Peter Banks
Encyclopedia
Peter Banks is an English guitarist. He was the original guitarist of the progressive rock
band Yes
.
. As a teenager, he also learned how to play the banjo
.
Banks and Chris Squire
first met when Banks joined The Syn
, also including Andrew Jackman
(keyboards), who in later years became an orchestra
l arranger for some Yes and Chris Squire recordings. The Syn only lasted until 1967, but the group released two singles
.
In 1968 Banks played briefly with the band Neat Change, recording one single.
Squire meanwhile joined friends Clive Bailey (rhythm guitar) and Bob Hagger (drums) in Mabel Greer's Toy Shop, and Banks came to join that band. Banks left the band, which was subsequently joined by singer Jon Anderson
and then drummer Bill Bruford
replaced Bob Hagger. With the loss of Bailey, addition of keyboardist Tony Kaye
and Banks' return, the band took on a new name.
. All parts agreed that the name was not meant to be permanent, but just a temporary solution. Four decades later, the name remains.
Atlantic Records
took notice of the band and, in 1969, got them into a studio to record their first album, Yes. The next year another album was in progress (Time and a Word
) but Anderson and Squire decided they wanted an orchestra backing the five musicians. The idea was not well received by Banks, and things got worse when the orchestral arrangements left the guitarist, as well as Tony Kaye, with little to do (strings replaced almost note-for-note their parts). Once the album was released, a tour ensued; Banks was asked to leave the group, playing his last concert with Yes on 18 April 1970 at The Luton College of Technology. He was replaced by Steve Howe
.
During Yes' 1991 Union tour, Tony Kaye invited Peter Banks to play during the encore at the 15 May show in Inglewood, California
at the Great Western Forum. Peter accepted the invitation and went to the show. According to Classic Artists: Yes
, Peter was told by Tony prior to the show that Steve Howe didn't want Peter to play at the show. Howe has since denied this in interviews on Notes From The Edge.
In August 1994, Banks was a featured guest at a Yes fan festival called "Yestival". In 1995, Peter Banks performed "Astral Traveler" on a Yes tribute album titled Tales From Yesterday. In 1997, Peter Banks co-ordinated the release of a Yes compilation titled Something's Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969-1970
. His liner notes described his early days with the band. Banks was also present at "Yestival" in July 1998. In 2006, Peter Banks was interviewed for the Yes documentary Classic Artists: Yes
. A few music videos featuring him with Yes during their early days can be seen in The Lost Broadcasts
DVD released in 2009.
for a brief period in late 1970, and guested as session musician
on an album by Chris Harwood. In 1971 Banks formed Flash
and sessions began for a first album, with Tony Kaye guesting on keyboards. The record appeared in 1972 (called simply Flash) and had a warm reception. Subsequent to Kaye's involvement, Banks took the dual role of guitarist and keyboardist. Flash recorded and released its second album (In the Can) in November that same year; and the third (Out of Our Hands) in 1973.
Parallel to that, Banks and guitarist Jan Akkerman
became friends and started to play and record together. Banks also played on an album by Roger Ruskin Spear
at that time. In 1973, not long after the third and final Flash release, Banks released Two Sides of Peter Banks. Guest musicians included Akkerman, bassist John Wetton
, drummer Phil Collins
, guitarist Steve Hackett
and fellow Flash members Ray Bennett and Mike Hough.
Around the summer of 1973, Banks played with the jazz-rock band called Zox & the Radar Boys, including Phil Collins (drums), Mike Piggott (violin), Ronnie Caryl
(guitar) and John Howitt (bass).
In 1973, while trying to form a second incarnation of Flash, Banks recruited musicians and fell in love with the singer Sydney Foxx (real name Sidonie Jordan). She would soon became his wife. Named as Empirə, Banks, Foxx, and various other band members recorded three albums up to 1979. Banks and Foxx divorced, although Empire remained together as a band for some time after.
and Jakob Magnússon. In 1981, another recording by Empire appeared. Banks made an appearance on Romeo Unchained, a 1986 album by Tonio K
. Banks also worked with Ian Wallace
in The Teabags.
In 1993, Banks released Instinct, a solo album of instrumental
tracks with him playing all the parts. Only a keyboard player, Gerald Goff, joined him for his next album, Self Contained (1995). In 1997, Banks was mainly responsible for the release of a double
live
Yes album, Something's Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969–1970 (renamed Beyond and Before in the US), a collection of appearances at the BBC
during 1969 and 1970, featuring the original line-up in all tracks and with a booklet containing the guitarist's account of those early days.
Another archival release was Psychosync, a live Flash recording made in 1973 for the King Biscuit Flower Hour
and finally released in 1998. Also, between 1995 and 1997 all three Empire albums were released (one per year). Banks also collaborated in 1995's Tales From Yesterday (a Yes tribute album) performing a version of the song "Astral Traveller" with Robert Berry
; appeared on the album Big Beats in 1997; and played on 1999's Encores, Legends and Paradox, an Emerson, Lake & Palmer
tribute album. He contributed to 1999's Come Together People of Funk by Funky Monkey (including keyboardist Gerard Johnson who helped on a number of Banks' projects in the 1990s).
Those collaborations filled the gap in his own recording career, until 1999, when the album Reduction was issued. In 2000, Banks put out a collection of his oldest recordings (many previously unreleased) called Can I Play You Something?. The front sleeve of this last record showed an eight year-old Banks posing with his first guitar. The track listing includes some early recordings by The Syn, Mabel Greer's Toyshop, and Yes, including an early rendition of the song "Beyond and Before".
A short track in the latter collection was called "Lima Loop". This is because Lima, Peru became a special place for Banks in recent years. Cecilia Quino, a Peruvian girl who was a Yes fan
moved to the US many years before. Via the Internet, she contacted Banks, and they began a cyber-friendship that ultimately led to their wedding. They married in Lima, where the bride's parents live, and Banks stayed in Peru for some months in 1999, being present when Yes played there. The couple are currently living in the UK.
together at the 1998 edition of Yestival (a Yes fan festival), the pair played some sessions and the possibility of Banks joining Asia
was mooted. However, these sessions did not lead anywhere.
Banks has appeared in small concerts by new young local bands, including the Yes tribute band Fragile. Recent recorded appearances by Banks include Jabberwocky (2000) and Hound of the Baskervilles (2002), a pair of albums recorded by Oliver Wakeman
(Rick Wakeman
's son) and Clive Nolan
. He has also guested further on the Funky Monkey project.
Banks was initially involved in a reunion of The Syn in 2004, but left the band. After early talks in 2004, he was also not included in the current Flash reunion, which made their debut return at the Prog Day Festival 2010 with Flash bassist Ray Bennett taking over on lead guitar.
In late 2004, Banks formed a new improvising band, Harmony In Diversity, with Andrew Booker
and Nick Cottam (who had been working together as duo Pulse Engine. They played a short UK tour in March 2006, and released an EP called "Trying". Booker left the band soon after. He was replaced by David Speight http://www.drummerdavidspeight.artistintersect.com/home and the band continue to play live, while Banks is also planning a related project with keyboardist Gonzalo Carrera
. Banks' Harmony in Diversity were supported by the Hungarian band, Yesterdays
, at the MiniProg Festival in Budapest in February 2007.
In Gibson Guitar's 'Lifestyle' e-magazine of 3 February 2009, Banks is listed as one of the "10 Great Prog Rock Guitarists." According to the article,
"Before there was Steve Howe, there was Peter Banks. Artistic differences between Banks and singer Jon Anderson prompted Banks’s departure from Yes in 1970, but in his little-known '70s band, Flash, Banks used an ES-335 to create several should-have-been prog rock classics. "Lifetime", from Flash’s In the Can album, is his tour-de-force."
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
.
Early career
When Banks was a young boy, his father bought him an acoustic guitarSteel-string acoustic guitar
A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
. As a teenager, he also learned how to play the banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
.
Banks and Chris Squire
Chris Squire
Christopher Russell Edward "Chris" Squire , is an English musician, known as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist for the progressive rock group Yes. He is the only member of the group to appear on every album.-Before Yes:...
first met when Banks joined The Syn
The Syn
The Syn are an English band that were active from 1965 to 1967, and then reunited as a progressive rock band in 2004. Chris Welch, in his book, Close to the Edge: The Story of Yes wrote, "The Syn were very similar to Yes in fact...
, also including Andrew Jackman
Andrew Jackman
Andrew Pryce Jackman was a keyboard player and arranger. He was in The Syn with bassist Chris Squire . Jackman subsequently worked on Squire's solo album Fish Out of Water, on The Steve Howe Album and on the Yes album Tormato.-History:In the mid-1960s, Jackman was the keyboard player in The Selfs...
(keyboards), who in later years became an orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l arranger for some Yes and Chris Squire recordings. The Syn only lasted until 1967, but the group released two singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
.
In 1968 Banks played briefly with the band Neat Change, recording one single.
Squire meanwhile joined friends Clive Bailey (rhythm guitar) and Bob Hagger (drums) in Mabel Greer's Toy Shop, and Banks came to join that band. Banks left the band, which was subsequently joined by singer Jon Anderson
Jon Anderson
Jon Anderson is an English singer-songwriter and musician best known as the former lead vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes...
and then drummer Bill Bruford
Bill Bruford
William Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring...
replaced Bob Hagger. With the loss of Bailey, addition of keyboardist Tony Kaye
Tony Kaye (musician)
Tony Kaye is a British musician.Kaye was the original keyboard player for the progressive rock group Yes from 1968 to 1971, and rejoined Yes from 1983 to 1995...
and Banks' return, the band took on a new name.
Career with Yes
The members searched for an appropriate name, and Banks suggested they called the group YesYes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
. All parts agreed that the name was not meant to be permanent, but just a temporary solution. Four decades later, the name remains.
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
took notice of the band and, in 1969, got them into a studio to record their first album, Yes. The next year another album was in progress (Time and a Word
Time and a Word
Time and a Word is the second album by progressive rock band Yes, released in mid-1970 in the UK and November 1970 in the US. This was the last Yes album to feature the group's original line-up, as Peter Banks was fired before the album's release....
) but Anderson and Squire decided they wanted an orchestra backing the five musicians. The idea was not well received by Banks, and things got worse when the orchestral arrangements left the guitarist, as well as Tony Kaye, with little to do (strings replaced almost note-for-note their parts). Once the album was released, a tour ensued; Banks was asked to leave the group, playing his last concert with Yes on 18 April 1970 at The Luton College of Technology. He was replaced by Steve Howe
Steve Howe (guitarist)
Stephen James "Steve" Howe is an English guitarist, known for his work with the progressive rock group Yes...
.
During Yes' 1991 Union tour, Tony Kaye invited Peter Banks to play during the encore at the 15 May show in Inglewood, California
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
at the Great Western Forum. Peter accepted the invitation and went to the show. According to Classic Artists: Yes
Classic Artists: Yes
Classic Artists: Yes is a two-disc DVD documentary of the progressive rock group Yes produced by Image Entertainment and fully endorsed by the band. The video spans the band's entire career, beginning with their 1968 formation and going through their most recent studio album Magnification and the...
, Peter was told by Tony prior to the show that Steve Howe didn't want Peter to play at the show. Howe has since denied this in interviews on Notes From The Edge.
In August 1994, Banks was a featured guest at a Yes fan festival called "Yestival". In 1995, Peter Banks performed "Astral Traveler" on a Yes tribute album titled Tales From Yesterday. In 1997, Peter Banks co-ordinated the release of a Yes compilation titled Something's Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969-1970
Something's Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969-1970
- Band members :* Jon Anderson - vocals* Chris Squire - bass, vocals* Peter Banks - guitars* Tony Kaye - keyboards* Bill Bruford - drums-External links:*...
. His liner notes described his early days with the band. Banks was also present at "Yestival" in July 1998. In 2006, Peter Banks was interviewed for the Yes documentary Classic Artists: Yes
Classic Artists: Yes
Classic Artists: Yes is a two-disc DVD documentary of the progressive rock group Yes produced by Image Entertainment and fully endorsed by the band. The video spans the band's entire career, beginning with their 1968 formation and going through their most recent studio album Magnification and the...
. A few music videos featuring him with Yes during their early days can be seen in The Lost Broadcasts
The Lost Broadcasts
The Lost Broadcasts is a Yes DVD released by Voiceprint in 2009. It contains footage of Yes from 1969 to 1971. In late August 2009, the "Time and a Word" video was posted on the internet as a preview, where the original title From a Time Beyond and Before was shown...
DVD released in 2009.
Work with other bands
After leaving Yes, and while looking for some other musical project, Banks supported Blodwyn PigBlodwyn Pig
Blodwyn Pig were a British blues–rock group founded by guitarist–vocalist–songwriter Mick Abrahams, after he left Jethro Tull in 1968 due to a falling-out with Tull leader Ian Anderson.-Career:...
for a brief period in late 1970, and guested as session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
on an album by Chris Harwood. In 1971 Banks formed Flash
Flash (band)
-Flash:Flash was an English progressive rock group, formed by former Yes guitarist Peter Banks and vocalist Colin Carter in August 1971. Bassist Ray Bennett and drummer Mike Hough completed the line-up....
and sessions began for a first album, with Tony Kaye guesting on keyboards. The record appeared in 1972 (called simply Flash) and had a warm reception. Subsequent to Kaye's involvement, Banks took the dual role of guitarist and keyboardist. Flash recorded and released its second album (In the Can) in November that same year; and the third (Out of Our Hands) in 1973.
Parallel to that, Banks and guitarist Jan Akkerman
Jan Akkerman
Jan Akkerman is a Dutch guitarist. Akkerman is a distinctive guitarist, constantly experimenting with new equipment and guitars. Akkerman's distinctive guitar sound is characterised by his pioneering use of volume swells which produce a smooth, fluty, sustained tone, and other complex techniques...
became friends and started to play and record together. Banks also played on an album by Roger Ruskin Spear
Roger Ruskin Spear
Roger Ruskin Spear is a multi-instrumentalist who was a founding member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, staying with it until its end.-Career:...
at that time. In 1973, not long after the third and final Flash release, Banks released Two Sides of Peter Banks. Guest musicians included Akkerman, bassist John Wetton
John Wetton
John Kenneth Wetton is an English bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, singer and songwriter. He was born in Willington, Derbyshire, and grew up in Bournemouth. He has been a professional musician since the late 1960s...
, drummer Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
, guitarist Steve Hackett
Steve Hackett
Stephen Richard Hackett is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. He gained prominence as a member of the British progressive rock group Genesis, which he joined in 1970 and left in 1977 to pursue a solo career...
and fellow Flash members Ray Bennett and Mike Hough.
Around the summer of 1973, Banks played with the jazz-rock band called Zox & the Radar Boys, including Phil Collins (drums), Mike Piggott (violin), Ronnie Caryl
Ronnie Caryl
Ronnie Caryl is an English musician. Over the years Caryl has worked alongside Phil Collins, plus David Hentschel, Michel Polnareff, Lulu, Stephen Bishop, Eric Clapton, Gary Brooker, Maggie Bell and John Otway.-Biography:...
(guitar) and John Howitt (bass).
In 1973, while trying to form a second incarnation of Flash, Banks recruited musicians and fell in love with the singer Sydney Foxx (real name Sidonie Jordan). She would soon became his wife. Named as Empirə, Banks, Foxx, and various other band members recorded three albums up to 1979. Banks and Foxx divorced, although Empire remained together as a band for some time after.
Later work
The only released work of Banks in the second half of the 1970s were a number of session appearances, on separate albums by Lonnie DoneganLonnie Donegan
Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...
and Jakob Magnússon. In 1981, another recording by Empire appeared. Banks made an appearance on Romeo Unchained, a 1986 album by Tonio K
Tonio K
Tonio K. is an American singer/songwriter who has released eight albums. His songs have been recorded by Al Green, Aaron Neville, Burt Bacharach, Bonnie Raitt, Chicago, Wynonna Judd and Vanessa Williams...
. Banks also worked with Ian Wallace
Ian Wallace (drummer)
Ian Russell Wallace was a rock and jazz drummer, most visible as a member of progressive rock band, King Crimson from 1971 to 1972; but known best in the musical community with his contributions as a session musician on his drum kit.-Early years:Wallace formed his first band, The Jaguars, at...
in The Teabags.
In 1993, Banks released Instinct, a solo album of instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
tracks with him playing all the parts. Only a keyboard player, Gerald Goff, joined him for his next album, Self Contained (1995). In 1997, Banks was mainly responsible for the release of a double
Double album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
live
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
Yes album, Something's Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969–1970 (renamed Beyond and Before in the US), a collection of appearances at the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
during 1969 and 1970, featuring the original line-up in all tracks and with a booklet containing the guitarist's account of those early days.
Another archival release was Psychosync, a live Flash recording made in 1973 for the King Biscuit Flower Hour
King Biscuit Flower Hour
The King Biscuit Flower Hour was a syndicated radio show presented by the D.I.R. Radio Network that featured concert performances by various rock artists.-History:...
and finally released in 1998. Also, between 1995 and 1997 all three Empire albums were released (one per year). Banks also collaborated in 1995's Tales From Yesterday (a Yes tribute album) performing a version of the song "Astral Traveller" with Robert Berry
Robert Berry
Robert Berry is an American guitarist, vocalist and producer, best known for his work with Hush, 3, Ambrosia, Alliance & Los Tres Gusanos.-History:...
; appeared on the album Big Beats in 1997; and played on 1999's Encores, Legends and Paradox, an Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...
tribute album. He contributed to 1999's Come Together People of Funk by Funky Monkey (including keyboardist Gerard Johnson who helped on a number of Banks' projects in the 1990s).
Those collaborations filled the gap in his own recording career, until 1999, when the album Reduction was issued. In 2000, Banks put out a collection of his oldest recordings (many previously unreleased) called Can I Play You Something?. The front sleeve of this last record showed an eight year-old Banks posing with his first guitar. The track listing includes some early recordings by The Syn, Mabel Greer's Toyshop, and Yes, including an early rendition of the song "Beyond and Before".
A short track in the latter collection was called "Lima Loop". This is because Lima, Peru became a special place for Banks in recent years. Cecilia Quino, a Peruvian girl who was a Yes fan
Fan (person)
A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...
moved to the US many years before. Via the Internet, she contacted Banks, and they began a cyber-friendship that ultimately led to their wedding. They married in Lima, where the bride's parents live, and Banks stayed in Peru for some months in 1999, being present when Yes played there. The couple are currently living in the UK.
More recent work
Following an appearance by Banks and Geoff DownesGeoff Downes
Geoffrey "Geoff" Downes is an English rock keyboard player, songwriter, best known as the keyboardist for the bands The Buggles, Yes and Asia, of which he is the only consistent member. When he was a keyboardist for The Buggles, he played multiple keyboards to achieve a New Wave technopop sound...
together at the 1998 edition of Yestival (a Yes fan festival), the pair played some sessions and the possibility of Banks joining Asia
Asia (band)
Asia are an English rock group formed in 1981. The band was labelled a supergroup as it included former members of several veteran progressive rock bands, namely John Wetton , Geoff Downes , Steve Howe and Carl Palmer Asia are an English rock group formed in 1981. The band was labelled a...
was mooted. However, these sessions did not lead anywhere.
Banks has appeared in small concerts by new young local bands, including the Yes tribute band Fragile. Recent recorded appearances by Banks include Jabberwocky (2000) and Hound of the Baskervilles (2002), a pair of albums recorded by Oliver Wakeman
Oliver Wakeman
Oliver Wakeman is a rock keyboardist, best known as a member of Yes, where he replaced his father, Rick Wakeman.-Biography:Oliver is the first son of Rick Wakeman, but his parents divorced when he was young....
(Rick Wakeman
Rick Wakeman
Richard Christopher Wakeman is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes...
's son) and Clive Nolan
Clive Nolan
Clive Nolan is a British musician, composer and producer who has played a prominent role in the recent development of progressive rock...
. He has also guested further on the Funky Monkey project.
Banks was initially involved in a reunion of The Syn in 2004, but left the band. After early talks in 2004, he was also not included in the current Flash reunion, which made their debut return at the Prog Day Festival 2010 with Flash bassist Ray Bennett taking over on lead guitar.
In late 2004, Banks formed a new improvising band, Harmony In Diversity, with Andrew Booker
Andrew Booker
Andrew Booker is a British drummer and vocalist best known for his work with Tim Bowness and with ex-Yes guitarist Peter Banks ....
and Nick Cottam (who had been working together as duo Pulse Engine. They played a short UK tour in March 2006, and released an EP called "Trying". Booker left the band soon after. He was replaced by David Speight http://www.drummerdavidspeight.artistintersect.com/home and the band continue to play live, while Banks is also planning a related project with keyboardist Gonzalo Carrera
Gonzalo Carrera
Gonzalo Carrera is a Spanish keyboard player in several progressive rock bands. He played in Landmarq, but is currently in Karnataka, playing in Nick May's Whimwise live band and working on a new project with Peter Banks....
. Banks' Harmony in Diversity were supported by the Hungarian band, Yesterdays
Yesterdays (band)
Yesterdays is a Hungarian symphonic progressive rock band based in Cluj Napoca, Romania.Its musical style has been compared by various reviewers to Yes , Quidam , Pat Metheny, Anna Maria Jopek , Eclipse and Genesis - Biography :...
, at the MiniProg Festival in Budapest in February 2007.
In Gibson Guitar's 'Lifestyle' e-magazine of 3 February 2009, Banks is listed as one of the "10 Great Prog Rock Guitarists." According to the article,
"Before there was Steve Howe, there was Peter Banks. Artistic differences between Banks and singer Jon Anderson prompted Banks’s departure from Yes in 1970, but in his little-known '70s band, Flash, Banks used an ES-335 to create several should-have-been prog rock classics. "Lifetime", from Flash’s In the Can album, is his tour-de-force."
With Yes
- 1969 : Yes
- 1970 : Time And a Word
- 1974 : Yesterdays (reissues from 1969)
- 1997 : Something's Coming: The BBC Recordings 1969–1970 (Beyond And Before)
- 1999 : Astral Traveller (reissues from 1969)
With The Flash
- 1972 : Flash (EMI-Sovereign UK / Cleopatra Records US; reed. 1993 CEMA Special Markets, & 2009 Esoteric Recordings label + bonus track)
- 1972 : In the Can (reed. 1993 CEMA & 2010 ER + bonus tracks)
- 1973 : Out of Our Hands (reed. 1993 CEMA & 2010 ER)
- 1997 : Psychosync (1973 - live WLIR radio broadcast, ed. Blueprint)
- 2005 (may) : Two Sides of Flash: Live in the USA (1973 - two concerts from Flash's final US tour, ed. Voiceprint)
Solo
- 1973 : Two Sides of Peter Banks
- 1994 : Instinct
- 1995 : Self-Contained
- 1997 : Reduction
- 1999 : Can I Play You Something? (The Pre-Yes Years Recordings From 1964-1968)
Participation
- 1999 : Encore, Legends, & Paradox, by Robert BerryRobert BerryRobert Berry is an American guitarist, vocalist and producer, best known for his work with Hush, 3, Ambrosia, Alliance & Los Tres Gusanos.-History:...
and the drummer Trent Gartner, 10 songs from Emerson, Lake & PalmerEmerson, Lake & PalmerEmerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...
, by 23 musicians ( YesYes (band)Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
members (Banks, Khoroshev, Downes), AsiaAsia (band)Asia are an English rock group formed in 1981. The band was labelled a supergroup as it included former members of several veteran progressive rock bands, namely John Wetton , Geoff Downes , Steve Howe and Carl Palmer Asia are an English rock group formed in 1981. The band was labelled a...
members (Wetton, Downes),etc...)