By Hilary Porter

FANS of legendary prog rock band Yes have plenty to celebrate this week.

Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin and Rick Wakeman are back after a hiatus of 25 years with the definitive Yes line-up as – Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman (ARW).

Keyboard legend Rick Wakeman told the Daily Echo he is "thrilled" to finally be reunited for a tour that takes in Bournemouth International Centre on Thursday March 16.

Rick said: "Trevor and I have wanted to play Yes music together since the Union Tour, and as for so many of us, there is no Yes music without Jon. The 'Holy Trinity of Yes' is for me, very much a dream come true."

Since they last played together in 1990 on the highly successful Yes ‘Union Tour’, there have been various hybrid versions of the band. However, none featured the iconic voice of Jon Anderson, the outstanding guitar talent of Trevor Rabin, and the keyboard wizardry of Rick Wakeman. The aim of the band will be to restore the standard of excellence in performance that they established with their 1990 shows - which saw Yes members past and present come together for the first (and only) time of the legendary band's career.

When the reunion was announced Jon said: "To be able to sing and perform with Rick and Trevor at this time in my life is a treasure beyond words. I'm so excited to create new music and revisit some of the classic work we created many years ago, it's going to be a musical adventure on so many new levels."

And Trevor added: “After 18 years of immersing myself in film scoring, I couldn't be happier to be going out on tour with Jon and Rick. After we worked together for the first time on the Union tour in the 90's, we were determined to play together again. It's a dream to be going out with Jon and Rick after so many years. We are all completely dedicated to this project.”

The most successful prog rock group of all time, Yes was co-founded by Jon Anderson and the late Chris Squire in 1968 and went on to sell millions of units with releases such as Fragile, Close to The Edge, Tales From Topographic Oceans, Going For The One and 90125, as well as embarking on several record-breaking world tours.

While Rick is associated with the '70s "prog era" of the band (which saw Yes become a worldwide stadium headliner) and Trevor associated with the '80s "pop era" of the band (which furthered the band's popularity - including the band's biggest chart success), Jon is the bridge between both factions (as he was a member of both eras).

Not content to rest on past glory, Jon, Trevor and Rick have recorded new songs and made their live debut in North America last October/November, and are touring through the Rest of the World in 2017.

Asked why after a quarter of a century they are heading out on this massive worldwide tour Rick told me the death of his dear friend and long-time Yes member Chris Squire last year had spurred them into action.

"In 2005 Jon and I did a duo tour in England and the States and we made a live album.

Trevor came over four years ago and had a chat and we said let's do this but Trevor was so busy making films and I was busy and it was where do we fit this in! And then Chris Squire died and that's when our mortality hit us hard. We won't be here for ever and if we don't do this now we never will and we felt it was something we had to do.

“Anything can happen almost overnight, and if there’s something that you want to do and you feel you have to do, you have to do it. You can’t say, ‘Well, when we’ve got a bit of time, we’ll do that.’ You’ve got to act on it.

We had a lot of commitments but we decided we would keep this time free.

It's been amazing and the band members are astonishing, and hand on heart this is the best line-up of any band of Yes musicians I have ever been part of. It is astonishing and it's breathed new life."

Jon and I always wanted this to happen - we've been discussing it for 11 years!"

Tickets available from Myticket.co.uk and seetickets.com

VIP Packages including Meet & Greet available from myticket.co.uk.