One of the founding members of a band I have loved and followed since I first heard them over 44 years ago has died.
Peters Banks was the original guitarist for Yes. As noted in the obituary, he recorded the first two albums with them before being asked to leave, to be replaced by Steve Howe.
The video below is from 2007 and shows a performance by Banks of a piece from his first solo album, Two Sides of Peter Banks, which was released in 1973.
I have written elsewhere about the peculiarity of certain musicians within certain milieu. Banks, outside of Yes, was a first-rate player. He did not shine so much with Yes, but a large part of that is probably because Anderson and Squire were going in one direction and Banks had other ideas in mind.
In the last few years I’ve found and purchased three other Banks recordings. All instrumental, very layered works, part jazz, part rock, part Something Else, I’ve listened and admired the distinctiveness of his sound. He did other bans after leaving Yes (Flash, Empire) and a lot of session work. I’ve always been impressed by the list of players on that first solo album, though. He had Phil Collins (Genesis), Jan Akkerman (Focus, Brainbox), John Wetton (King Crimson, UK, and later Asia) Steve Hackett (Genesis) and others, all first-rank players, all fitting together seamlessly in a wonderfully eclectic musical experience that showcased a wide range of influence and style and ambition.
Here’s a rare video from a Yes session with Banks on guitar:
Time catches us all eventually. It’s good some things are not forgotten soon.
Farewell, Pete.
I’m glad to know this re: PB.
I’ve enjoyed every album and incarnation of Yes. This will be a welcome addition to my listening.
By the way, your email account has been phished or whatever. I got a Tiedeman email that was not from Tiedeman. Electricity captures us all.
Yes, I know about the hacking. I spent most of this morning correcting it. Thanks for the heads up.
I just turned a friend onto Yes recently, a 70+ guy who’s classically trained and a jazz musician who pretty much missed the entire prog rock period. He’s finding Yes startling good. I’m convinced that for the most part people who don’t appreciate their music (note I did not say “like”) simply don’t know how to listen.