Peter Banks – Instinct

2,795

5 Stars

*The marvelous artwork for Peter Bank’s album Instinct. Each guitar is painted in the style of different artists, very effective. The artist is Ian Sander.*

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This superb but alarmingly underrated guitarist has a fine pedigree. First coming to notice in the mid-sixties in a wonderful flower power band called Syn with a certain Chris Squires on bass, then joined by vocalist Jon Anderson, they became the marvelously monikered Mabel Greer’s Toy Shop. Finding this a bit of a mouthful, and with the addition of Tony Kaye on keyboards & Bill Bruford on drums, they found instant international acclaim as Yes.

Two wonderful albums followed, “Yes” and “Time and a Word.” At this point, Peter Banks was booted out due to his ambitions of entertaining an audience rather than trying to educate them. It was after a performance at the Marquee that Mott became a fan, always wanting to have fun and getting a good reaction from the audience. Watch Dear Father from 1970 on YouTube to get the full might of early Yes. To this day, Yes guitarists Steve Howe and Trevor Rabin have made a career out of copying Bank’s trademark guitar licks.

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Peter Banks went on to form Flash, who released three respectable albums, once described as “Yes music played by Thunder and Lightning,” before being swamped by bad management and punk rock. After spending the eighties mainly in session work and looking for suitable musicians to work with, Peter Banks went solo in the nineties with this enchanting album called “Instinct.”

*The guitarist as more of a grizzled rocker.*

From the opening rippling guitar chords of opening cut ‘No Place Like Home’ to the final bell that closes the album, your ears are held in thrall by this maestro of the six-string. All the music is played by Peter Banks, although Gerald Goff does step in to add some keyboard embellishments.

An instrumental album, it always holds your attention with its diversity and humour. You will have to listen to the music to get that.

Satriani, Vai, and Co. would give their eye teeth to put out such a fine collection of fretwork and tunes.

*In later life, Peter Banks, tired of the live stage, concentrated far more on studio work.*
*Instinct was not his only solo work—far from it.*
*There were also countless collaborations.*

The two central passages are track four, ‘Sticky Wickets,’ played on a midi guitar synthesizer, which starts out funky, and then turns itself inside out to reach a shattering climax.

Before you have time to push the repeat button, Banks is off again with track five, ‘Short Comings,’ totally excessive and not at all jazzy with a relentless four in the bar, the night of a thousand guitars with Peter Banks the fastest guitar slinger in town.

The final track is ‘Never the Same,’ a moving tribute to Peter Banks’s late mother. Never has such a beautiful piece of music been played on the electric guitar.

If you hear this music, like me I’m sure you will be mystified why Peter Banks did not become an international star.