YES

Date: Monday, October 30, 1972

Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Venue: University Of Waterloo

Recording type: Audience [“AR”]

Lineup:

Jon Anderson – Vocals
Steve Howe – Guitars
Chris Squire – Bass
Rick Wakeman – Keyboards
Alan White – Drums

Tracklist:

A01 – Firebird – Siberian Khatru
A02 – I`ve Seen All Good People
A03 – Mood For A Day
A04 – Clap
A05 – And You And I

B01 – Heart Of The Sunrise
B02 – Close To The Edge
B03 – Rick Wakeman Solo
B04 – Roundabout
B05 – Yours Is No Disgrace

Source: “Chord Of Life”, 2LP, via Technics turntable (model unknown) > Maxell MX VI 90 via Sony KDV6

Lineage: Sony TC-WE635 playback deck > Maxell Gold Music Only cd-r via Aiwa XC-RW700 standalone cd burner
> Wave via EAC > Izotope Ozone, CEP 2.0, Izotope RX > Dime.

Remastering: Lestat

Cover art: Gromek Cover Designs


A SHORT NOTE FROM GROMEK:

The tracklist order on the original LP differs from the setlist given on “Forgotten Yesterdays”. I’m not sure which is correct,
but I went with the FY setlist as they tend to be the best source for accuracy overall.

I posted a recording of this show earlier on Dime, but that one was taken from a cassette tape recording from an old and
bad quality LP.

At that time I only had that version of it and so I asked for someone to provide us with a better version if it was out there.
There was one offer, but that person retracted it stating that his version was more or less the same bad quality as it was now,
so no luck there!

Much later a newer Dime member and fellow Yes fan called “Luciferburns” offered a nice fresh recording of his LP,
as his version was so much better sounding than my initial upload. The show’s source was of course the same quality,
but the vinyl was in much better shape!

So I asked “Luciferburns” to send me one recording using the Dolby ON setting and one with the Dolby OFF setting on
CD-R (each album side in one piece, so tracksplitting could be done later), so “Lestat” could see which one could be
used to get the most out of the recording. His findings and work process are featured below.

I want to thank “Luciferburns” for a chance to offer all Yes fans a better quality recording of this show and for his patience
with us, I hope you like what you hear after waiting so long. Thanks also (as always) to “Lestat” for all his work on this
recording, this release could not be realized without it.

To all others, considering everything, I hope you will like what you hear.

- Gromek, April 2009.


SOURCE AND REMASTER IN DEPTH

In the spirit of starting with a positive, this was one fine Yes performance. In fact it’s my favorite of all the CTTE tour ARs I’ve
heard, many of which seem almost lackluster. Very strange for a tour in support of such a groundbreaking album by a band
thoroughly in its prime, but it’s a subjective impression to say the least.

There was a unique energy and tightness in Kitchener in any case, and this recording captures it. Unusual band-audience
intimacy too, right down to an exchange between Jon Anderson and a crowd member over PA volume [not entirely a friendly
one, but fascinating to hear].

Musical delivery from beginning to end right was on the money, and Wakeman’s keyboards actually seem more ‘real’ than in
many an AR of superior capture quality. “Close to the Edge” was especially magnificent despite JA having a serious vocal
problem toward its ending.

Regrettably, the recording quality leaves much to be desired to put it mildly. Having intervening vinyl noise definitely does not
help and normally I regard trying to restore AR signal from vinyl a complete waste of time. Making things all the more depressing,
we have a post-vinyl cassette generation.

Regardless, the Kitchener ’72 performance and lack of any other source for it not even worse for sound quality dictated an exception.
This one turned out to be the best of three digitized sources I know of, probably from better vinyl and vinyl playback quality at least.

The ‘Dolby Off’ file Gromek mentions had to be used due to the source’ already almost nonexistent high frequency detail. Between
the bootleg vinyl and an audience capture on the poor side even for 1972 very little could be done without simply enhancing [or
creating] distortion, but signal now does have somewhat more separation and definition than it did when I received it. Upper
frequency detail especially in the percussion is most heavily lacking, but at least things like crash cymbals are now recognizable
as such and there’s more of a sense of natural space than in the raw source.

Vinyl noise is quite evident but not overwhelming as it was in the other two sources. In any case while some software designed to
remove clicks, pops and rumble can do a decent job of it when studio recordings are involved, like so-called clap modulation
programs even the best are universally disastrous to AR signal – creating unacceptable dropouts in everything. So, no vinyl
noise reduction attempted.

In sum, “completist” firmly defines this recording and anyone expecting anything like a Balrog-Lestat project will be sorely
disappointed. There just wasn’t much to work with here. In context of most early 1970s audience captures however, the most
dedicated Yes fans should find it worthy of their collections. The raw source to me was utterly unlistenable, but I can listen to
and enjoy it now – especially for that Yes performance. Unless someone comes forward with the original master tapes and
they’re still viable, it’s considerably better than no document for this date at all.

Using the ‘filters of the mind’, Kitchener ’72 should make for some real enjoyment.

- Lestat, April 2009.