50 years ago today (8/3/68), YES performed their first gig as YES. It was at 184 Shaftesbury Avenue in London that was the site of The Lucky Horseshoe Café, in the basement of which the band rehearsed when it changed its name to Yes from Mable Greer’s Toyshop. Yes played their first gig under that moniker on August 3, 1968, in Essex, U.K. The band’s lineup at the time featured singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Peter Banks, drummer Bill Bruford and keyboardist Tony Kaye. It was Banks, who died of heart failure in 2013, who suggested Yes as the group’s name. In honor of the anniversary lets watch early YES from 1972 at the Rainbow Theatre..
