Steve Howe

Steve Howe stepped into Yes in March 1970, succeeding Peter Banks after earlier spells with the R&B outfit the Syndicats and the psychedelic group Tomorrow, whose classic single “My White Bicycle” had already appeared. His exploratory guitar work, shaped by jazz, ragtime, and rock & roll, aligned precisely with the band’s densely arranged, near-symphonic pieces. When Yes paused operations in 1981, Howe helped assemble Asia, a supergroup whose debut album Asia topped the U.S. chart for nine weeks and whose “Heat of the Moment” reached the Top Ten. In addition to numerous solo releases and projects such as GTR, Howe has collaborated with his sons, first forming the Steve Howe Trio with Dylan and Ross Stanley, then recording the 2017 album Nexus with Virgil, issued after Virgil’s death earlier that year. Following the 2020 solo album Love Is, Howe assembled Lunar Mist, a second duo project drawn from previously unreleased material with his late son.

Born in London on April 8, 1947, Steve Howe took up guitar under several early influences, most prominently Chet Atkins; two others, Django Reinhardt and the duo Les Paul & Mary Ford, also figured prominently, yet he would emerge as one of progressive rock’s most significant guitarists. His first group was the Chuck Berry-infused Syndicats, which he joined in 1964 and with which he recorded several singles before departing. He next entered the In Crowd, later renamed Tomorrow, who issued two singles in 1967 and a self-titled album the following year. After that band dissolved in 1968, Howe moved to Bodast, a group that built a strong following, completed an album that remained unreleased when their label collapsed, and disbanded shortly afterward; the recordings finally surfaced in 1981. Subsequent auditions with the Nice and Jethro Tull proved unsuccessful, yet Yes soon sought him out.

By 1970 several Yes members, dissatisfied with Peter Banks after two albums, invited Howe to join; his first recording with them was The Yes Album. Although that set earned solid attention, Fragile and its hit single “Roundabout” in 1972 elevated both the band and Howe to widespread prominence. He remained until Yes disbanded in 1980, releasing the solo albums Beginnings in 1976 and The Steve Howe Album in 1979. Afterward Howe and former Yes colleague Geoff Downes formed Asia alongside John Wetton and Carl Palmer, a progressive-rock supergroup whose first two albums, Asia and Alpha, appeared in 1982 and 1983. Howe departed but later guested with the band. In 1986 he co-founded GTR with Steve Hackett, another short-lived supergroup that produced only one studio album.

Meanwhile Yes had reformed without Howe and issued two commercially oriented records, one of which, 90125, became their biggest seller. When Jon Anderson again left to pursue less commercial work, Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman created a new ensemble that eventually included Howe; because Chris Squire controlled the Yes name, they recorded as Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, & Howe, releasing a self-titled album in 1989. During work on a follow-up the two Yes factions merged into an eight-piece lineup that delivered Union in 1991 and toured extensively before Howe again became a former member. He then issued six solo albums before rejoining Yes in 1995. Over the years he has contributed to projects by Lou Reed, Queen, Billy Currie, Dixie Dregs, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Fish, and Explorer’s Club, in addition to the Steve Howe Trio’s 2010 album Travelling. Further Homebrew volumes appeared, along with the 2011 instrumental album Time. Between 2006 and 2012 Howe participated in several Asia reunion tours and recordings before exiting in 2013 to concentrate once more on Yes and solo work. In 2015 both a new Homebrew installment and the two-disc retrospective Anthology were released. Sessions with his son Virgil Howe yielded the duo album Nexus, completed in 2017; Virgil died suddenly of a heart attack that September, shortly before its release. After delivering the 2020 solo album Love Is, Howe turned to Virgil’s archives, anchoring the posthumous follow-up Lunar Mist on an unreleased outtake from their earlier collaboration and completing the 2022 set with his son’s unfinished recordings.