Tower Theater
Upper Darby (Philadelphia), PA
Friday, Saturday, October 24, 1997
Section Orchestra Right Center, Row AA, Seat 125
$50.00
Yes was playing three nights in a row in my hometown. I was sitting in the front row of the orchestra section for two of those nights. Jon Anderson was coming to the radio station where I worked and I was going to get to talk to him. My new boyfriend Roy was flying in from St. Louis. Could this weekend be any better?
I had been temping at a stock broker's office when we started learning about the Fall Theater Tour. They were bringing in a permanent person from the main office, and my temp position was, well, temporary. I meant to be responsible and work as much as I could, but I ended up having no full-time work between the time tickets went on sale until the end of my part of the tour. My part-time jobs, working as a production assistant at WXPN and math tutoring, were very, very flexible. My last day at the stock broker's was the day before tickets went on sale for the first two Philly dates. I arranged to leave at noon that day, and went straight to the Tower Theater box office to camp out for tickets.
In the old days, buying tickets right from the venue box office was the best bet. Some places actually pulled tickets in advance - the first couple rows of seats were already printed and distributed to the people waiting in line - or went on sale early. The Tower said they didn't do this, but I had gotten really good seats before this way. It was also cheaper, with no service charges. It's less likely that the ticket sales person will come in late and make you miss out on good seats. Plus, more people are there, so it's a party.
My new friend Rob joined me in line for tickets. He brought lawn chairs and his great big dog Xenon. (Rob is a chemistry professor.) Rob later went on to organize the NEARFest progressive rock festival, but back then he was just another fan. We met on-line when I bought some used albums from him and then met in person at ProgDay earlier that month. Jerry was also there. Jerry was part of the monthly fan gatherings we had called Yestogethers. Our whole group bonded and became close friends.
We heard differing bits of information about the ticket sales. At first, I learned each person in line could buy 8 tickets per show. We got busy with ticket-buying arrangements. I didn't have the cash to front the tickets. My Yestogether friend Dawn drove all the way from Harrisburg to my tutoring office to give me money for her and Zoey and then turned around and drove home. Roy arranged for me to buy tickets for Dave from Texas. I had never met him, but he mailed me a check. While in line, we learned that the limit was four tickets total over the two shows. Suddenly, I was just buying tickets for Roy and me. These were the days before cell phones were common, so I used the pay phone to call Roy. He contacted Dave and the other Yestogether people. Jerry was only buying single tickets, so he was able to buy some extras. Soon, we had reorganized and notified everyone.
We got slap happy waiting in line. There had been a concert that night, and the trash was piled in the alley where we were waiting. It stunk and we had to take turns going out to the main street to get away from it. Liquid from the piles of trash inspired this piece of silliness:
"Puddles come out of the trash and meander!" Sing that to the tune of "Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there" from Roundabout.
The usual ticket lady was there on Saturday morning. She confirmed that they would not be pulling tickets in advance, but she was good with using the system quickly. For the Friday night show, I got one ticket in the front row of the orchestra section, on the center-right aisle and a seat right behind it in the second row. For Saturday night, it was two seats in the front row, right on the center aisle. Unfortunately, these weren't true front row - there was a small orchestra pit section with five rows in it. But I'll bet I got the best tickets that anyone did from Ticketmaster that morning.
Rob drove me home and I went to sleep. While I recovered from camping out, a third show in Philly was announced and tickets went on sale. No one called me to let me know. I knew it was a possibility, so I called Ticketmaster to check and ordered two tickets over the phone. I really should have waited at the Tower for a couple more hours just in case.
I had my tickets. One day at work, my show's producer Robert talked to me about the upcoming Jon Anderson visit. It would be on the World Cafe program, hosted by David Dye. David was not a big Yes fan, and Robert wanted me to write out a list of questions that would make him sound knowledgeable. I had questions about bootlegs, the fanbase on the Internet, some other stuff, and a question about the song That That Is. That That Is was a song on the previous year's Keys to Ascension album that was a return to form for them. Lyrically, it was quite different than most Yes songs. The words told a story in real life and made sense. The tone was much darker than Yes' image of positive vibes. This question was about the inspiration of the song. I wish I kept a copy of this list of questions; I don't even know if David requested some help or if this was Robert's initiative.
The plan for the day was: I would take the El to work, go to the airport to meet up with Roy, check in at the bed and breakfast, dinner, and go to the show.
Jon was running late. At the time, WXPN was housed in an old house on the University of Pennsylvania campus. I had gone to undergrad and grad school there and worked at the children's program Kid's Corner the whole time. Our office was on the first floor, and I rarely went up to the studios on the third floor. But I was up there and pacing, anxious for Jon to arrive. I didn't know David Dye all that well, but he peppered me with Yes questions while we waited. Which Yes is this - progressive or commercial? Who's in the band these days? What's this tour like? I hope he normally does more preparation than this for interviews! I found some more information - Jon asked to be on the show, not the other way around. We at WXPN were so cool!
We heard from the receptionist that Jon arrived and was making his way up to the third floor studios. He saw me in the hallway and said "Nice to see you again." Jon recognized me! I was wearing my Yes jacket, and the promoter there with Jon pointed it out to him. Jon had seen it before and knew all about it. The promoter asked if this was my first show on the tour, I said I had already seen three. Which ones was I going to? I got to recite my "Hartford, Boston, Fairfax, Philly, Philly, Philly, Hershey, New York, New York, New York" list of shows to Jon. I also told him that this night and the next, I'd be in the front row. I think he was honestly happy to see someone so enthusiastic at a radio station. He might have thought I was a cool radio station person when all I did was office work.
Jon signed a couple autographs and posed for some pictures. I brought two LPs for Jon to sign - the first two Yes albums with the original British album covers. (The US releases had different covers.) David Dye actually took these and they turned out pretty good. One of the other DJs Marilyn Russell, who I didn't know too well, also turned up to meet Jon.
Marilyn is now a DJ on YRock online.
The interview went well. I was allowed to sit in the engineer's room, which had a glass partition to the World Cafe interview studio. David asked my question about That That Is. This is a great, but obscure song, and Jon seemed happy to get a question about it. He talked about how lyrically, it reminded him of his song Gates of Delirium, which tells a story about a war and battles with the hope of peace at the end. Then David said "and now we'll listen to That That Is." My hand-scribbled question was going to get a twenty minute long Yes track played in 100 different radio stations across the country. I doubt David knew how long it was. Unfortunately, this part of the interview was not aired. I thought they cut it when they found out how long the song was. I found out the truth later on. It turned out WXPN did not have a copy of Keys to Ascension and could not play the track. I would have given them mine to play!!! One of the World Cafe engineers gave me a copy of the broadcast on cassette; I wish I had an unedited copy.
I got to talk to Jon again as he went downstairs. He liked that the radio station was in a house. I told him it was part of the campus of where I went to college. Jon was standing outside on Spruce Street on his cell phone for a while. I actually wanted to go down the street to get some pizza for lunch, but I felt weird walking by him again. So I stood at the door watching him and waited for him to leave.
I actually did some work that day too. By the way, Jon asked the receptionist for the phone number for his hotel. Yes usually stay in fancy downtown hotels, but this was the weekend of the Million Woman March, and most hotels were sold out. That's why we stayed in a B&B. My receptionist duly noted to me what hotel Yes was staying at - the Cherry Hill Marriott.
I ran to the campus library to write some e-mails. Then I went to the airport to meet Roy. His flight was very delayed, it hadn't even left St. Louis yet. I think he got in near 7, and the show started at 8. We both had our luggage with us. We weren't staying at a hotel with a 24 hour front desk, but a bed & breakfast, so we got a cab to take us there first. We quickly dropped off our bags and got a key. The cabbie waited and then took us to the Tower. It was a $50 cab ride. We got to the Tower with 10 minutes to spare.
I was upset my seats weren't better. People were in front of me in the orchestra pit who hadn't waited in line overnight. Some had taken advantage of the YesWorld seat arrangements. I don't know how the rest of them got seats like that.
These first two nights in Philly were my favorites of the tour. I really think Jon was looking for me in the audience. He kept making eye contact with me. For the whole rest of the tour, if there was a crowd of fans, he'd come up to me first to say hi and shake my hand. I was never part of the inner-inner circle of fans who get backstage passes and really spend time with the band, but I felt like I was getting there. At least I was now part of the inner circle, where the band knew who I was.
I was really struck by a couple parts of the concert. During my favorite song, Revealing Science of God, during the climax, Jon turned around and started conducting the band. During Chris' solo in The Fish, he played a medley of Yes songs on the bass. Jon came out to sing the "Yes Yes" chorus of Tempus Fugit, even though he didn't sing on that track originally. Chris turned around and kneeled before Alan during the drum solo.
After the show, Dian dropped us off at the bed & breakfast. It was in Society Hill, so we walked down to the South Street Diner for a late night dinner.
My picture with Jon was published in WXPN's Xpress newsletter in January/February 1998. Years later, I showed Jon a copy of the newsletter and he said he remembered it. I know I'll never forget.
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