Background and career
Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, North London, Howe developed an interest in the guitar and began to learn the instrument himself at age 12. He embarked on a music career in 1964, first playing in several London-based blues, covers, and psychedelic rock bands for six years, including the Syndicats, Tomorrow, and Bodast. Upon joining Yes in 1970, Howe's blend of acoustic and electric guitar helped shape the sound and direction of the band, leading to more commercial and critical success. Howe co-wrote many of their best-known songs, and he remained with the band until its initial dissolution in 1981. Howe returned to the group from 1990 to 1992 before returning permanently in 1995. He is the longest-serving member of the band. Howe achieved further success in the 1980s and beyond as a member of the rock bands Asia, GTR, and Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. He has also had a prolific solo career, releasing 20 solo albums that achieved varied levels of success, and collaborating with artists such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Martin Taylor, and Queen. He continues to perform with Yes and as a solo act. He has also had a jazz group known as the Steve Howe Trio. In April 2017, Howe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes.
Howe was born on 8 April 1947 in north London, in Holloway. He grew up in a middle-class family apartment with three older siblings, brothers Phillip and John, and sister Stella, the son of Cyril Howe, head chef at The Palmerston, a Bishopsgate restaurant, and his wife Ada. Among Howe's earliest memories is marching around the home to brass band music that he played on the home stereo. He cites several influences from his parents' record collection, including Les Paul and Tennessee Ernie Ford, and also listened to classical guitar and jazz, citing Barney Kessel as a primary influence. Howe also credited Wes Montgomery and Chet Atkins, whom he first heard in 1959, as a major inspiration. Howe said he took from Atkins, "the idea that one guitarist could play any kind of guitar style." Howe was also influenced by Bob Dylan, remarking: "I think he brought out the rebel in me, and that rebel wasn't somebody who wanted to break things, but the rebel in me wanted to do my thing ... a rebellion against anything other than being me ... he became like a cult hero". Howe attended Holloway School, and later Barnsbury Boys' School in Islington, which he left in 1962, aged 15, after failing all his O-levels. Howe wished to own a guitar at age 10, but his parents did not buy him one until they selected one with him in 1959 at a shop in Kings Cross, London at age 12 for a Christmas present. The model was an F-hole acoustic. Howe would stand by a window at home and mime his playing to passersby while music was playing indoors, until he began to teach himself without formal lessons or learning to read musical notation. The only book he read, he claimed, was Dance Band Chords for the Guitar (1946) by Eric Kershaw. After a period of practice which involved listening to records by Bill Haley & the Comets, Howe teamed with school friends and played his first gig at The Swan, a pub in Tottenham, playing a cover of "Frightened City" by the Shadows. He recalled the event as a disaster; the band did not rehearse or tune up, and Howe avoided stage performances for a while as a result. He added: "We were underage. I was painfully shy. I stood on the side of the stage, played my songs, never looked up". After he left primary school, he wished to become a guitarist and took up several part-time jobs until he wished to become a full-time musician around 18. At age 14, Howe and his friend from Tottenham started a group that played in youth clubs, eventually landing gigs in pubs and ballrooms. At one point, the band secured a short residency at HM Prison Pentonville for two nights a week. Around 1961, Howe bought a solid body Guyatone, his first electric guitar, which was followed with a Gibson ES-175D in 1964, one of the guitars that he later became most identified with. He spoke about playing the guitar on stage: "No one was playing archtop, hollowbody guitars in a rock band. People laughed at me and thought I was really snooty. To me, it was an object of art, it wasn't just a guitar." During Yes's first visit to New York City in 1971, he slept with the guitar as his hotel was situated in a dodgy area and took it to bed "just for safety, I needed to know it was there". Before he became a full-time musician Howe took up work at a piano factory, followed by a job in a music shop. He left the shop when he began to pick up regular gigs.
In 1964, the 17-year-old Howe became a member of his first professional band, the North London-based rhythm and blues group the Syndicats that formed the year prior and were produced by Joe Meek. His first of three studio recordings with the band was a rendition of "Maybellene" by Chuck Berry that was released as a single with "True to Me" on its B-side, a song Howe co-wrote with their singer, Tom Ladd. The Syndicats occasionally opened for Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds; one night Farlowe asked Howe to step in for Albert Lee at a Wolverhampton gig when Lee was taken ill. In 1965, Howe left the band and accepted an invitation to join the In Crowd, a soul and covers band who often played in Tottenham and released a rendition of "That's How Strong My Love Is" by Otis Redding which went to No. 48 on the UK singles chart in May 1965. The band soon renamed themselves Tomorrow and adopted a psychedelic rock sound, writing more original songs and changing their stage clothes. In 1967, they released two singles: "My White Bicycle" and "Revolution", the latter co-written by Howe. During the recording of a new single with producer Mark Wirtz, Howe was asked by Wirtz to record some guitar as a session musician, which pleased Howe and he felt "thrilled to bits" to take part. The session led to Howe recording a selection of singles for EMI, which included his first song "Mothballs", also known as "So Bad", and playing guitar on Keith West's single "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera" which went to No. 2 in the UK. Howe and his Tomorrow bandmates also took part in a pie fight scene in the satirical comedy film Smashing Time (1967) (where he had one line, "Let's do it!"), toured the London club circuit, sharing bills with Pink Floyd, jamming with Jimi Hendrix and playing at the Christmas on Earth concert at Earl's Court. After Tomorrow split in 1967, Howe went on to play on several songs with their singer Keith West, including playing the bass guitar on West's "The Kid Was a Killer", and tracks with guitarist Ronnie Wood and drummer Aynsley Dunbar but neither recording got finished. In 1968, with Howe's reputation as a guitarist on the rise, he joined Bodast, a trio which also used the name of Canto for a short period. They signed a recording deal with Tetragrammaton Records and put down a selection of songs in 1969 at Trident Studios for an album with West as producer, but the label went out of business shortly before its release. The label had also promised the group film roles and visits to the US but they never materialised and they disbanded. Howe released the tracks for the proposed album after he obtained the recordings and remixed them himself as The Bodast Tapes (1981). After Bodast split, Howe auditioned with the progressive rock band the Nice as a potential new member, but decided it was not for him, and left the next day. An audition with Jethro Tull followed, but Howe failed to turn up when he learned the guitarist they wanted would not contribute to the songwriting. Howe also had a try out with Atomic Rooster while Carl Palmer was a member but said, "it didn't quite gel." In 1970, Howe toured as a member of American soul singer P. P. Arnold's backing band, with future members of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, which also involved American duo Delaney & Bonnie. The tour made him believe he was set "to really go somewhere in music."
In April 1970, the rock band Yes sought a new guitarist following the departure of Peter Banks. Howe was invited to a try out session with the group in Fulham, which consisted of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Bill Bruford, and Tony Kaye; he was successful and became a member in June. By this time, Yes had recorded their second album Time and a Word (1970) but it was not yet released. A photograph of Howe with the band was used on its cover for the American release despite his not playing on it. After several gigs, Yes retreated to Devon to rehearse and develop new material for The Yes Album (1971). Howe went on to buy Langley Farm, where the group had stayed. Howe's proficiency with a wide range of guitars, and his strong contributions to the songwriting, made him a prolific member who was an essential part of the band's change in musical direction towards progressive rock. The Yes Album and Fragile (1971) include his solo acoustic pieces "Clap" and "Mood for a Day", and writing credits for the popular tracks "Yours Is No Disgrace", "Starship Trooper", and "Roundabout". The latter earned Howe and Anderson a BMI Award for writing the song. In 1971, Wakeman and Howe had contributed to the recording of Lou Reed's self-titled debut album as session musicians, working together for the first time on this occasion. In the summer of 1972, Howe performed one gig with Stone the Crows at the Great Western Festival in Lincoln while they sought a replacement following the death of Leslie Harvey. To his already-formidable assortment of electric and acoustic guitar sounds, Howe added a unique approach to lap steel guitar in the next album, Close to the Edge, released in 1972. His penchant for ongoing experimentation helped produce a playing style unique among rock musicians, while the group as a whole took a position as a leading progressive rock band. Following Close to the Edge, Howe played on Tales from Topographic Oceans, Relayer, Going for the One and Tormato, with Yes becoming one of the most successful bands of the decade. Two of these five albums achieved platinum certification in the US, and the other three were certified gold.
In 1975, Yes took an extended break for each member to release a solo album. Howe recorded a mixture of solo and group performed tracks for Beginnings at Morgan and Advision Studios with producer Eddy Offord and performances from Bruford, Alan White and Patrick Moraz. The album was released in October 1975 by Atlantic Records and reached No. 22 in the UK and No. 63 in the US. His second solo album, The Steve Howe Album, was released in November 1979 and included a performance by singer Claire Hamill.
In early 1980, Anderson and Wakeman left the group and were replaced a few weeks later by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. 1980's Drama saw a stylistic change for Yes, incorporating elements of new wave into their progressive rock blend. Howe continued with the band until Yes officially split up in early 1981. Although the group was back together less than a year later, Howe was not included in the new line-up.
