----------------------------------------------------- AUGUST 9, 2002 ----------------------------------------------------- Source: Rock Daily http://www.rockdaily.com/rd_profile/1,,wyfm,00.html YES Profile: Interview with Chris Squire By Sal Cirrincione Outside of maybe Deep Purple, perhaps no active major rock band has experienced more roster moves through the years than fellow British exports Yes. But even with a history of members coming and going -- and in some cases, returning and leaving again -- the Yes sound and approach has remained consistent onstage and in the studio, defining and embodying the progressive-rock genre in the process. The band's roots can be traced to a 1968 meeting between singer Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire at a London club. The duo later added keyboardist Tony Kaye, guitarist Peter Banks and drummer Bill Bruford to the fold and chose the moniker Yes. After several high-profile gigs in London, Yes issued their eponymous debut album in late 1969. Banks departed prior to the release of 1970's Time and a Word and was replaced by Steve Howe, whose first album with the group was 1971's The Yes Album, which produced the Billboard Top 40 hit "Your Move." Rick Wakeman replaced Kaye in time for 1972's Fragile, which spawned the Top 20 pop hit "Roundabout" and the FM radio favorite "Long Distance Runaround." Close to the Edge, like Fragile, dropped in 1972, featured the same lineup and reached gold status in America. Drummer Alan White's first Yes studio-album appearance was on Tales From Topographic Oceans, a two-disc set released in 1974 -- the year Wakeman exited for the first time. The band finished out the 1970s with three additional studio sets. The commercially disappointing Drama (1980) turned out to be a key steppingstone for the band, as ex-Buggles frontman Trevor Horn, who temporarily replaced Anderson as Yes' singer, went on to produce 1983's streamlined 90125, featuring Anderson, Squire, White, Kaye and new guitarist Trevor Rabin. The radio-friendly single "Owner of a Lonely Heart" became the group's first and only No. 1 pop hit in 1984. Legal disputes in the late 1980s over name rights led to the formation of the group Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. But in 1991, the foursome joined forces with Squire, Kaye, White and Rabin under the Yes moniker to release Union and launch a tour. Over the past 10 years, smaller and varied incarnations of Yes have hit the studio and the road. Yes' most recent studio effort, Magnification, dropped in September 2001 and found the group being augmented by a symphony orchestra. Earlier this year, Wakeman reunited with Anderson, Squire, Howe and White, and the band began a tour July 17 in support of the five-CD compilation In a Word: Yes (1969- ). Squire recently sat down to discuss Wakeman's return and what he brings to the band, the aforementioned compilation, Yes' touring and recording plans, plus some particularly memorable concerts. It Did Happen Chris Squire: The idea [of Wakeman returning] has been percolating just under the surface for a while. We have discussed him coming back before, but then we wanted to go in and do that album with the orchestra -- [the] Magnification album. So, we wanted to do that first. We've been through that phase now and the timing seems good. Plus, he has a pretty busy schedule, and we had to make it work for his schedule, too. Going After the One [Wakeman is] the best-known keyboard player that we've had as a Yes member. He had a thriving solo career in the '70s. He sold, I believe, at least 13, 14 million albums each of [The Six Wives of Henry VIII] and Journey to the Center of the Earth. He was a pretty heavy hitter there for a while. I enjoy playing with him -- he's a great player -- and I'm sure it will just bring a general level of excitement. Onward Initially, it's going to be the touring and I'm sure we're going to concentrate, obviously, on tracks that [Wakeman] was involved with when he was recording with us in the '70s. We're also going to maintain the promotion on the Magnification album. So he's going to have to learn some of that. During the course of all that going on, we'll obviously see how everything's feeling and presumably there will . . . be some live recording at some point during the tour. And then, if everything's feeling good, I'm sure we'll look at doing some new studio stuff next year. Every Little Thing David McLees [Rhino Records' vice president of A&R] is a big Yes fan, and he pretty much had a good idea of what he wanted to have on [In a Word], and obviously he wanted to make it fairly different as possible from the 1991 Yesyears box set. We dug up some previously unreleased material from various stages of Yes' recording career and smarted that up a bit, and that's going to be on there. It's going to have value and interest as an album. Wonderous Stories There have been lots of highlights all through Yes' career. I fondly remember a lot of them. They probably outweigh any dark chapters we've had in our career, which haven't really been that dark . . . I remember certain highlights like the [1976 Philadelphia concert] in JFK Stadium where we played to 130,000 people and we had [Peter] Frampton as a backup artist on that tour, so that was handy, as he had just broken with that big hit of his at the time. That was a very memorable occasion. And all the great shows we've done in all the states, in all the major cities, especially [New York's] Madison Square Garden -- we hold some kind of record there for amount of shows for a band. We had nights there where the audience [was] applauding for 15 minutes. We couldn't even start another song because they wouldn't stop applauding. So we've had lots of really high moments and hopefully we'll have them in the future, too. Long Distance Runaround Well, in 1997 . . . we decided that we would pretty much put in a five-year commitment to working hard. We hadn't toured as much in the early '90s or the latter part of the '80s; we didn't tour as much as we had done over the last five years. So, here we are in 2002, and we're going to do this tour with Rick and then we're going to do some more shows, hopefully in arenas [toward] the end of the year . . . We'll do some [shows in Europe], Australia, Japan -- anywhere else that wants us. That's the next thing, and we'll see where it leads to then. Close Window YesInThePress.com For site comments, problems, corrections, or additions, contact YesinthePress@aol.com