. His start in music, however, came as a child singing in his church choir. His first rock group was the Selfs; he played with that group from 1965 to 1966, before forming the band the Syn. That group featured a guitarist named
would be associated in several bands. The Syn formed in 1966 and remained a group until late 1967. His next outfit was
. During the course of his work with that band, he became acquainted with vocalist
for a time. Also during that time,
. With
and launched into the beginnings of a very long-lived and storied career.
Yes' journey into the musical spotlight began with the release of two albums in 1969 and 1970 that received a number of critical kudos, but little commercial or radio success. Their third album, however, propelled by the replacement of
Peter Banks by
Steve Howe and a lucky mistake by a U.S. radio programmer, began to give the band some much-needed exposure. By the time the follow-up
Fragile was released,
Rick Wakeman had come in as
Tony Kaye's replacement and the stage was set. The album, with its single "Roundabout," launched the group (and
Squire along with them) headlong into the public eye. There is no question that
Squire's unconventional mode of playing the bass guitar as a lead instrument played a pivotal role in that success.
Squire became the anchor of the band, sticking with them throughout numerous personnel changes in the 1970s. When the group took a break in 1975 to do solo albums,
Squire released what is arguably his best work,
Fish Out of Water.
The biggest challenge to
Yes cohesiveness was yet to come. Through it all, though,
Squire even remained in
Yes when
Anderson himself, along with
Wakeman (for the second time), departed the group in 1979. Undaunted, the remaining members recruited
the Buggles (
Geoff Downes and
Trevor Horn) as replacements and released
Drama. Although the album was fairly well-received by
Yes fans, the accompanying tour did not fare so well and the group called it quits afterwards.
Squire remained working with drummer
Alan White throughout the period, which would prove not truly be the end of
Yes, but merely a hiatus. First, the duo released a Christmas single, entitled "Run With the Fox." They next began working with
Led Zeppelin guitarist
Jimmy Page on a project that was to be dubbed
XYZ (ex-
Yes and
Zeppelin). That project, however, would never see fruition and
Squire's next undertaking began under the name of Cinema.
Cinema was to have been a new band composed of
Squire,
White,
Kaye, and South African guitarist
Trevor Rabin. Their producer,
Trevor Horn, suggested they needed an additional vocalist in the group.
Jon Anderson was brought in and upon agreeing to work on the project, remarked that with his vocals it would really sound like
Yes. The name was thus changed and
Yes lived again. The resulting album,
90125, and the single "Owner of a Lonely Heart" would propel the
Yes of 1983 to even further heights, scoring successes like they had never seen before. The lineup would release a second album,
Big Generator, before more personnel chaos gripped them. This time, though, rather than shake
Yes apart, the chaos emerged in a new "super" lineup of the band as an eight-piece group. This grouping of
Squire,
Anderson,
Kaye,
Rabin,
White,
Wakeman,
Howe, and
Bruford would release the
Union album and tour to large crowds and rave reviews. Shortly after the tour, though,
Yes was back to its pre-
Union lineup. That was the group that released
Talk in the mid-'90s.
Squire has also managed to work on several other projects over the years. Among those is an album he released with one-time
Yes member
Billy Sherwood, entitled
Conspiracy. He also worked with
Nikki Squire (his wife at the time) on her project
Esquire. His bass work has been featured on several solo albums from other
Yes members and an album by
Eddie Harris.
–
Gary Hill, Rovi