Chris Squire

At 67 years old, Chris Squire has this physical status:

Christopher Russell Edward Squire (4 March 1948 – June 2015), an English singer, guitarist, and songwriter best known as the bassist and a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes.

He was the longest-serving original member of the band from 1969 to 2014, appearing on every studio album from 1969 to 2014. Squire, a born in Kingsbury, London, took an early interest in church music and performed in the local church and school choirs.

Since he picked up the bass guitar at age 16, his first performances for the Selfs, which later developed into the Syn.

Squire formed Yes with singer Jon Anderson in 1968; the band's sole bassist for the next 47 years will remain.

Squire was widely regarded as the leading bassist in English progressive rock bands, influencing peers and later generations of bassists with his incisive sound and intricately crafted melodic bass lines.

The Rickenbacker 4001. His name was associated with his trademark device, the Rickenbacker 4001. Squire announced a hiatus from Yes in May 2015 after being diagnosed with acute erythroid leukemia, and died on June 27th at his Phoenix, Arizona home.

The band's first show of their tour with Toto on August 7, 2015, was the first Yes concert to be performed without Squire, with longtime friend and frequent collaborator Billy Sherwood appearing in his place.

Rickenbacker made the 4001CS, a limited edition signature model bass in his name, from 1991 to 2000.

Fish Out of Water (1975) and Chris Squire's Swiss Choir (2007), a Christmas album, were released by Squire.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes in 2017.

Early life

Squire was born on March 4 in the north west London suburb of Kingsbury, England, to Peter and Joanne Squire. He grew up in the nearby Queensbury and Wembley districts. His father was a taxi driver and his mother was a secretary for an estate agent. Squire, as a youth, took a liking to Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald's music, but his primary aim was church music. He appeared in the church choir at St Andrew's in Kingsbury as a treble with Andrew Pryce Jackman, a friend of his who lived nearby, at age six. The choir was destined to appear at St. Paul's Cathedral. Barry Rose, the choirmaster, had an early influence on Squire. "Working at it made me realize that this was the way to be the best at something." At his next school, Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, which is then located in Hampstead, Squire performed in the choir. On his way home from school, he played the harmonica.

When the rise of The Beatles and the Beat music revival in the early 1960s inspired him to "be in a group that doesn't use music stands," Squire did not consider a music career until the age of sixteen. After pointing out his broad frame and strong hands, a school friend suggested that Squire take up the bass, he felt they were fine for playing the instrument. Squire also bought his first bass, a Futurama, which he described as "very cheap but good enough to learn about." Squire's headmaster suspended him and a friend for having their hair too long, and they were given two shillings and sixpence to have it cut. Rather, they went home and never recovered. Squire landed jobs selling guitars at a Boosey & Hawkes shop in Regent Street after his mother took him to a recruitment company and asked for music-related to music. In 1965, he bought a new bass, a Rickenbacker 4001, using the staff discount program.

Personal life

Squire was married three times and had five children.

Nikki, Squire's first wife, was born in 1970 at a London club. They married in 1972. She appeared on the 1981 Christmas album "Run with the Fox" and also the 1975 hit "Hold Out Your Hand." On her first album, Esquire, was founded in 1983, she formed Esquire, with Chris White, Alan White, and Trevor Horn assassinating. Carmen, Chandrika, and Camille Squire had three children: Carmen, Chandrika, and Camille Squire. After fifteen years of marriage, the couple divorced.

Melissa Morgan, a Squire married actress, was born on May 8th, 1993. In 2000, she gave birth to their son Cameron. Agnes Sorensen played Brittany Norman on The Young and the Restless, later returning to the daytime drama. In 2008, the pair divorced.

He was in his third and final marriage to Scotland Squire, who gave birth to their daughter Xilan in 2008. They were living in Phoenix, Arizona, having previously lived in Chelsea.

In the 1970s, Squire became a vegetarian. He played for the Eagles in 1973 and was first exposed to cocaine. Squire suffered with a heart attack at some point in his life.

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Career

The Selfs, a rock and blues band with Jackman on keyboards and Martin Adelman on drums, was Squire's first band. In the hall of St. Andrew's, the Graveyard, a youth club, performed their first public performance. Squire, Jackman, and Adelman formed the Synchnic Group in 1965, following several personnel changes, including guitarist John Painter, guitarist John Painter, and drummer Gunnar Jökull Hákonarson. Before moving toward psychedelic rock, the group performed Tamla Motown covers. Artist Peter Banks replaced Painter after several months. The new line-up had a following large enough to guarantee a weekly stay at the Marquee Club in Soho, which was followed by a recording contract with Deram Records. "I saw what was possible, but I had this innate confidence that I was going to make it," the band announced at the venue. They performed two singles before disbanding.

Squire was fond of using LSD in the 1960s; a visit to the UFO Club on Friday, which lasted until Saturday, and restoration on Sunday, became a regular event until a 1967 incident in which he had a bad trip to a friend's house made LSD. Squire pretended to be disorientated and told a tale about an unknown Australian he encountered at a Wimpy restaurant before. "It was the last time I ever took it," the author said, after ending up in a hospital in Fulham for a few days without knowing who I was, or what I was." Squire spent several months in his girlfriend's apartment, afraid to leave, but he did manage to swing into the corner store after being barred from hospital. He spent every day practising his bass playing, which resulted in his own style, quoting bassists John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Larry Graham, and Bill Wyman as early influences, citing bassists John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Larry Graham, and Bill Wyman as early influences.

Squire joined Mabel Greer's Toyshop in September 1967, a psychedelic group that featured Peter Banks, singer Clive Bayley, and drummer Bob Hagger. They appeared at the Marquee club where Jack Barrie, the owner of the La Chasse bar, appeared a few doors down. "The musicianship was fine, but it was evident that they weren't going nowhere," he said. Squire was introduced to Jon Anderson, a bar employee who had not found success as the lead singer of The Gun or as a solo artist. Simon & Garfunkel, The Association, and vocal harmonies were among the two musicians' common musical passions. They produced "Sweetness," a track that was later released on the first Yes album.

Anderson and Squire brought in drummer Bill Bruford, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and Banks for rehearsals as the band grew. The five men decided to change the name Mabel Greer's Toyshop, but they settled on the word Yes, which was originally Banks' suggestion. On August 4, 1968, the band appeared at a youth camp in East Mersea, Essex. "I couldn't get session work because the majority of musicians resented my style," Squire said of the band's origins. They wanted me to try something a lot more basic. We started Yes as a way to develop people's individual styles." "A Bass Odyssey" by Squire developed a bass solo.

Yes released their self-titled debut album in August 1969. Martyn Adelman, who had performed drums with Squire's first group, took the album photos. Squire earned writing credits on four of the album's eight tracks, including "Beyond & Before," "Looking Around," "Harold Land," and "Sweetness."

Squire adapted his playing after Bruford left the band and was replaced by Alan White in July 1972. He seemed to be "playing too much," although I was never entirely sure. I did everything right with Bill, but I found that I was able to play a little less than before and still get my playing underway."

Squire referred to his participation in "The Memory (High the Memory)" from Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) as "one of the nicest things I've ever played."

Squire was the first person to perform on any of their 21 studio albums from 1969 to 2014. He was seen as one of the band's main players as well as being "perhaps the most enigmatic" group member. Heaven & Earth was his last studio album.

Although the bulk of the band's songs were written by Anderson, Squire co-wrote a majority of the band's songs with guitarist Steve Howe (with Anderson occasionally contributing). In addition, Squire and Howe would produce backing vocals in harmony with Anderson on songs like "South Side of the Sky" and "Close to the Edge."

Squire was well-known for his tardiness during the band's formative years, a feature that Bruford often complained about. Because of this, Squire would often drive at high speeds to get to gigs on time, once causing an accident on the way to a gig in West Germany after someone fell asleep at the wheel, but no one was injured. A posthumous commemorative brown plaque was titled in such a way as to refer to his habitual lateness, namely "The Late" Chris Squire ".

The 1989 ABWH line-up without him (which included Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe) could not be recognized under that name as Squire, Alan White, and Steve Howe co-owned the "Yes" brand at the time.

Following Squire's death on June 27, the band's performance on August 7th of the same year was the first Yes concert ever held without him. Billy Sherwood, a former member of Toto, was recalled by the band during their 2015 North American tour with Toto, from August to September 2015, as well as their November 2015 appearances, as the band first revealed Squire's disease in May 2015.

Squire devoted largely to Yes' music over the years, with no solo recordings being released. Bill Bruford, a Yes alumni, appeared on drums and Patrick Moraz on keyboards, and The Syn/The Selfs alumnus Andrew Jackman appeared on keyboards.

Squire was a member of the short lived XYZ, but the word was not in the dictionary. (Squire claimed that his father had come up with the name) together with White and guitarist Jimmy Page in 1981. XYZ released many demo tracks but never finished anything formal, though two of the demos inspired two later Yes tracks, "Mind Drive" and "Can You Imagine?" Despite Page's promises, Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant was not ready to join the band so soon after the death of Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. According to Squire, Zeppelin boss Peter Grant objected to the name because the "Y" appeared before the "Z" in the name. The company "fizzled out" after being "fizzled out."

Squire was also involved in the introduction of Trevor Rabin into the Cinema band project, which culminated in the creation of the 90125 line-up of Yes.

Squire will collaborate with Yes guitarist Billy Sherwood in a side project named Conspiracy in the coming years. The nuclei of several songs that had appeared on Yes' new albums was included on this band's self-titled debut album in 2000. The Unknown, Conspiracy's second album, was released in 2003.

In late 2004, Squire returned to The Synchrony. Syndestructible, the reformed band's album, before breaking up again.

Squire also worked on two separate projects with former Synchronic collaborators Gerard Johnson, Jeremy Stacey, and Paul Stacey. Chris Squire's Swiss Choir's Christmas album was released in 2007 (with Johnson, J. Stacey, and Steve Hackett). Squire partnered with Hackett, a member of Genesis, to create Squackett's album A Life Within a Day, which was released in 2012.

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