– July 15, 1947 – March 7, 2013
..London, UK – Best known for his innovative and unique guitar work
with YES and Flash, as well as his own critically acclaimed solo albums,
guitar legend PeterBanks passed away at his home in London on March 7,
2013. Banks, a founding member of the ground breakingprogressive rock
group YES, performed on the band’s first two albums, ‘Yes’ and ‘Time And
A Word’. He would go on to form Flash and release 3 well-received
albums (Flash, In The Can, Out Of Our Hands), along with several
successful tours of Europe and the US, culminating in an appearance on
the widely watched late night American TV show ‘The Midnight Special’.
With an admitted fondness for improvisation, music critics touted
Banks as a cross between Pete Townshend and Wes Montgomery. Even Pete
Townshend, one night after witnessing a YES performance, walked up
to Banks, slapped him on the back and said, “You’re great!”
After Flash, Peter Banks would form the band Empire in the mid ’70s and
eventually release 3 albums ‘Mark I’ ‘Mark II’ and ‘Mark III’. During
his career, Banks would release 5 solo albums (Two Sides Of…, Instinct,
Self-Contained, Reduction, Can I Play You Something?) and had been
active in recent times working with acts such as Harmony and Diversity,
Prog Collective, ANT-BEE and Days Between Stations. Banks first solo
album ‘Two Sides Of Peter Banks’ has been considered by many as one of
the great ‘prog’ records of all time and features an all-star line-up of
Jan Akkerman, Phil Collins and John Wetton. In the early
2000′s Banks wrote his autobiography ‘Beyond & Before’ published by
Golden Treasures publishing in the US. Peter was putting on the final
touches of the log awaited live recording ‘FLASH - IN PUBLIC’ CD set for
release on Cleopatra Records at the time of his passing.
Peter Banks will always be remembered as one of the pioneers
of progressive rock guitar and will be missed by musicians worldwide.
**
We at Magna Carta had the pleasure of working with Peter on a few projects, "
Tales From Yesterday" on which he performed 'Astral Traveler'; and the "
Encores, Legends & Paradox (music of ELP)" tribute on which he appears on 'Toccata' and 'The Sheriff'.
