Keys to Ascension (video)

Keys to Ascension
Video by
ReleasedOctober 1996
Recorded4–6 March 1996
VenueFremont Theatre, San Luis Obispo, California, US
GenreProgressive rock
LabelCMC International
Yes chronology
Live in Philadelphia
(1995)
Keys to Ascension
(1996)
House of Yes: Live from House of Blues
(2000)

Keys to Ascension is a video album by English progressive rock band Yes, released in October 1996 by CMC International. It featured the group's performances at the Fremont Theatre in San Luis Obispo, California in March 1996, following the return of guitarist Steve Howe and keyboardist Rick Wakeman in 1995, which marked the first performances of the band's "classic" line-up since 1979. The three concerts with the newly reunited lineup were followed by two double albums entitled Keys to Ascension and Keys to Ascension 2, featuring all new material alongside live tracks from the San Luis Obispo shows. This along with these companion albums were reissued in 2010 as the Keys to Ascension box set.

Howe oversaw the mixing of the audio for the video. According to him, there are some sections where the audio does not entirely match what is being played on screen since the band recorded all three of its shows the Fremont, but only the last night was filmed, and during the mixing they sometimes dubbed in audio from an earlier show if it was played better than the last one. He blamed this in part on the budget for filming being only $6,000, far less than what might normally have been spent to produce a quality video.[1]

A world tour was abruptly cancelled when Wakeman quit the band in mid-1997. He rejoined the band in 2002.

  1. ^ Howe, Steve (2021). All My Yesterdays. Omnibus Press. pp. 200–01. ISBN 9781785581793.