‘Return Trip’ is a 2018 remix and remaster of Fly from Here with new vocals from Trevor Horn throughout, Fly from Here was YES’ twentieth studio album. Their first studio album since Magnification (2001). The ‘Fly From Here lineup’ of David, Downes, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Alan White was produced by Trevor Horn, who was the singer on Drama, and who had previously produced 90125 (1983) and a few tracks on Big Generator (1987).
The album originated from a conversation between producer Trevor Horn and YES bassist Chris Squire, who re-discovered the song ‘Fly From Here’ from the ‘Drama’ sessions and realized that it had never been recorded in a studio. “Chris and I were talking one evening about the song ‘Fly From Here’ that we never recorded,” explained Horn. “I said I was prepared to spend two weeks with YES recording that song. When I arrived in America to record it, I was taken prisoner by the band and only allowed my freedom again in return for producing the whole album. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse!”
The first recording sessions took place between October 3 – November 12, 2010 at SARM West Coast Studios in Los Angeles, before resuming in the first week of January 2011.
Artist Roger Dean, whose dreamy, other-worldly scenes have adorned many YES album covers, linked up with the band again for ‘Fly From Here’. His design for the cover was a painting he started in 1970 that had remained uncompleted.
‘Fly From Here – Return Trip’ features a re-imagined work by Roger Dean as it’s cover.
Personnel
Bass, Vocals
Guitar, Vocals
Percussion
Keyboards
Vocals
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Dan Hersch & Bill Inglot 2003 Stereo RemastersFly From Here - Return Trip
“We would like to thank Trevor for all the time & work he has put in to create the reinvention of our Fly From Here album.
Trevor wrote a lot of songs for the album and now he’s taken the bold step to sing all the lead vocals himself. These songs have always meant a lot to him & us. Now they exist with the main lyricist putting them across with his own personal touch. As well as the new lead vocals, Geoff and I added a few more parts where required and the new mix saw the project get a further level of perfectionism.
The bonus unreleased song of mine gets its debut, featuring one of Chris’s typical fine bass parts.
Thanks so much Trevor!”
– Steve Howe
A Few Lines About Chris Squire
“I thought I should write a short letter to explain this Album and I wanted to write a few lines about Chris Squire. My brother Ken and I were big YES fans in the 70’s. I saw them in 1975 at De Montfort Hall in Leicester. It was the band that had Patrick Moraz in the line-up and I think they’d just done Relayer, which is still my favorite YES album. That concert is one of my all time favorite live shows and I remember standing up at the end of “And You And I” out of sheer excitement. It was definitely a surreal experience actually joining YES as the singer in 1980 and it made me realize what a brilliant singer Jon Anderson is. I learned a lot from being in YES. I found the limits of whatever talent I have. At times I was clinging on by my fingernails and this weakness in the vocal department (me!) made the band play with even more conviction than it normally did, just listen to “Tempus fugit“ from Madison Square Garden.
I was able to produce the band on 90125 partly because I had been in the band myself, so when they tried to wiggle out of recording “Owner” I could keep them on message with a combination of nagging and emotional blackmail. When I was in the “Drama” band, Steve and Alan were always lovely to me. Chris was always more complex. Steve and Alan didn’t have an ulterior motive, Chris ALWAYS did. I come from the North East of England, same as Alan, and we’re notorious for not being particularly forthcoming about our emotions, but I’m 68 now and I don’t give a fuck so let me tell you it was a kind of “love at first sight” between me and Chris. He was my favorite bass player, still is. It was easy to get along with Alan and Steve but the “Fish” was more demanding. I never shouted at Steve or Geoff or Alan, but once when Chris was five hours late I attacked him with a pair of headphones and had to be restrained by NuNu and Richard (YES’ long suffering crew). He could have that effect on you. I’ve met most of my musical heroes and up close. Steve and Alan really lived up to my expectations but Chris “defied” close scrutiny because you could never pin him down, he was one slippery character.
When we were mastering 90125 in the Townhouse in Shepherds Bush I saw Chris getting out of his Rolls Royce outside so I grabbed a starting pistol which was to hand and as he got to the door I leapt out, pointed the gun at him, and shouted “You bastard I should have done this last year”. For a second he believed me, I saw it in his face. Then we both laughed our heads off. It does show how difficult making 90125 actually was, that he would believe me for even a second. 90125 went on to sell millions but I bailed half way through making “Big Generator” so I lost touch with the band for a while. I would still go to the odd show and hang with Chris once in a while. During one of these hangs, 7 years ago, Chris asked me if I would produce the then current lineup performing the song that originally got me into the band “Fly from Here”. It was a few years after my late wife’s accident and I was still in shock, she was in a coma…so I did what I never thought I would ever do, I worked with YES again. I persuaded the band to have Geoff back on keyboards since we wrote the song together. Benoit, the singer is a lovely guy and the recording went well so we did another song, then another then…I was doing the album. It was fun. Everyone was playing well and we all got along really well. Chris was ON TIME!!! That definitely took a bit of getting used too! I did my best and the album came out and did some business.
A couple of years ago I got a call from Steve asking if I would sing “Tempus Fugit” at the Royal Albert Hall. He told me they were touring the “Drama” Album. I nervously agreed. I got myself a singing teacher and did a fair job of it on the night. After the show Alan came up to me and said, “Why don’t you redo the vocals on all of “Fly From Here”, you know that if it was you singing, it would be the same line up as “Drama”. Steve and Geoff agreed, so I redid all the vocals. (I also rewrote a couple of the songs a little along the way).
It took a while but it was a labour of love. It was fun to be singing harmony with Chris again, he was so good at it. The songs that Geoff and I wrote back in 1980, when I revisited them, were all about warnings of approaching dangers and feeling isolated. Trying to keep your courage up. They resonated with some of the things that have happened to me since I wrote them. I have had so much pleasure from Yes music over the years.
I hope you enjoy this record.”
– Trevor Charles Horn C.B.E.
Lyrics