Trevor Rabin - Yes

Yes

Rabin's career stalled briefly after Wolf. While in London, he met bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White, longtime members of Yes, who had experienced their own difficulties following the apparent demise of the band in 1981. Liking one another's ideas, Rabin, Squire and White began collaborating under the name Cinema in early 1982. Later on they enlisted original Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye to complement their live performances.

Produced by yet another former Yes member, Trevor Horn, what was to become the 90125 album came together over eight months in 1982. During his time in Los Angeles, Rabin had written several songs that formed the project's nucleus. "Owner of a Lonely Heart" evolved into a riff-oriented song that Horn seized upon as a potential single. Atco Records liked the group's demo, but raised the question of whether they needed a separate vocalist. Horn was invited to join Cinema for this reason, but the producer refused Squire's offer.

With the question of a vocalist still up in the air, Squire encountered longtime Yes vocalist Jon Anderson at a Los Angeles party and Anderson expressed interest in hearing what Cinema were working on. Squire acquiesced, and Anderson was so impressed by the songs he heard, especially "Leave It", that he joined the group very late in the recording of 90125, contributing vocals and lyrics to the mostly already-written songs. Now featuring four former members of Yes (not even counting the producer), the band and record company (over Rabin's objections) chose to revive the Yes name rather than call the project Cinema, a name which in any case was already in use. The new Yes would meet with critical and commercial success, though not without some harsh criticism from fans of earlier incarnations of the band.

Both "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and "Leave It" became major hits, with "Owner" being the band's only #1 single in most major markets including the US. Along with heavy airplay of several other tracks, this helped propel 90125 to six million sales between 1983 and 1985, making it the most commercially successful of all Yes albums. Yes also received a Grammy award in 1984 for the instrumental "Cinema". The band toured behind the album, in a series of well-received concerts across Europe and the Americas. In England and North America, many younger fans were introduced to the earlier Yes catalogue because of the success of the 90125 album and its popular singles.

Rabin almost did not make the 90125 tour, because of a swimming accident in Florida just before the 1984 tour kicked off. According to interviews from the period, Rabin was injured severely when a large woman hit his midsection while jumping into a hotel swimming pool. He endured an emergency splenectomy and returned to Yes in time to begin the tour.

9012Live debuted as a live album and video package, taken from the group's 1984 shows in Edmonton, Canada and Dortmund, Germany. On the former recording, Trevor Rabin contributed his acoustic guitar solo, "Solly's Beard". During this time he also appeared as a session guitarist on Frankie Goes to Hollywood's debut album Welcome to the Pleasuredome, also produced by Horn.

In late 1985, Yes began recording its next album with Trevor Horn, but the production became bogged down due largely to personal differences among Anderson, Squire and Horn. Eventually, Rabin assumed control of the project, with Horn resigning as producer well before recording was complete. Rough tape demos have emerged with Trevor Rabin singing lead vocals on "Final Eyes" and "Rhythm of Love."

Big Generator emerged in late 1987, with singles "Love Will Find a Way" and "Rhythm of Love." Both were modest chart hits compared to the singles from 90125, though the album sold very well. The song "Shoot High, Aim Low" featured a dual lead vocal between Rabin and Jon Anderson. The 1988 Big Generator tour of the U.S. missed several dates after Rabin collapsed from influenza.

After the tour, Anderson left Yes for the second time, though his departure would prove short-lived. Trevor Rabin expressed a guarded neutrality over the split between Jon Anderson and Chris Squire, who briefly led rival groups consisting of Yes members. Squire held the Yes name, which now encompassed himself, Rabin, White and Kaye; Anderson formed Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe – a line-up he felt better represented Yes. A lawsuit between Arista and Atlantic Records ensued.

While this legal wrangling was in progress, Rabin completed his fourth solo album (which was to be his last for over 20 years), Can't Look Away, released in 1989. The album's lead single, "Something to Hold On To", earned a Grammy nomination for Best Short Form Music Video and topped the AOR charts for two weeks. But despite some positive reviews, and extensive marketing from Elektra Records neither "Something to Hold on To," nor Rabin's anti-apartheid ballad "Sorrow (Your Heart)" managed to crack the American Top-40 charts. Also during this period, Rabin performed on several other albums as a session musician, including Bonham's The Disregard of Timekeeping and Mr. Mister's Pull, though the latter was destined to remain unreleased until 2010.

Trevor Rabin toured between 1989 and 1990 with drummer Lou Molino III (one of Rabin's best friends and a featured player on his soundtracks), fretless bassist Jim Simmons and keyboardist-composer Mark Mancina. The nationwide Can't Look Away tour attracted a modest number of Yes fans, and has since been documented with 2003's Live in LA, featuring interpretations of '80s Yes material, as well as highlights from his Wolf album. Rabin's solo band also performed an instrumental version of a 90125 outtake, "You Know Something I Don't Know". On this tour, Rabin also unveiled part of "Lift Me Up", which would become the lead single for Union. If this indicated any plans for a fifth Rabin solo album, these would be overtaken by further Yes-related events.

In late 1990, Chris Squire's Yes line-up (still including Rabin) had been jettisoned by Atlantic Records after creative differences. During an interview with Mike Tiano in 2003, Trevor Rabin expressed considerable disdain for Atlantic Records executive Derek Shulman (one-time frontman of progressive rock band Gentle Giant) who damned Rabin with faint praise as "the one who writes the hits."

Rabin would find himself once again in precisely that position when he received a call from Jon Anderson in 1991. After a gold album and lucrative tour, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe's second album for Arista had encountered a creative block. Anderson asked Rabin for creative input, but after Can't Look Away, Rabin did not have much new material on-hand. Even so, he submitted a demo of three songs, thinking the record company would select one. Instead, all three were accepted: "Lift Me Up", "Saving My Heart" and "Miracle of Life".

Arista subsequently made what Rabin later described as a "42nd floor boardroom decision," and brought both Yes line-ups together—although at no point did the recording of Union simultaneously feature all eight members of the touring group, and its sessions were augmented by a small army of session musicians. Rabin only appeared on one-third of the album, although two of his songs were released as singles – "Lift Me Up" and "Saving My Heart" – which were also performed live on the tour, on alternating dates. Trevor Rabin expressed dislike of the Union project, but still took part in the supporting tour, where he developed a lasting friendship with Rick Wakeman, often accompanying his keyboard performances onstage.

To no-one's great surprise, the eight-person lineup did not survive the end of the tour. Steve Howe and Bill Bruford were the first to leave, the former at least partly due to unwillingness to share the spotlight with Rabin; and while Wakeman was very interested in working with the band and especially Rabin, he could not commit to dates. This effectively left Yes with the same lineup that had recorded "90125" and "Big Generator". 1992 and 1993 featured a series of negotiations between the short-lived Victory Music (not to be confused with a Chicago-based indie alt-rock outfit called Victory Records) and this so-called Yes West line-up. Phil Carson, responsible for Emerson, Lake & Palmer's comeback in 1992, invited the Yes 90125 lineup to record a third album. Rabin had also hoped the next Yes project would have involved Wakeman, but owing to managerial problems, the plan fell through in 1993.

As Victory Records' budget could not include an outside producer, Trevor Rabin undertook the mission. During sessions, he used a then-innovative digital hard-disk recording method now in common use in many studios. Although some Yes fans, and even Rabin himself, have criticised the limitations of digital sound, Talk made music recording history with its technical achievements.

Talk featured the final collaboration between Rabin and Jon Anderson, who had hitherto completed the last few albums after the principal writing. While "Endless Dream" would become something of a fan favourite, the album and tour did not fare particularly well commercially. Only reaching #33 in Billboard, Talk achieved the weakest sales of any album Yes had released in over 20 years. Despite live exposure on Late Night with David Letterman, both "The Calling" and "Walls" failed to catch as singles during the height of the popularity of alternative music. The 1994 tour in support of Talk, though generally well received by those who attended, fared only a little better than the album, with some venues full and others at less than half capacity. While some fans—and Steve Howe—employed the press and Internet to blame Trevor Rabin's influence, certain tour dates were simply given low promotion by radio stations. Despite this mixed performance, numerous bootleg recordings exist, because the Talk concerts were simultaneously broadcast on FM radio frequency—allowing Yes fans to make high-quality tapes. Trevor Rabin went on record as being supportive of this particular form of music-sharing.

Ultimately, the Talk tour ended on 11 October 1994 amid recriminations. By the end of the following year, Rabin had left Yes and, except for a small number of special events such as a tribute to Horn, has not played with the band since. He did, however, finally get to work with Wakeman, contributing lead vocals and guitar solos to "Never is a Long, Long Time," from Wakeman's Return to the Centre of the Earth in 1999.

In 2008, Trevor was contacted by Yes members and their new management inviting him to tour with the band in the later part of the year. "I appreciate the invite and miss the excitement of playing live. Unfortunately, my schedule just does not allow for it this year," Trevor was quoted as saying.

As of mid-2011, Rabin is collaborating with Anderson and Wakeman on a new Anderson-Wakeman-Rabin album, and likely some concerts in 2012. They're writing music, and Wakeman said he hopes the album is completed by the end of 2011. The trio unsuccessfully attempted to recruit Bill Bruford to drum on the album.