Where are they now? - CIRCA:
+ AKA, Conspiracy, Psy-op and tribute albums headed
by
Billy Sherwood
This page last updated: 3 Jul 2008
On this page: CIRCA: (Sherwood, Kaye, White) - Psy-op (Sherwood, Downes, Kaye) - Billy Sherwood's tribute albums (with Howe, White, Wakeman, Bruford, Banks, Kaye, Downes, Levin)
CIRCA: Official
website; MySpace
page; online
media kit; official
forum
CIRCA: are Billy
Sherwood (lead vocals, bass), Tony
Kaye (Hammond B3, keys), Jimmy Haun
(worked on Union,
Jonathan
Elias, ex-Lodgic, ex-Conspiracy,
ex-Air Supply; electric & acoustic guitars, backing
vocals) and Jay
Schellen (GPS,
Jim Ladd's Headsets, ex-Hurricane, ex-Badfinger, ex-Asia, ex-Peter
Banks; drums, backing
vocals). Schellen replaced Alan
White in 2008, who left
the band on amicable terms to focus on Yes; announcement
here. The original line-up released an album, CIRCA: 2007 (see below) and DVD,
"CIRCA:
Live", the latter including a lengthy medley of Yes tunes. (See my review of CIRCA: 2007 and "CIRCA: Live" here.)
Schellen
has worked extensively with Sherwood
(in World Trade and Conspiracy and on Sherwood's
first solo album) and
Kaye (in Badfinger) and previously filled in for White at a Feb 2008
CIRCA: show; he was also one of the cameramen on the "CIRCA: Live" DVD.
The new
CIRCA:
line-up have released the band's second album, CIRCA: HQ (duration 65:07), which
again is only
available from their website. In
Nov, Sherwood
said, "65
Minutes, mixed and heading for mastering with Joe Gastwirt on Nov
10th."
(Gastwirt mastered CIRCA: 2007
and has previously worked with Yes.) Tracks:
1.
If It's Not Too Late (10:50)
2. Haun Solo (1:18)
3. False Start (5:08)
4. Chasing After Ghosts (7:05)
5. Set to Play (1:49)
6. Ever Changing World (4:18)
7. We Can Last (9:16)
8. Twist of Fate (5:17)
9. All Intertwined (7:29)
10. Remember Along the Way (12:36)
Samples from the first and
third song can be
heard on CIRCA:'s MySpace page.
In an Apr
2008 interview,
Sherwood talked about the album some more:
We
are still going to continue to distribute it ourselves because it’s
been very very good and very easy. [...] The idea for us is it is a
long slow journey as opposed to looking for some quick pay off in terms
of record sales. We could just sign with a label, I have had a few
offers and it just didn’t make enough sense to do. I just kept feeling
like we are going to lose that intimacy and direct contact thing. And I
think in this modern age with the Internet it can be achieved and I
think with what we are doing we don’t need that middle man. We just do
it ourselves.
To ProgressiveEars.com in Jan, he
said:
Musically
the differences [compared to CIRCA:
2007] come from the the writing. This new CD is much more about
"one man one part". That said of course there are additonal elements in
there but unlike the last CD it's much more raw in it's creation. That
came from the benefit of playing live where we got to see what worked
and how it worked as a band on stage. We didn't have that luxury for
the 1st record...
Also Jimmy Haun is singing a lot more on this record and you will hear
it, his voice is very cool and and is more previlant in the mix this
time around. The biggest difference obviously is the changing from Alan
White to Jay Schellen on drums and jay has taken the drumming aspects
of CIRCA: to a whole other level [...]
The song's themselves are filled with interesting arrangments, odd time
changes, twists and turns, lengthy tracks and lyrics that are more
"grounded" in reality for the lack of a better word.
CIRCA: Overflow is an iTunes-only digital release (iTunes Plus format) of 7 previously unreleased CIRCA: tracks released in May 2009: "The Story Goes" (5:48), "Shifting Sands" (4:42), "Life Goes On" (5:02), "Pure Intuition" (3:46), "Coming at You" (7:48), "Fate and Destiny" (5:10), "Words on Paper" (5:24). The tracks all feature the new line-up—Billy Sherwood (lead vocals, bass), Tony Kaye (organ, keys), Jimmy Haun (guitars, vocals), Jay Schellen (drums, percussion, vocals)—and were mixed by Sherwood. Sherwood these: "These tracks we're [sic] extra ideas and recordings from various points along the CIRCA: journey that never found there way onto either the debut CIRCA: cd or the second CIRCA: HQ CD." Sherwood has previously announced plans to release 2 additional tracks through iTunes: "Shifting Sands", "Story Goes". Sherwood explained the reasoning to Yesfans.com in Oct 2008: "to release music that is cool but didn't exactly fit into the over all spectrum of this new CIRCA: CD. The songs do stand alone with CIRCA: Style though". On 27 Mar, Sherwood tweeted about "Meeting with Tony Kaye at my studio re: making some Instrumental tracks for Itunes", which may be in reference to these or some other project.
Sherwood also said: "The dvd will also include behind the scenes footage of the making of... and some other goodies. We are excited to get production started on this project and look forward to it's release, most likely near the end of the year." Meanwhile, the band have also released a download-only audio version of most of their "CIRCA: Live" DVD through iTunes, as Circa: Live. This version consists of 10 tracks—"Cut the Ties", "Don't Look Back", "Together We Are", "Information Overload", "Trust in Something", "Keeper of the Flame", "Life Going By", "Look Inside", "Brotherhood of Man", "The More We Live—Let Go"—i.e. the same as the DVD except without the extended Yes medley.
The band plan further touring. An Italian tour planned for Feb 2009 with Bobby Kimball (ex-Toto; vocals) was cancelled, although CIRCA: are now uniting with Kimball in AKA—see below. The band hope to play live further in 2009, with Sherwood saying in Jan 09 that, "Hoping to play alot of more of the new record as 2009 progresses !!"They played a number of North American dates in 2008. A series of European dates were planned, but the band had to cancel the mini-tour "[d]ue to scheduling conflicts". In an Apr 2008 interview, Sherwood explained: "Alan's tour with Yes kind of came up after the fact. We had a sub-drummer lined up to do it but at the end of the day we kind of rethought about things [...] We were looking forward to getting over there but obviously without AW it's a different thing and we wanted to just maintain it. It's a shame; we'll get over to Europe at some point." When White was unavailable for the 15 Feb show, Schellen filled in. The live band was augmented by Scott Walton (ex-Conspiracy; studio tech on CIRCA: 2007) on backing vocals, VSynth and orchestral elements. For at least the two May show, M. Sherwood filled this role instead. Live mix was expected to be by Tom Fletcher (worked on Keys to Ascension). The set list for their 2008 gigs was the same as 2007's debut show. This was in Aug 2007 in California. The band recorded the show for the live DVD, "CIRCA: Live". The single-disc release includes bonus studio footage. It was produced by CIRCA:, with video editing by Sherwood. The camera operators were Michi Sherwood (Billy's wife), Schellen, Sean Browning, Eric Johnson and Gary Sheasgreen. Audio was recorded by Fletcher, mixed by Sherwood and mastered by Gastwirt. Michi also did the cover art. The DVD is exclusively available from CIRCA:'s website. The set consisted of all of their album, followed by "Chronological Journey", a 50 minute-long medley of material from every Yes studio album up to The Ladder, consisting of "Beyond & Before"/"Looking Around"/"Harold Land"/"Every Little Thing"/"Survival"/"Something's Coming"/"No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed"/"Yours is No Disgrace"/"Heart of the Sunrise"/"South Side of the Sky"/"Roundabout"/"Close to the Edge"/"And You and I"/"Ritual"/"Sound Chaser"/"Parallels"/"Arriving UFO"/"On the Silent Wings of Freedom"/"Tempus Fugit"/"Changes"/"Owner of a Lonely Heart"/"Cinema"/"Rhythm of Love"/"Lift Me Up"/"Endless Dream" (part 3)/"Mind Drive"/"Open Your Eyes"/"Lightning Strikes". The whole of "Cinema" was performed; otherwise, this was a medley with parts from each song. While mostly instrumental, Sherwood did sing on the "Endless Dream" extract. The encore was "The More We Live—Let Go". In the NftE interview, Sherwood said, "We'll find a way to do [Yes material] where it's a new, creative spin, because the one thing I definitely don't want have it appear is we're trying to recreate Yes music in its entirety as us, re-doing it, because there's no point to that." In Sep 2007, he said to AllGoodPeople.net: "Eventually with time CIRCA: won't be playing yes material.... for now it seemed the most logical thing to do with the 2nd hour, since we were all involved in some manner shape or form."
Sherwood posted
to
AllGoodPeople.net in Sep
2007 about playing in Europe:
CIRCA: are also in line to be the backing band for Sherwood and Jim Ladd's Headsets project when it goes live—see details under Sherwood.
The 9-song
album (duration 56:35), produced by Sherwood and co-written by the
band,
is self-released and available exclusively through the band's
online store, as is various other merchandise. Details
in Yescography. Lyrics (by Sherwood/Kaye) are here.
"Don't Let Go" and "Look Inside" are co-written by
Trevor
Rabin, being based on material Sherwood and Rabin wrote after the Talk
tour. Sherwood explained:
Trevor [Rabin] had a few pieces of music that I had written lyrics and melodies to in 1995. They never went any further, fast forward to [...] when I rediscovered the tape with the song ideas on it. I did a sketch of the track in my studio and showed it to TK {who I had already been wroking a lot with}, he said "let's see if we can reshape it a bit to fit along side the other music we have"... From that point forward we got more serious about making it a real track and had AW do his thing and add a few bits here and there as well as Jimmy.There are brief guest appearances from Cole Coleman (MySpace page; Davison/Coleman, Daniela Torchia) playing laúd (Cuban lute) on "Together We Are", and Michael Sherwood on Vocoder. Sherwood wrote to Yesfans.com in late Jul 2007:
We don't have the luxury of a Walmart or Target or Sony etc...powerhouse to produce cd's for super cheap etc... We are funding every aspect of this project ourselves {CD's, Merch, Gigs, Rehearsals etc..}. The Coach House show for instance is costing us quite a bit to produce {We are PAYING to play the show, when all is said and done}
In the Jan interview, discussion continued
Sherwood: [It's] us, so who's gonna be there? Yes fans. [...] They're not gonna be surprised, like "Wow! All the sudden I'm listening to a ska band." They're gonna kind of know what they're getting in to.Sherwood and Kaye began working together, then brought on board White and Haun. Haun, in the second part of the NftE interview, describes "the crux of [the material] is Tony and Billy's collaboration", but Sherwood added, "we started these things, but by the time they ended up with Alan [White] and Jim[ Haun]'s stamp on there…" Sherwood continued, "Perhaps next time we do this, now that we've done one, we'll get together in a room all four of us and play around with ideas, because that's now what we know what we are".Kaye: [...] it's true, the Yes fans want to hear music, so you do it...
Sherwood: And as a Yes fan I know when it's not there, you sort of wish it was, but for whatever political reasons that it can't be and that's fine, because...
White: It's called ego.
With
a heavy heart and much regret, due to circumstances beyond our control
we must announce the cancellation of the 6 shows in Italy.
We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused to our Italian friends
as well as our friends outside the region who planned to come join us
for the shows.
At present the band along with Bobby Kimball are working towards
mobilizing the show for the U.S. and world wide markets.
The Psy-op album also features Tony Kaye (on 1 track), Geoff Downes (on 1 track), Michael Sherwood (Vocoder), Bruce Gowdy (World Trade; co-wrote and keys on 1 track, "Gone All the Way"), Gary Green (ex-Gentle Giant; co-wrote and guitar on 1 track, "Just Another Day", which is also to be covered by CIRCA: on their planned "CIRCA: HQ LIVE" DVD—see above). (There was an earlier report that two songs on the album were written with Gowdy for an abortive third World Trade album, but Sherwood in Feb 2008 referred to just one piece.) A Jan 2006 article quotes Sherwood describing the album as being "really, really proggy". In Jun 2007, posting to the Progressive Ears forum, Sherwood described the album:
What began as Conspiracy 3 has now morphed into a new project titled "Psy-Op". Chris moved back to the U.K. [...] at the same time I was recording a lot of new music which I planned for "C3". After assembling the record it became clear to me that it is not Conspiracy but a whole new kind of "project". [...] You can hear a sample at my web page, {it's labeled Conspiracy 3, that will be changed}. It is mastered and ready for release, that being said [...] since [CIRCA:] are about to release our 1st record I don't want to cloud the waters with a new project. It will come out down the road in time...A Sep 2006 report suggested there might be an accompanying DVD too. Artwork was prepared for the release by Bob Cesca (worked with Yes, Conspiracy and Sherwood) in 2006. As a preview, an excerpt from "Gone All the Way" was available for download on Sherwood's website. Sherwood described the song as "a story of a man dreaming he is the only human left on earth after a nuclear holocaust, by the middle of the song he reailizes he in fact isn't dreaming, warmakers had finally "Gone All The Way"." In Feb 2008, Sherwood said the album would be out in 2008, after his next solo album, At the Speed of Life (since released), but it has yet to appear.
Tribute albums by Billy
Sherwood
et
al.
Sherwood has been behind a number of tribute
albums featuring numerous guest musicians, mostly from the world of
progressive
rock and including multiple Yes men. The latest
was Abbey Road: A Tribute to The
Beatles
(Cleopatra Records, CLP-CD-3395)—with appearances from Tony Kaye, Alan
White and Geoff Downes—now out as a physical release or
digital download in
the US and UK. This album
has 20 tracks whereas Sherwood had earlier talked of a 12-track
album with 20-25 guests planned, largely recorded in late 2008
(in Sep, Sherwood said he was "about 4 singers away from
completion"). It seems
that, like Led Box: The
Ultimate Tribute to Led
Zeppelin (see
below), Cleopatra Records have combined tracks
produced by Sherwood with material from various other sources.
Sherwood
also said "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club
Band" was planned, but this does not appear. On Sherwood's
pieces, he is
playing all
the bass parts and contributing some guitar, keys and vocals.
The drums are
split between Alan White and Jay Schellen. (In
Sep 2008 Sherwood said he was trying to get Gregg Rolie (ex-Santana,
ex-Journey) involved, but this appears not to have happened.)
| Track
(time)—credited artists; notes Þ indicates tracks produced by Sherwood for this project; other tracks do not involve Sherwood Details in Yescography
|
Buy from
Amazon.com (US): |
Buy from
Amazon (UK): |
| Buy as
MP3 digital download from Amazon (US): |
Buy as
MP3 digital download from Amazon (UK): |
Sherwood played all
the bass parts and some other instruments; drums are by Lou Molino
(ex-Trevor
Rabin). He tweeted
about recording
and mixing tracks through Mar/Apr, and said the project was "Very near
completed" on 5 May. On 8 Jun, he
tweeted that he had mixed the last
track of the album.
The 2CD Led
Box:
The
Ultimate Tribute to Led Zeppelin is out and features
Sherwood, White, Kaye, Wakeman and Downes. There appear to be
two or three different versions. Deadline
Records (Cleopatra Records) in the US
have Led Box: The Ultimate Tribute to Led
Zeppelin
(41157-2199-2), containing 24
tracks, including 8 previously released. In Europe (Pepper
Cake, distributed
by ZYX Music), the album is just called The Ultimate Tribute to Led Zeppelin,
has a different track order and is without the 8 previously released
songs; a vinyl version is
also available.
Details in
Yescography.
Sherwood
produced, mixed and co-performed 10 tracks (tracks 8-12 on disc 1 and
1-5 on disc 2 of the US release). He plays bass on all these
tracks, as well as some
guitar. He mostly worked with Michael White (The White;
8 tracks) on vocals,
sometimes Tony Kaye (2
tracks) on keyboards, and either Alan White (6 tracks) or Vinnie
Colaiuta
(ex-Frank Zappa,
ex-Asia; 4
tracks)
on drums. Wakeman and Downes appear on 1 track apiece. Further tracks
do not involve any Yes members, with 3 of the first 7 tracks being
co-produced by former Sherwood collaborator, Bob Kulick.
|
Deadline Records' Led Box:
The Ultimate Tribute to Led
Zeppelin
|
The European track list is: disc 1—"Good Times, Bad Times", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "Dazed and Confused", "Immigrant Song", "Ramble On", "Rock and Roll", "D'yer Mak'er", "Stairway to Heaven"; disc 2—"Heartbreaker", "Dancing Days", "Black Dog", "All My Love", "Houses of the Holy", "When the Levee Breaks", "Whole Lotta Love", "You Shook Me", "Fool in the Rain". The additional tracks on the US release (disc 2, tracks 6-12) are from prior releases.
Out in 2007 was the 2CD '70s
Box: The Sound
of a Decade (Cleopatra,
CLP-CD-2054) including a cover of Boston's "More Than a Feeling"
by Sherwood, White and Kaye. Kaye, Wakeman, White and Steve Howe joined Sherwood on a cover of "Starship
Trooper" on Sherwood and
radio DJ Jim Ladd's Headsets project—see details under Sherwood. A digital
re-release of the first Headsets album includes the "More Than
a Feeling" cover as a bonus track. "More Than a Feeling" and tracks
from Pigs & Pyramids, Return to the Dark Side of the Moon,
Back Against the Wall and Led Box compiled on Asia Progressive
Rock Friends (Cleopatra),
along side live Asia material. See on the Asia
page for details. Numerous
other tracks from the Pink Floyd and other tributes have appeared on
various compilations, including a number of digital-only releases like
2007's Keyboard Wizards & Classic
Tracks.
Further tribute albums involving Billy Sherwood but no other Yes men are covered in Sherwood's section here. Various covers are also included on the Jim Ladd's Headsets releases, also covered in Sherwood's section.
Sherwood said in the Sep 2005 interview that
he
would also like to tackle Genesis'
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,
The Who's Tommy or "even some of King Crimson's stuff".
Any news, additions or corrections, please e-mail Henry
Potts. Thanks.