“Sometimes there is consolation in isolation’’.
These are the words printed on the inside cover of this marvellous
electric guitar solo album from that brilliant musician Peter Banks. Very
apt they are, too. Although Peter Banks was at the creation of the band
“Yes” and indeed the bands that were its forbearers (“SYN’’ and
“Mabel Greers Toy Shop”), he remains the only member of the band not
to have been invited back at some stage or other.
His replacement on the guitar, Steve Howe, has joined
and left the band an incredible four times. Even when they recorded and
then toured with the Reunion album with an incredible and quite farcical
eleven man line-up, Peter Bank’s talents were regarded as surplus to
requirements. In fact, when once Peter was invited by the rest of the band
to make a guest appearance on the encores with the band at the end of a
U.K. tour, Steve Howe threatened to leave the band. Peter Banks wasn’t
allowed on the same stage as the obviously very insecure guitarist. So
what can be the reason behind this entire skulduggery? Almost alarmingly
simple the story goes like this.
In the formative years of “Yes”, way back in 1968,
Peter Banks was not only lead guitarist, but also inspirational in
creating the Yes sound. The distinctive diamond edge guitar solos, the
granite hard riffs coupled with Jon Anderson’s soaring vocals, the
brilliant musicianship of the back line of Tony Kaye on keyboards, Chris
Squire on bass (one of the first people to play the bass as if it were a
lead instrument rather than just a backing device), and the drummer’s
drummer Bill Bruford. The band was obviously tipped for stardom.
After two albums, the amazing debut album ‘Yes’,
which has just been re-released digitally re-mastered with four
outstanding bonus tracks, and the equally polished second album ‘Time
and a Word’, musically everything was looking great, but whilst the
others were all rather taking themselves terribly seriously, Peter Banks
was enjoying the Rock ‘n’ Roll lifestyle just a little too much. An
ultimatum was sent down by the management (it must be said not with the
entire backing of the entire band. Keyboard player Tony Kaye was to leave
the band in similar circumstances after one more album to be followed by
drummer Bill Bruford an album later. Over the years these two have been in
and out of the band’s revolving door whilst it has remained firmly shut
to Peter Banks). Either clean up your act or out they said. Well, there
was no choice really.
Peter Banks left “Yes” forming his own band
“Flash”. Its music could only be described as progressive rock meets
punk rock while retaining the Banks’ guitar sound. “Yes” brought in
the far more controllable Steve Howe to copy Banks’ licks for their
breakthrough album ‘The Yes Album’.
“Flash” went onto enormous successes in the U.S.A.,
releasing three albums before disbanding and going their own way. Peter
Banks went on to enjoy life as a session musician and toy with the idea of
forming a band called “Empire”, which went through as many musicians
as his former colleagues in “Yes” would go through.
Several solo albums have been recorded along the way
with ‘Reduction’ being the third. Released in 1997 it is full of all
the usual Bankism’s that you come to expect from the man. An amusing and
unique little opening to get you in the mood before a blistering seven
minutes of ‘Tone Down’ where the guitarist shows off all his talents
at one minute one hundred notes a second.
The next bending one note right round your player and
straight out the other door. I’m not saying you have to have a decent
player to listen to a Peter Banks recording, but it certainly helps. Voice
samplings are used to string each instrumental together, my favorite being
‘What gives you the inspiration to write a song like that’. ‘Usually
the landlady knocking on the door” makes the whole thing flow sublimely
from one track to another.
Although every track is a guitar instrumental there is
more variety on a Peter Banks album than there are colours in a box of
Smarties. They range from the sledgehammer licks of ‘Fathat’ to the
delicate acoustic work on the delightful ‘Fade to Blue’ or the tragic
beauty of a song like ‘As Night Falls’. With songs like this you do
not need lyrics to display the emotions of the music.
The rhythms of ‘Dirty Little secret’ will bury
themselves in your subconscious and drive you nuts trying to recall where
you have heard it before. The overdubbed guitars here become more and more
menacing as the song progresses, implying the perfect soundtrack to a
particularly nasty repetitive nightmare. Fair sends a tingle up and down
your tail.
“Reduction is the way to production” is printed on
the back cover. If this is the way producing music of this calibre, so be
it. One can only ponder what would have happened if the boys at “Yes”
had stuck with their wayward son. I do not think that they would have
turned into the sorry parody of themselves that they have now become. But
we shall never know. The best thing to do is get yourself a copy of
‘Reduction’, press play and be whisked away on one of Mr. Banks’
musical journeys.
All instruments
Peter Banks
Songs
Diminuendo in bloom
Tone Down
The age of Distortion
Fade to Blue
Fathat
As Night Falls
Consolation in Isolation
Dirty Little Secret
As Ever
Pirates Pleasure
Rosa Nova
To contact Mott the Dog email: [email protected]
Jake
Needham
IDo
people still want to see westerns? These days the actors and actresses
seem so clean and smart, the women have perfect hair and makeup, although
this movie is a little more realistic. It seems ridiculous to imagine that
there were any facilities to enable the cowboys to even launder their
clothes, especially as they appear to have lived life on the back of a
horse!
Mott’s CD review: Peter Banks - Reduction
by Mott the Dog