| Chris Squire |
Performing with Yes
at Indianapolis,
August 30, 1977 |
| Born |
March
4, 1948 (1948-03-04)
(age 59)
in London, England |
| Genre(s) |
Progressive rock |
| Affiliation(s) |
Yes |
| Notable guitars |
Rickenbacker 4001 |
| Years active |
1969 - present |
| Official site |
Official website |
Christopher Russell Edward "Chris" Squire
(born March
4, 1948), is
an English
musician best known as the bassist and backing vocalist for the progressive
rock group Yes. He is the only member of
the group to appear on every album.
|
Contents
- 1 Biography
- 2 Style
- 3 Nickname
- 4 External
links
|
Biography
He was born in Kingsbury, a suburb of northwest London, in England, and was
trained in the church choir as a young boy, beginning
his musical career in the church's basement. In 1964, he was suspended from
school for "having long hair", and given money to get a haircut.
Instead he went home, used the money for other things, and never
returned to school.
Squire was fond of experimenting with LSD in the 1960s, until
an incident where he had a bad acid trip. He recalls that he spent
months inside his girlfriend's apartment, afraid to leave, and it was
during this time that he learned how to play bass. He
recovered and never used LSD
again.
Squire's early influences were diverse, ranging from church
and choral
music to the Merseybeat sounds of the early 1960's.
Squire's first musical groups The Selfs, The Syn,
and later, Mabel Greer's Toyshop, would
introduce him to his early Yes collaborators Peter
Banks and Jon Anderson and to Andrew
Jackman.
During his first conversation with Anderson, the pair broke
the ice by discussing one of their favourite groups, Simon
& Garfunkel (Yes later covered "America") and Squire discovered
that he and Anderson were both into vocal groups.
Yes released their first record in 1969, and though the band
have had many personnel changes over the years, they have continued to
record and tour for over 35 years. Squire is the only original member
who has remained in the lineup throughout the band's tenure.
During the band's formative years Squire was frequently known
for his tardiness, a habit that drummer Bill Bruford often complained about.
Because of this, Squire would frequently drive at unsafe speeds to get
to gigs on time, once causing a horrific accident on the way to a gig
in West
Germany after he fell asleep at the wheel, although miraculously nobody
was injured.
As Squire, along with Alan White and Steve Howe, co-owned the
"Yes" name at the time, the 1989 ABWH lineup without
him (which contained Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman
and Howe) could not record under that name.
Squire has concentrated overwhelmingly on Yes' music over the
years, and his solo works have been few and far between. His first and
only true solo record was
1975's Fish Out of Water,
featuring Yes alumni Bill Bruford on drums and Patrick
Moraz on keyboards and The Syn/The Selfs alumnus Andrew Jackman also on
keyboards. Squire was later a member of the short-lived XYZ
(eX-Yes/Zeppelin) in 1981, a group composed of Alan White (Yes) on drums
and Jimmy
Page (Led Zeppelin) on guitar. XYZ
recorded several demo tracks at Squire's home studio in Virginia
Water, but never produced anything formal (ostensibly because vocalist Robert
Plant, still mourning for John Bonham, failed to get interested).
XYZ never officially released any material, though two of the demos
provided the bases for two later Yes tracks, "Mind Drive" and "Can You
Imagine?". Squire also played a role in bringing Trevor
Rabin into the Cinema band project, which became the 90125
lineup. Later, Squire would join with Yes guitarist Billy
Sherwood in a side project called Conspiracy.
This band's self-titled debut album contained the nuclei of several
songs that had appeared on Yes' recent albums. Conspiracy's second
album, The Unknown, was released in 2003. In late
2004, Squire joined a reunion of The Syn, subsequently leaving the
band in May 2006.
Style
Squire's bass playing is noted for being aggressive, dynamic,
and melodic. Squire's main instrument is a Rickenbacker
bass (model RM1999, serial number DC127), which he has owned and played
since 1965. The RM1999 was a budget, monophonic version of
Rickebacker's 4001 stereo bass. This model was imported into the UK by
Rose Morris Ltd (hence the RM prefix on the model number) and,
according to Squire's official website, was only the fourth bass of its
type to be imported into Britain from the United
States. This instrument, with its warmth and distortion, is a
significant part of Squire's unique sound. Squire obtains his
distinctive tone using only the neck pickup of his bass. In fact,
according to John Hall (Rickenbacker CEO), the treble pickup (bridge
pickup) of Squire's RM1999 is completely disconnected from the bass's
circuitry and has been for many years. Another major factor in Squire's
sound is a technique known as 'bi-amping'. By splitting the signal from
his bass into dual high and low frequency outputs and then sending the
low frequency output to a conventional bass amplifier
and the high-frequency output to a separate lead guitar amplifier,
Squire produced a tonal 'sandwich' that added a growling, overdriven
edge to the sound while retaining the Rickenbacker's powerful bass
response. He also uses fresh strings for every show.
Squire (who is self-taught) was also one of the first rock
bass players to successfully adapt electronic guitar effects such as
tremolo, phasing and the wah-wah pedal to the instrument.
Squire's vocals are also key to Yes' music, providing
important harmonisation with Jon Anderson's distinctive countertenor.
Nickname
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Chris Squire is commonly known by his nickname
"Fish", and the name is associated with many of his works (including
his solo record, and the solo piece the fish (Schindleria
Praematurus) from the 1972 Yes record Fragile).
The name has multiple possible origins. First, his astrological sign is
Pisces, and he is apparently a
believer in astrology.
Second, in the early days of Yes career, he once accidentally flooded a
hotel room in Oslo,
Norway
while taking a shower, and Bill Bruford gave him the nickname. He
may also have acquired this nickname because of the alleged amount of
time he spends in the bath tub. On the 2007 documentary "The Classic
Artists Series 3: Yes", Bruford says that the nickname arose because
Squire spent long periods in the bathroom while they shared a house
together in Fulham.
The nickname can also be interpreted such that the species of fish, the
bass
is homonymous
to the musical instrument, the bass.
External links
| v • d • e Yes |
| Jon
Anderson | Chris
Squire | Steve Howe
| Rick Wakeman | Alan White |
| Bill
Bruford | Peter
Banks | Tony Kaye | Patrick
Moraz | Geoff Downes | Trevor
Horn | Trevor Rabin | Billy
Sherwood | Igor Khoroshev |
| Discography |
| Studio albums:
Yes | Time
and a Word | The
Yes Album | Fragile
| Close to the Edge
| Tales from Topographic
Oceans | Relayer
| Going for the One
| Tormato
| Drama | 90125
| Big Generator
| Union | Talk
| Open Your Eyes
| The
Ladder | Magnification |
| Live albums:
Yessongs
| Yesshows
| 9012Live: The Solos
| Keys to Ascension
| Keys to Ascension 2
| House of Yes:
Live from House of Blues |
| Compilations:
Yesterdays | Classic
Yes | Yesstory | Highlights: The
Very Best of Yes | Something's
Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969-1970 | Keystudio
| Yes Remixes | The
Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection |
| Video releases:
Yes: Live - 1975 at Q.P.R. |
| Box sets:
Yesyears
| In a Word: Yes (1969 - )
| The Word is Live
| Essentially Yes |
| Related
Articles |
| Band members | XYZ
| Cinema
| Asia
| Anderson Bruford
Wakeman Howe | Circa: |
