Prog “There was a huge change in music. Punk had come in. Atlantic told us we had to make singles, we had to try to do this, to do that.
We were dropping out of fashion.” “It’s always a disaster when a band says, ‘Shall we do one that’s a bit like one in the charts?’ We were in a bit of a holding pattern.” “We were recording in Paris.
Jon and I had written some songs; Steve and really didn’t want to play them. Because we were being hit on by the record company and under pressure, we had the wrong producer down there. is a great producer, but totally wrong for this band.
When you have a band like Yes in conflict, you need a Churchill, not a Chamberlain.” “It all got outrageous. There were so many things to do in Paris that people were living it up to the nines.
We all had apartments there. It was the album that was never meant to be. It got very lackadaisical.
” “Jon and I got absolutely paralytic on Calvados in a little bar, and Jon said, ‘This isn’t the Yes it’s meant to be. I don’t want to do this.’ Then we got the news that Alan had been ice skating and broken his ankle.
We thought, ‘That solves it.’” Sign up below to get the latest from Prog, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! “Chris, Steve and I called each other and we booked a studio in Notting Hill. We said, ‘Whoever’s here on Monday morning is in Yes.
’ And that was it: we started writing and came up with the essence of .” “The three of us hammer.