Yes Album Listening Guides – Tales From Topographic Oceans Part 11 – Michael Tait’s Tales – 641

In Production: Tales from Topographic OceansListening guide Sign up to the e-newsletter updates for exclusive access to the PRESALE! TormatoBook.com Produced by Wayne Hall, Joseph Cottrell, Jeffrey Crecelius and Ken Fuller Mark and I had a great conversation with the legendary Michael Tait this week. Here is what the biography on his Mickey's Black Box website says: "Michael “Mickey” Tait landed in London from his native Australia in 1967. It was his third stop, after Hong Kong and Tehran, in what was meant to be a 3 month “Visit the Motherland” working vacation. His first job was bartending at the Speakeasy, a private club frequented by the who’s who of the music business. Rubbing shoulders with rock stars led to his second job: Road Manager for the newly formed progressive rock band YES. During his 12 years on the road with YES he advanced the art of stage production and was a driving force in the new field of tour lighting. He is credited with building the first pedalboard for guitar, the double Mellotron, the flat mirror ball, the 400-watt Leslie speaker box, and one of the first pin matrix lighting consoles. Next came self-contained lighting units consisting of genie lifts in large road cases with integral 4 cell par 64 lamps. These became known as “Tait Towers,” hence the name of his soon-to-be lighting rental company. Perhaps one of his most important innovations was the portable rotating stage used by Yes in the 1970’s. Inspiration struck Tait while delivering a can of 35mm film to Morgan studios, where YES were recording. The concept, initially met with skepticism, was soon embraced as it gave everyone in the house a better view of the band and also increased the ticket gross dramatically." Despite recovering from COVID, Michael was generous and open about his recollections of working with Yes, particularly around the time of Tales from Topographic Oceans. Yes concert at the Montreal Forum on the Tales Tour, photo courtesy of Ken Jonach - lots of Mickey Tait's work on show https://www.taittowers.com https://mickeysblackbox.com/ Was the Tales Tour a turning point for the Yes live production? How did Michael get from Yes roadie/van driver to establishing the most successful live production company in the world? What about Jon's bathroom at Morgan Studios? Let us know if you agree with us! There are only 100 of these packs available, so buy yours now! (Opens in a new window) Check out the progress on my other podcast - https://anthem52.com/ Yes - The Tormato Story Available now! TormatoBook.com YMP Patrons: Producers: Joseph Cottrell Wayne Hall Ken Fuller Jeffrey Crecelius Patrons: Jim Morrison Jon Pickles Declan Logue Gary Betts Aaron SteelmanMichael Handerhan Barry Gorsky Steve Perry Doug Curran Martin Kjellberg Todd Dudley Rachel Hadaway Lind  Paul Hailes Craig Estenes Mark James Lang Steve Rode David Bob Martilotta John Holden Stephen LambeDem Fred Barringer Scott Colombo Chris Bandini David Heyden John Thomson Mark Baggs John Cowan John Parry Dave Owen Simon Barrow Steve Scott Terence Sadler Steve Dill Robert Nasir  Fergus Cubbage William Hayes Geoff Bailie Steven Roehr Lobate Scarp Geoffrey Mason David Watkinson Tim Stannard Robert VandiverBrian Sullivan David Pannell Jamie McQuinnMiguel Falcão Paul Tomei Michael O'ConnorBrian HarrisHogne Bø PettersenGuy DeRome Become a Patron! Our Facebook YMP Discussion Group is open to anyone to join. One of the advantages of the new format is that all members of the group have the same ability to post content, so it’s a bit more egalitarian, or somesuch. Please do search for the group and join in. https://www.facebook.com/groups/3216603008606331/ Please follow/subscribe! If you are still listening to the podcast on the website, please consider subscribing so you don’t risk missing anything: