YES & TOTO

Over the course of a remarkable 40-year career that has time and again redefined the boundaries of rock, YES have become renowned for their live performances since being formed in 1968 by Chris Squire and Jon Anderson from a mutual interest in vocal harmonies and classical song structure. With drummer Bill Bruford, guitarist Peter Banks and keyboardist Tony Kaye, they metamorphosed into YES, earning a residency at the famed London venue The Marquee Club, where they played with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, releasing their self-titled debut album in July 1969.

Guitarist Steve Howe, who went on to play in the popular prog-rock groups Asia and GTR and continues releasing acclaimed solo albums and touring, brought an experimental cutting edge to YES for their 1970’s The Yes Album, their first album to top the UK charts. Drummer Alan White, who had been hand-picked to play on John Lennon's Imagine and George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, came aboard in 1972. YES then went on to conquer America and played at some of the largest paid attendance concerts of all time, including JFK Stadium in Philadelphia in 1976 to a crowd of over 130,000 people.

As a dominant force for more than four decades, YES has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, stretching the boundaries of progressive art-rock with their dynamic instrumental contrasts and abstract lyrics. Their symphonic use of sound and innovative musical styles continues to make them one of the most successful and long-standing groups in rock history and their amazing career continues to defy many of their contemporaries, as they continue to add new, young fans to their following.


YES touring line-up: Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, Geoff Downes, Jon Davison (singer).

"We're thrilled to be hitting the road with Toto. Yes have always been big fans of Toto's music, and we think the fans are going to really enjoy seeing both of us together," says YES co-founder and bassist, Chris Squire.

YES will be releasing a new live CD/DVD (recorded at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona) entitled Like It Is on July 7th.


After the band's formation, David Paich set about writing what became the eponymous debut album. Once written, the new band came together in the studio to cut its first demos. Having just recently watched The Wizard of Oz, Jeff Porcaro began to write the word "toto" on the demo tapes so that they would be easily identifiable. When the time came to choose a name for the band, the band explored the roots of the word "toto" more thoroughly. David Hungate explained to them that, in Latin, the word "toto" means "total" or "all-encompassing," and given this group's long list of studio accolades and their collective ability to play in any given situation, the name TOTO was chosen as the official title of the new record and the band name. "It's representative of our music," said Jeff Porcaro. "Mishmash. A goulash."

Upon its release in September, 1977, TOTO spawned the single hit, => "Hold the Line," which rapidly climbed the => charts. Followed by two more hit singles, "I'll Supply the Love" and => "Georgy Porgy," the record set new standards in pop and rock music at the time and earned them a Grammy nomination in 1978 for Best New Artist.

Lukather and Kimball recall that TOTO's opening year passed like a whirlwind, but they still remember the first time they heard themselves on the radio. "I was asleep," says Kimball. "I had set my alarm for early because we were going to do some promo in the studio that day, and when it came on, there was 'Hold the Line.' I phoned Paich and screamed into the phone, and he was screaming and stumbling around in the dark trying to turn his radio on. " Lukather recalls, "I remember one of the guys called me. I actually sat there in my first house by myself, a little tear in my eye. I mean, wow. We were on the radio in L.A. It was a great feeling."
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