRAGILE right across and that was that.
Above: Steve Howe with the influential “FRAGILE YES” monitor. (Star Posters Ltd/David Watkinson Collection)
‘Roundabout’ took off in America, so back we went, this time with a full crew. One gig I remember especially was at The Ritz Theatre on Staten Island, supporting the Kinks. A drunk Ray Davies – apparently thinking this support band was playing too long, or too well – crawled under the curtains at the back of the stage and unplugged Rick’s keyboards. Noot (Tour Crew) went ballistic, chased Davies back into the Kinks dressing room and had to be pulled off while threatening to punch out the lights of one of England’s most illustrious songwriters.
While in Los Angeles, Noot and I become crew of his new band, the prog-metal Captain Beyond. So at the end of the US Fragile tour, Noot and I announced we were not flying back to the UK, but back to Los Angeles. I ended up living in Laurel Canyon, shacked up with two strippers from The Kit-Kat Club. Next time I saw YES in 1974 was at their Long Beach Close to The Edge gig, where Jon dedicated the title track to me from the stage, after I waltzed into the dressing room with the strippers on my arm.”
“Thank you very much, thank you. Its..uh this next song. In dedication to..uh the gentleman that was with the band for such a long time and now he, he’s sitting out there watching, I do believe. This one’s for Llewellyn. Been swinging with us. It’s called Close To The Edge.” (Scott Salmon)
Above: Part of the back cover of the first live YES album, the classic, YESsongs. (David Watkinson Collection)
After a year, I decided that I was ready for something new, and a mutual friend contacted Mike Tait, and told him I was ready to come back. My new position with the band was ‘Vibes’, sort of an assistant tour manager – a job at which I sucked, Haha. I toured Japan, Australia and the US, and then back to London and Morgan Studios for the recording of ‘Tales‘. I hated it. It was Steve and Jon’s baby, lots of parts rehearsed, recorded and then sewn together to make some kind of continuity. For me it was musical masturbation. Rick hated it too. There was a good bar at the studio and Rick spent all his time there – when he wasn’t adding a part to Black Sabbath’s album, as they were there recording at the same time.
Assistant lighting man Andy Barker and I built Jon’s now-infamous faux tiled bathroom in the studio – four sheets of plywood with loads of tiles glued on to make a lidded three-sided box. That lasted all of ten minutes before it was abandoned. Some of the extra tiles did end up in my rented flat’s bathroom, Thank you, Jon.”
Did you manage to take any photos from your time with YES, or keep any memorabilia at all?
“No memorabilia. I lost everything when I moved to California permanently. A box of my stuff was left at the YES warehouse for later shipping. It went missing. Pity. It had my gold albums and a good stereo!”
A life after YES then, what did you decide to do?
“Once again, I made the decision to return to LA, where I have lived since 1972, where I was once again head-hunted. This time by Poco, who had supported YES on lots of USA dates. I spent most of the next ten years as Rusty Young’s guitar tech. When they were off the road, I took some opportunities to tour with other bands, like Steely Dan, Dave Mason, Donna Summer, Riot, and Rita Coolidge. Married my wife of 40-plus years in New Orleans while on tour with Rita, when she had a week residency at a small jazz club off Canal Street. Together we run the Estate of her late husband, Tim Buckley, so, while essentially retired, I still have a hand in the musical pot.”
Speaking with various people around YES, Llew always came out well, it was often said he was a good time guy and was genuinely liked all round. Considering the pressures of touring and being a road crew member and more in those days, it was often felt as a thankless job. With no specific job description at the start, and maybe even still a sketchy one as you progressed, you just had to manage somehow, and progressed making it up as you went along, ultimately the job came down to, if there was a problem of any sort, your job was to fix it.
Above: A rare mention of a crew member in the local press
YES crew roadie Dermot Bassett remembers going to meet Llewy one day at the YES offices in London. Shocked at the state of the building, and just how bad it all looked, no YES palace for sure, he was expecting so much more, but those days in the 1970’s, Hillgate Street was so unimpressive. “Heading up the stairs to Brian’s Lane’s office, I think we mainly sat around on the comfy chairs a lot, and Brian Lane not being happy with Llewy, as he always rolling a joint, Haha”.
Philip R Hepple
Time passes by and of course this means we do lose people from YES’ historically glorious past. Sometimes this can lead to discovering long lost items, it can be a lengthy process for sure, but when you do find items, then a whole new world opens again. In 2024 I came across the personal YES belongings for the former roadie, and YES tour manager Philip. These have been hidden away for fifty years and are a remarkable find. They add to the YES story generally but do give remarkable insights into being a YES road manager in the 1970s. Step back in time to 1974, with these touring items for YES.
Right: Famously shown here from the YESsongs booklet back cover. (Hepple family/David Watkinson Collection/Atlantic Records)
Above: Philip Hepple’s YES boots collection, all very 1970’s, which look well used. (Hepple family/David Watkinson Collection)
Above: Around the touring YES, many started life as a roadie, then developed into equipment managers, personal equipment managers, to eventually tour managers. (David Watkinson Collection/Atlantic Records)
Above: A close-up of the Fragile album award given to Phillip Hepple! (David Watkinson Collection)
Above: Philip Hepple’s name clearly marked on his case with one ‘L’ and so different to the record award. (Hepple family/David Watkinson Collection)
Philip Hepple by 1973 and the Topographic Oceans tour would have risen to the position of ‘General Tour Manager, Stage Monitoring and Bass’.
Above: Philip Hepple with his Jaguar E-Type (Philip Hepple)
Above: The private phone book, and the logbook for the Bedford 3 Ton YES van that was used to transport them around the UK. (Hepple family/David Watkinson Collection)
This was a time of course when either late at night or just late for the show, YES would be driving at speed through the towns in the UK, just about avoiding a crash! Swapping drivers over, and just maybe with the help of substances trying their very best to stay awake but failing a few times unfortunately. Bill Bruford once put the being in a band situation into perspective, by saying in a report from New York, “Being in a group as such, it was like being in a pod, an insulated capsule containing five musicians, a businessman, a tour manager, 3 equipment experts, a record producer, a publicist, a man from Atlantic and two tonnes of electronic wizardry leaping from city to city like a jumping bean just stopping long enough to deliver the goods.”
Above: The original YES tour manager’s briefcase from Philip Hepple. (Hepple family/David Watkinson Collection)
After a year and a great deal of negotiating, I managed to get access to the information shown. These were used through his time with YES from around 1970 to 1974. Let’s look at one side of the case showing all the tour stickers. Watney’s Brown Ale drink, Black Sabbath, Love heart, Camel cigarettes, Electric Factory Concerts, Jim Koplik and Shelly Finkel Press Pass, August 10, 1972. (Hepple family/David Watkinson Collection)
Above: We see stickers from around the world. (Hepple family/David Watkinson Collection)
A large Atlantic YES logo sticker for Close To The Edge, a smaller YES sticker, Backstage Beaver Productions backstage pass, a Black Sabbath sticker, Nassau Community College, Sacramento Convention Centre, Quantas, San Diago Sports Arena backstage pass for the Topographic Tour, 21 March 1974, Keep On Truckin…, Howard Stern Presents Back Stage Pass. (Hepple family/David Watkinson Collection)
Above: More account books, and hotel paperwork from the briefcase. A live cassette tape, maps, tags, notes all found inside. (Hepple family/David Watkinson Collection)
One receipt shown, Number 27, looks to read as follows, ‘Received from YES MUSIC for Work Done’ between ??? to 11-2-1970. This would be on the UK tour, and someone possibly called Andrew was paid £78 in total, and it goes on to say that all taxes will be paid on a self-employed basis. The address looks to be in a village called Ringmer, which is near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.
Above: The original 1974 T-Shirt for the General Tour Manager Philip Hepple. (David Watkinson Collection)
Claude Johnson-Taylor
Starting out in the crew Claude is shown here above in the 1973 YESsongs era, Claude was the “Equipment Manager” at this point. By 1974 and through 1975 his job was as in the YES programmes as, “Guitars”, and by 1976/7 his role was described as “Steve’s Equipment”. This was a long relationship on the road and one which would have been intense you expect, having to look after such a guitar collection that Steve Howe owned. Claude was within the YES team through the Going For The One and Tormato albums, and till the end of the decade, when in the 1980’s YES broke up.
Above: Early YES sew-on patches for Claude shown at the UK Crystal Palace show in London. (Roger Dean)
The legendary YES book author Chris Welch, and champion for YES in the press from the beginning remembered, “most of my time with the band was either at soundchecks or at the gigs. I saw the roadies a lot, I do remember us being driven around Swiss mountain roads at high speed on ice and snow in two hired American limos. We passengers watched with great alarm at the sight of the leading Cadillac spinning round in a complete circle going down a steep hill. No idea which roadie was driving then, I was just glad he wasn’t in charge of our car! I wrote once about YES in Paris when the band and crew was caught up in a riot by anti-capitalist protesters demanding free music. It’s funny, the mob were demanding ‘Free Music!’ They should have gone to see Paul Rodgers and Paul Kossoff.”
A good example of the band’s struggle at the start, was captured in the words of Bill Bruford, as he remembered seeing Jon Anderson sitting on the stairs at 50 A Munster Road in Fulham, London. He recalled Jon was a hard worker on the phone, like a dog, pushing and hustling, trying to rustle up vans, trying to get another £5 out of someone for petrol, just trying to keep the thing alive. Bill Bruford also tried to introduce his own bank account and cheque book to the band, to help plan and save a little and be more conscientious but said that he was looked upon as some kind of devil incarnate for the audacity of the idea.
Roy Flynn managed to get the band a bank account at Coutts in London, in Sloan Street. Roy once said to the band, “were do they think the money was coming from, I pay the wages, the equipment, the repairs on the road, and there is nowhere near enough income from the gigs to pay for all that”.
It was clear the success wasn’t instant, and the slog would take a few more years, internally there were massive problems, people blaming people, it was all going pear shaped they had no huge advance for the first album, and it was said that the royalties were slow to come in, there was no money. It was clear that even moving forward a year, and with two albums out, everyone was broke, it wasn’t looking good, and it wasn’t heading in the right direction at the right speed, so things had to change. A new paragraph was to be written in the YES history and only three years in too. Changes would come with a new manager, and a new guitarist, some wiping clean of what came before, and a keen eye on getting the next step right or be thrown away by Atlantic Records, so they hurtled headlong into a money-making new chapter, and decade.
YES’ fortunes would change with the releases of both The YES Album, and Fragile, and with the new go-getting manager Brian Lane, who was said had financial wizardry in his hands, and came with the nickname, “Deal a Day Lane”. Brian would come up with various financial packages such as trust funds in overseas places, suggest buying homes, classic cars and antiques. Brian would become like the 6th member of the band as such and received 1/6 of the income. Even though Brian successfully led YES through decades, no song was produced named ‘Six Percent for Nothing’, as far as I know.
Above: A 1970s special one-off shirt for the manager Brian Lane. (David Watkinson Collection)
The jokey manner of the T-Shirts that were printed in the mid-1970s, much of it around the YES manager and tour crew, may not sit well with the delicate world in the 2020s, but they would be lost forever if not shared in such articles about the past, and so the crew and manager were happy at the time having fun, trying to keep sane on the road, and so we should try and place ourselves back in 1974, to see how tour crew members dealt with life on the road. Keeping it light-hearted, other T-Shirts were made over the years.
With Brian in charge, and the albums getting better, the members became more fitting and refined, plus the music advanced greatly, making the band some money at last. YES were clearly on their way up to super stardom.
Above: Classic crew pictured from a tour programme in the 1970’s. (Roger Dean/Martin Dean/David Gahr)
Of note, from the image above, a handful of the crew would stay with YES into the late 1970s, with some changing positions and moving into more manager roles for YES. Nigel Luby played a huge roll for Chris Squire and more, staying in the YES camp into the 1980’s, John Martin became Jon Anderson’s personnel assistant and manager through his Olias days and more. Just looking at that team photo and thinking about the amassed great knowledge as a collective, the many decades of experience, YES were proud to have the best in the business back then, and I am sure it is the same nowadays. Every one of them with stories to tell, so let’s hope more can be captured along the way while we can.
Thank You, All Good People.
In my time in and around the YES world for the last fifty years, I have met a few of the classic YES crew, Claude, NuNu, John Martin, and Nigel Luby, plus spoken with others along the way, and all were very amicable and professional.
Whether it is backstage, in the studio, or on tour somewhere, what is always impressive is how the greater YES team come together remarkably well, a friendly bunch as one, decade after decade to make sure the YES show carries on regardless of issues.
Special types become road crew, a sort of band of brothers and sisters living this nocturnal, nomadic, yet exciting world of music on tour, living as a compact team returning when they get the call every few years, to go above and beyond to get that show on the road.
The YES crew came to be known more by the fans because of their faces being added into the tour programmes. These programmes were iconic works of memorabilia, their design work, calligraphy, typeface, photos, print quality and detail by Roger and Martin Dean all gelled in the 1970s, giving the fans recognisable faces at the shows. The sound, rigging, and personal technicians becoming more than the usual invisible faces at most gigs, to becoming THE guys who make my YES night out happen. It is still lovely to see how YES continues to recognise the tour members, the crew, in their tour programmes, a long-held tradition that carries on to this day.
It’s good to take stock then for a moment, to thank all the roadies, technicians, assistants, and managers throughout the many YES shows and decades, and of course for the future YES shows to come around the world.
Acknowledgements: Martin Darvill, Roger Dean, Yesworld.com, Roy Flynn, Chris Welch, Brian Lane, Bill Bruford, Valerie Hepple, Dermot Bassett, Forgotten Yesterdays, Martin Dean, Olias of Bolton, Clyde Llewellyn (Llew/Llewy), David Gahr, Atlantic Records.
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