Jon Anderson is playing Seventies Yes Classics again — with a band he found on YouTube

The summer of 2018, Richie Castellano and friends posted a remarkable cover of the 1972 Yes epic “Close to the Edge” to their YouTube channel and watched it rack up over half a million views. “I'm surprised by these comments,” he wrote in response to the outpouring of love from prog fans. “This is not a bunch of music snobs showing off. This is true love for Yes and their music. We are die-hard Yes fans and this video is not about us conquering a song or doing it better than anyone else. It's about the joy of indulging our inner teenagers and being lucky enough to have the opportunity to play the music we love.”

Castellano has been a multi-instrumentalist in Blue Öyster Cult for the past two decades, and videos like “Close to the Edge” were just a fun way to pass the time between band commitments. But one of the half a million people who saw the video was Yes singer Jon Anderson, just when he needed a new band. “They were pretty amazing and seemed happy and having fun,” Anderson says Rolling rock. “I called Richie the bass player and said, 'Let's go on tour.' And he said, 'What?'”

The tour couldn't take place until 2023 due to Covid and Anderson's other commitments, but it was worth the wait. Under the banner 'Yes – Epics & Classics Featuring Jon Anderson and The Band Geeks', they delivered a night of 70s prog masterpieces such as 'Heart of the Sunrise', 'Yous Is No Disgrace' and 'Awaken' played to absolute perfection. And when it was over, they channeled their energy into a new album, Truewhich they plan to release later this year.

“I can't even wrap my head around it all,” says Castellano. “I used to watch Jon in concert and scream at him. Doing something like that is just a dream. It was also the opportunity as a Yes fan to say, “Okay, we've been given the keys to the kingdom. We have Jon Anderson singing for us. How do we want this to go?'

Castellano learned about the Yes Kingdom at the age of 14 when his uncle Phil gave him a copy of Fragility. “He challenged me to learn 'Heart of the Sunrise,'” he says. “And so I tried it, and then I realized, 'Oh, this is way beyond me musically. I don't understand what's going on here.' Once I learned how to do it, I was converted. I was a fan.”

He first saw Yes when the Talk tour came to the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey, on September 7, 1994. “As a young guitarist, Trevor Rabin just melted my face off,” he says. “I probably saw them seven or eight times after that. I converted all my friends.”

Castellano got a job with Blue Öyster Cult as a sound engineer when he finished his studies, which led to occasional opportunities to guest with them on concerts. When bassist Danny Miranda left the band in 2004, they offered his place to Castellano. Three years later, when journeyman bassist Rudy Sarzo joined the group, Castellano adopted a new role as keyboardist, rhythm guitarist and backup singer.

Sarzo has played with everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Quiet Riot to Whitesnake, Geoff Tate's Queensrÿche and the Guess Who. Castellano was in awe of him. He was in the back of a tour van one day when Sarzo asked him if he had his own YouTube channel. He did not do it. “He said, 'You're making a big mistake,'” Castellano says. “A man your age, if you don't have a YouTube channel, you don't exist.” I will never forget that.”

With Sarzo's help, Castellano started his own YouTube channel and began posting videos, including his personal performance of Queen's “Bohemian Rhapsody” that went viral. He also started a podcast with his musician friends he called Band Geek. It didn't take him long to realize that people were much more interested in hearing them play music than just talking about it. “We phased out the podcast,” says Castellano. “And we became Band Geek the band.”

Working alongside a rotating crew of musicians, Castellano tackled songs like “Here I Go Again,” “In the Cage,” “Working for the Weekend” and “Heaven and Hell.” Every time they released a Yes song, soprano singer Ann Marie Nacchio joined them.

Jon Anderson's webmaster came across their “Close to the Edge” and put them on the phone together. “I was a complete idiot on the phone,” says Castellano. “Because how often does your hero call you? The person you idolize since childhood. He went, “You sound like the seventies yeah. Everything is just perfect.' I was just floating while he was talking. Finally he said, “We'll have to do something.”

At the time, Yes split into two warring camps. Guitarist Steve Howe led Yes with drummer Alan White and DramaKeyboardist of the era Geoff Downes, while Anderson fronted the spinoff group Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman. For reasons that have never been fully articulated, the Anderson/Rabin/Wakeman incarnation of the group disbanded in 2018. “That band was fun,” says Anderson. “There's a story there, but I won't tell it now.”

Whatever the story, it ends with Anderson as a man without a band. But the moment he saw Castellano and the Band Geeks play “Close to the Edge,” he saw a path forward. “I told Richie I wanted to go on tour,” says Anderson. “He goes, 'Jon are you serious?' I said, 'Yeah, I want to play 'Gates of Delirium,' 'Close to the Edge,' 'Awaken,' and all the '70s hits. If we need to do something like “Owner [of a Lonely Heart]”, we will in the end. But generally speaking, I want to make Yes in the Seventies music, the best of it.”

It took some time to sort out the logistics, wait out Covid and find a hole in Blue Öyster Cult's touring schedule. There was also the matter of Castellano, keyboardist Chris Clark, keyboardist Andy Ascolese, guitarist Robert Kipp and guitarist/bassist Andy Graziano learning every little nuance of these extremely complex songs.

“We did 48 rehearsals for the first tour,” says Castellano. “And that was just to get all the parts right. Jon finally started following us through Zoom. He'd say 'Oh, on this track, change that' or 'do you sing this track with me'. He would sing even though he was Zoom. It was really awesome.”

For Castellano, the hardest part was figuring out how to play all 22 minutes of “Gates of Delirium.” “There's this bass drum and bass pattern with no repeats,” he says. “It's like a long phrase that you just have to memorize. If any of your readers know what the replay is, please send it to me because I couldn't find it. I looked at it from every angle. I ended up having to make up these little mnemonic devices and nursery rhymes just to get the part right.”

Most of these songs had been in Yes's live repertoire for decades, which only complicated matters. “Over time, songs morph, beats change, sections get cut,” says Castellano. “What is the correct version of 'Close to the Edge?' That's how they played it [the 1973] live album Yessongs? Is it the way they played it in the late seventies? Let alone [the 1996 live album] Keys to Ascension or the [2000] Masterpieces tour?' Finally I just told the guys, “Either way is right. The way they played it in 2004 is just as valid as the way they played it in 1974.”

Anderson insisted they use two keyboards so they could add the extra textures from the albums that Yes could never replicate live. “During 'Close to the Edge,' right before the band comes in after the instrumental solo [during the beginning of the ‘Seasons of Man’ section], there's this freaking pipe organ under the Moog,” says Castellano. “Yeah, I couldn't do both live, but we can because we have other hands.”

The tour was only 12 shows focused on the East Coast. For Anderson, every night was a revelation. “It felt really exciting,” he says. “I remember thinking, 'I can't believe what's happening! Everyone is just amazing. Let's go around the world!'”

Before that happened, Anderson wanted to record new music with Castellano and the Band Geeks to make it more than a rehash of the past. But that was difficult since Anderson lives in California, Band Geeks is centered in New York, and Blue Öyster Cult spends significant time on the road every year.

They came up with a system where Anderson would send them demos via e-mail, they'd make them as a band, then compare notes on Zoom. “It was like the seventies where I'd pitch ideas to kids and because they're musicians, they'd go with it,” Anderson says. “I can only play four chords and then I'm done.” (Other songs worked in reverse where the Band Geeks would send a piece of original music to Anderson.)

A new tour begins May 30 at the State Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey. This is significantly larger than the 2023 release and there is already talk of adding more shows. Anderson spoke to us shortly before rehearsals began, but said he imagined the set would be very similar to last year's. He plans to remove “Gates of Delirium” to make room for two songs from the new record.

“I don't want to confuse anyone who thought they were going to get Yes music,” says Anderson. “My dream is to do another tour next year and do an hour of new music and an hour of Yes music. Maybe we mixed it all together. I do not know yet.”

Whatever happens, Anderson says he'll be sticking with Band Geeks for the foreseeable future. Castellano is still having a hard time processing the whole thing. “If you'd told me this when we started the Band Geek podcast, that we'd end up being a band playing with Jon Anderson, I'd have been like, 'Fuck you,'” he says. “I have no idea how it turned into this.”