50 years of Yes celebrated in new video

Yes plaque

A new video celebrating 50 years of Yes has been released by Sean McKee – a friend and collaborator of Jon Anderson.

The 20-minute film features tributes to the band in all its incarnations from artists including Tony Levin, Jean Luc Ponty, Roine Stolt, Steve Vai, Phil Collen, Jeff Berlin and John Petrucci.

Introducing the film, McKee says: “I wanted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Yes and thought it would be interesting to ask some notable musicians what their thoughts were.

“So, between myself and Billy James from Glass Onion PR, we asked a bunch of musicians one question: 'What did you think or feel the first time you heard or saw Yes.'"

King Crimson’s Levin says: “I want to send a big and a heartfelt congratulations to the the band, to all its members past and present for 50 years of inspiration to musicians like myself who have learned partly from Yes that it’s worthwhile to do things not by the book.”

Watch the full video below.

Yes featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman released their album Live At The Apollo last month, which was captured at the Manchester venue in early 2017.

Yes, meanwhile, launched The Steven Wilson Remixes box set back in June to celebrate the milestone.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.