"Actor: Tony Kaye"

• Yesspeak - Yes 35th Anniversary | DVD | (24/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Shot during the group's 35th Anniversary European Tour, Yesspeak offers a 169-minute documentary about the classic progressive rock band Yes, together with an audio-only presentation of their 2003 set. The feature, narrated by Roger Daltrey, is a refreshingly straightforward affair, with a near three-hour running time allowing rather more depth than the usual rockumentary. Divided into 10 chapters the programme systematically covers the background, history and outlook of the group before an extended interview with each of the five members of the classic line-up: Jon Anderson (vocals), Steve Howe (guitar), Chris Squire (bass), Alan White (drums), and Rick Wakeman (keys). Finally there are more general sections on touring and the band's music. Archive material and glimpses of the 2003 tour are interwoven with the interviews, but this is very much a documentary, not a concert (to see Yes at their modern best watch Yes: Symphonic Live, 2002). The documentary puts a positive spin on a sometimes chequered past, and it's clearly aimed at long-term fans, but for those who have followed Yes through the decades this is satisfyingly comprehensive and thoroughly enjoyable; from Steve Howe's famous but still entertaining guitar/Concord story, to Rick Wakeman's tea break during a typically expansive prog-rock solo. On the DVD: Yesspeak comes as a two-disc set. Disc 1 offers the first five chapters and 89 minutes of the documentary, while the remaining 80 minutes are featured on Disc 2. The picture is an excellent amamorphically enhanced 16:9 widescreen presentation, though by necessity the archive material is of variable quality. Switches into black and white and slow motion are a typically unnecessary distraction of the rock documentary format, but the DVD handles them well. There are excellent Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS soundtracks and optional French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish subtitles. Disc 2 also showcases 126 minutes of concert audio. This is accompanied by concert photos but the sound is only Dolby Digital 5.1, without a DTS option. Although the sound is good it does not match the crystal clear quality of the same music as heard in fragments during the documentary itself. Presumably a DVD of the concerts will follow with much better sound, and the audio here will simply serve as a trailer for that release? --Gary S Dalkin

• Yes - Yesyears | DVD | (25/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Yesyears is a generous (over two-hour) documentary that profiles Yes through the years, from the band's earliest days up to and including 1991, the year when no fewer than eight past and current members played together on their "Union" tour. The story is told through separate interviews with the band circa 1991, talking happily about their many successes and even greater excesses; their musical freedoms and their personal fallings-out. The talking heads are interspersed with a lot of fascinating archive footage from all phases of the band's evolution--just some random examples: a youthful Steve Howe playing "The Clap"; "Yours is No Disgrace" from a live German TV appearance in 1971; Chris Squire performing "Hold Out Your Hand" from his first solo album; studio footage from the Going for the One and Tormato sessions; and lots of evocative footage from the Spinal Tap-esque live shows of the 70s. Inevitably, it being an officially endorsed document, there's little negative criticism here, though Rick Wakeman is typically candid about his decisions for originally leaving the band. Documentation of all the various musical excerpts would have been nice--they come and go without any context--but generally this makes rewarding viewing for any Yes fan, with the caveat of course that the story stops in 1991. On the DVD: Yesyears is disappointingly presented in 4:3 ratio NTSC format, leaving the picture generally fuzzy and at times positively obscure in places, with plain stereo sound (at best--many of the early musical excerpts are mono). The chapter divisions are extremely generous, but there are no bonus features as such. --Mark Walker