Yes March 6, 1988 Aladdin Theatre, Las Vegas, NV I was doing an entertainment newspaper, heard that Yes was going to be in Las Vegas. I had never seen Yes before; the paper would reimburse me for the tickets if I wrote a story about it. Another reporter, Tim, said he'd make the drive with me and his wife, Sally, wanted to come along, so we bought three tickets. Of course, it would help to have photos to go with the story, so I called Atlantic Records and tried to get a photo pass, which was usually a slam dunk. But it was supposedly too late, the venue had all the control, but the Aladdin Theatre said it was out of their hands, too. We decided to take the cameras anyway and see if our press passes would work because hey, you never know. We got there kind of early. The band was still doing a sound check. There was a sign at the entrance, clearly stating in large red letters: "No Cameras," among other prohibited items. We decided to hang around and see if anyone might come out that had an all-access pass hanging around their neck, corner them and ask to be taken to their leader. While presumptuous, this approach is surprisingly successful most of the time. The first person we spotted was Chris Squire, which threw us directly into Plan B since he didn't need any stinking badges, and Chris Squire is a really big dude, so the whole "corner him" thing was no good. Unfortunately, we didn't have a Plan B and Squire's sudden appearance had thrown the two intrepid reporters off balance for a second. Sally, having the multiple benefits of being very tall herself, attractive, female, and seeing the opportunity to meet a rock star, yelled out, "Chris!" He came right over. After a brief explanation, which included showing our already purchased tickets to show that we weren't just trying to get in free, Chris introduced us to the band's road manager, a blond with a cute British accent and a throng of people moving with her like a swarm of bees. She did not give us photo passes because she was too busy. When Alan White came out, Sally didn't even bother to consult with us. She cornered him all by herself (Alan in smaller than Chris), went through the explanation. Alan promised he'd take care of it and told us to check at the Will Call window in 15 minutes. We went for drinks, came back and, sure enough, there was an envelope with my name on it. Inside were two tickets but no photo passes. Alan must have missed the part where we didn't need tickets. On one hand, due entirely to Sally's good looks and charm, we had managed meet two members of Yes and scored a pair of tickets from one of them. For the average concert-goer, this would be a good day all by itself. But we were back to square one. We grabbed something to eat and thought about our options. Having tried all the proper channels, it was obviously time to simply ignore the rules. When it was time for the show, I hung my general purpose press pass on the outside of the camera bag, handed my ticket to the guy standing next to the "No Cameras" sign and walked in. No one even questioned the bag. Actually, the seats we had purchased were a little better for photography than the ones we got from the band but still kind of distant for picture taking. During the show, I took pictures until I ran out of film, ushers saw me with the camera and took no action. I did see them locate two or three others with cameras and either confiscate them or give them a lecture. The difference? I didn't use a flash. I never use a flash for concert photos. Available light only. There are a lot of reasons for this, not least of which is that the stage lighting adds to the shot and sometimes frames it, whereas flash just washes it all out. The down side of not using a flash is that you'll get a lot of out-of-focus pictures, even if you're using a 35mm camera and know what you're doing. Then sometimes the stage lighting changes the instant you're taking the picture, so all your choices are invalidated. When you're working for a newspaper, the beauty of it is that you only need one great shot, because that's all you'll have space for anyway. As for the show... REALLY LOUD!!! So loud that it was distorting my eardrums at first, and I was a veteran concert-goer. I'm not sure if it mellowed out or my ears just got used to it but after a while things were better. Trevor Rabin did some running around in the audience to show off his wireless set-up and Jon Anderson had a relatively small mic wired to a transmitter on his belt. At the time, I was surprised that Tony Kaye was using only one keyboard and getting all the sounds out of it that he was getting.	Jon Anderson -- Vocals Chris Squire -- Bass Trevor Rabin -- Guitar Alan White -- Drums Tony Kaye -- Keyboards Jon Anderson
	Trevor Rabin
	Chris Squire

Yes Union tour -- May 11, 1991 Desert Sky Pavilion, Phoenix, Arizona This was a totally impulsive concert-going decision. As I recall, I didn't even know about this show until I heard about it on the radio a couple of hours before it was supposed to start. Not only was I not aware that Yes were going to be in town, I didn't know what was significant about this tour, which was basically all the versions of Yes together. Two drummers, two guitarists, two keyboard players. Alan White, Bill Bruford, Steve Howe, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye and Rick Wakeman, along with Chris Squire and Jon Anderson. There were still seats left, it was Saturday night and I had nothing special to do. I was already in my car, so I headed out to the show, got there in plenty of time. It was a truly great show for Yes fans. No matter which line-up you preferred, you heard it, as they went through a lot of the catalog and some tunes off the Union album. Sound was superb. Big-screen TVs for the lawn section. It was one of those rare shows where I stopped paying attention to the details of the concert activity and just enjoyed the show.