The Flying Hat Band were an early 1970s
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
hard rockHard rock or heavy rock is a sub-genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage and psychedelic rock and is considerably harder than conventional rock music...
act that, alongside
Judas PriestJudas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, formed in 1969. Judas Priest's core line-up consists of bass player Ian Hill, vocalist Rob Halford and guitarists Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing. The band has gone through several drummers, though Scott Travis has held the position since...
, ranked as the
MidlandsThe English Midlands, or the Midlands is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
' favourites to succeed . Despite not having released an album, the band proved a successful club act and eventually went on to support
Deep PurpleDeep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford, Hertfordshire in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members have tried not to categorise themselves as any one genre. The band...
on one of their European tours.
The band folded in May 1974 following
Glenn TiptonGlenn Raymond Tipton is one of the guitarists for the British heavy metal band Judas Priest...
's departure to become the second
guitaristA guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as acoustic guitars, electric guitars, classical guitars and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :...
in
Judas PriestJudas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, formed in 1969. Judas Priest's core line-up consists of bass player Ian Hill, vocalist Rob Halford and guitarists Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing. The band has gone through several drummers, though Scott Travis has held the position since...
, who at the time had just signed their first record deal with Gull Records.
The Flying Hat Band were an early 1970s
BirminghamBirmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. Birmingham is the second-most populous British city, with a population of 1,006,500 ....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
hard rockHard rock or heavy rock is a sub-genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage and psychedelic rock and is considerably harder than conventional rock music...
act that, alongside
Judas PriestJudas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, formed in 1969. Judas Priest's core line-up consists of bass player Ian Hill, vocalist Rob Halford and guitarists Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing. The band has gone through several drummers, though Scott Travis has held the position since...
, ranked as the
MidlandsThe English Midlands, or the Midlands is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
' favourites to succeed . Despite not having released an album, the band proved a successful club act and eventually went on to support
Deep PurpleDeep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford, Hertfordshire in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members have tried not to categorise themselves as any one genre. The band...
on one of their European tours.
The band folded in May 1974 following
Glenn TiptonGlenn Raymond Tipton is one of the guitarists for the British heavy metal band Judas Priest...
's departure to become the second
guitaristA guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as acoustic guitars, electric guitars, classical guitars and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :...
in
Judas PriestJudas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, formed in 1969. Judas Priest's core line-up consists of bass player Ian Hill, vocalist Rob Halford and guitarists Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing. The band has gone through several drummers, though Scott Travis has held the position since...
, who at the time had just signed their first record deal with Gull Records. Peter "Mars" Cowling joined Canadian rocker
Pat TraversPatrick Henry "Pat" Travers is a Canadian rock guitarist, keyboardist and singer who began his recording career with Polydor Records in the mid 1970s...
in 1975, and was part of
Travers* Allan Travers* Angela Travers, fictional character* Ben Travers* Bill Travers , English actor, screenwriter, director and animal rights activist* Bill Travers , former Major League Baseball pitcher...
' band for several years. Trevor Foster joined folk rock group The Albion Band and Little Johnny England.
Band personnel
Originally a
quartetIn music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...
called Merlin, the band went through numerous line-up changes before what would become its core formed:
- Glenn Tipton
Glenn Raymond Tipton is one of the guitarists for the British heavy metal band Judas Priest...
- vocalsSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist...
, 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...
- Peter "Mars" Cowling - bass guitar
The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
- Steve Palmer - 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...
Former personnel
- Pete Hughes - vocals
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist...
- Andy Wheeler - bass guitar
The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
- Frank Walker
Frank Walker may refer to:* Frank Comerford Walker, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee* Frank Ray Walker, architect, partner in the firm of Walker and Weeks* Frank Robinson Walker, American admiral during World War II...
- bass guitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
- Trevor Foster
Trevor Foster is an English drummer who started his musical career initially with 1970s rock group Flying Hat Band. He joined folk rocksters The Albion Band in the early 1980s....
- drumsA 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...
Discography
Signed to
VertigoVertigo Records today is a UK-based record label operated by Mercury Music Group .-History:Vertigo Records was the name Philips Records chose in the sixties for its record sub-label to counter the progressive labels of its rivals EMI with Harvest Records and Decca Records with Deram Records.-...
, in 1973 the trio recorded a studio album which was never released as the label deemed the music had too much in common with
Black SabbathBlack Sabbath are an English rock band, formed in Birmingham in 1968 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple lineup changes, with a total of twenty-two former members...
. Glenn Tipton is said to be in possession of the master tape, but it is unclear whether any material from it will eventually surface.
In 1992, small German label SPM International mysteriously released a split CD entitled "
Buried Together", featuring
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."...
band Antrobus alongside 4 Flying Hat Band demo tracks, dated back to 1973.
Trivia
Drummer Steve Palmer is the brother of
Carl PalmerCarl Palmer is an English drummer and percussionist. He is credited as one of the most respected rock drummers to emerge from the 1960s. In addition, Palmer is a veteran of a number of famous English bands, including the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Asia...
(Emerson, Lake, and Palmer).
External links