I am a casual Yes fan and I really enjoyed the live performances of 90125 (one of my favorite Yes albums on audio CD) which marked a great revival for the band during the mid-80's. Although some Yes purists prefer Steve Howe to Trevor Rabin, I really liked Rabin -- he shows a lot more enthusiasm & enjoyment in his guitar playing than Howe and he plays all the older Yes numbers with great skill. When Howe plays, he seems very morose and he rarely ever smiles, even though he is a great musician.

I really liked the "Director's Cut" because it features the entire live concert performance without the annoying visual effects, which really disrupted the flow with its nonsensical imagery of the 50's family in the living room and the other weird effects. My favorite songs that were performed on this DVD are the 90125 numbers, "Owner of a Lonely Heart," "It Can Happen," "Changes," and "Leave It". Trevor Rabin also does a commendable job on the Steve Howe Yes songs "Roundabout" (which he plays on electric guitar), "I've Seen All Good People" (which is done on a faster tempo than Howe's version) and "Starship Trooper". I wished the band could have played more classic Yes pieces.

The bonus features include an interesting interview with the band members and the song "Roundabout". It is interesting that this DVD was made by Steven Soderbergh before his work on the big screen. I deleted one star for this DVD because of the annoying visual effects which marred the feature film, and the mediocre sound quality of the DVD. However, this is the only live performance of Yes during the Rabin era, and the 90125 numbers bring back good memories of the past.

If you like the Trevor Rabin era of Yes, you'd really enjoy this DVD. Watch the Director's cut.

I have to admit a couple of things first. I am probably one of six or seven YES fans who appreciate both Trevor Rabin and Steve Howe as YES guitarists. This is primarily because my introduction to YES was backwards compared to most. As a guitarist myself, I became familiar with YES during the hey day of MTV when this video was originally released. At the time I thought this was the most incredible music ever produced and Trevor Rabin became an instant guitar hero. Over the years I became familiar with the Classic YES lineup and I will now confess that I do sort of understand the disapproval of the Howe fans. Still I defend Trevor Rabin because he did not set out to join YES and replace Steve Howe. He joined up with Chris Squire and Alan White when is appeared YES was NO more -- a regular event in YES's impressive history. When Tony Kaye and Jon Anderson joined up the band became a new incarnation of YES, and different or not, they did stay around until the mid 90's and produced some pretty good stuff of their own along the way. And since they kept throwing in new versions of Classic YES standards, they managed to introduce a whole new generation to the vintage material.

So trying to put my personal feelings aside, this DVD holds up pretty well on its own. While not as crisp as the newer YES shows, the video is still clean and the audio is not bad. There seems to be a lot of people out there really liking the straight concert footage without the graphics. To me one's just as good as the other. I think I prefer the graphics left in. After all, this was a 1984 concert/movie made back when, as that new song out there says, when there were videos on MTV, so there is nothing wrong with it looking "so 80's."

The concert is a bit on the short side, especially for a YES concert which can typically run for well over 2 hours. When this DVD was delayed so many times I was hoping that they were going to add the instrument solo footage from the "9012-LIVE The Solos" album that was released in 1984. I think that the songs from 90125 come off between pretty well and excellent, except for Leave It. An earlier reviewer observed that it consists mostly of tracks from the album and that is correct. Makes for a C- concert song. Still with all the overdubbing they did on the original song, what else could they have done?

"Hold On", "Changes", "All Good People", and "Owner of a Lonely Heart" are probably the best songs of the show. "City of Love" works pretty well. "It Can Happen" is OK, but sounds a little off in a few places. Again, "Leave It" is mostly tracked. "Cinema" gets things off in the beginning and its a pretty good start. Sadly, "Starship Trooper" at the end is probably the weakest songs. It starts off sounding OK but frequently sounds hollow in places. While I have always loved Trevor as a guitarist it seems that he is struggling with covering some of Howe's parts. The solo at the end is way too cluttered and over the top. I much preferred his playing on "All Good People" where, even though he took some liberties, he contained himself within the song and stayed true to its spirit.

Finally, the extras -- Quite good and plenty of them. I very much enjoyed the before and after backstage moments. Gives one a true since of life out there on the road. The band member interview were great although they left me a feeling a bit odd. All the band members then are younger that I am now -- but when I saw this film they were considered to be an "older band", ahh!! The cut of Roundabout is not all that great and answers all questions regarding why it was left off of the final version of the film.

So the final vote -- 4 out of 5 stars. Good clean cut from the 80's, several well done cuts (although they really should have included the solos), and some great memories from the better MTV years.

I saw this show live back in high school. It's still one of the best shows I've ever seen. This dvd really brings me back.

I will, however, agree with many of the posters in pointing out that the sound is not as good as it could be. I'm not sure that it could be helped, though, since the dvd points out that the masters were lost, and the producers had to do the best they could with the audio.

I really like the Director's Cut, which gives you the option to watch without the old film segments mixed in. The only place where I felt like I enjoyed the original film more was during "Changes". I think the scenes with the colorized girl in the black-and-white world were a nice fit for it. Otherwise, it was good to be able to watch the band playing straight throughout. Anyway, I appreciate having the choice between the two.

The documentary extras were interesting and fun. Who knew Trevor Rabin could curse like a drunken sailor? Excellent! Seriously, though, it was a treat to see the guys laid back and enjoying themselves. As for the interviews, I could listen to Chris Squire all day - he is charismatic with a bass in his hands or without!

For the price, this disc is certainly worth the purchase. (Now if only they would put out the entire concert...)

This is in response to the reviewer that claims "bootleggers get the last laugh". There were a number of legal reasons Yes had a difficult time getting this released. Plus, they wanted to get original director Steven Soderberg involved (no easy task). Well, we can all rejoice because this has all fallen into place, and "Yes 9012-LIVE" is finally on dvd, in a fabulous new version. According to yesworld.com, here's the skinny on the new dvd:

- Special director's cut of the film (non-chalex: no visual effects)

- Bonus track: "Roundabout" (Cut from the original film)

- "Access All Areas" documentary: Photographed, Directed and Edited by Steven Soderbergh

- Band Interviews: Directed by John B. House

So, there you have it. For all of you who spent way too much on the unofficial release, it's time to upgrade. For everyone else, you can rejoice because a great concert video is finally available once again. The downside is the short length. The original film was just barely over an hour (barely half of the set from that tour). So, this is really mostly a highlights of the 90125 album, with a few classic tracks (All Good People, Startship Trooper and now Roundabout) thrown in. But, that aside, this was a great time for the band, when they were tighter than ever, and at their most popular. A good document of a great time.

It is indeed appalling that this DVD only offers only a choice of a rather phony sounding 5.1 surround or really unimpressive 2.0 (at least not 1.0) mono - because there was a truly superb stereo mix on the original HiFi VHS. The stereo soundtrack is what has made the VHS so enjoyable to watch time and again over the years.

Another big problem is that the 5.1 track is much too quiet when compared to the mono alternative - and that's just poor engineering on someone's part. I usually only adjust my PC surround system volume by using the PC's mixer, but for this DVD I had to manually crank up the master volume in order to get enough punch to feel impressed (and then remember to turn it back down to suit any other DVD with an average volume output).

An A-B comparison shows that the video quality of the DVD is a distinct improvement on the VHS - and it is good to have the optional version without the Charlex Digital video effects. Somehow, though, I feel that they added a positive kitsch appeal (being state of the art at the time) - and the powerful performance of the band is what shines through in any event.

The "Starship Trooper" finale is worth the purchase price on it's own - but has the best effect if you've travelled through the preceding tracks.

All round though I'd suggest that owners of the HiFi stereo VHS might be better off doing a transfer to DVD-R and saving their pennies for some other Yes DVD offering.