Chris Squire
Christopher Russell Edward Squire (4 March 1948 – 27 June 2015) was an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Yes. He was the longest-serving original member, having remained in the band until his death and appearing on every studio album released from 1969 to 2014. In 2017, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes.[1]
Chris Squire
Christopher Russell Edward Squire
4 March 1948
Kingsbury, London, England
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- Bass
- vocals
1965–2015
- Atlantic
- Wounded Bird
- Sanctuary
- Lime
- Stone Ghost
Squire was widely regarded as the dominant bassist among the English progressive rock bands, influencing peers and later generations of bassists with his incisive sound and elaborately contoured, melodic bass lines. His name was associated with his trademark instrument, the Rickenbacker 4001 (British model RM1999). From 1991 to 2000, Rickenbacker produced a limited-edition signature model bass in his name, the 4001CS.
Early life[edit]
Squire was born on 4 March 1948 in the north-west London suburb of Kingsbury, to Peter and Joanne Squire.[2] He grew up there and in the nearby Queensbury and Wembley areas.[3][4][2] His father was a cab driver and his mother a secretary for an estate agent. As a youngster Squire took a liking to records by Lena Horne and Ella Fitzgerald that belonged to his father, though his main interest was church music.[4] At the age of six,[5] he joined the church choir at St Andrew's in Kingsbury as a treble along with Andrew Pryce Jackman, a friend who lived nearby. The choir got to perform at St. Paul's Cathedral.[6][7] Their choirmaster Barry Rose was an early influence on Squire. "He made me realise that working at it was the way to become best at something".[4] Squire also sang in the choir at his next school, Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, then located in Hampstead.[8] He played the harmonica on his way home from school.[6]
Squire did not consider a music career until the age of sixteen when the Beat music boom in the early 1960s and the emergence of the Beatles inspired him to "be in a group that don't use music stands". A schoolfriend recommended that Squire take up the bass after pointing out his tall frame and large hands, thinking they were ideal for playing the instrument.[2][4][9][6] Squire then purchased his first bass, a Futurama, which he described as "very cheap, but good enough to learn on".[10] In 1964, on the last day before the summer holidays, 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. Instead, they went home and never returned.[2][8] After his mother took him to a recruitment agency and enquired for work related to music, Squire landed work selling guitars at a Boosey & Hawkes shop in Regent Street.[2] He used the staff discount offer to purchase a new bass, a Rickenbacker 4001, in 1965.[9]
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
Squire's first band was the Syn, a rock and rhythm and blues band that featured Jackman on keyboards and Martin Adelman on drums. Their first public performance took place at The Graveyard, a youth club in the hall of St. Andrew's.[9] In 1965, following several personnel changes, Squire, Jackman and Adelman teamed with singer Steve Nardelli, guitarist John Painter, and drummer Gunnar Jökull Hákonarson to form a new group, the Syn. The group performed Tamla Motown covers before they changed direction towards psychedelic rock.[2] After several months, Painter was replaced by guitarist Peter Banks.[9] The new line-up gained a following large enough to secure a weekly residency at the Marquee Club in Soho, which was followed by a recording contract with Deram Records. The band once opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience at the venue, "So I saw what was possible, and I just had this innate faith that I was going to make it."[2] Together they released two singles before they disbanded.[9]
Squire was fond of using LSD in the 1960s; a visit to the UFO Club on the drug on Friday which lasted through Saturday, and recovery on Sunday, became a regular event until a 1967 incident where he had a bad trip on a friend's home made LSD.[2] When the police asked him to reveal who gave it to him, Squire pretended to be disoriented and made up a story that involved an unknown Australian he met at a Wimpy restaurant beforehand.[2] He recalled, "It was the last time I ever took it, having ended up in hospital in Fulham for a couple of days not knowing who I was, or what I was, or who anybody else was."[11] After his discharge from hospital, Squire spent several months in his girlfriend's apartment, afraid to leave, only managing to visit the corner shop.[2] He spent each day practising his bass playing which resulted in his distinct style,[12][2] citing bassists John Entwistle, Jack Bruce, Paul McCartney, Larry Graham,[10] and Bill Wyman as early influences.[6]
Personal life[edit]
Squire was married three times and had five children.
Squire met his first wife Nikki in 1970 at a club in London.[7] They married in 1972.[47][48] She sang on the 1981 Christmas single "Run with the Fox" and also the track "Hold Out Your Hand" from Fish Out of Water (1975). In 1983, she formed Esquire, on whose first album Chris, Alan White, and Trevor Horn assisted. They had three daughters: Carmen, Chandrika, and Camille Squire. The couple divorced after fifteen years of marriage.[49]
Squire married actress Melissa Morgan on 8 May 1993. She gave birth to their son Cameron in 2000.[50] She played Brittany Norman on The Young and the Restless and later returned to the daytime drama as Agnes Sorensen.[51][52][53]
His third and final marriage was to Scotland Squire who gave birth to their daughter Xilan in 2008. In 2014, they were living in Phoenix, Arizona, having previously resided in Chelsea.[2]
Squire was a vegetarian in the 1970s.[2] In 1973, he toured with the Eagles and was introduced to cocaine.[54] At some point in his life, Squire also suffered a heart attack.[55]
Squire's nickname, "Fish", originated due to multiple reasons. His astrological sign was Pisces, and he was known for his love of bathing. The name seems to have mostly been initiated by bandmate Bill Bruford, who has commented on how Squire spent long periods in the bathroom while they shared a house together in Fulham[56] and how, in the early days of Yes' career, he once accidentally flooded a hotel room in Oslo, Norway, while taking a shower.[57] Another factor in the naming is the heteronymic and punning meanings of "bass", describing low frequency sound or the bass guitar as well as the fish. The nickname is incorporated into several of Squire's works including his solo record, Fish Out of Water (1975), and the solo piece "The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)" from the 1971 Yes record Fragile.
In 2011, a species of fossil fish was named Tarkus squirei in Squire's honour, referencing his nickname.[58]