Yes toured as a major rock act that earned the band a reputation for their elaborate stage sets, light displays, and album covers designed by Roger Dean.

The early 1970s saw line-up changes, with Banks, Kaye, and Bruford giving way to Howe, Wakeman, and White respectively, while Moraz was with the band for Relayer and its subsequent tour.

In 1980, growing musical differences led to Anderson and Wakeman's simultaneous departure, after which Yes merged with new wave duo the Buggles (singer Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes) for the album Drama (1980), before officially disbanding in 1981.

In late 1967, bassist Chris Squire and guitarist Peter Banks, both formerly of the Syn, joined the psychedelic rock band Mabel Greer's Toyshop, which had formed in 1966 by Clive Bayley and Robert Hagger.

[7] Barrie introduced Squire to singer Jon Anderson, a worker at the bar in La Chasse, who found they shared interests in Simon & Garfunkel and harmony singing.

[8] In June 1968, Hagger was replaced by Bill Bruford, who had placed an advertisement in Melody Maker,[9][10] while in July the classically trained organist and pianist Tony Kaye, of Johnny Taylor's Star Combo and the Federals, became the keyboardist.

[12][13][14] Meanwhile, Banks had left Mabel Greer's Toyshop to join Neat Change, but he was dismissed by this group on 14 July 1968[9] and was finally recalled by Squire, replacing Bayley as guitarist.

[22] His replacement, Tony O'Reilly of the Koobas, struggled to perform with the rest of the group on stage and former Warriors and future King Crimson drummer Ian Wallace subbed for one gig on 5 November 1968.

[22] After Bruford was refused a year's sabbatical leave from Leeds, Anderson and Squire convinced him to return for Yes's supporting slot for Cream's farewell concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 26 November.

Having expressed dissatisfaction with the idea of recording with an orchestra as well as the sacking of Flynn earlier in the year,[24][28] Banks later indicated that he was fired by Anderson and Squire, and that Kaye and Bruford had no prior knowledge that it would be happening.

"[38] Wakeman, a classically trained player who had left the folk rock group Strawbs earlier in the year, was already a noted studio musician, with credits including T. Rex, David Bowie, Cat Stevens and Elton John.

[55] Yes ultimately chose Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz of Refugee, who arrived in August 1974[56] during the recording sessions for Relayer, which took place at Squire's home in Virginia Water, Surrey.

Page's former bandmate Robert Plant was also to be involved as the vocalist but he lost enthusiasm, citing his ongoing grieving for recently deceased Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham.

Although Rabin and Squire initially shared lead vocals for the project, Trevor Horn was briefly brought into Cinema as a potential singer,[68] but soon opted to become the band's producer instead.

[72] The band's 1984–1985 tour was the most lucrative in their history and spawned the home video release 9012Live, a concert film directed by Steven Soderbergh with added special effects from Charlex that cost $1 million.

This collaboration led to suggestions that there would be some kind of reformation of the "classic" Yes, although from the start the project had included bass player Tony Levin, whom Bruford had worked with in King Crimson.

A live album and home video were recorded and released in 1993, both titled An Evening of Yes Music Plus that featured Jeff Berlin on bass due to Levin suffering from illness.

[79] The "Yes-West" group were working on a follow-up to Big Generator and had been shopping around for a new singer, auditioning Roger Hodgson of Supertramp, Steve Walsh of Kansas, Robbie Nevil of "C'est la Vie" fame,[80] and Billy Sherwood of World Trade.

The 1994 tour (for which the band included side man Billy Sherwood on additional guitar and keyboards) used a sound system developed by Rabin named Concertsonics which allowed the audience located in certain seating areas to tune portable FM radios to a specific frequency, so they could hear the concert with headphones.

"[93] For his part, Rabin felt that he had achieved his highest ambitions with Talk and lamented its disappointing reception, feeling that this was due to the fact that it "just wasn't what people wanted to hear at the time."

At one point the new songs were to be released as a studio album, but commercial considerations meant that the new tracks were eventually packaged with the remainder of the 1996 San Luis Obispo shows in November 1997 on Keys to Ascension 2.

Sherwood's integral involvement with the writing, production, and performance of the music led to his finally joining Yes as a full member (taking on the role of harmony singer, keyboardist and second guitarist).

The results of the sessions were released in November 1997 as the seventeenth Yes studio album, Open Your Eyes (on the Beyond Music label, who ensured that the group had greater control in packaging and naming).

By the time the band came to record their eighteenth studio album The Ladder with producer Bruce Fairbairn, Khoroshev had become a full-time member (with Sherwood now concentrating on songwriting, vocal arrangements and second guitar).

Anderson has said that they had been preparing four new "lengthy, multi-movement compositions" for the tour,[106] but he had expressed disinterest in producing a new studio album after the low sales of Magnification, suggesting that recording one was not "logical anymore".

[109] Anderson expressed his disappointment that his former bandmates had not waited for his recovery, nor handled the situation "in a more gentlemanly fashion", and while he wished them well, he referred to their ongoing endeavours as "solo work" and emphasised his view that their band "is not Yes".

This resulted in former guitarist Billy Sherwood replacing him for their 2015 summer North American tour with Toto between August–September, and their third annual Cruise to the Edge voyage in November, while Squire was receiving treatment.

The two London dates included an anniversary fan convention which coincided with the release of Fly from Here – Return Trip, a new version of the album with new lead vocals and mixes by Horn, who also performed as a special guest singer during a few shows on the leg.

[198][199] In 2023, Yes had planned to continue their Album Series Tour with Relayer performed in its entirety across Europe and the UK,[195][200] but it was subsequently delayed to 2024 due to insurance incentives related to COVID-19 and acts of war being withdrawn.

[219] In November 2013, Anderson expressed a wish to return to Yes in the future for a "tour everybody dreams of",[220] and cited Yes's nomination for inclusion into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a motive for a possible reunion.