"I DON'T WANT TO BE ORDINARY"

Guitar maestro Steve Howe is the sole member of Yes from their 70s prime to still be flying their fantastical, Roger Dean-designed flag.

- By Johnny Sharp

But as they prepare for a world tour, he has also been busy on solo material, adding to a wildly diverse back catalogue that spans his history in beat groups, psychedelic adventurers, guitar supergroups and AOR chart-toppers. He takes Johnny Sharp back through a career in which, he says, "my guitar guides me."

As RC talks to Steve Howe, he's preparing to fly to the US to start rehearsals for a world tour, where he will lead Yes, the band with whom he will forever be associated, in playing one of the prog giants' classic albums in full: 1971's Fragile.

At 78, he seems anything but fragile – despite his craggy, lived-in features and white hair, he possesses that lean, robust physique and seen-more-fat-on-a-sparrow's-kneecap frame seemingly only found in men of his age when they've spent a lifetime in rock'n'roll bands. He's as dazzlingly dexterous as ever on the guitar fretboard, and in conversation, whip-smart and talking with a speed of thought and expression to match his most urgent solos.

“Things still take maintenance,” he says of his advancing years. “It’s a bit much for an athlete to be 60, 70, years old and still be running his arse off round the field, but for a guitarist, it’s slightly easier! I’ve been health-conscious for most of my life, since I turned vegetarian 50-or-so years ago. So that basically started me thinking, well, I better look after this stuff. There’s a lot of risks for guitarists, and handshakes are out!”

The same prolific work-rate remains, though, with 40 dates lined up so far, either side of Christmas, the latter ones back in the UK, finishing up at the London Palladium in May.

On joining the band in 1970, Howe helped mould their trademark sound and is now very much the driving force of Yes, and the sole member with links back to their era-defining early-70s imperial phase, when albums such as the aforementioned Fragile and