If you translate the well-known expression "the theater begins with a hanger" into the language of the music industry, it turns out - "rock begins with bass." A bass guitar is the foundation upon which the keys, vocals, guitar and drums lay with bricks, forming a single whole musical rock composition. The musician Chris Squire, whose biography and work is associated with the legendary band Yes, is truly one of the great bass players.
Biography and facts from personal life
Christopher Russell Edward Squire (03/04/1948 - 06/27/2015) was born in Kingsbury, UK, in a very simple family of a housewife and taxi driver. From childhood, he sang in the church, then school choir, and even then his absolute ear and excellent musical taste were noted. Unlike colleagues who came to music after various colleges and music schools, Chris Squire did not have a musical education, and for the sake of his hobby, he dropped out of school at all.
He was a fan of the world famous British four The Beatles, was amazed at the bass player Paul McCartney. Like his idols, Chris grew long hair, for which the teacher once suspended him from school and sent him a haircut. He took the money for a haircut, but never returned to school. At the age of 16, he got a job at a musical instrument store, where he bought his first guitar at a discount. Chris Squire devoted himself to completely endless musical training and the development of a virtuoso game, developed his own individual style.
Since 1965, he has been a member of several groups. His first group was the rhythm and blues band The Selfs, then The Syn, Mabel Greer's Toyshop. The beginning of this creative ascent began in 1968, when he met John Anderson and they created a joint project Yes.
The musician Chris Squire, whose biography is filled with bright moments, was distinguished by a passion for music. He was constantly late for concerts and tours, the group went without him, and Squire caught up already along the way. He was seen in drug use, but his first acquaintance with LSD ended in a hospital bed from an overdose.
Chris was married three times:
- Nikki Squire (1972 - 1987).
- Melissa Morgan (1993 - 2004).
- Scotland (Scotland) Squire (2005 - 2015)
He has four children, was a caring father and a loving husband with a calm character.
In June 2015, he was treated for leukemia in the city of Phoenix (Arizona, USA). However, the musician was not able to overcome the disease, he died on 06/27/2015 at the age of 67 years. The whole Squire family, colleagues and many famous musicians attended the farewell service.
Creative activity
Chris Squire had a wonderful stage temperament, good vocal skills (performed the second part of Jon Andersen), an amazing technique of the game and his own melodic, dynamic, aggressive manner of performance. He was the most demanding musician, he always strove for accuracy and purity of sound, heard the slightest falsehood, clung to and found fault, for which he was famous among his colleagues as a person with intelligence, power, musical pressure, was considered a "great musical bore." Chris stayed in the studio the longest, checking every detail.
His main brainchild was the band Yes. Over the long period of existence, there have been many disagreements, but Chris has always played the role of a link, he was the main support of the team. Fans for this called him the "guardian of the hearth." Despite his lifelong devotion to Yes (1968 - 2015), he did not set a framework for himself. The experiments were successful:
- With Led Zeppelin spokesman J. Page, there were several demos in 1981.
- With the group Cinema, 1982 - 1983
- With Conspiracy, 1994
- In 1997 - 2004, he founded the project together with Sherwood. 2 albums released.
- Together with Steve Hackett, he founded the Squackett project, recorded 1 album.
- He recorded 2 solo albums: Fish out of Water - 1975, Chris Squire's Swiss Choir - 2007.
- Released single with Alan White, 1981, Run with the Fox.
- He participated in the recording of The Syn, The Buggles, albums of Rick Wakeman and others.
Yes
Vocalist Jon Anderson and Chris Squire met in 1967 at La Chasse. It was at that moment that the Yes group was founded. From the day of his first concert as a member of the group in 1968, Squire remained the undisputed leader and unchanging bass player of the group. Even when Anderson, Wakman, Howe left in the early 80s, he insisted that the group was alive. He did not cease to say that Yes where he is, and in the end he achieved his goal. The original composition was restored: Squire, Anderson, Howe, Weckman, White.
In the team, the individuality of each played a dominant role:
- John Anderson is the main text writer;
- Chris Squire, Steve Howe - most of the musical material.
Chris participated in the recording of 21 albums by Yes. Without him, not a single concert took place. This is his main and main element. On stage, with a guitar in his hands, he felt like a fish in water. In the final part, Chris was given the first role and about 10 minutes of time to enjoy the game of the master.
Only shortly before his death, Chris Squire took a break for health reasons, asking Billy Sherwood, who had once played with the group, to play the tour instead of himself. This was the first tour in Yes history, in which Squire did not participate.
The musician and his instrument
Chris's main guitar is the cream-colored Rickenbacker RM1999, owned by him since 1965. An instrument with a warm, growling sound. It was repaired, polished, repainted several times, due to which the guitar eventually became much easier than the original factory version.
The uniqueness of this instrument in two-channel amplification technology: high frequencies on one channel, low frequencies on another channel. Squire decided to send signals to different amplifiers. Bass frequencies to bass, and high frequencies to a guitar amplifier, which allowed us to split the tonal layering and get a signature squire sound. Chris did not take lessons, he studied and mastered the instrument himself, constantly experimenting with sound.
Like any great artist, the Squire collection has several dozen basses from a wide variety of manufacturers and models, including custom-made ones.
The legend of rock, Chris Squire, whose photo was found on the covers of all music publications, continues to live in the hearts of his friends, relatives and fans. On the wall of a London hotel, Mark Fuller, the owner of Sanctum, placed a plaque and renamed room 401, where Squire stayed, in honor of the musician, giving him the name "Aquarium".