On this day · 79 years ago · 1947
79 Years Ago Today: Yes's Founding Guitarist Peter Banks Was Born
Before Steve Howe, there was Peter Banks: the guitarist who suggested the name Yes, designed its first logo, and helped shape progressive rock's guitar vocabulary before being fired just 18 months later.
By Axel, Classic-rock desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Peter Banks (born Peter William Brockbanks) was born July 15, 1947, in Chipping Barnet, London. He co-founded Yes in 1968, suggested the band's name, and played guitar on their first two albums, Yes (1969) and Time and a Word (1970), before being fired in April 1970 and replaced by Steve Howe. Banks later led the prog band Flash and worked as a session guitarist. He died March 7, 2013, at 65.
The guitarist who named Yes
Peter William Brockbanks was born July 15, 1947, in Chipping Barnet, north London, according to Wikipedia's account of his career. Skiffle star Lonnie Donegan inspired him to pick up guitar around age 8, and his first electric guitar was a Gretsch Tennessean. After stints in several local bands, Banks joined the Syn alongside bassist Chris Squire in the mid-1960s, and the pair later formed Mabel Greer's Toyshop with singer Jon Anderson and drummer Bill Bruford. In 1968, that lineup, rounded out by keyboardist Tony Kaye, rehearsed under a new name. Several were floated, Anderson suggested Life and Squire proposed World, but the band settled on a suggestion from Banks: Yes.
Two albums, then fired
Per Wikipedia's account of his career, Banks played guitar on Yes's first two albums, the self-titled Yes (1969) and Time and a Word (1970), and even designed the band's first logo, a wordmark inside a speech bubble. He clashed repeatedly with producer Tony Colton over the orchestral arrangements added to Time and a Word, and on April 18, 1970, following a gig at Luton College of Technology, Banks was fired and replaced by guitarist Steve Howe. Per that same Wikipedia account, Howe later wrote generously about following Banks in his own autobiography, calling him "an interesting guitarist to have to follow," and noting that Banks kept showing up to early Yes gigs even after being let go.
Flash, session work, and a Lionel Richie hit
Banks didn't stay quiet for long. In 1971, after a Melody Maker profile drew the attention of vocalist Colin Carter, Banks co-founded the prog band Flash, releasing three albums between 1972 and 1973. His 1973 solo debut, Two Sides of Peter Banks, pulled in an impressive guest list, Jan Akkerman of Focus, a young Phil Collins on drums, Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, and King Crimson's John Wetton. After Flash and a follow-up band called Empire ran their course by 1980, Banks settled into steady session work, first in Los Angeles and later back in London, including an uncredited guitar solo on Lionel Richie's 1983 hit "Hello," per BBC News's obituary of Banks.
Prog's quiet architect
Gibson's own "10 Great Prog Rock Guitarists" feature singled out Banks' work in Flash, writing that "before there was Steve Howe, there was Peter Banks," and crediting his use of a Gibson ES-335 on the track "Lifetime" as a should-have-been prog classic, per the archived Gibson.com feature. Banks died March 7, 2013, at his childhood home in Chipping Barnet, London, of heart failure, at age 65, described by local press at the time as the "architect of progressive music."
Chasing that early prog clean-to-crunch tone today
Banks' own string gauges from the Yes and Flash years aren't documented well enough to cite as fact. But for the kind of clean-to-crunch semi-hollow tone that defined that era of British prog, a standard nickel-wound set remains a solid modern starting point.
NYXL1046 Nickel Wound (.010–.046)
Why this one: A stable, modern nickel-wound set suited to the clean-to-crunch semi-hollow tone of early British prog, not a historical claim about Banks' own undocumented gauges.
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