I just finished watching a video of the Budapest, Hungary concert from YES' 1998 Open Your Eyes tour. It is from a sixty minute television broadcast. The glory here is the mix. Finally we can hear Igor Khoroshev performing in all his glory. In the early parts of the tour we could hardly hear him at all, and this improved on a sporadic basis as the tour unfolded. But this television show is a real vindication for those of us who were convinced right away that he is a good choice for a keyboardist to replace Wakeman (and Moraz, Downes, and Kaye)! Of course, hearing him so clearly, we get to hear a couple of mistakes too, but we've all heard YES members flub a few notes and lyrics from time to time. His performance on "Wondrous Stories" and especially "The Revealing Science of God" are the highlights. Jon sounds incredible as always-- only God knows how long those pipes are going to hold out. I have been trying to track down videos of "The Revealing" from throughout the 1997-98 tour, and Budapest is the best so far. Steve is at times undermixed, but for this once it is worth it to be able to hear Igor so upfront. The rest of the songs are more predictable, Your Move, Roundabout, etc., but Igor manages a couple of good Organ and Synthesizer solos at the end of Starship Trooper. Definitely seek this one out if you want a priceless souvenir from the OYE tour.

"Our dream came true"
What a disappointment we had in 1991, when "Eighty Dates Around the World" Reunion Yes tour concert in Budapest was canceled some days before. So we hardly believed that after 7 years they appeared in Hungary. And Yes did it on March 31. The interest proved to be huge. All tickets were sold very early so the concert were taken to the biggest Hungarian indoor hall. I succeeded to catch a short radio interview with Jon some days before the concert. He sad that Budapest concert is very important for them and they are not stars in commercial bad meaning, rather musicians.

From ten to sixty every generation was represented in the audience. The weather was very nice maybe the first spring days of the year. The concert started more than 30 minutes after the scheduled time, but it was worth waiting. At about 7. 30 p.m. the audience began to clap expressing not impatience but increasing desire. When Firebird Suite sounded and the band members appeared on the stage the audience couldn't stop clapping and shouting. There they were like a dream to me - wonderYES!.

The biggest surprise was Chris, one of the best bass guitar players of the world. He was very active running up and down on the stage, playing unique solos while his face was very strict "saying" hi guys look and hear: bass guitar playing is a very serious and dangerous action. Finishing solos he was smiling and "sad:" every sound is for you, enjoy them! Alan played very well, the rhythm section was professional. Steve was outstanding, his playing was unforgettable. Igor and Billy are great talent.

Jon was fantastic. He is not only a magical composer and wonderful singer, he is a great human. Finishing a song he thanked for the celebration, recognizing the greeting tables and waving back to single persons in the audience. Before "From The Balcony" he asked the audience "What is the word duet in Hungarian". Later he sad several times "Budapest, Budapest". Top of the concert for me was "Revealing Science of God". I have never heard such a live song. Although Yes produced studio quality sound on the stage, live concert meant to me much more.

To my surprise the audience sang together with Jon the most part of "Heart Of The Sunrise", "Wondrous Stories", "Owner Of.." and "I've Seen...".

Thank you YES again for this unforgettable uplifting evening with Yes Music Plus. Feed us with your sounds and words in the future too.

On behalf of the Hungarian Yes Club

YES have never played Hungary before (nearly did in 1991), therefore some five or six thousand excited fans (including me) queued on the evening of march 31st at the BS, which is Budapest's largest indoor venue. The doors opened at around 6.30 pm and I ran in as fast as I could. Finally, there I was, in the first row, twelve feet from the stage. There were no seats in the venue, so it was pretty uncomfortable standing there for 90 minutes, being mashed by the crowd. The show began after 8. It was absolutely wonderful. The sound was great, too. In the breaks between the songs, Jon tried to learn Hungarian from the crowd. An example: 'And now, Steve and I will play you a duett. How do you say 'duett' in Hungarian?' Silence. Then somebody (ME!!!) said: 'It's the same.' Jon:'The same. Thank you. This is quite interesting, hahaha' etc. Quite an experience, huh?

There were no changes in the set list, and some of the older songs (which are, in fact older than me), have brought tears in our eyes. Fortunately, the Hungarian TV recorded the show, so it will remain in our memories as well as on our videotapes, too.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you Budapest. Thank you. [??? Something in Hungarian] It's so wonderful to be with you, thank you. [??? Something in Hungarian] Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be here. It's wonderful. Here's a song from the great songwriter, Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel. He wrote this song all about America. The children of America, from all over the world go to America, to grow into the 21st century. And the song is called 'America'. Yes, thank you.

Jon Anderson:
Steve Howe on guitar! [??? Something in Hungarian] Thank you very much. [??? Something in Hungarian] Here's a song. There's a guy, I'll introduce you to a guy, who is in the band now, he used to be our producer and now he's songwriting and, ahh, getting together with the band on tour. And he's a great guy, he's all the way from Las Vegas, his name is Billy Sherwood! Billy! He's from Las Vegas so [???] and stuff like that. And here's a song that he wrote with Chris and we joined in, got excited and said "let's record this song", it's called 'Open Your Eyes'.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you so much. Thank you! [??? Something in Hungarian] Thank you very much. This is, ahh, one of our songs from, ahh, way, way, way, way, way, somewhere in another sphere, another time. And it was a song we recorded with a guy called Eddie Offord, he was our engineer, and ahh, how do you say "beautiful"? Beautiful? You are very beautiful. Wonderful, you are wonderful. And now you are free, free, free. It's really wonderful and beautiful and free, which was this song, about. And we recorded it and I heard...

Jon Anderson:
On the bass guitar, Mr. Chris Squire! Thank you so much, thank you. Thank you so much, thank you. Hello. You like that? What's that it's like, ahh, can we have some more sound effects, please. Oh, we're looking for sound effects in here. When you want them, you don't got 'em. So, here's ahh, something I always enjoy doing, to introduce you to the wonderful hands, fingers, the guitar style of Mr. Steve Howe!

Steve Howe:
Alright, thank you very much! Thank you very much. It's really great to be here, at last! You're most kind, thank you. Alright, alright, thank you very much. I'm not done yet. Hey! Yeah, that was a piece called 'Diary of a Man Who Vanished' and before that I played a tune I wrote for my wife all those years ago, you might remember it, 'Mood For A Day'. I'm going to close my little set with, ahh, the very first, ahh, a Chet Atkins style guitar piece I wrote ahh, very early on in my writing career. I like playing it a lot and I'm going to play it for you tonight, it's called 'Clap'!

Jon Anderson:
Steve Howe! Steve Howe! Thank you! [??? Something in Hungarian]

Steve Howe:
Thank you very much, thank you.

Jon Anderson:
Wooh! We'd like to do a song that we recorded on the, ahh, new album. I went to Steve and we did a duet. How do you say this in Hungarian? A duet? The same? Oh! Good, good, very. So this is, ahh, this is a duet. Me and Steve, two people, duet.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you! [??? Something in Hungarian] Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Here's a song from ahh, a time we spent ahh, making an album, we spent some time in Switzerland. And it's an album we did called 'Going For The One' and there's song from the album, it's called 'Wonderous Stories'.

Jon Anderson:
Thank you. Thank you very much. If you, ahh, understand about Yes, we go through so many changes, so many changes, it's like life. So many changes, it's like a soap opera, but we love to make music and we go on tour and we need somebody. We knew we needed a really good keyboard player, and we have one. He now lives in Boston, he's like a child of the universe, he loves Yes music, he's a great musician, his name is Igor Khoroshev!

Jon Anderson:
[??? Something in Hungarian] Twenty-five years later, to sing that song for you is really a very, very good experience. Thank you. Thank you so much. Here's a song, ahh, we would love you to sing along. As you say in, ahh, Hungarian, sing along? You sing, what is it? "Anjou"? "Andou"? Here it is.