4. YesThe Yes Album

My dad had gigs at The Grand Hotel at Leicester five nights a week, and by the time I was 19, I was a professional bass guitarist doing the same sort of thing. [I mention that his live work is how he met Anne Dudley, in the late 1970s, later to produce with him and join the Art Of Noise.] Yes! When she came in, she was incredible, like a steam train. We both read music – I read bass parts like people read newspapers. It all helped later when we were producing.

But the early days helped too. I remember one night, around 1970, someone said, "You know, you play guitar like a guy in this group called Yes. He plays with a pick, with this bright sound, and he hits all the right notes." I was all, "That’s very kind of you, thanks." I didn’t think any more of it.

Then one night I was tripping, in a pub in Margate, and this local band does a song called ‘I’ve Seen All Good People’ which knocked me sideways. I was all, "What, is that one of their songs?" "No, that’s a group called Yes, you’d like them because the bass player [Chris Squire] is really interesting." Then I heard the album and ‘Starship Trooper’ and, wow, that was that. I liked Joe Anderson’s voice too because my voice was a choirboy’s voice. It really couldn’t do the blues. So I was, ah, OK, so singing is something I can do. Not that I could get as high as Jon Anderson, but it was the start of something.