Just over a month after announcing that he was suffering from Acute Erythroid Leukemia (AEL), Chris Squire of Yes has died at the age of 67.
The band posted the following on their Facebook page:
It’s with the heaviest of hearts and unbearable sadness that we must inform you of the passing of our dear friend and Yes co-founder, Chris Squire. Chris peacefully passed away last night in Phoenix Arizona.
For the entirety of Yes’ existence, Chris was the band’s linchpin and, in so many ways, the glue that held it together over all these years. Because of his phenomenal bass-playing prowess, Chris influenced countless bassists around the world, including many of today’s well-known artists. Chris was also a fantastic songwriter, having written and co-written much of Yes’ most endearing music, as well as his solo album, Fish Out of Water.
Outside of Yes, Chris was a loving husband to Scotty and father to Carmen, Chandrika, Camille, Cameron, and Xilan. With his gentle, easy-going nature, Chris was a great friend of many … including each of us. But he wasn’t merely our friend: he was also part of our family and we shall forever love and miss him.
Squire originally found music singing in choirs but, with the advent of the Beatles, decided to take up the bass. After dropping out of school, he formed the band The Selfs with his friend Andrew Pryce Jackman and played in clubs around the Wembley, England area.
The Selfs soon merged with another area band and became The Syn (later Mabel Greer’s Toyshop) where he would meet Peter Banks and Jon Anderson. It was a mutual admiration for vocal groups with Anderson and his inability to find studio work due to his radical playing that led to the forming of Yes with Squire, Banks, Anderson, Bill Bruford and Tony Kaye.
Squire was the only member of Yes to appear on every one of their albums while the rest of the band filtered in and out with other alumni including Rick Wakeman, Alan White, Patrick Moraz, Geoff Downes, Trevor Horn, Trevor Rabin and Billy Sherwood.
The band released their self-titled debut album in 1969 to good reviews but small sales and followed with Time and Word (1970) which made it to 45 on the U.K. charts. They finally broke out with their third set, 1971’s The Yes Album, which included the classic Your Move and followed with Fragile (1971), Close to the Edge (1972), Tales of Topographic Oceans (1973), Relayer (1974) and Going For the One (1977).
Between 1971 and 1980, Yes had eight straight top ten albums in the U.K., including two number 1’s; however, in March 1981, it was announced that the band had broken up. White and Squire worked with Jimmy Page in a band called XYZ in 1981 that never made it to a release and, late that year, Alan and Chris released the Christmas single Run With the Fox.
The next year, Squire and White started working with Trevor Rabin in a band called Cinema. Trevor Horn started producing the group and with the eventual addition of Jon Anderson, the band coalesced around a new sound. In 1983, record company executives heard the new tracks from the band and, with four former members of Yes on board, suggested that they adapt the old name for the album 90125.
90125 was released in November 1983 and included the band’s only top ten and number 1 single in America, Owner of a Lonely Heart. While they would never ascend that far in the Hot 100 again, the new band found acceptance on rock radio and had a number of top ten records on the Rock Singles chart over the next decade including number 1’s with Love Will Find a Way (1987) and Life Me Up (1991).
In 2004, Yes took a four year hiatus when Jon Anderson became ill. They returned in 2010 with the album Fly From Here and have since released Heaven and Earth (2014).
On the side, Squire worked with Yes guitarist Billy Sherwood in the band Conspiracy, releasing two albums. In 2004, he joined a reunion of the Syn for the album Syndestructable. He also released two solo albums, Fish Out of Water (1975) and Chris Squire’s Swiss Choir (2007).
