Yes Sweatshirt – Newcastle 1980
This is a sweat shirt I bought at a Yes show in Newcastle in 1980. I’d seen them a couple of times before with the classic line-up and, being the purist I was, I had to push myself to go and see the new lineup featuring Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of Buggles fame. It was a strange show. The stage set was still designed by Roger Dean (who, much later, I interviewed on KRSH UK), but the styling of everything else was very 80’s.
Not long ago, I read an article by Trevor Horn. He said that he was nervous as hell at the start of the tour, performing in front of so many die-hard hippie Yes fans. He went on to say that the shows weren’t going down too badly…until they played Newcastle. I do remember quite a lot of booing and abuse being shouted, but really that was no different from many shows in the city.
Many many years later, I got to know Geoff Downes and we still keep in touch. Who would have thought?