After stints in the R&B band the Syndicats and psychedelic rockers Tomorrow (who released the classic single "My White Bicycle"),
Steve Howe replaced
Peter Banks in
Yes in March 1970. His adventurous playing -- drawing on his love of jazz, ragtime and rock & roll -- was perfectly suited to the elaborately arranged, quasi-symphonic epics the band was creating. When
Yes temporarily folded in 1981, Howe helped form
Asia, a supergroup that proved remarkably successful, particularly in America, where their debut Asia was number one for nine weeks and "Heat of the Moment" stormed the Top Ten. Alongside his numerous solo albums and work in side projects including
GTR,
Howe has also performed and recorded with his sons, first Dylan and Ross Stanley as the
Steve Howe Trio and later Virgil for the 2017 album Nexus, released after Virgil's death earlier that year.
Steve Howe was born in London on April 8, 1947. When he began playing guitar he had quite a few influences, chief among them
Chet Atkins. When you consider that two of the others were
Django Reinhardt and the duo of
Les Paul & Mary Ford, it's hard to believe that he would become one of the most influential guitarists in progressive rock. In fact, his first band was a
Chuck Berry-infused outfit called the Syndicats. He began playing with that group in 1964, and they released several singles before
Howe left them. His next band was the In Crowd, which eventually became Tomorrow. Under the new name they released two singles in 1967 and a self-titled album the following year. When the group broke up in 1968,
Howe joined a band called
Bodast.
Bodast built up quite a following and recorded an album. However, when their label went bankrupt, their still-unreleased album was scrapped and the band eventually became a casualty, breaking up shortly thereafter. The album would not see release until 1981. After
Bodast,
Howe began trying to find his next band. Auditions with such groups as
the Nice and
Jethro Tull were unfruitful. As fate would have it, his next band would come looking for him.
By 1970,
Howe had caught the ear of several members of
Yes. By this time, they had released two albums, but were not happy with their present guitarist,
Peter Banks. So,
Howe became the new guitarist in
Yes. The first album he recorded with them was 1970's
The Yes Album. It would garner them respectable commercial and critical attention, but when the follow-up,
Fragile, came out in 1972 with the hit single "Roundabout," the group and
Howe were fully propelled into the limelight.
Howe stayed with the band until their break up in 1980. He also released two solo albums during that time, 1976's
Beginnings and
The Steve Howe Album in 1979. After
Yes went their separate ways,
Howe, along with
Yes-mate
Geoff Downes, formed
Asia. The group, also containing
John Wetton (
King Crimson,
U.K.) and
Carl Palmer (
Atomic Rooster,
Emerson, Lake & Palmer) was something of a progressive rock supergroup.
Howe remained with the band through their first two albums, Asia and
Alpha, released in 1982 and 1983, respectively. He then left the group, although he has worked with them as a guest from time to time since. His next band was
GTR, formed in 1986. This group was also sort of a supergroup, featuring both
Howe and
Steve Hackett (formerly of
Genesis). That group didn't stay together long, either, only releasing one studio album. Given this, it seems fate was pushing
Howe back into the
Yes camp.
By this time, several changes had happened with
Yes. The group had reunited without
Howe and done two very commercial-leaning albums, one of them (
90125) became the group's biggest seller to date. Also by then,
Jon Anderson had once again left the group, citing a desire to do less commercial material. So
Yes veterans
Bill Bruford and
Rick Wakeman formed a new band. They wanted to continue to call it
Yes, but bassist
Chris Squire owned the rights to that name, so they went with the simplicity of their four last names and
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, & Howe was born. Under that moniker, they released one self-titled album in 1989. Then, in a rather unusual turn of events -- while they were working on their follow-up album -- the group was melded into the other lineup of
Yes, creating an eight-piece version of the band. The group released the
Union album in 1991 and went out on a full-scale world tour to rave reviews. The lineup would not last, though, and
Howe was once again a "former
Yes member" shortly after the tour. He pursued a solo career for the next several years, releasing six albums before rejoining
Yes again in 1995. Never idle, even after years of tenures in various bands, he's found time to release a large number solo albums, and worked on projects by artists as diverse as
Lou Reed,
Queen,
Billy Currie,
Dixie Dregs,
Frankie Goes to Hollywood,
Fish, and
Explorer's Club, as well as his work with the
Steve Howe Trio, who released the album Travelling in 2010. Over the next few years, he added to a series of solo recordings called Homebrew and released a full-length instrumental album called Time in 2011. Between 2006 and 2012,
Howe also participated in a number or reunion tours and new recordings with
Asia before leaving the band in 2013 to again focus on
Yes and his various solo pursuits. 2015 saw the release of both a new Homebrew album and
Anthology, a two-disc retrospective of his solo work. After a 7-year hiatus,
Howe returned in 2020 for thirteenth set
Love Is. ~ Gary Hill