The Chances

Back around 1982 sometime, there was an up and coming South African musician named Trevor Rabin. He was shopping around a solo album to various record companies, and Atlantic Records (ATCO for short) was interested, but they weren't interested. Three songs in particular, they said were not "hit" material (we'll get to that later).

At the same time, Trevor's management said there were two sets of people who were interested in putting together a band, completely separate from the solo project. One was Jack Bruce formerly of Cream. The other was Chris Squire and Alan White, formerly of Yes. He was interested in working with the Yes guys, who were just coming off a failed project with Jimmy Page, called XYZ (appropriately, Ex-Yes/Zeppelin).

At any rate, the band they formed was called Cinema, and they started working with another ex-Yes member, Tony Kaye. Shortly thereafter, yet another ex-Yes member, Jon Anderson, rolled into town to hang out with the guys, and loved the material. On a whim, Jon sang on one of the tracks, and Yes of the 80s was born.

Many of the tracks that Trevor Rabin was working on in 1982 became the basis of the biggest selling album Yes ever had, 90125. The three tracks I mentioned earlier were the three hits from that album: City of Love, Hold On, and the only #1 hit Yes ever had, Owner of a Lonely Heart.

So the big question is, why am I telling you this?

The original demos that Trevor Rabin was working on back in 1982 are being released next week as a CD called 90124. So far it's not being released in the US, but this should be an exciting CD.

Trevor did an interview with Notes From the Edge recently in regards to the project. Here's hoping it'll be really good!