Yes

Shaftesbury Avenue

Yes grew out of Mabel Greer's Toyshop, a London group that Chris Squire and Peter Banks, both formerly of the Syn, joined in late 1967. In the summer of 1968 Jon Anderson, Squire, Banks, Tony Kaye and Bill Bruford rehearsed in the basement of the Lucky Horseshoe Cafe on Shaftesbury Avenue, and on 3 August they played their first gig, at a youth camp in East Mersea, Essex. Banks is usually credited with the name: Anderson had suggested Life and Squire World, and Banks offered Yes as a stopgap until something better came along. In November they supported Cream at the Royal Albert Hall farewell, then took a residency at the Marquee and recorded for John Peel.

After two albums, Yes (1969) and Time and a Word (1970), Banks left and Steve Howe joined. The Yes Album (1971), Howe's first, reached number four in Britain and was the band's commercial breakthrough.

Fragile

In summer 1971 Kaye was dismissed, partly because he was reluctant to add Mellotron or Moog, and Rick Wakeman came in from the Strawbs. Fragile, recorded at Advision that August, was the first Yes record with a Roger Dean cover, and Roundabout, begun by Anderson and Howe on a drive through Scotland, became their first American hit. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Yes did not invent progressive rock but helped bring it to the mainstream, and that Fragile fixed the genre's sound and look. Close to the Edge followed in September 1972, its title track a four-part piece of almost nineteen minutes. Bruford left for King Crimson after recording it, and Alan White, who had drummed with John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, took his place.

Oceans and Montreux

A footnote in Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi, which Anderson read in a Tokyo hotel in March 1973, became Tales from Topographic Oceans, a double album of four side-long pieces that opens with The Revealing Science of God. It went to number one in Britain, but the reviews were divided, and Wakeman, who disliked the project, left in May 1974. Patrick Moraz played on Relayer (1974).

By late 1976 the band were working in Montreux, Moraz was out, and Wakeman was back, won over partly by Anderson's demo of Wonderous Stories. Going for the One (1977) was their second British number one, and the single reached seven, still their highest placing on the UK singles chart. After Tormato (1978), sessions in Paris in 1980 fell apart and Anderson and Wakeman left. Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of the Buggles joined for Drama (1980), and in March 1981 Yes split up. Howe and Downes went on to form Asia.

90125

In 1982 Atlantic's Phil Carson introduced Squire and White to the South African guitarist Trevor Rabin, and with Kaye they formed Cinema. Horn came in as producer, Kaye left for a while after clashing with him, and Anderson was brought back because management wanted a more distinctive lead voice. In June 1983 Cinema became Yes. 90125, named after its catalogue number, gave them their only American number one, Owner of a Lonely Heart, and It Can Happen was its third single. The instrumental Cinema won a Grammy.

Big Generator followed in 1987. In 1988 Anderson formed Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe with three old colleagues, a legal fight over the name followed, and in 1991 the two camps merged into an eight-man line-up for Union.

Still Yes

The line-ups kept turning over. The 1970s band played San Luis Obispo in March 1996 for Keys to Ascension. After a hiatus from 2004, Squire, Howe and White carried on in 2008 without Anderson, who had been ill and said he was removed against his will, and Jon Davison became the singer in 2012. Squire, the band's one constant, died in 2015, and Billy Sherwood took over on bass. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush inducted Yes into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. Lee had called them perhaps the most important progressive rock band of all. White, the longest-serving member, died in 2022. With Howe, Downes, Sherwood, Davison and Jay Schellen, Yes released Aurora in June 2026, under a cover painted by Roger and Freya Dean.