August and September will make for an interesting, if not a confusing time for Yes fans as there are two versions of the band on the road -- the original Yes, which includes no original members, and ARW -- Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman -- who now bill themselves as Yes featuring Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman. (Anderson is a founding member of the original Yes, and Rabin and Wakeman served aboard the mother ship.)
Yes guitarist Steve Howe tells Billboard that both parties have a "discretionary agreement." He says, "We are our own entity. We will carry on in our own style, and I think we'll bring the people along with us who have either already identified with that, that we have a certain approach to the realism and the authentication of Yes music. We feel it's our right and obligation to do that very, very convincingly. So we're that band, and if you like that thing, we're that band."
So, if you're keeping score, the original Yes starts the YEStival tour this Friday in Greensboro, North Carolina. And Yes featuring Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman start their tour on August 26th in Stockton, California.