Born July 15, 1947, in England,
Peter Banks is perhaps best-known for his work with the progressive rock band
Yes. Those who only see that part of the picture, though, are missing out on quite a lot.
Banks first got his start with
Yes bassist
Chris Squire in the group
the Syn. That group made a bit of a name for themselves in England from 1966 to late 1967.
Squire and
Banks moved to their next group after
the Syn disbanded, the band
Mabel Greer's Toy Shop.
Banks left that group at about the time vocalist
Jon Anderson was starting to become a presence on their scene, but it would only be a matter of time until they would work together.
Banks went to play for a short time with
Neat Change. As fate would have it, though, he hooked back up with
Squire and
Anderson's
Toy Shop. By then, they had added
Tony Kaye and
Bill Bruford to the lineup and were just ready to embark on a new name for the outfit. The new name and
Peter Banks' return were nearly simultaneous, and
Yes was born. The group released two albums with
Banks. The first of those was the self-titled debut that came out in 1969, the second album was Time & a Word released in 1970. By that time, the group had decided that
Peter Banks was not really the guitarist for the band and replaced him with
Steve Howe.
Banks thus found himself without a musical home.
Undaunted, he formed
Flash, a prog band that seemed to carry on in the mode that
Yes might have gone had
Banks remained. As fate would have it, keyboardist
Tony Kaye was the next to feel the growing pains of
Yes, and upon his replacement from the group he hooked up with
Flash. The band released their debut,
Flash, in 1972. They followed it in rapid-fire succession with
In the Can (also released in 1972) and
Out of Our Hands (1973). A live album, originally a bootleg, surfaced many years later under the moniker of
Psychosync.
Flash disbanded in 1973 and
Banks released his first solo album,
Two Sides of Peter Banks, that year. The album featured a rather impressive lineup of
Banks, fellow
Flash members
Ray Bennett and
Mike Hough,
Jan Akkerman,
John Wetton, and
Phil Collins.
Banks' next endeavor was a group that began under the name Flash Mark II. After a time, though, they came to be called
Empire. The band recorded a total of three albums before breaking up in 1980.
Banks was not heard from for quite some time, after the end of
Empire. Indeed, his next release was the 1993 solo album
Instinct. The album was a true solo effort, with
Banks handling all of the instrumental chores. His next release,
Self-Contained, came two years later with his only accompaniment being
Gerald Goff on keyboards. 1999 saw the release of
Reduction; a release featuring older material by
Banks, entitled
Can I Play You Something?, was released in 2000.
–
Gary Hill, Rovi