Chris Squire

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**Christopher Russell Edward Squire** (4 March 1948 – 28 June 2015) was an English musician, songwriter and singer, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist for the progressive rock band Yes. He was the only member to appear on each of their 21 studio albums, released from 1969 to 2014.

He was widely regarded as the dominant bass guitarist among the early seventies British progressive rock bands, influencing peers and later generations of bassists with his incisive sound and elaborately contoured, melodic bass lines. His name was also associated with his trademark instrument, the Rickenbacker 4001 bass. From 1991 to 2000, Rickenbacker produced a limited edition signature model bass in his name, the 4001CS. He released one solo album, *Fish Out of Water*, in 1975.

In May 2015, Squire announced a hiatus from Yes after he was diagnosed with acute erythroid leukemia. Squire died on 28 June 2015 at his home in Phoenix, Arizona. The band's first show of their tour with Toto on 7 August 2015 will mark the first Yes concert performed without Squire.

## Biography

### Early life

Squire was born in Kingsbury, a suburb of northwest London, in England. His father was a cab driver, and his mother a housewife. He was trained in the St Andrew's church choir as a young boy, and sang in the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School choir as well.

When Squire was about sixteen, the Beatles and Paul McCartney were the catalyst that prompted him to consider a career in music and to take up the bass guitar. In 1964, he was suspended from school for "having long hair", and given money to get a haircut. Instead he went home, used the money for other things, and never returned to school.

Around this time, Squire began his musical career with a group called the Selfs, along with his friend Andrew Jackman, who played the keyboards.

## Musical career

### Early years

Squire was fond of using LSD in the 1960s, until a 1968 incident where he had a bad acid trip. He recalled that "it was the last time I ever took it, having ended up in St Stephen's Hospital in Fulham for a couple of days not knowing who I was, or what I was, or who anybody else was." He also recalled that in the process of recovering, he spent months inside his girlfriend's apartment, afraid to leave, and it was during this time that he developed his style on the bass.

Squire's first bass was a Futurama, "very cheap, but good enough to learn on." He acquired his signature Rickenbacker 4001 bass in 1965, while working at Boosey & Hawkes. His early influences were diverse, ranging from church and choral music to the Merseybeat sounds of the early 1960s and he studied the bass styles of John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, and Larry Graham. Squire's first musical groups The Selfs, The Syn (both including Jackman), and later, Mabel Greer's Toyshop, would introduce him to his early Yes collaborators Peter Banks and Jon Anderson. In 1965, he made his first public appearance with The Selfs at "The Graveyard" club in St Andrew's Church Hall.

### Yes

In early 1968, Squire was introduced to singer Jon Anderson in the La Chasse drinking club in Soho by its owner Jack Barrie. The two found they shared common musical interests including Simon & Garfunkel and vocal harmonies. His other influences included The Fifth Dimension and The Beatles. Squire claimed Yes was formed with Anderson, drummer Bill Bruford and keyboardist Tony Kaye partly out of necessity. "I couldn't get session work because most musicians hated my style. They wanted me to play something a lot more basic. We started Yes as a vehicle to develop everyone's individual styles."

Yes released their first album in 1969, and though the band have had many personnel changes over the years, they have continued to record and tour for over 40 years. Squire was the only member to play on each of their 21 studio albums released from 1969 to 2014. He was seen as one of the main forces behind the band's music, as well as being "perhaps the most enigmatic" group member. *Heaven & Earth* was the final studio album.

While Anderson typically handled the lyrics, Squire co-wrote much of the band's music with guitarist Steve Howe (with Anderson chipping in occasionally, as well). In addition, Squire and Howe would supply backing vocals in harmony with Anderson as heard on "South Side of the Sky" and "Close to the Edge".

During the band's formative years Squire was frequently known for his lateness, a habit that Bruford often complained about. Because of this, Squire would frequently drive at unsafe speeds to get to gigs on time, once causing an accident on the way to a gig in West Germany after he fell asleep at the wheel, although nobody was injured.

As Squire, along with Alan White and Steve Howe, co-owned the "Yes" name at the time, the 1989 ABWH line-up without him (which contained Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe) could not record under that name.

### Other projects

Squire concentrated overwhelmingly on Yes' music over the years, producing little solo work. His first solo record was 1975's *Fish Out of Water*, featuring Yes alumnus Bill Bruford on drums and Patrick Moraz on keyboards and The Syn/The Selfs alumnus Andrew Jackman also on keyboards.

Squire was later a member of the short-lived XYZ (eX-Yes/Zeppelin) in 1981, a group composed of Alan White (Yes) on drums and Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) on guitar. XYZ recorded several demo tracks, but never produced anything formal, though two of the demos provided the basis for two later Yes tracks, "Mind Drive" and "Can You Imagine?" Squire later said Page was not ready to record with the band so soon after the death of John Bonham, Led Zeppelin's drummer.

Squire also played a role in bringing Trevor Rabin into the Cinema band project, which became the *90125* line-up of Yes.

In later years, Squire would join with Yes guitarist Billy Sherwood in a side project called Conspiracy. This band's self-titled debut album in 2000 contained the nuclei of several songs that had appeared on Yes' recent albums. Conspiracy's second album, *The Unknown*, was released in 2003.

In late 2004, Squire joined a reunion of The Syn. The reformed band released the album *Syndestructible* in 2005 before breaking up again.

Squire also worked on two solo projects with other former Syn collaborators Gerard Johnson, Jeremy Stacey and Paul Stacey. A Christmas album, *Chris Squire's Swiss Choir*, was released in 2007 (with Johnson, J. Stacey and Steve Hackett). Squire collaborated again with Hackett, formerly of the band Genesis, to make the album *A Life Within A Day*, released in 2012.

## Illness and death

On 19 May 2015, Yes announced that Squire had been diagnosed with acute erythroid leukemia, and would take a break from performing while receiving treatment.

On 28 June 2015, Squire died from the illness, aged 67, less than six weeks after his diagnosis, while receiving treatment in his adopted hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.

The Mohegan Sun Casino show in Ledyard, Connecticut on 7 August 2015 will mark the first Yes concert performed without Squire. Former member Billy Sherwood will replace him during their 2015 North American tour with Toto from August to September 2015, as well as their performances in November 2015, had announced when the band annouced Squire's disease in May.

## Style

Squire's bass playing was noted for being aggressive, dynamic, and melodic. Squire's main instrument was a 1964 Rickenbacker bass (model RM1999, serial number DC127), which he bought and began playing in 1965. Squire mentioned in a 1979 interview with Circus Weekly that he acquired this bass while working at the Boosey & Hawkes music store in London. The instrument, with its warmth, was a significant part of Squire's unique sound. Due to its distinctive tone, which has been compared to that of a guitar, it allowed the bass to take on a more "lead" role, which created a dynamic sound, and suited Squire perfectly.

In a 1973 interview for *Guitar Player* magazine, Squire obtained his distinctive tone at the time by rewiring his RM1999 into stereo and sending the bass and treble pick-ups each into a separate amplifier. By splitting the signal from his bass into dual high and low frequency outputs and then sending the low frequency output to a conventional bass amplifier and the high-frequency output to a separate lead guitar amplifier, Squire produced a tonal 'sandwich' that added a growling, overdrive edge to the sound while retaining the Rickenbacker's powerful bass response. This gave his bass sound bright, growling higher frequencies and clean, solid bass frequencies. This technique allowed Squire to utilise harmonic distortion on his bass while avoiding the flat, fuzzy sound, loss of power and poor bass response that typically occurs when bass guitars are overdriven through an amplifier or put through a fuzz box.

Squire claimed to have rewired his bass to stereo, even before Rickenbacker introduced the Rick-O-Sound feature, so he could send the output of the bass (neck) pick-up through a fuzz box, while keeping the treble (bridge) pick-up clean, because the last sounded "horribly nasal" when used with the fuzz effect. He also plays with a pick which contributes to the sharp attack as well as using fresh Rotosound Swing Bass strings for every show. Squire's intricate and complex bass playing style has influenced subsequent bassists such as Billy Sheehan, Geddy Lee of Rush, Jon Camp of Renaissance, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Les Claypool of Primus, John Myung of Dream Theater, and Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots.

## Nickname

Chris Squire was commonly known by his nickname, "Fish", and the name is associated with many of his works including his solo record, *Fish Out of Water*, and the solo piece "The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)" from the 1971 Yes record *Fragile*. The name has multiple origins, not least of which is the heteronymic meanings of "bass", describing low frequency sound or the bass guitar as well as the fish. Additionally, Squire's astrological sign was Pisces. Further, in the early days of Yes' career, he once accidentally flooded a hotel room in Oslo, Norway, while taking a shower, and Bill Bruford gave him the nickname. On the 2007 documentary "The Classic Artists Series 3: Yes", Bruford says that the nickname arose because Squire spent long periods in the bathroom while they shared a house together in Fulham.

## Personal life

Chris Squire married Nikki, whom he had met in 1970. She sang on the 1981 Christmas single "Run with the Fox" and also the track "Hold Out Your Hand" from *Fish Out of Water*. In 1983, she formed Esquire, on whose first album Chris, Alan White and Trevor Horn assisted. Their family included Carmen Squire (Chris's stepdaughter), Chandrika and Camille Squire. The couple divorced after fifteen years of marriage.

Squire married actress Melissa Morgan on 8 May 1993. She played Brittany Norman on *The Young and The Restless* and later returned to the daytime program as Agnes Sorensen.

Scotland became Squire's third wife. They resided in the Chelsea neighbourhood of London, and more recently in Phoenix, Arizona.

Squire's children are Carmen, Chandrika, Camille, Cameron, and Xilan.

## Discography

### Solo

* *Fish Out of Water* (1975) – UK No. 25
* "Run with the Fox", single with Alan White (1981)
* *Chris Squire's Swiss Choir* (2007)

### With Conspiracy

* *Conspiracy* – 2000 (+ DVD)
* *The Unknown* – 2003

## Footnotes

1. ↑ Squire's death was announced on 28 June 2015. An official date of death has not yet been given.

## References

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5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Welch, Chris.: *Close to the Edge: The Story of Yes*. (London: Omnibus Press, 1999).
6. ↑ Hedges, Dan.: *Yes: The Authorized Biography*. (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1981), 15–18.
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8. ↑ Hedges, Dan.: Yes: The Authorized Biography. (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1981), 19.
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10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Soocher, Stan: "Squire's bass fire", *Circus Weekly*, 13 March 1979, 33.
11. ↑ Hedges, Dan.: Yes: The Authorized Biography. (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1981), 18.
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13. ↑ Gill, Chris. Guitar World's *Bass Guitar*, Fall 2003 issue, p. 22.
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39. ↑ *The Classic Artists Series 3: Yes*.
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## External links

* Official website
* Chris Squire at the Internet Movie Database
* 1983 audio interview with Trevor Rabin, Alan White, Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman
* Chris Squire talks about how he first met Jimi Hendrix, a black guitarist he didn't know who would talk with a bass player on YouTube Interviewed by Curator Jacob McMurray in the EMP Museum in Seattle

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