{"id":547,"date":"2015-07-15T01:06:50","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T01:06:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/?page_id=547"},"modified":"2015-07-15T14:44:13","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T14:44:13","slug":"two-sides-of-peter-banks","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/discography\/two-sides-of-peter-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"TWO SIDES OF PETER BANKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Released 1973.\"Two<\/a>
\nSovereign SMAS 11217 [UK]
\nSovereign 5C062-94664 [Netherlands]
\nCapitol SMAS 11217 [USA]<\/p>\n

CD issues
\n2003 One Way S21-18009 [USA]
\n2008 Arc\u00e0ngelo ARC-7286 [Japan]
\n2009 Esoteric eclec2165 [UK]
\n2010 Arc\u00e0ngelo ARC-8026\/27 [Japan] (SHM CD+CD mastered from LP)<\/p>\n

TRACKS
\n1. Vision of the King (Banks)
\n2. White House Vale (Banks)
\n3. Knights (Banks)
\n4. Battles (Akkerman, Banks)
\n5. Last Ellipse (Banks)
\n6. Beyond the Loneliest Sea (Akkerman)
\n7. Stop That! (Akkerman, Banks)
\n8. Get Out of My Fridge (Akkerman, Banks)<\/p>\n

Recorded at Advision Studios, London, England from November 1972 to June 1973. Geoff Young \u2013 engineer.<\/p>\n

Personnel:
\nPeter Banks: Electric & Acoustic Guitar, Synthesizers, Fender Piano \/ Jan Akkerman: Electric & Classical Guitar \/ John Wetton: Bass \/ Ray Bennett: Bass \/ Mike Hough: Drums \/ Phil Collins: Drums<\/p>\n

REVIEWS<\/h3>\n

by Rolling Stone magazine, Aug 25, 1973\"peter-banks-2-sides-of-rolling-stone-review\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

by Joe McGlinchey<\/em>
\nThe original Yes guitarist\u2019s solo debut, made at some point while he was in Flash, features quite a line-up of guest artists. Predominantly, these are Jan Akkerman of Focus, who is Banks\u2019 main collaborator, Phil Collins, and Flash bandmates Ray Bennett and Mike Hough. Briefer cameos are provided from Steve Hackett and a John Wetton who was just dipping his toes into King Crimson at the time.<\/p>\n

The album opens with a beautiful electric guitar duet, Banks\u2019 classic volume pedal tones and Akkerman ringing out with sad, gothic fifths characteristic of his work in Focus. The other duet, Akkerman\u2019s \u201cBeyond the Loneliest Sea,\u201d is even more impressive, with more weeping willow support from Banks and Akkerman laying down some luscious classical guitar.<\/p>\n

Banks takes the ball and runs alone with \u201cWhite House Vale,\u201d a melodic guitar poem which showcases some of his own classical moves, with a brief interlude that presages the next piece, \u201cKnights.\u201d The main riff of the two-parter \u201cKnights,\u201d incidentally, is almost exactly like one of main themes from Wendy Carlos\u2019 Tron composed a decade later, though the similarity is almost certainly coincidental. On Banks\u2019 post-Yes albums, he inevitably lets fly some terrific electric guitar solos, in the John McLaughlin \u201clet them eat cake \u2019cause I\u2019m gonna wing this mutha\u201d spirit of sloppy exploration, even if it sounds nothing like Mahavishnu Orchestra. Here you can find that on \u201cKnights\u201d and \u201cStop That!\u201d The album closes with a fun, and one can only assume tongue-in-cheek, electric hoedown between Banks and Akkerman entitled \u201cGet Out of My Fridge.\u201d<\/p>\n

This album certainly won\u2019t be to everyone\u2019s taste (solo guitar album \u2014 hello!). However, it\u2019s a shame that outside of Yes fandom \u2014 and sometimes even within it \u2014 Banks hasn\u2019t really gotten his full recognition as an outstanding guitarist in his own right. Listening to this, I am reminded of that seemingly long-gone era of guitarists, who didn\u2019t need to rely at all on a cadre of effect boxes or studio trickery, but had a command of the instrument that can only be had by playing and playing and playing.<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/www.progreviews.com\/reviews\/display.php?rev=pb-ts<\/p>\n

\n

by Bob Eichler<\/em>
\nThis album is more of a collaboration between Banks and Jan Akkerman than a true solo album. Akkerman has co-writing credits on most of the tracks, and even full credit for the acoustic guitar ballad \u201cBeyond the Loneliest Sea\u201d. The interaction of the two guitarists is what really makes this album stand out for me \u2013 they\u2019re both good on their own, and they\u2019re great together. The first half of the disc (the original \u201cside one\u201d of the vinyl) consists of a continuous suite of songs, with composed sections and repeated themes alternating with solos and jams. Side two is mostly made up of the lengthy jam entitled \u201cStop That!\u201d. Both sides are good, but overall I think I prefer the more composed side one. The entire album is instrumental, so those who must have lyrics may be disappointed. A word of warning \u2013 don\u2019t be fooled by the impressive list of musicians on the back of the jewel case (Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, John Wetton, etc). What the packaging fails to mention is that most of those guys are only on a track or two. Still, this is a very enjoyable album, and definitely increased my respect for Peter Banks (who, before hearing this disc, I just thought of as \u201cthe guy who was kicked out of Yes so they could hire Steve Howe\u201d).<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/www.progreviews.com\/reviews\/display.php?rev=pb-ts<\/p>\n

\n

by Gary Niederhoff<\/em>
\nI\u2019ll grab pretty much any solo or spin-off LP from my favorite bands, and I\u2019ve learned not to get my hopes too high. I have to admit, though, that the impressive guests featured on this ex-Yes\/Flash guitarist\u2019s first and only solo album for 20 years got them up a notch higher than I\u2019d had for any Steve Howe release. The lack of vocal credits was another promising aspect, assuring a 43 minute instrumental onslaught. Most of the project was actually co-piloted by Jan Akkerman of Focus fame, and his input is noticeable at many points throughout the album. The framework is built around the two guitarists, side two containing a couple of loose jams which are quite enjoyable when taken as just that. Interspersed portions of the album are made up of noodly and jazzy guitar duets, sometimes with Akkerman, sometimes with Peter doing multiple tracks, split between the two stereo channels. The true splendor of this album, however, is brought to fore on side one in the trilogy of \u201cKnights\u201d, \u201cBattles\u201d, & \u201cKnights- Reprise\u201d, the latter of which features Steve Hackett on guitar, Phil Collins on drums and John Wetton on bass. The structure of these songs, like the material on side two, is somewhat flimsy by some prog standards, but launches into awesome guitar riffs, cycles through repeated themes and capitalizes well on the instrumental talents of the guests. Thanks to that, this LP didn\u2019t leave the turntable (except to occasionally flip it) for a week or two. A pleasant surprise.<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/www.progreviews.com\/reviews\/display.php?rev=pb-ts<\/p>\n

\"Peter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Released 1973. Sovereign SMAS 11217 [UK] Sovereign 5C062-94664 [Netherlands] Capitol SMAS 11217 [USA] CD issues 2003 One Way S21-18009 [USA] 2008 Arc\u00e0ngelo ARC-7286 [Japan] 2009 Esoteric eclec2165 [UK]…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":548,"parent":293,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-547","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":629,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/547\/revisions\/629"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterbanks.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}