Sure weren’t the primary band, and received’t be the final, to search out themselves beneath exterior strain after having launched an enormous album.
Their eleventh report, 90125, had been a troublesome challenge, but it surely had introduced the band a brand new era of followers; and after a yr on tour it was time to think about the follow-up. Which is when the strain kicked in.
Vocalist Jon Anderson was eager to take the recent viewers out for a test-drive and he how a lot wild prog they’d settle for. However Trevor Horn, who’d been appointed as producer, was extra aligned with the report label’s need to make repeat variations of hit monitor Proprietor Of A Lonely Coronary heart.
“When an album comes out and it’s so profitable, and the method of creating it has been so peculiar, you then realise that you’ve a bunch of men which have by no means actually labored collectively, aside from being onstage,” guitarist Trevor Rabin instructed Prog in 2023.
“I didn’t actually know Jon in any respect, however by this stage, Chris was like a brother to me, and that continued after I left the band. I cherished Alan and Tony too.”
That love was to be examined, particularly with Tony Kaye, who discovered himself marginalised by Horn. The pair had endured disagreements previously, and now the producer had the keyboardist working in a unique room. It’s hardly a shock that he struggled to attain his greatest work.
“The report firm had no concept what had gone down through the recording of 90125,” Rabin mentioned. When Horn’s title got here up, “Tony mentioned, ‘No manner.’ It grew to become clear that Trevor was going to do it, however he wasn’t going to work nicely with Tony. Trevor needed me to do many of the keyboards once more.
“After their expertise on 90125, the unhealthy blood between Tony and Trevor was there from the beginning. Trevor and I might take heed to Tony’s elements, and I wouldn’t all the time like what I used to be listening to; however I might be diplomatic as a result of I didn’t wish to be anti-Tony. It was all very delicate.”
Rabin added: “I’ve to say that onstage, Tony Kaye was simply excellent for the band. He couldn’t have been higher. However within the studio, it wasn’t fairly the identical.”
Sure had begun work in Castello di Carimate in Italy – an concept of Rabin’s which had not been universally embraced. Ultimately it was determined that the fortress wasn’t reducing it. “Sadly, it was a little bit of a celebration interval, so little or no was achieved,” he mentioned. “By way of writing collectively, there was no cohesiveness by any means, and the environment between sure folks was very poisonous.”
Horn took the band to London, however that didn’t work out both, main the producer to give up the challenge, observing that the studio was extra like a warfare zone than a inventive house. Rabin took over manufacturing duties, shifting the job to Los Angeles, and feeling like he’d drawn a brief straw.
Massive Generator, launched in 1987, wasn’t the follow-up to 90125 that anybody hoped for. Solely two songs appeared on the Prog readers’ Sure high 40: Shoot Excessive Goal Low and Love Will Discover A Approach – the previous piece Rabin’s favorite and the latter piece a solo composition.
Within the aftermath, Rabin fell in poor health because of overwork and sickness, resulting in the cancellation of six reveals on the Massive Generator tour of 1988; and Anderson give up the band to kind Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe with fellow ex-members.
However Destiny, as ever, couldn’t resist intervening: future Sure singer Jon Davison first noticed the band on that tour, and in 2023 he instructed Prog it remained the most effective present he’d ever attended. “I’ve this vivid reminiscence of listening to And You And I from the grassy hilltop on a superbly heat, breezy night,” he mentioned. “I used to be completely transfixed.”