90125, released towards the end of 1983, was Yes’ best-selling album. A combination of commercial necessity and luck saw an album by a new band called Cinema — featuring Yes stalwarts Chris Squire, Alan White and Tony Kaye alongside talented multi-instrumentalist Trevor Rabin — become Yes, following the last-minute recruitment of vocalist Jon Anderson. A US number one hit single, ‘Owner Of A Lonely Heart,’ led to a triple platinum record and a massive world tour, giving this band a new lease of life into the 1980s.
Featuring new interviews with Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye, current Yes bassist Billy Sherwood and Atlantic executive Phil Carson, this book traces the story of the album from its roots in Rabin’s garage in 1981, via Trevor Horn’s turbulent production, up to the end of the world tour in early 1985. 90125 is reviewed in full, and the book also includes a detailed look at the somewhat complex and contrived process that created it, as well as the videos that promoted it. The book also discusses the album’s legacy and the remarkable afterlife of its innovative number-one single.
The 90125 story is possibly the most astonishing in this legendary group’s nearly six-decade history. This is how it happened.
Stephen Lambe is a publisher, festival promoter and freelance writer. A former chairman of The Classic Rock Society, he now owns Sonicbond Publishing. His piece about 90125 for Prog magazine was the inspiration for this, his eleventh book. The other ten include two other books about Yes, and the best-selling Citizens Of Hope And Glory — The Story Of Progressive Rock for Amberley in 2011. He has also written several volumes of local history. He lives in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK.
