The Yes men arrived on stage, picked up their waiting instruments and started playing.

No frippery required from a band imbued with audience appreciation of their music and musicianship over nearly five decades.

Credited with the beginnings of ‘progressive rock’ in late 1960s alongside other still-classic household names, this Yes is of course not the original line-up, though formidable guitarist Steve Howe joined in 1971, two years after the band’s inception.

On this eighth date on their World Tour, due to last several months, Howe explained with pride that this line-up can play any of the band’s album repertoire.

Both Chris Squires (d. 2015) and Peter Banks (d. 2013) were remembered to hard-core fans’ applause; Geoff Downes, Alan White and Billy Sherwood all showed enviable stamina as the band, complemented by the most recent addition to their crew Jon Davison and his magnificent vocals, played through two entire albums Fragile and Drama, divided by only a 20-minute interval.

As a whole the concert was phenomenal and left an impression of having temporarily visited another planet, perhaps one evoked by Roger Dean’s iconic artistry - although he might also have been disappointed by a generally poor-quality digital backdrop to the stage.