From The New York Times:
Peter Banks, one of the founders of the popular British rock band Yes, died on March 7 at his home in London. He was 65.
The cause was heart failure, according to an announcement on the Web site of Flash, the band he formed after leaving Yes in the early 1970s.
Mr. Banks, a guitarist influenced as much by jazz as by rock, formed Yes in 1968 with the bassist Chris Squire, the singer Jon Anderson, the keyboardist Tony Kaye and the drummer Bill Bruford. The band’s name was Mr. Banks’s idea.
Yes was one of the first and most successful purveyors of what came to be called prog (short for progressive) rock, an adventurous style far removed from the simplicity of early rock ’n’ roll, with complex melody lines and unusual time signatures that required considerable virtuosity to master.
[…]
Mr. Banks played on the band’s first two albums, “Yes” and “Time and a Word,” before leaving to form Flash. He was replaced by Steve Howe, who remained with Yes for 11 years and has reunited with the band several times since then.
• Peter Banks: http://www.peterbanks.net
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