Jon Anderson

Ive been meaning to make this blog post for years, not sure how to say this, its probably going to sound a bit crazy. But, here goes. Ill probably have to edit it a few times to add to it, its quite deep, quite emotional, I will probably have to stop and add to it a few times. Ive always loved the band Yes. Their energy, the complexity of their music, and tbe mysterious lyrics that I struggled to understand. Jon Anderson's own struggle with spirituality, his searching for the Source, his lyrics, his thoughts awakened something deep within me. When i was 13,I was locked in a basement cell, the Pindown child abuse scandal.I was very very frightened, but tne music I had in my head, I was comforted by the music I carried in my head. I was playing that music as if my head was a tape recorder, it comforted me. At one point I felt the presence of someone in the cell beside me, holding my hand, comforting me. The music I was playing over and over in my head the most was the music of Yes. I dont really understand why I did this, but I pushed my love of the music of Yes into the back of my mind, I didnt even own any of their music until my son nagged and nagged me to listen to Everything Everything, and I was completely blown away by their music. I started to get excited about music again, and told my son that my favourite band had been Yes, and he listened to Heart of the Sunrise, and, well, he looked at me incredulous, and I kind of did the same. Why didnt I even have a single album by tbis band? That was soon remedied, a few online shopping sprees later we were deepening our mother/son relationship over Fragile, Close to the Edge and the magnificent Tales from Topographic Oceans. I finally got to see Yes on Sunday 17th June 2018. They were playing at the Stone Free Festival at the O2 in London, and I bought tickets. I almost didnt go, because I was suffering from deep trauma. I had been stalked, by people with the intent to destroy me, I have already made a post elsewhere about those wicked attempts to destroy me so I will just leave it at that, as I want to concentrate on what happened that weekend, on the 16th 17th and 18th June 2018. I nearly didnt go, and my son had to prod me into going, he knew how much I would regret it if I didnt go. How glad I am now that I plucked up courage! We travelled to London by train, and managed to find our lodging, after a bit of wandering round Greenwich. We travelled on Saturday, so as to have plenty of time to find the O2 the next day.I was still so frightened of being in London, I was suffering so badly from trauma, so I told my son I intended to stay in the hotel until tbe concert. But...it was a lovely evening, and I changed my mind. We walked round Greenwich, and to my astonishment, there was the Cutty Sark, I had no idea that ship was so near to where we were staying. We had a beautiful evening, walking round Greenwich, watching the boats and ships on the Thames. It was such a blessed evening, and my heart began to feel quiet and still, peaceful. The colours of the evening, it was just a really beautiful sunset, a really beautiful blessed night. I really felt Gods presence that night, the presence of angels around me. It was just beautiful. The next day, we went for a walk around the shops. We found a vinyl record shop, and I asked the guy at the till where the progressive rock music was, and he showed me. Next thing, Chris Squires album Fish out of Water was reverberating round the shop. I thanked the guy for putting that record on for us, and he said "I didnt put it on for you, I put it on for myself, Im a massive Yes fan" I asked him if he was going to the concert the next day, and he said "What concert?" The upshot was, he ended up buying the spare ticket I had bought for my partner, who hates Yes, I had bought my partner a ticket but he wouldnt come to the concert as he just cant stand Yes, so that was another blessing, that guy who was also a lifelong Yes fan got a ticket to see his favourite band! I know this post probably sounds strange and as if its just about favourite bands, Im really struggling to find the right words to express myself and explain what happened that weekend, I will have to stop here for a bit, I wont edit anything out but Ill use the edit button to add to this post. I'm back, ready to add more to this post. The weekend, well tne only way I can describe it is that I felt surrounded by angels. I had been so terrified to go to London, because of the horrific way I had been treated, which I dont really want to go into on this post, I just want tp concentrate on the blessings which were piled onto me that weekend. We wandered round Greenwich, so many lovely people, it was a beautiful day. I stopped to look at some lovely wild flowers, poppies and cornflowers, growing outside a church, someone spotted me and called me over, asked if I wanted to look round the church. Now, Im not keen on churches, because of trauma, but we went in, and spent an hour listening to the best choir I have ever heard in my life, they actually sounded like angels. There was a very old organ in the church, Thomas Tallus, I believe it was his music the choir was singing.I felt so wonderful, completely immersed in the beautiful music. We decided that as it was a Yes concert we needed to find a very lovely way to get to the O2, and rode on the river boat along the Thames. We approached the O2, and it seemed like we were approaching a space ship, it kind of resembled one of the Roger Dean pictures which grace the covers of many of Yes's albums. I was very nervous as we went in. I have a phobia of dark uniforms, but the O2 staff were wearing bright friendly looking uniforms,fleece and trousers, and that was another fear/trauma hurdle cleared for me. I had packed a little gift for Jon Anderson, a tiny box of paints and ten mini paintings of his albums and I really didnt know if he would ever receive them, the security staff were really friendly and said they would give them to Jon. I wanted him to know what his albums meant to me. Someone from Sky approached us, and asked if we wanted to use the VIP lounge. We of course said yes, and were taken to a lovely room with a bar, it had a quiet area where I was able to sit, and not feel stressed, a really good place for someone trying to recover from deep trauma. We went to find our seats, and one of the O2 staff asked if we wanted to upgrade our seats. Of course we said yes, and we were taken to seats much nearer to the stage. We went for a loo break after watching Roger Hodgesson. He and his band were wonderful by the way. As we came out, a man was kind of laughing and pointing at my son. My son is a musician, and I have made him several coats to wear on stage. The coat he was wearing was bright blue, and I had asked him not to wear it to go to London, as i was so traumatised and terrified of MI5 stalkers (with good reason if you read my life history), I just wanted us to be bland and blend in, thank goodness my son decided to ignore my fears that weekend, because the man turned out to be a friend of Rick Wakeman, he joked that Rick would love my sons coat, and I joked back that Id be happy to make Rick one, it ended with Ricks friend giving us backstage tickets to meet Rick afterwards! I nearly fainted, I was so overcome! Im struggling to finish this post. Its not just about meeting my favourite band, theres much more to it than that. Its about miracles. Some very strange and wonderful things happened that weekend, one of them involved the man who runs Christian Voice, Stephen Green. I was the woman in the yellow dress that he spotted striding accross the platform, an answer to his prayer, I havent even told Stephen, he has no idea I was in London that weekend, and I had no idea he was there either. If you want to know what Im talking about look up Christian Voice for round about that date, he wrote about it shortly afterwards. I was shocked when I read what he had written, I was in awe and wonder. It was even more evidence to me that God is with us. And I needed so badly that confirmation.