YES, kings of prog-rock, visited the Sage on Sunday on their YES50 tour celebrating a career spanning half a century, writes Dave Lawrence.

Although billed as a celebration of 50 years, the show focused on the band’s creative pomp, their first decade, and they duly delivered a dazzling set.

Split into halves, the first set consisted of classics and fan favourites that included ‘Yours Is No Disgrace’, ‘Parallels’ and a jaunty version of ‘Wondrous Stories’.

The second set, much to the audience’s delight, saw the band visiting their classic ‘Tales From Topographic Oceans’ album, as they performed ‘The Revealing Science of God’, ‘Ritual’ plus the ‘Leaves of Green’ piece.

The virtuosity of guitarist Steve Howe’s playing remains as good as ever – his acoustic playing on ‘Mood For A Day’, for example, was a joy - and singer Jon Davison, unphased by the high notes, proved an excellent replacement for Jon Anderson.

Billy Sherwood filled the late Chris Squire’s shoes on bass, and although local-born Alan White did make a short appearance behind the drum kit late in the set, his recuperation from back surgery meant this role was taken mainly by Jay Schellen.

Geoff Downes, as inventive and fluid a player as ever, completed the line-up surrounded on three sides by banks of keyboards.

The band returned for a crowd-pleasing encore of a couple of their most popular songs, ‘Roundabout’ and ‘Starship Trooper’, which brought the evening to a rousing close sending the audience out into the bitter weather with a youthful spring in their step.