The career of Yes has now lasted more than forty-three years and as part of the band's third tour of Australia, this appearance in Sydney at the State Theatre was only the fifth show featuring the new lineup of Squire/Howe/White/Downes/Davison. Over the years I've been fortunate to experience many great Yes concerts in different parts of the world, so in this concert close to home I was curious to see how the latest edition of the band would fare.

New vocalist Jon Davison was outstanding under the circumstances and he remained faithful to the style of the absent Jon Anderson in confidently handling both the older and newer material. The recently returned Geoff Downes was also very comfortable in his multi-keyboards role. However, the real highlights of the night came from the long time stalwarts of Yes - the undimmed electrifying brilliance of Steve Howe on electric and acoustic guitar, Chris Squire's superbly powerful inimitable bass and Alan White's energetic rock-solid drumming.

'Tempus Fugit', the 'Fly From Here' suite, 'Heart of the Sunrise' and 'Starship Trooper' were amongst the best performances of the evening. The sound was excellent from the outset and the stage set this time around was simple but very effective with a large video screen behind the band.

In summary it wasn't the full classic Yes lineup and the missing Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman will rightfully always maintain legendary status. Instead it was an energised alternative version of Yes that pulled out all stops with marvellous musicianship to earn the rapturous response of the enthusiastic near-capacity Sydney audience. See photographs of the event in YES Photo Album 2012 by clicking on "More Pages".