Sky was a UK-based instrumental group that specialised in fusing a variety of musical styles including light rock, classical and jazz. The group's best known members were
classical guitarThe classical guitar is a plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones. It traditionally has 3 plain gut bass strings and 3 gut wound silk core treble strings and the modern adaption typically has 6 nylon strings .The basic characteristics of the shape of the...
ist
John WilliamsJohn Christopher Williams is a Grammy Award winning Australian-born British classical guitarist. He is widely regarded as one of finest guitarists of his generation.-Biography:...
and bass player
Herbie FlowersHerbie Flowers is an English studio musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba, who came to prominence performing with David Bowie and Elton John, and then later Lou Reed...
(a former member of
Blue MinkBlue Mink was a British five-piece pop group, that existed from 1969 to 1974. Over that period they had six Top 20 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums...
and T.Rex who was also a renowned session musician responsible for, amongst other music, the celebrated doubled bass line on
Lou ReedLewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician best known as the guitarist, vocalist and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground as well as a successful solo artist whose career has spanned several decades. The Velvet Underground gained little mainstream attention during their career,...
's "Walk on the Wild Side" and the novelty hit single "Grandad").
Formation
The seeds of what would become Sky began in 1971 when
John WilliamsJohn Christopher Williams is a Grammy Award winning Australian-born British classical guitarist. He is widely regarded as one of finest guitarists of his generation.-Biography:...
- already a world-famous classical guitarist - released
Changes, his first recording of non-classical music (and the first on which he played electric guitar). Among the musicians working on the album were Herbie Flowers and Tristan Fry (the latter an established session drummer who was also the
timpaniTimpani are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick...
st for the
Royal Philharmonic OrchestraThe Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra".- History :...
and the
Academy of St. Martin in the FieldsThe Academy of St Martin in the Fields is an English chamber orchestra.-History:The group was founded in London by Sir Neville Marriner, attracting some of the most accomplished players in London, many of whom considered themselves to be refugees from conductors...
). The three musicians became friends, kept in touch and continued working together on various projects.
Fry and Flowers (along with
Francis MonkmanFrancis Monkman is an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founder member of the progressive rock band Curved Air.-Career:...
, a
harpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
player best known for being a founder member of the
progressive rockProgressive rock is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility."...
/fusion band
Curved AirCurved Air are a pioneering British progressive rock group formed in 1970.-History:The group evolved out of the band Sisyphus, and was named after the piece "A Rainbow in Curved Air" by contemporary composer Terry Riley...
) were performers on Williams' 1978 album
Travelling, another cross-genre recording which was a substantial commercial success. The success of
Travelling inspired Williams and Flowers to set up their own long-term cross-genre band. Fry and Monkman were swiftly recruited, and the first Sky lineup was completed with the addition of the versatile Australian session guitarist Kevin Peek. Peek was equally adept at classical guitar and pop/rock styles, having built up a reputation both as a chamber musician and as a long-standing member of
Cliff RichardSir Cliff Richard OBE is a British singer-songwriter and entrepreneur.With his backing group The Shadows, Richard dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before and during The Beatles' first year in the charts...
's band (as well as for
Manfred MannManfred Mann were a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboard player and founder, who later led the successful 1970s follow-on group Manfred Mann's Earth Band.-Beginnings :...
,
LuluLulu may refer to:People* Lulu , Scottish pop music singer, actress and model * Lulu Li , Chinese actress* Lucinda "Lulu" Guiness a British accessories fashion designer...
,
Tom JonesSir Thomas Jones Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer. Since 1965, Jones has sold over 100 million records.-Early life:...
,
Jeff WayneJeffrey "Jeff" Wayne is a musician mostly known for his musical version of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. He also wrote several advertising jingles in the 1970s which appeared on television in the United Kingdom, notably the Gordon's Gin commercial, which was then covered by The Human League...
,
Shirley BasseyDame Shirley Veronica Bassey DBE is a singer who found fame in the late 1950s and has continued a successful career since then worldwide. She is also well-known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger , Diamonds Are Forever , and Moonraker...
and
Gary GlitterGary Glitter is the stage name of Paul Francis Gadd , an English glam rock singer and songwriter.Glitter first came to prominence in the glam rock era of the early 1970s...
).
The band began writing and recording instrumental music drawing on their collective experience of classical, light pop,
progressive rockProgressive rock is a form of rock music that evolved in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility."...
,
light entertainmentLight entertainment is a term used to describe a broad range of usually televisual performances.-Light entertainment in Britain:In the early days of the BBC virtually all broadcast entertainment would be considered light by today's standards, as great pains were taken not to offend...
and
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
] (arguably building on the rock-classical fusion developed earlier in the 1970s by the orchestral band
EsperantoEsperanto was a Belgo-English rock band which had a short career at the beginning of the 70s.-Band members:*Glenn Shorrock, an Australian singer who was living in London at the time and had left his group, The Twilights....
). After a protracted search for a record company, Sky eventually signed with the small European label
Ariola RecordsAriola Records is a German record label, as of the late 80s a daughter label of BMG which in return has become a part of international media conglomerate Sony Music Entertainment....
.
The first two albums , Sky and Sky 2 (1978-1980)
Sky's self-titled debut album (released in 1979) was highly successful in Britain and
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, quickly reaching gold record status and eventually topping out as a platinum record. Although the band was run democratically, and all members contributed music and/or arrangements, the presence of John Williams in the lineup was regarded as the band's biggest selling point (and was emphasised in publicity). Williams' concurrent solo instrumental hit - "
Cavatina"Cavatina" is a classical guitar piece by Stanley Myers and is most famous as the theme from The Deer Hunter.The piece had been recorded by classical guitarist John Williams, long before the film that made it famous. It had originally been written for piano but at Williams' invitation, Myers...
- Theme from
The Deer HunterThe Deer Hunter is a war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steel worker friends and their infantry service in the Vietnam War...
" - also helped to raise the band's profile. However, this was counterbalanced by some negative reviews from critics accustomed to Williams' classical performances, who remained unimpressed by his new direction with Sky.
The band toured the UK in summer and autumn 1979, particular triumphs being sold-out concerts at the
Royal Albert HallThe Royal Albert Hall is an arts venue situated in the Knightsbridge area of the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
and the
Dominion TheatreThe Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre on Tottenham Court Road close to St Giles' Circus and Centre Point Tower, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
(the latter a five-night sellout).
In 1980, Sky recorded and released their second album,
Sky 2 - a double album which repeated on and built upon its predecessor's success (becoming the tenth highest selling album in Britain that year). The album included Monkman's side-long rock suite "FIFO" (a piece inspired by computer processing, on which Monkman played
electric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as...
in addition to keyboards) and four classical pieces including three established
chamber musicChamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
pieces (played entirely straight) and the band's souped-up electric treatment of
BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and organist whose ecclesiastical and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's "
Toccata and Fugue in D MinorThe Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece of organ music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach sometime between 1703 and 1707. It is one of the most famous works in the organ repertoire, and has been used in a variety of popular media ranging from film, to video games, to rock music, and...
". The latter was released as a single (under the name of "Toccata") and reached number 6 in the national pop charts, giving the band the opportunity of performing on
Top Of The PopsTop of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. It was traditionally shown every Thursday evening on BBC1, before being moved to Fridays in 1996, and then moved to Sundays on BBC...
.
First lineup change (1980)
Following further tours of
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
and the UK, Francis Monkman left the band in 1980 to concentrate on his own projects (having scored a great success with his soundtrack to the film
The Long Good FridayThe Long Good Friday is a British gangster film starring Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren. It was completed in 1979 but, because of release delays, it is generally credited as a 1980 film...
). The split was entirely amicable and the band had no doubts about carrying on, despite the fact that Monkman had been Sky's most prominent original composer and arranger.
The keyboard player's role was quickly filled by Steve Gray, another established session musician and a former member of Back Door and Wasp. Gray was also able to take the band towards a more
jazzJazz is a musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
-influenced sound (drawing on his further experience as a piano player with
Quincy JonesQuincy Delight Jones, Jr. is an American music conductor, record producer, musical arranger, film composer and trumpeter. During five decades in the entertainment industry, Jones has earned a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend Award in 1991...
,
Henry ManciniHenry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger. He is remembered particularly for being a composer of film and television scores. Mancini also won a record number of Grammy awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995...
,
Michel LegrandMichel Legrand is a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist of French and Armenian descent....
,
Lalo SchifrinLalo Schifrin is an Argentine pianist and composer. He is best known for his film and TV scores, such as the Mission: Impossible theme. He has received four Grammy Awards and six Oscar nominations.-Biography:...
,
Peggy LeePeggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer and actress. She first came to prominence in the 1940s with her #1 hits Somebody Is Taking Your Place and Mañana, having a string of successful albums and top 10 hits in three consecutive decades...
, Sammy Davis Jr and
John BarryJohn Barry may refer to:*John Barry , commodore in the Continental Navy*John Barry , composer, leader of John Barry Seven and John Barry Orchestra...
).
Gray joined the band in time for their first European tour, followed by another UK tour and (on February 24, 1981) the "Sky at
Westminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster...
" concert. This had been conceived by the British producer
Martin LewisMartin Neil Lewis is a US-based English humorist, writer, radio/TV host, producer and marketing strategist...
and was the first-ever rock concert held at the Abbey. It was videotaped for a
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
TV special and subsequently released on home video and laserdisc. The concert was a benefit for the
human rightsHuman rights refer to the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the...
organization
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international secular non-governmental organisation which defines its mission as "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated." Founded in London in 1961, AI...
and commemorated the organization's 20th anniversary. The landmark event resulted in Sky receiving considerable positive media coverage.
Sky3 (1981)
The
Westminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster...
concert was also the launch event for the band's third album,
Sky3, a generally brighter and breezier album than its predecessors. The band toured
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the UK in support of the release.
Sky 4 Forthcoming and Sky Five Live (1982-83)
The fourth Sky album -
Sky 4 Forthcoming - was released in March 1982. This was Sky's first album to feature no original material. It consisted predominantly of arrangements of
classicalClassical music is the mainstream music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times...
compositions (with the exception of a version of
Hoagy CarmichaelHoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust" , "Georgia On My Mind," and "Heart and Soul", three of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the American popular song,...
's "Skylark" and a band-composed variation on
Adam de la HalleAdam de la Halle, also known as Adam le Bossu was a French-born trouvère, poet and musician, whose literary and musical works include chansons and jeux-partis in the style of the trouveres, polyphonic rondel and motets in the style of early liturgical polyphony, and a musical play, "The Play of...
's ballet score for "My Giselle") and was marketed under the slogan "Genius Past, Genius Forthcoming". Music on the album included Sky treatments of pieces such as
Berlioz Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande Messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation...
's "March To The Scaffold" and
WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas...
's "Ride Of The Valkyries" (the latter was later dismissed by Flowers as having been an in-joke).
Once again, the band toured the UK and
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
to promote the album (and followed this up with trips to Europe and Japan). The Australian autumn tour featured the debut of plenty of new material, much of which was included on the live double album
Sky Five Live released in January 1983.
Cadmium (1983)
Sky released their sixth album
Cadmium in December 1983. The album contents were a mixture of Sky traditions and new elements - it contained a classical-rock arrangement of
ProkofievSergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.-Biography:...
's "Sleigh Ride" (from the "
Lieutenant Kijé SuiteLieutenant Kijé is the score composed by Sergei Prokofiev for the 1934 Soviet film Lieutenant Kijé directed by Aleksandr Faintsimmer based on the novel of the same title by Yury Tynyanov.-Suite from Lieutenant Kijé:...
"), alongside seven original compositions and the first examples of commissioned compositions from contemporary writers from outside the band (in this case, Kevin Peek's old friend and fellow
Cliff RichardSir Cliff Richard OBE is a British singer-songwriter and entrepreneur.With his backing group The Shadows, Richard dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before and during The Beatles' first year in the charts...
collaborator Alan Tarney, who provided two original tunes for the band to interpret).
Two concerts at the Theatre Royal, London were filmed and broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1983, with songwriter and singer-songwriter Patrick Ros as special guest. Ros provided three seasonal compositions of his own on which he was backed by the band.
Departure of John Williams (1984)
In February 1984, John Williams parted company with Sky, returning to a full-time classical career. As with Monkman, the split was amicable and all musicians remained friends.
Williams had previously hinted that his work with Sky had been intended as a five-year stint. Regardless of the circumstances of the split, Williams' departure damaged Sky's profile, as he had remained the band's biggest star and live draw despite their efforts to present themselves as a partnership of equals.
Sky "plus guests" (1984)
Sky opted not to recruit a permanent replacement for Williams. Instead, the band remained as a quartet, working with a succession of guest musicians. The first of these was former
YesYes are an English progressive rock band that was formed in London in 1968. Their music is marked by sharp dynamic contrasts, extended song lengths, abstract lyrics, and a general showcasing of instrumental prowess. Yes blends symphonic and other 'classical' structures with their own brand of...
keyboard player
Rick WakemanRichard Christopher Wakeman is an English keyboard player, composer, and songwriter known as the keyboardist for progressive rock group Yes. Originally a classically trained pianist, he was a pioneer in the use of electronic keyboards and in the use of a rock band in combination with orchestra and...
, who joined the band on their Australian tour of early 1984. Guests for the 1984 summer tour of the UK were woodwind player Ron Aspery (Steve Gray's former mentor in Back Door and the Middlesbrough Municipal Junior Orchestra) and session guitarist Lee Fothergill.
1984 also saw the release of a stopgap "greatest hits" compilation called
Masterpieces, released on mass-media label Telstar (and featuring a previously-unreleased live version of the
BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
song "Fool On The Hill", performed as a
classical guitarThe classical guitar is a plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones. It traditionally has 3 plain gut bass strings and 3 gut wound silk core treble strings and the modern adaption typically has 6 nylon strings .The basic characteristics of the shape of the...
duet by Williams and Peek).
The Great Balloon Race (1984)
In September 1984, Sky began recording their seventh album -
The Great Balloon Race - in Kevin Peek's Tracks Studio in Western Australia. This album was the first Sky album to feature entirely original material without any classical content (although two pieces, "Allegro" and "Caldando" were strongly classically-inspired). Guest included Ron Aspery, Lee Fothergill, pan-pipe player Adrian Brett and former
Jeff BeckGeoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He was one of the three noted guitarists — the others being Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page — to have played with The Yardbirds...
Band keyboard player
Tony HymasAnthony 'Tony' Hymas is an English keyboardplayer, pianist, composer and is well known for being a fouding member of Ph.D. He is a very versatile musician and contributes in different styles of music....
(who contributed the unusual semi-spoken album opener "Desperate For Your Love").
The band were dropped by Ariola Records while
The Great Balloon Race was being mixed, and the album was eventually released on Epic Records (who were also the label releasing John Williams' albums). Despite some favourable reviews, the album sales were significantly lower than on previous occasions. Sky toured the UK - this time with Rolling Stones keyboard player
Nicky HopkinsNicky Hopkins Nicky Hopkins Nicky Hopkins (born Nicholas Christian Hopkins (February 24, 1944 – September 6, 1994) was an English pianist and organist.He recorded and performed on some of the most important British and American popular music recordings of the 1960s and 1970s, and is widely...
and multi-instrumentalist Paul Hart (a former composer for the
National Youth Jazz OrchestraThe National Youth Jazz Orchestra is a British jazz orchestra founded in 1963 by its current chairman, Bill Ashton.Based in Harrow, Middlesex, the NYJO started life as the London Schools' Jazz Orchestra...
who'd also played bass guitar for
John DankworthSir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, is an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist.-Life and music:...
and both violin and piano for
Cleo LaineDame Cleo Laine DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and remarkable vocal range.She is the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical music categories....
). Significantly, the band found themselves playing to smaller audiences than on previous tours.
The Great Balloon Race was deleted fairly soon after its release, and Sky took time off to reconsider and recharge.
The Mozart project (1987)
Sky returned in late 1987 with the
Mozart album, which united the band with the orchestra of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The project was initiated by Tristan Fry (due to his parallel work with both band and orchestra) and was inspired by the bicentenary of Mozart's death. The album contained full orchestral performances of Mozart's work with Sky incorporated into the arrangements (most of which were written by Steve Gray).
The band and orchestra (with Paul Hart returning as guest musician) promoted the album with a one-off concert at the Royal Albert Hall on November 1, 1987.
The
Mozart project was roundly panned and dismissed by the press (although the album was ultimately Sky's most successful album in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) and the band took another two years off before returning again.
Final years (1990-1995)
A second compilation album -
Classic Sky - was released in 1990.
The band played a one-off concert at the London Palladium in 1990 (the first to feature Paul Hart as a full band member) and recorded a TV concert in early 1991. New compositions by Peek, Gray and Hart were premiered but apparently never recorded.
In 1991, Kevin Peek became the next member of the band to depart. A full-time resident of Australia since 1982 and busy with multiple recording projects at Tracks Studio (all of which inhibited his practical ability to spend time in the UK working with Sky), he no longer believed that he had enough time to commit to the band.
Peek was replaced by classical/cross-discipline guitarist Richard Durrant (an associate of Herbie Flowers), who joined the band in 1992. The band relaunched themselves with a comeback concert in September 1992 at the Barbican, London. Sky toured the UK again during spring 1993, playing notably smaller venues than they had in the 1980s.
The last performance by Sky was at an RAF tribute concert in May 1995. Although Sky never formally disbanded (and a 2003 concert programme still listed Tristan Fry as being an ongoing Sky member), the band has not returned to active recording and performance.
Individual work
Herbie FlowersHerbie Flowers is an English studio musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba, who came to prominence performing with David Bowie and Elton John, and then later Lou Reed...
continues to work as a high-profile session musician and has collaborated with
Jools HollandJulian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, songwriter, composer, and television presenter...
,
ClannadClannad are a Grammy Award-winning Irish musical group, from Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. Their music has been variously described as bordering on folk and folk rock, Irish, Celtic and New Age...
, Mike Hatchard and
Paul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE , is an English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music...
) He has also branched out as a light entertainment raconteur.
Tristan Fry still works with the Orchestra of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, as well as the Tristan Fry Percussion Ensemble.
Since leaving Sky in 1980,
Francis MonkmanFrancis Monkman is an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founder member of the progressive rock band Curved Air.-Career:...
has divided his time between experimental rock music and classical music recordings of solo keyboard work (generally harpsichord or church organ).
Following his own departure from Sky in 1984,
John WilliamsJohn Christopher Williams is a Grammy Award winning Australian-born British classical guitarist. He is widely regarded as one of finest guitarists of his generation.-Biography:...
has continued his career as one of the world's leading classical guitarists.
After leaving Sky in 1991, Kevin Peek continued to work as a musician and producer in Australia, despite financial misfortunes (since his departure from the band he has suffered two bankruptcies, the first of which resulted in a three-year prison sentence).
Following Sky's retirement in 1995, Steve Gray continued his career as a respected composer (which he had been carrying out in parallel to his work with Sky). His compositions include two operas, a requiem mass for jazz big band and choir, a guitar concerto and a piano concerto written for French jazz pianist
Martial SolalMartial Solal is a French jazz pianist and composer, who is probably most widely known for the music he wrote for Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature film À bout de souffle .-Biography:...
. He also provided a full orchestration of the works of
Brian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as simply Brian Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, music theorist and singer, who, as a solo artist, is best known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at art school, taking...
(in collaboration with the original composer). From 1991, he worked closely with the North German Radio (NDR) Big Band in Hamburg (at the invitation of singer and composer
Norma WinstoneNorma Ann Winstone MBE is a British jazz singer and lyricist. In a career spanning over forty years she is best known for her wordless improvisations....
) and from 1998 he worked as guest professor of composition and arrangement in the Hanns Eisler jazz department of Berlin Hochschule für Musik. Steve Gray died (aged 64) on September 20, 2008.
Paul Hart went on to a career in film, television and commercial music and has written concert music for the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and The King’s Singers. His Concerto for Classical Guitar and Jazz Orchestra was revived for performance in 2008 by the Towson University Jazz Orchestra and guitarist Michael Decker.
Richard Durrant has continued to develop his career as a classical guitarist, as well as composing film and television music and working as a record producer (notably for the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain). He is the founder of the acoustic record label LongMan Records.
Duos and other collaborations
Richard Durrant and Herbie Flowers are frequent collaborators on various musical projects. Their latest collaboration is a trio with former
Gentle GiantGentle Giant was a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band was notable for the particular complexity and sophistication of its musical material and for the diverse musical skills of its members .The band's onetime stated aim was to "expand the frontiers of contemporary...
drummer
Malcolm MortimoreMalcolm Mortimore is a drummer who has played with Gentle Giant, Spike Heatley, Tom Jones, Troy Tate, Ian Dury, G.T. Moore, Mick and Chris Jagger, Frankie Miller, Oliver Jones, and Barney Kessel.-External links:*...
.
In 1988,
John WilliamsJohn Christopher Williams is a Grammy Award winning Australian-born British classical guitarist. He is widely regarded as one of finest guitarists of his generation.-Biography:...
and the
London Symphony OrchestraThe London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
commissioned and performed a guitar concerto by Steve Gray.
Reissues
In 1993, the band's first five albums were released on CD.
In 2001, the band began a reissue programme of their back catalogue on Sanctuary Records.
In 2005, Quantum Leap released the
Sky Live in Bremen DVD, a live recording of the band's first (unofficial) concert.
Band members
- Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers is an English studio musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba, who came to prominence performing with David Bowie and Elton John, and then later Lou Reed...
- bass guitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
, double-bass, tubaThe tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
(1978-1995)
- Tristan Fry - drums
A drum set is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person . The term "drum kit" first became used in the 1700s in Britain...
, percussion, occasional trumpetThe trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC...
(1978-1995 - still listed as active band member in 2003)
- John Williams
John Christopher Williams is a Grammy Award winning Australian-born British classical guitarist. He is widely regarded as one of finest guitarists of his generation.-Biography:...
- acousticAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings. The term is a retronym, coined after the advent of electric guitars, which depend on electronic amplification to make their sound audible....
and electric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as...
s (1978-1984)
- Kevin Peek - electric
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as...
and acoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings. The term is a retronym, coined after the advent of electric guitars, which depend on electronic amplification to make their sound audible....
s (1978-1991)
- Francis Monkman
Francis Monkman is an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founder member of the progressive rock band Curved Air.-Career:...
- harpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
, synthesisers, church organ, occasional electric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as...
(1978-1980)
- Steve Gray - keyboards
A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organs as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, occasional saxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument considered a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and are played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by Adolphe Sax in 1841...
(1981-1995) - died 2008
- Paul Hart - keyboards
A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include various types of organs as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
, guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
s, mandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It is descended from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family...
, celloThe cello is a bowed string instrument. The word derives from the Italian violoncello. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra...
, etc. (1984-1995)
- Richard Durrant - acoustic
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only acoustic methods to project the sound produced by its strings. The term is a retronym, coined after the advent of electric guitars, which depend on electronic amplification to make their sound audible....
and electric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as...
s (1992-1995)
Singles
- "Cannonball" (1979)
- "Toccata
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, is a piece of organ music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach sometime between 1703 and 1707. It is one of the most famous works in the organ repertoire, and has been used in a variety of popular media ranging from film, to video games, to rock music, and...
" (1980) UK #5
- "Night Sky" (1985)
Albums
- Sky (1979)
- Sky 2 (1980)
- Sky 3 (1981)
- Sky 4 Forthcoming (1982)
- Sky Five Live (1983)
- Cadmium (1983)
- Masterpieces (The Best of Sky) (1984)
- The Great Balloon Race (1985)
- Mozart (1987)
External links