Dark As The Grave - Eerie digital art

My participation in the Artify threads in the dslreports.com Digital Imaging forum has occasionally inspired me to show my darker side. Here are some examples.

Georgetown Steps (Bloody Edit)

Park Bench (Eyes In The Dark Edit)

Greenhouse (Horror Film Edit)

Children On Beach (Creepshow Edit)

Wasp (Alien Edit)

I did not take the original photos from which these were made. However, all "artification" was done by me. I did not indicate the steps I took to create these, but I would be happy to answer specific questions.

This is how I earned the name Fractalman - Part 4

I am working on gathering some music news. In the meantime, I thought everyone might enjoy a few more of my fractals. These were done with Iterations in 2006.

I've Got My Eye On You

Fracture 2

Time To Fly

All of these were enhanced with PhotoShop. To my knowledge, Stephen Ferguson abandoned Iterations several years ago. Thus, I'd be happy to e-mail a copy to anyone who leaves there e-mail address in the comment section. I'll warn you that there is a bit of a learning curve, but you can do quite a lot with it once you learn the interface.

You might notice that 2 of the 3 fractals indicate copyright to Endeavour Experiment in the bottom right. That is my musical identity. Actually, Endeavour is the musical identity. The experiment included music and fractals. More on Endeavour at a later date.

This is how I earned the name Fractalman - Part 3

Today, I thought I'd share another handful of fractals with you. These were all done with Iterations back in 2000 and 2001.

Alien Sport

To me, this looks like an alien kicking something. Hence, the name Alien Sport.

Obsidian

Gamers out there might be familiar with the PC game called Obsidian. Unfortunately, it came out just after Myst and did not receive the attention that it should have received. The graphics and game play are far superior to the original release of Myst. This fractal reminded me of something that could be created by nanobots. Since nanobots created the Obsidian universe, I gave it that name.

Anchor

A mystical glowing anchor splashing down into the water.

Atlas II

For those that are curious, yes, there is an Atlas I. It may appear in a later post. This sort of reminds me of a topography map.

Palm Sunset

Fractal palms and colors of a sunset. Iterations is not a fractal plant generator. ;^)

Pastel Dawn

A rainbow of color appears over a silhouette treeline.

Microbe

Something you might see under a microscope.

Taking Root

These roots appear to be firmly planted in the sky.

Fish - A Tribute to Chris Squire

Well, he had to get that fat fillet-O-Fish bass sound from somewhere! The bass, not used to being out of the water for so long, died. Chris ate it for lunch. {chuckle}

Fracture

For some reason, King Crimson came to mind when I saw this image. Thus, I named it after their song Fracture.

I apologize for the low resolution. These were done on a Pentium 233 --That's right, a 233MHz machine! I still have the files that Iterations generates with the image. So, I can reproduce them at much higher resolution at a later date.

Frank Zappa alumnus forms the next supergroup!

Wow! A Frank Zappa alumnus! Who could it be? Warren Cuccurullo? No. Terry Bozzio? No. Steve Vai? No.

Need a hint?

He played with Roxy Music and Jethro Tull.

Still not sure?

Well, it's keyboard and electric violin extraordinaire Eddie Jobson!

The new band is called UKZ. The band also includes bassist, Warr guitarist, and Chapman Stick player Trey Gunn!



More to come . . .

The Bravery - Euro Rock from an American band!

The Bravery, like many "naturally" formed bands, was born in 2003 by combining musicians from 3 different sources. The 2 founding members, Sam Endicott and John Conway, had played with several different bands through college. While they were living in New York, they placed an advertisement for a guitarist in the newspaper. They got a 2 for 1 deal when Michael Zakarin answered the advertisement and brought bassist Mike Hindert with him. These 4 musicians were introduced to drummer Anthony Burulcich by mutual friends from the New York band Bishop Allen. The band played their first gig at the Stinger Club in Brooklyn in November 2003.


Being more of a Euro Rock band, The Bravery moved to London in late 2004. From there, they toured the UK, France and Holland. Their debut, self-titled album was released in February 2005.


I can see why The Killers were jealous of this band! In my opinion, they're better than The Killers! Bassist Mike Hindert, though he certainly has his own style, reminds me of original Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes. His playing is very melodic. Yet, he keeps the rhythm section cohesive as well. Founding member and keyboard player, John Conway, adds great atmosphere and electronica style melodies to their music. Guitarist Michael Zakarin is great with rhythmic and melodic roles. He does some innovative work on the first album, a couple short, but blistering and tight guitar solos on the Sun version of the second album, and some great acoustic work on the Sun version of the second album. Anthony Burulcich certainly seems to be an ample drummer. Not having heard the band live, except for a few performances on late night talk shows, I don't think I've heard Anthony's full potential. In fact, I think it's safe to say that I haven't heard The Bravery's full potential period. Nevertheless, their debut album and The Sun And The Moon are definitely worthy additions to anyone's rock collection.

Focusing more on The Sun And The Moon for a moment, I like both versions of the album. Oh! Did I forget to mention that explicitly? Yes, that album is available as a 2 CD set. The same songs are on both CDs and in the same order. However, the second CD is quite different from the first. Where the first is very guitar oriented with bass and keyboard taking somewhat of a back seat, the second is much more rhythm oriented. In other words, bass, keyboard and occasionally drums are more prominent. If the album had to be released as a single CD, I would say to keep the acoustic songs from the Sun side, combine the styles for several of the tracks, and include both the Sun and Moon versions of Believe.

As far as influences, without reading them from other sources, I'd say that bands like Simple Minds, U2, Duran Duran, The Cure, and even --believe it or not-- The Clash played a big role. Although I have ZERO experience in the studio as a producer, working with a band like The Bravery would be a dream come true for me. I would love to be heavily involved with the making of their next album. Being a musician myself (although not professional) and a huge fan of Euro Rock --especially Progressive Rock--, I think I could pull the very best out of everyone in The Bravery and make their third album a very memorable one indeed. OK. I woke up from the dream now. Man, that would be awesome though!

If you have and like The Bravery's debut album, go out and buy The Sun And The Moon Complete (2 CD set). You won't be disappointed!

Turning a digital photo into digital art - Part 2

Now that Saga has a new lead vocalist, I find the final product for this edition of Turning A Digital Photo Into Digital Art a perfect way to celebrate!

The main component of this "artified" digital photo is a photo taken by Cabana. It was quite nicely cleaned up by Camare.


The photo was taken in Berlin and the prominent damaged building in the foreground is Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

The next component can also be found in Germany. It's Einstein Tower located in Potsdam, Germany.


Germany is significant with regard to Saga because that is where they have the largest fan base. That fact and the cover of their album Images At Twilight is what inspired the finished product below.

But wait! There are more components to this complex work of digital art! No art inspired by Saga is complete without one of the many variations of the Saga "bug"!

The final component is the moon.

Those of you who are fans of Saga will realize that I have used items that inspired both the Silent Knight cover and the Images At Twilight cover as components in my final product.

Without further ado, here it is:

Best viewed full size! (click image)

"How did I do it?" you ask. This one was complicated. As I recall, I worked on the Einstein Tower first. I started by adding 3 stories to it. This was accomplished by taking a very precise slice of the 2 middle stories. Then, cutting that slice in half for the third story addition. After that, I carefully masked out the top of the tower. Next, I stacked the 3 stories together taking care to align them as precisely as possible. After aligning them, I put the top back on the tower and removed any jagged edges. This was quite a challenge because the front sides of the tower aren't simply flat vertical lines. I then changed the orientation of the tower so that I could insert it into the left side of the final product. The next to last steps were changing the color of the tower and adding a lighting effect. The final step in editing the tower was masking out the background so that I could pull the tower from the image.

The other components were a bit easier to prepare. I had to mask the bug from the Images At Twilight cover and resize it as needed. I borrowed the photo of the moon from another digital photographer on the dslreports.com site. Sorry. I don't remember who so I can't give appropriate credit. I made some minor adjustments to it and changed the opacity so that the background color showed through a bit. Oh! I nearly forgot! In placing the Einstein Tower into the final product, I masked out the buildings that appear to be in front of it. Then, I put them in a separate layer so they would cover the bottom section of the tower. The final touches were changing the color of the sky using "selective color" and adding a lighting effect for the background.

The new voice of Saga: Rob Moratti

Funnily enough, Saga found their new vocalist just 2 days after my first Saga post. No wonder no-one signed the petition! It would have been a very cool way for Saga to get some much needed publicity though. It's truly unfortunate that Saga is nearly unknown in the U.S. --at least to 99.9% of people under 35. If Rush is the king of Canadian prog rock bands, Saga is certainly a prince!


So, just who is Rob Moratti anyway? At the moment, there's relatively little reliable information on the internet except the Final Frontier page on myspace.com, the news on the official Saga site, and the interview (linked above) on the AOR Dream Zones site. Assuming the birth date on the latter site is correct, Rob is nearly a year younger than me! It seems that he released 2 albums under his name and 4 albums with Final Frontier. Though his voice is noticeably different from Michael Sadler's, I do see great potential for him as the new Saga lead vocalist. I am looking forward to hearing his unique contributions to Saga's music; both new and old.

Related Articles: Saga is seeking new vocalist, New Releases - June 2009

Close To The Edge And Back tour cancelled

The summer 2008 tour has, regretfully, been cancelled due to Jon's recent respiratory attack. His doctors have told him that he needs at least 6 months of rest in order to avoid further health complications.


While it is disappointing news, Jon and the rest of Yes aren't spring chickens anymore. Thus, it is important that they focus on their health even if it means disappointing millions of fans. We can hope that they are all well enough to hit the studio and do a little touring in 2009. That will be their official 40th anniversary anyway as the band released their first album in 1969.

To show gratitude for Jon's 45+ year musical career, I'd like to create a "get well" card. You may "sign" the card by leaving a comment in this post. The tentative deadline is July 1.

Related post: Yes 2008 Close To The Edge And Back Tour

Simple Minds Transcends Progressive Rock

It's 2:37pm. You're sitting in your cubicle waiting for the next call. Suddenly, you see a flash of white light and a box appears on your desk. Not knowing what's in the box or how it got there, you hesitate for a moment. Then, you notice the sparkle of glitter. It must be something special, right? Nothing like a sparkle to brighten up a rainy day. You decide to open it. This is what you see inside:

A royal crown sitting atop a heart-shaped pillow. You remove the contents from the box and set them on your desk. While your ancestors were from Scotland, they were bot town folk. There was no royal bloodline. Therefore, you cannot help but look at the items quizzically. Why did you receive these? Who sent this glittering prize? Was this some sort of cruel joke? You decide to gently pick up the crown and put it on your head. Suddenly, out of no-where, you hear this song . . . .

It seems that somebody up there likes you. You sit in your chair begin to drift off to sleep; slipping into the new gold dream.

Nothing like a mug of beer on a warm Scottish day in Glasgow. The calendar on the wall indicates that the year is 1977. A young Jim Kerr is talking to his friend Charlie Burchill about a fiery new English band called The Sex Pistols. Ironically, the 2 never saw the band perform. Nevertheless, they decided to form a band called Johnny and The Self Abusers. Songs like 18-18, Saints and Sinners, and Dead Vandals came from those brief sessions and performances. By autumn 1977, they re-named themselves as Simple Minds. Despite the name change, they initially kept their punk style with the release of their first album Life In A Day. Between late 1977 and early 1978, there was a revolving door of guitarists and bassists for Simple Minds. The "Original" line-up during the recording of Life In A Day was Jim Kerr: Vocals, Charlie Burchill: Guitar/Violin, Brian McGee: Drums, Derek Forbes: Bass, and Mick MacNeil: Keyboards.

Simple Minds made a quick departure from punk with the release of Real to Real Cacophony in November 1978. Jim Kerr was quoted as stating, ""We were so anxious to see Life In A Day in the shops, it was almost embarrassing. And afterwards we wanted it out, that's why we were so quick to produce follow-up." Gone was the raw guitar sound of Life In A Day. Melodic, atmospheric, and occasionally sharp, transwave keyboard sounds appeared on Real To Real Cacophony as well as some very innovative guitar work from Charlie. Changeling stood out as a single. As luck would have it, a very similar bass line could later be heard in Asia's song Cutting It Fine. I did inquire with Dave Gallant about that issue. Although he replied, he declined comment.

Simple Minds used Empires & Dance (1980) and Sons & Fascination/Sister Feelings Call (1981) to further cultivate and perfect their style. The latter was originally released as 2 separate albums, but they were later combined as one. Empires & Dance was more minimalist than its predecessor while Sons & Fascination/Sister Feelings Call was more lush with mesmerizing bass lines, melodic keyboards, and entrancing guitars. Their creative juices went into overdrive in 1981. If Simple Minds had more studio time and a better producer, they probably could have released 3 albums that year instead of 2 (again, later merged as 1).

By 1982, Simple Minds had perfected their style and it really showed with the tight songs that were released that year on their album New Gold Dream 81-82-83-84. To symbolize looking toward the future, the numbers were added to the title at the last minute. Wanting extra umph, Simple Minds replaced drummer Brian McGee with Mel Gaynor. This would turn out to be a great move for the band. The album also features a synth solo by renowned jazz musician Herbie Hancock during Hunter And The Hunted. Someone Somewhere In Summertime, Promised You A Miracle, and Big Sleep became live staples. Nevertheless, the entire album is strong. The longest track, The King Is White And In The Crowd, clocks in at just under 7 minutes. My personal favorites from the album are Promised You A Miracle, Big Sleep, New Gold Dream, and The King Is White And In The Crowd.

Sparkle In The Rain was a transitional album released in 1984. The band was gaining popularity. So, they sought to appeal to a wider audience without compromising their integrity. This lead to an album that's not quite as tight as New Gold Dream, but still had some very strong material such as Up On The Catwalk, Book Of Brilliant Things, Waterfront, and East At Easter. Speed Your Love To Me is also noteworthy. By sometime in 1985, Simple Minds had all but re-written Book Of Brilliant Things and extended East At Easter by tacking on a really cool instrumental section during their tours. Speaking of tours, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that Simple Minds is very much a live band. Their studio releases put forth musical ideas, but these ideas take on a life of their own when performed live! Simple Minds didn't need to write complex epics to be a progressive band. Just listen to their live performances! Take a song like I Travel. Listen to an early live rendition from circa 1981. Then, listen to the 1983 Nijmegen, Netherlands performance of the song. Finally, listen to live renditions from the Good News From The Next World tour and their 2002 Cry tour. I Travel and many other Simple Minds classics have progressed over the years! All of those performances are very different. That's one attribute that makes Simple Minds such a great band! They definitely do not do cookie cutter performances of their music. They strive to keep it fresh and highly energetic from tour to tour.

I did not intend this to be a Simple Minds biography. Nevertheless, their formative years really show who these musicians are and that they are quite capable. For now, I will close with their 1985 release entitled Once Upon A Time. This is a tight album! Not a single weak track! Also, this is the first album that gives the listener a hint at their live energy. Original bassist Derek Forbes was replaced by John Giblin before the recording of Once Upon A Time. However, that didn't seem to hurt the songwriting. Did I mention that this is a tight album? This album had 2 chart toppers: Alive & Kicking and Sanctify Yourself. It would have had a 3rd, Don't You Forget About Me, but Simple Minds decided not to include it since the song was written by someone else specifically for use in a movie soundtrack. OK, so they didn't top the sundae with a cherry. It's still a delicious sundae! Ghost Dancing, Oh Jungleland, and I Wish You Were Here (definitely not the Pink Floyd song) are some of my personal favorites. This album, 2 years of touring, and a great 2 CD live set called Live In The City Of Light mark the peak of Simple Minds' popularity in the 80's.

One last thing to note . . . . Simple Minds and U2 were "rival" bands in the 80's. Not that they disliked one another. In fact, Bono appeared as a guest during a couple of tour dates. Yes, it was a friendly rival. Unfortunately, U2 won the promotional battle despite Simple Minds being the more talented band. Fans of U2 will no doubt flame me for that comment, but I've got to call it like I see it. I like U2. I like some of their material up through Achtung Baby. After that, they lost me. They became too commercial. Too much of a marketing machine. In other words, they had lost their musical integrity. Although some might say otherwise, I strongly feel that Simple Minds has always kept their musical integrity. They just didn't get near the promotion and funding that U2 has received. Yet, they are still alive and kicking today. In fact, a new album is due out this year.

Disclaimer: This post is based on truth and contains many facts about Simple Minds. It also contains the poster's opinions. Album titles, song titles, musicians and dates are true according to simpleminds.com and simple-minds.demon.co.uk. Other aspects of the story leading into the factual material, though based on truth, are fictional in nature.

This is how I earned the name Fractalman - Part 2

Some Chaoscope fractals that I did:

Bird, Perch & Chair

It might be hard to believe, but the only editing that I did to this fractal was changing the background. I changed it from a solid color background to a "cloud" effect. It was one of those odd twists of fate that the fractal itself resembled a bird, its perch, and a chair. I was quite impressed with it and thought that the green and white "cloud" background gave it a touch of harmony.

DeanScape

I call this fractal DeanScape because it resembles part of Roger Dean's work for the Beginnings album cover. An album by a phenominal guitarist named Steve Howe (also a member of Yes). This fractal rendition has a bit more of a wispy feel than the solid structure in Roger Dean's work.

Plato's Form Dimension

I call this Plato's Form Dimension because it gives me the feeling of what it might be like to be in the spirit realm. The spirit or forms realm transcends the physical realm. The central bright area symbolizes the purity of this dimension while the other colors symbolize beauty.

Van Gogh's Accident

Unknown to most, Van Gogh got upset one day while painting. During the height of his outburst, he spilled some oil paint onto a dark satin cloth. The initial shape of the spill inspired him. So, he used his hands and fingers to complete the abstract piece. He called it Ongeval (Dutch). This translates to 'Accident' in English. OK, I admit that the story isn't true, but it makes the idea behind the fractal more interesting.

This is how I earned the name Fractalman - Part 1

My interest in fractals began close to 20 years ago. I started with a basic, yet powerful program called Fractint. At the time, this program didn't allow for much customization and parameter adjustment. So, I searched the web and found Iterations. It used to be freeware, but Stephen Ferguson has done many other programs since and now charges for downloading. I have also used Chaoscope; a 3D strange attractor renderer. Much more recently I took to fractal landscapes using Terragen 0.9.43.

The 2 main reasons that I am still interested in fractals 20 years later is because I like both abstract art and math. I have a strong math background. In fact, after 9 semesters of college, I was only about 3 courses away from a major in math. This would have been in addition to my major in Physics. However, I was burned out and never went back to complete the second major. My first love has always been music --which is also very mathematical. One day, back in 1997, I stumbled upon a program called ArtSong. It originally used RGB values and recursive fractal mapping to create notes. That right! ArtSong created music from fractals! This fascinated me. I did quite a few fractal songs. Some of which I will post here in the future. I will also post some of my early fractals done with Iterations. Unfortunately, the really early stuff with Fractint was lost due to hard drive failure. Nevertheless, I have done plenty over the years and continue to do more. I usually do them in spurts with variable length hiatuses in between.

For the first image below, I used Iterations. Unlike what some people say in online forums and such, Iterations is a very powerful fractal generating tool with a lot of features --including custom equations. Lots of parameters can be adjusted, but there is a bit of a learning curve. In fact, I like it better than some of Stephen's more recent programs.




This fractal was generated 2 years ago. I used a custom equation. The only editing I did was resizing to 800x600.

Some people might say that "artifying" a fractal is overkill. That's not necessarily true. check out the 2 artified versions below.




I call this one the "Cave Art Edit". In hindsight, that might be a bit of a misnomer. However, you can see that by using PhotoShop or other image editing applications the look and feel of the fractal can change dramatically. Since it has been 2 years, it's tough to give you details on what I did. Nevertheless, I can tell you that I: 1) adjusted the levels, 2) used selective coloring, 3) added brush and texture effects.




I call this one the "Topography Edit". As you can see, it is quite different from both the original and the previous edit. I still adjusted levels and used selective coloring. I also used a lighting effect in the lower right. A craquelure effect was used to produce the "topography".

This is only one of hundreds of fractals I've done over the years. If you like it, keep an eye on this site. I will post many more in the weeks, months, and years to come --including some I did with Chaoscope and Terragen.

Turning a digital photo into digital art - Part 1

NOTE: I use Adobe Photoshop CS2. Similar effects can be accomplished with other image editing applications.

For quite some time, I have "artified" my and others' images in a digital imaging forum. The photo above is one that I took in a neighbor's yard. Although it stands well on its own, I decided to use it in an "Artify" thread in this forum.

There are a few basic things that I tend to do when I "artify" an image. First, I generally adjust levels to increase the contrast of the image without losing detail. Which level I adjust first depends on the overall brightness of the image. If the image is slightly dark, I generally adjust the highlights and/or midtones first. If the image is slightly bright, I usually adjust the shadows first. Once adjusting the highlights or the shadows, you can usual tell whether you need to increase or decrease the midtones. Next, I often use selective color to change the mood of the image to the type of mood I want to portray. There is no single method for this. You just have to experiment. I can say that using grays, dark purples, and black tends to make an eerie image. However, other moods are more difficult to pinpoint. Now that the modifications have been made to set the mood, other filters and effects can be applied to create your own style. In this case, I borrowed an idea from Roger Dean. I did a search for cat tracks and found a simple set. So, I strategically placed them within the image. Then, I added a couple of painting effects. Finally, I added a ripple effect. You can see the end result below.

Saga is seeking a new vocalist!

I am sure that many of you are saying "Saga who?" That's one of the many reasons I am taking this opportunity to promote this great band!

In brief, Saga is a Canadian progressive rock band that formed in 1977. They have over 20 albums to their name. Their most popular songs include: On The Loose, Wind Him Up, Careful Where You Step, You're Not Alone, and Humble Stance. Their most adventurous effort was Generation 13. This was a concept album released in 1995. Their last album with original vocalist, Michael Sadler, was 10,000 Days which was released in 2007.

Brief musician profiles:

Michael Sadler: Former vocalist and occasional keyboard player. Michael's vocals are among the best in the rock genre.

Ian Crichton: Guitarist. Ian is an amazing guitarist. I'd say in the top 5% among rock guitarists. He's definitely on the level with guitarists like Alex Lifeson, Eddie Van Halen, and Adrian Belew. Ian often performs duets with Jim Gilmour. He has also done some blistering hot solos.

Jim Crichton: Bass and occasional keyboards. While Jim might not be a phenomenal bassist, he does play an important role in the band and does an excellent job holding up the low end.

Jim Gilmour: Keyboards, occasional lead/backing vocals, occasional clarinet. Jim Gilmour is probably one of the most innovative keyboard players in the rock genre. He might not quite have the technical prowess of Keith Emerson, but he's every bit as good as Tony Banks, Eddie Jobson, and Steve Winwood. He creates great atmospheres and performs amazing solos and duets. Jim's lead vocals in some of Saga's ballads are impeccable.

Steve Negus: Former drummer (1977-2003). Steve was a great drummer. Perhaps not on the level as Neil Peart, Terry Bozzio, or Carl Palmer. However, he could easily be compared to Chester Thompson, Mel Gaynor, or Chris Slade. He can change tempos and alternate rhythms without missing a beat. One listen to Steve's drumming during Help Me Out or Framed and you'll know he's a great drummer!

Saga's first 5 albums Saga (self titled), Images at Twilight, Silent Knight, Worlds Apart, and Heads or Tales, are considered the classics by many fans. All of these are solid albums and worth exploring if you don't already own them. If 5 albums is too much of an investment, I suggest starting with Saga's live albums: In Transit and Detours.

This brings us to the current dilemma. Michael Sadler officially left the band to be with his family on December 31, 2007. Thus, Saga is seeking a new singer. According to their site, they are going to hold auditions in Toronto. I have a better idea!

Let's petition Saga and CBS to do:


Please sign the petition by leaving comments to this post!

NOTE: Vocalist found!

Yes - 2008 Close To The Edge & Back Tour

After about a 3 year hiatus, Yes is kicking off a summer tour of the US in July! The touring band will consist of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, and Oliver Wakeman (Rick Wakeman's son). Unfortunately, Rick Wakeman's health isn't good enough to do a major tour. Rick, if you're reading this, I understand the importance of doing what is best for your health and respect you decision. On a more positive note, Jon has hinted at the possibility of the band hitting the studio after the tour in the latest issue of Notes From the Edge (#305). I hope this happens as I would love to hear new material from these outstanding musicians.

On the more personal end the spectrum, I was blessed with the chance to meet members of Yes on a few occasions. The first was in March of 1993. Rick Wakeman came to Founder's Inn in Virginia Beach, VA for an acoustic performance. I spoke to Rick for a few minutes after his performance and also got a chance to meet his good friend, Dan Wooding, who wrote Rick's first biography.

My next encounter with Yes was during the Talk tour. I e-mailed Dan Wooding to see if he could help me get backstage. Despite the fact that Rick Wakeman was not with the band at the time, Dan came through for me. Thanks Dan! I showed one the the stage hands an e-mail from Dan and he came back with a backstage pass.

Just before they guys behind NFTE announced that their site was the official Yes site, I had contacted Rick Wakeman's management to discuss the possibility of doing a web site for him. Shortly thereafter, I received an e-mail from Jeff Hunnicutt (of NFTE) asking me not to pursue things any further. Not wanting to step on any toes, I heeded his request.

As luck would have it, that was not my last brush with Yes. A friend and I were able to "unofficially" get backstage during the Open Your Eyes Tour. Here are a few pictures that I took:


I'm looking forward to the tour!

Please read the update post.