This morning at the gym I was listening to Yes’ 90125 album. I enjoyed much of the older stuff by Yes, and I was very excited to hear that a reformulated Yes was releasing an album. This was during my Senior year in high school. This was the year that I started going to rock concerts. It all started with Rainbow (Aldo Nova was the opening act) on what would be their final world tour (Blackmore’s reformulated Rainbow in the late 90’s is blocked out from my memory). John Graves, a.k.a. Jolly since he was English, called to see if I wanted to go. I begged my father to go. That year I would see Van Halen (with Autograph), the Scorpions (with Bon Jovi) and Yes. The summer after graduation I would see the Moody Blues, the Pretenders (with the Simple Minds), the Cars (the night before my physical exam for college- being on the 4th row, I couldn’t hear anything the next day) and Yes again. Listening to It Can Happen reminded the long, strange story of how I got to go to that concert (sorry about the really bad fashion, it was the 80’s).
He had the same haircut for 30 years.
Before I get to that, today I learned one of my other best friends in High School passed away unexpectedly this week. Brian Borromeo was in most of my classes, and I somehow managed to be a few people ahead of him in the upper quarter. We spent a lot of time together while at school. He was the first of my Philippino friends. I didn’t see him much after college. One weekend I was home from school and I had a small party. He came over. It was good to head to pick up pizza and talk about life and the “new” U2 EP that had come out. The last time we got together was just after he’d transferred to Northeastern University in Boston. He apparently decided dentistry was not for him. He was angry that I was no longer Roman Catholic. I never saw him again. I kept trying to find him on Facebook, but never did. Now I never will.
Yes’ 90125 came out and we were blown away. Trever Rabin’s guitar (he’s gone on to work on a number of movie soundtracks) was a welcome addition for me. His style was very different than Steve Howe’s, so the album had a different feel to it than their great albums from the past. So we were all ready to go see the band when they came to town.
Act I: Jolly decided to go to the local Ticketron outlet to pick up tickets. He figured he’d miss the first class and just get a detention for being late. No big deal. It wouldn’t have been except an angry man decided to drive through the entrance of that record store early in the morning. Jolly was not deterred. He drove up to Manchester to get in line. Only problem was that the line was longer (when he finally found the right store), and he was much later getting back. He had tickets, but I think he also earned a suspension for skipping school.
Act II: While preparing for the World Tour, the band members may have been in the Bahamas. Regardless of which warm locale they were in, some of them went swimming. A woman accidentally landed on Trevor Rabin. His spleen was ruptured and he had emergency surgery. During this time it was discovered he actually had 3 spleens. One of the many versions of the video for Leave It references this. For us, this meant that the tour was delayed.
Act III: The concert in Worcester was rescheduled- to the night of the Senior prom. Not being one to dance, I didn’t care. A Yes concert sounded much more interesting than the Senior Prom (especially if your one and only girlfriend had dumped you in February). I was asked to the prom by a girl who had been in my gym class. I hung out with her and her very attractive friend, but it was the one with the mustache that wanted to go to the prom with me. When I explained I was going to the Yes concert, she said “Who?”.
But Jolly had different ideas. The guy who endured so much to get the tickets, including discipline, bailed on me. I had to find older friends to fill the seats. Instead of this being a trip with high school friends, it ended up being a trip with work friends, Helene, Kevin Graves (no relation), and Craig. Helene didn’t care about Yes, and I’m still not sure why she went.
Act IV: Helene was our designated driver. She got us lost. Craig and I had full bladders due to the amount of illegal beverages we were consuming. Finally we prevailed upon her to pull over. We arrived in the nick of time. Our seats were not to great due to Jolly’s trip to Manchester. We were surrounded by the smoke of a different illegal substance. It was a great show, so much more fun (for me) than a prom.
Amazing how a song can bring a flood of memories. All this came up while sitting at the gym. I’m sure I had a great big smile on my face thinking of this strange story from the distant past. But, as the song went- It Can Happen.
Cavman Considers 
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