In a brand new timely interview with eonmusic, Jon Anderson recounts YES' stop off in Cork with The Nice and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. With only one plug in a sports stadium, the band headed to the local bar, where hilarity ensued... oh, and it was the night of the moon landing. An excerpt from the interview follows...
eonemusic: YES played in both Dublin and Belfast way back in 1969. Have you any memories about those really early shows?
Jon Anderson: "Yeah, I remember it very clearly because we drove from Dublin to Cork, and we stopped at every pub on the way. as you can imagine! By that time we were on tour with The Nice, which was Keith Emerson's band, and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. By the time we got to Cork, we found the gig, and it was a hurling sort of pitch [sports ground], and the stage was facing the stand. So we kind of looked at it and realized there was only one plug! Somebody had gone around the back and said; 'hey, there's a plug around here!' So, we went into the Abattoir pub and started drinking."
eonemusic: Going to the pub was the natural thing to do.
Anderson: "Well, we can't really just play on one plug; we'd need a dozen at least for the equipment, and so on and so on, so we thought; 'well, maybe we shouldn't'. So, right there we started; Keith Emerson's on the piano. We're singing silly songs and we're drinking a lot, and a lot of fans have bought tickets and started coming into the pub. And some of them are a bit annoyed, you know? So we kind of brushed it off and said; 'sorry, we'll sing the song now on the piano', and that kind of thing. It got a little bit rowdy, and our manager at the time said; 'I've got to sneak you out of here because there's another fifty people outside wanting to come into the pub'. Just at that moment, the guy behind the bar, the pub owner, rang the bell said; 'everybody, everybody, everybody look at the TV!', and he had this little TV in the corner, and it was the moon landing! And while everybody's watching, the manager has sneaked us out the back, and we went on the coach, and got to the local airport, flew to London."
eonemusic: So that gig didn't take place in the end because of that one plug situation?
Anderson: "Exactly. Well, there was a iron flex going from the stage waaaaay to the other side of the pitch in a little hut, and we all walk over to that; 'well, we need some electricity', and there wasn't even a plug on the end of the flex!"
Read more at eonmusic.
(Jon Anderson photo - Deborah Anderson)
