“I always try to be professional and respectful about people’s decisions. It was their band, so I had to go along with it”: When Yes told Oliver Wakeman not to come back

In 2011 Oliver Wakeman’s four-year membership of Yes suddenly came to an end. The keyboardist son of Rick Wakeman was faced with the prospect of completing one more tour with a band who’d already dismissed him. But, as Prog discovered in 2019, he dealt with the situation incredibly well. If he hadn’t, that year’s Yes mini-album From A Page – containing songs he’d written with them but which were never used – would probably never have been released.

You and Benoît David were the new boys in Yes. What was the dynamic within the band during that three-year period of touring?

It was a very happy time. It’s not a huge spoiler to anybody that Yes had arguments in the past. With Jon not with the band, there was a lot more responsibility on Chris, Steve and Alan to make this new version of Yes successful. They had to act as a unit to make it work. It was nice to watch them interact properly.

Were you surprised to learn that Geoff Downes was replacing you for the album Fly From Here?

Yeah… that was awkward. In 2009 we toured Europe on a bus. I’m a bit of an insomniac and Chris always stayed up late so we’d be chatting late at night. Chris said, “I really enjoy this band. I want us to go into the studio and record a new album.” He said, “Who would we get to produce it?” I suggested Trevor Horn.

Fast-forward four or five months and we started to get together for writing sessions in a house in Phoenix, which was very enjoyable. Steve and I had got together in the UK beforehand to work on songs. We worked on these pieces on and off over a six-month period. Then we turned up in Beverly Hills to record with Trevor.

He said he really wanted to do We Can Fly From Here, which had been a Buggles song. I asked Steve and Chris a few times, “Why are we doing a Buggles song?” It didn’t seem to fit with the thoughts that – maybe naïvely – I had about the Yes record, that the touring band would go into the studio.

In gaps when Trevor would head back to London, we’d work on some of the pieces that later ended up on From A Page. Then we toured South America with the intention of getting back together in January.

And I sort of got told never to come back. It wasn’t quite those words; but it ended up with someone finally saying, “I’m afraid it’s all changed. Geoff is coming in and you’re not in the band any more.”

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How did you feel about your departure from Yes?

It wasn’t easy. But they’d made a business decision about working with Trevor. Obviously Trevor wanted to bring in more pieces he’d written with Geoff. They felt that was the right direction for the band.

I always try to be professional and respectful about people’s decisions. It was their band, so I had to go along with it. Contractually I had to finish one tour around America and then a second set of shows in Mexico – knowing that I was out of the band. But I genuinely really enjoyed that last tour.

The extended and remastered edition of From A Page is released on April 24 and it’s available for pre-order now.