INTERVIEW: Yes legends head for West Sussex

Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman - key members of the classic line-up of rock band Yes - join team up in Crawley as part of a one-tour tour, The Anderson/Wakeman Project 360 (The Hawth, October 11).

They will be offering classic Yes tracks plus first performances of newly jointly-composed Anderson/Wakeman songs written especially for their autumn 2010 dates.

Freshly arrived from the States, Jon was delighted at the prospect - the latest chapter in a long friendship.

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"I saw Rick when he was 19 and playing in the Strawbs. There was Rick playing like a Wizard. It was within a year that he joined Yes. He was very musically gifted, classically trained and could play any kind of music.

"We worked together for three years and then he had a break form the band and then another two years and then after another 14-16 years we got togheter for another five years.

"But we have always kept in touch. We have always been aware of each other! It was amazing that the band could actually survive 35 years. You go through experiences like that with brother and you become like brothers. It's not all the time that you love each other, but you work together, and the music was the glue thta kept us going. We were doing such different music, very stylised concert rock. I never liked the word 'prog' rock for what we were doing. It makes it sound like you've got long hair!"

Jon and Rick toured together around four years ago: "It was very successful on many levels. It was just me and Rick on stage. And then I got very ill in 2008. I nearly died a couple of times. I had breathing problems that needed sorting out. It was like the engine was not working properly. I had to have it fixed, and it took more than a year. I didn't sing for six months. I did a lot of painting which was cool.

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"But then earlier this year, Rick got in touch and said would I like to do another tour. We decided to write some songs for the tour."

Consequently there's now an album: "When you know someone so well, it is so easy to write. We wrote about eight songs. He will send me an MP3 of an idea, and I will sing something and send it back and he will develop it. We have been working on the internet studio, and that's how we made the new album."

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