In the late seventies, after the album "Tormato", Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson left Yes, abandoning the band for good and leaving its future uncertain. However, the remaining members continued as a trio, composing material for a new album, thus fulfilling their contract with their record label. Steve Howe, Chris Squire, and Alan White continued writing and rehearsing new songs at Townhouse Studios in London, the same place where the duo The Buggles were working on their second album. The Buggles were a synth-pop group who had achieved a tremendous hit on charts around the world a year earlier with "Video Killed the Radio Star", from their debut album, "The Age of Plastic". This duo consisted of bassist and singer Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes. Interestingly, both Yes and The Buggles shared the same manager, which proved decisive in their collaboration on a series of demos that would eventually become part of Yes's new album. Thus, albeit provisionally, both Horn and Downes joined the new lineup of the legendary group, replacing Anderson and Wakeman. When news broke of the two groups joining forces to release an album under the name Yes, many predicted disaster and the total decline of the iconic band, given their union with "relatively unknown" musicians who were far removed from Yes's progressive and baroque style. However, nothing could have been further from the truth. The new album, titled "Drama", with its spectacular cover art by Roger Dean and production by Eddie Offord, it became Yes's most modern and up-to-date work, boasting a sound that fused progressive rock with the pop sensibilities of the new decade of the eighties, without losing an iota of their characteristic style. Tracks like the complex suite "Machine Messiah", featuring impressive keyboard work and outstanding guitars, the dynamic and somewhat vintage "Does It Really Happen?", the progressive and superb "Into The Lens", and the catchy and appealing "Tempus Fugit" demonstrated that both Horn and Downes were nearly on par with the departing members, especially the latter, whose innate talent on the keyboards brought a breath of fresh air to Yes's somewhat outdated music of that era with his new wave style.
