Gryphon’s Brian Gulland admits he was a callow youth with almost no experience of concerts when he first saw Yes in 1971. The multi-instrumentalist tells Prog about the unforgettable experience of supporting on their Relayer tour of 1974 – arguing that it was both bands’ most experimental periods.
“In 1971 my cousin, who knew my musical tastes, said I should come to London to see this band that he’d discovered. So we left the Weald of Kent and ended up in Dagenham where Yes were playing. They’d just released The Yes Album. It was around the summer holidays of my first year at the Royal College of Music and, for me, it was the most important gig – I’d at last found a group who played with more than three chords, with different time signatures, wonderful lyrics, and who were all expert players.
I was a callow youth who didn’t really understand about gigs; but I had to go and say thank you and speak to the band afterwards. I knocked on the door of this tiny dressing room and Chris Squire answered it. I said how impressive the bass line was to Starship Trooper and mentioned it being in A. He asked how I knew and I told him I had perfect pitch, so we got talking about choristers and so on.
After that, I used to attend Yes rehearsal sessions. I got to know Jon Anderson very well. We were cosmic brothers! I was at Advision studios when they were recording Fragile too.
Later on, Gryphon were managed by Brian Lane, who looked after Yes, and we were invited to join the Relayer tour in the US and UK. We did 32 concerts in 39 days with Yes in America – every morning we’d air hop onto the next place.
Relayer was the furthest out they went experimentally… they really pushed the envelope
One day off, they invited me to join them in New York. Straight after the gig, we were whisked off in a big black limo to a private airfield and I joined them on board their Learjet. Jon had a suite at the Chelsea Hotel; and I overslept the next day because they were very generous with their spliffs!
When we played Madison Square Garden, the crowds received us very warmly. It was true everywhere we went – it was very humbling and gratifying that they enjoyed our music. We were probably at our most proggy at that stage with our album Red Queen To Gryphon Three, which people also seem to like these days. Although different from Yes’ music, at the same time it had a fair degree of intricacy.
After Gryphon had played, I stayed behind and watched every Yes gig on that tour. I couldn’t get enough of it. I absolutely adored Patrick Moraz’s playing, particularly the Moog solo in F minor in Sound Chaser where he just went completely berserk.
With that one and The Gates Of Delirium, I’d say Relayer was the furthest out they went experimentally. I suppose there were maybe those aspects in Tales From Topographic Oceans as well, but Yes really pushed the envelope with Relayer.”
