California Guitar trio with Tony Levin/Wakemen and Anderson

[Fred]

Hey Guys

I've just returned from the show live from Quebec Prog City. It was amazing... its probably the best show ive seen in my life...

CGT played with Levin and then Wakemen and Anderson joined them (Anderson on the guitar too). It was awesome...

Then we had Wakemen and Anderson playin' some old Yes hits.... i don't know all the track name but they played "Nous somme du soleil" (a little clin d'oeil to us frenchies )

Then we had a big break where they installed all the stuff for the big event "Return to the center of the earth"

There was to big screens on each side of the scene and the back of the scene was itself an enormous screen so we had like three enormous screens displaying each steps of this voyage to the center of the earth. the images were so beautiful.. it was stunning. There was a narrator who was telling the story (in french). While he was telling the story, there was some absolutely nice symphonic music playing. And every like 5 or 10 minutes of narration, there was a song.. sometimes with a signer (most of them were local artists) and sometime this was a instrumental song with Wakeman (with his cape making him look like a king.. "a la Freddy Mercury" ) playin' some awesome keybord tracks.

The sympnonic orchestra was composed of some violins, horns, choirs, trumpet, flute... there was a drummer a guitarist and a bassist.

And when we thought we had seen everything the show had to offer to us, we saw fireworks comming from behind the scene... enormous quantity of fireworks that were use to illustrate what was happening in the story... (volcano magma of fireballs)

I was not expecting so much from that show... it seems that the Festival d'été de Québec did all that they could to make that show a real event that everyone present that night will remember for a long long time. There was some king of fireballs comming from three different spots in the assistance (again, used to illustrate the story)... it was a multisensorial experience like i have never seen !

Anderson sang on a song during Wakemen's shows and it was awesome... we didn't thought he would be present for that part.

I'm probably forgetting some details and making a lot of writing mistakes but its late and im tired... i'll post a follow-up tommorow of later... i'll try to get some pictures of the show... I choose not to bring my camera because i was affraid we were not allowed to bring cameras but then i saw a lot on site so it was probably a bad decision not bringing it with me

I will surely find some pictures somewhere on the newspapers or something...

Cheers to Rabidyesfan and Lady_Di_of_Alpharetta because they wish they could be there !

Cheers to you all.

Fred

[rabidyesfan]

Wow! I woke up this morning,got my coffee,got online and immediately gravitated to your review!!Well done mate!! For a second your review made me feel like I was there! I just knew it was going to be AWESOME!!! Rick WAkeman,Jon Anderson,Tony Levin, Cal.Guitar Trio& possibly you saw Rick's English Rock Ensemble along with a complete orchestra,chior,narrator,fireworks,video screens,etc.What more could you want?This reminds me of the 70's when Rick toured with an orchestra and all the extras all over the world AT HIS EXPENSE!! That's what I call LOVING MUSIC!!Why this man hasn't been Knighted by Queen Lizzy just plum evades me.Sir Rick Wakeman has a nice ring to it!! By the way,Rick was wearing capes way before Freddy Mercury(God rest his soul).I can only hope that show you saw catches on around the world.Did you notice if they were video-recording for a possible future DVD??GOD I HOPE SO!!!!..................Stay Cool Fred & go easy on Wilma,rabidyesfan (DENNIS)

[Fred]

Hey Rabidyesfan

Like I said, I saw some tv cameras once in a while but nothing that could make me believe they recorded everything for a DVD... But, its possible that some cameras were dissimulated in the front tower and at some other places were we would not see them.

The orchestra with Wakeman was the official orchestra of the Festival d'été de Québec (Quebec Summer Festival). But on some websites, they say that the English Rock ensemble was also present so you may be right ! A Group from Quebec (Concept FiatLux) was responsible of the pyrotechnic effect.

Its the most expensive show that the Festival has presented ever.. and this year was the 39th edition.

There was probably about 70 000 people at the show. Its probably less than the numbers for Scorpions and Twisted Sisters on Friday but the thing is that there was Real Big Fish and MxPx playing on another scene at the same time as Wakeman.

Still trying to get some pictures and vids !

Regards
Fred

[Fred]

Hey.. here is a little complement... I've read some review of the show and all the critics have loved the show.

Jon and Rick played :
Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Nous Sommes Du Soleil
And You And I
Soon

Then CGT and Levin joined them to play Heart Of The Sunrise wich was probably the best part (musically) of the show.

Then Rick played Eleanor Rigby at the piano.

And now, here are some pictures I've gattered on the internet !

there you see the CGT



One of the songs during Return to the center of the earth. The screen behind the stage was used to display shots of the show for those like me who were a bit far from the stage.


Another song... btw, this guy had an awesome voice.. he souded like the signer of Blind Guardian.


Wakeman.. with his cape !!


The drummer


The screen was also used to display images of the "voyage"


Here you can appreciate the extensive screen that they used to display the images. You see on the left side the image of the narrator. Over the stage, you can see some fireworks that were launched during one of the eight pyrotechnic shots !



That last picture represents the best the beauty and the greatness (not sure of that word..:p ) of the show...

The pictures are small... its not because i've compressed them.

I'm still trying to find some videos but its quite hard.. and the news websites would have me pay for a video version of some news reports of the show... (bande de Seraphin !)

If you find some vids on forums or something, post the link here please !

See ya

Fred

[rabidyesfan]

Good job FRED!!! I think you'd make a good journalist or a reporter.Your attention to detail about Rick's concert was candid and informative and the pictures are splendid!Just think,20 some years ago you could not do something like this! Thanx again for sharing it with us.Keep it up,a Pulitzer Prize is only 10 million miles away!(just kidding)All things considered,you just perfomed a "humanitarian service" for us unfortunates.Now catch a plane to London and give us reviews of Rick&Jon at Ipswich in October while I slosh in the hurricanes here in Florida come September.....................rabidyesfan(Dennis)

[Fred]

hehe.... I'm sure you would make a better reporter than me.. my english sucks and i'm far from a big Yes fan as some of you are !

I just felt we were lucky to have such a show (I began to realize that while chatting with radibyesfan and Lady_di ! ) and that it would be great to keep you guys informed.

Moreover, it gave me an oportinuty to practice my english "skills" outside the "technical scientific" field i'm used to !

and btw.. no hurricanes here in Quebec City !!.. just freakin ice storm that destroy all electric transport lines ...

See ya
Fred

[Fred]

I found some vids... I don't know the quality because I can't see either of them. (Some are .mov and the other just won't load on the computer at work... silly internet connection)

There you'll have two vids. From Youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=r ... rch_videos

There you'll have 5 vids taken from a post on www.yesfan.com
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...3DD5EA0564B744

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...F5AF383F0034DA

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...B9D87F2BC4CC77

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...B9DA9A11594419

http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...30A912184AA585

There are also some pictures of Quebec that some guys have posted on www.yesfan.com

I think you should download the vids because I really don't know how long they will be available... and it uses almost the same bandwith if you download it or if you stream it so !

Feel free to comment your appreciation of the vids !

Cheers

Fred

[rabidyesfan]

YAY!!! The vids&pics are great!!! They take some time to load so I was selective.Now don't worry about your journalistic skills! You did fine& that science stuff is way cool also.Another one of my idols is Steven Hawking and our dearly departed Carl Sagan.Don't get tied up in "string theroy" or "quantum mechanics"but,just keep them under suspicion.Eleven dimensions?I'll bet there's more beyond our universe,in fact they're endless and somewhere out there God is having fun putting more pieces to the puzzle in front of us!I mean,if he is all powerful he must have a huge sense of humour!!!!..............gotta run,rabidyesfan(Dennis).............P.S. By "glaze" on the wires you mean "ice"-right?

[mondstar]

m@ Den, is a quantum cube so huge, that it ...wouldn´t fit in any description, chasing Ya, or is it You, locking for an ice-cream?

(Thank You both ... \ ...! ../..;,_______)

an´ when God created men, she was only practicing.
--outof quantun-fizz..ycal froth and wattnot ....rolling her "i´s"...

pssst: what sort o´ slow mm-potion the camera leading man has been having (we´d like the same, hot or cold...)

[Fred]

Yeah.. I meant ice storm... never trust Babel Fish Traduction

I'll try to take a look at the vids when I get home !

Yeah science is cool but you are looking for a funny scientist, try Richard Feynman... he is the best ! Try reading 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!' and I garantee you'll have a great time !

Nice theory.. about God adding some dimensions... I'm not much of a religious person but I like the idea

We are getting out of the subject.. some people may get confused about all this hehe

See ya
Fred

[rabidyesfan]

Yes, I read the book about Richard Feynman.Did you see the movie about his life?It's called "Infinity".Very moving.At the end of his life he told NASA officials to tell the truth about the first Space Shuttle crash and if they didn't he would and expose anyone who lied!! What a stand-up guy!!This Saturday morning at 5am I'm anxiuos to hear what Rick Wakeman will say about the concert on planetrock.com.I've also noticed some of their listeners are comming over to deliciousagony.Way cool!!!..................Take it easy Fred,rabidyesfan (Dennis or kellart1).

[Fred]

I was not aware of the existence of such a movie !!

I'll try to see it !

And I'll also try to watch Rick show.. like you say, he'll probably talk about his appreciation of the show and I'm quite eager to hear about that !!

Take care !

Fred