There’s something to be said for state-run broadcast monopolies: They did great work in the arena of cultural documentation at a crucial time in the 20th century. Think of all the amazing avant-garde jazz performances preserved by state-run radio and television all across Europe in the 1960s. Similarly, the BBC recorded incredible live-in-studio sets by some of the most important rock bands of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, and still licenses them for sets like this one.

Yes appeared on the BBC six times in their first two years as a band; the first set here comes from January 1969, the last from March 1970. This is the only live disc to feature the band’s original lineup of Jon Anderson, guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye, bassist Chris Squire, and drummer Bill Bruford. Like the band’s self-titled debut album and 1970’s Time And A Word, the music here is much harder, jazzier and noisier than it would become later. The versions of “Something’s Coming” and “No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed” are breathless sprints, and Squire’s bass in particular is practically noise-rock.