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The Flying Machine | |
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| Origin | Rugby, Warwickshire, England |
| Genres | Bubblegum pop |
| Years active | 1969–1971 |
| Labels | Pye Records (UK) Congress (US) Janus (US) |
| Past members | Tony Newman Steve Jones Sam Kempe Stuart Colman Paul Wilkinson Troy Adam Jones |
The Flying Machine was a British bubblegum pop [1] band who are best known for their 1969 American No. 5 hit, "Smile a Little Smile for Me". [2]
The Flying Machine descended from British band Pinkerton's Assorted Colours. Pinkerton's (as they were often known) had scored a major UK hit with "Mirror Mirror" in 1966 and continued recording over the next few years. However, by 1969, singer/guitarist Tony Newman, singer/autoharpist/original frontman Sam Kempe, [3] and bassist Stuart Colman from Pinkerton's had teamed up with lead guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Wilkinson to form a new iteration of the group and, with Newman now assuming lead vocal/frontman duties, took the name the Flying Machine. [4]
They are best known for their single in 1969, "Smile a Little Smile for Me", which peaked at No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart (on Kapp Records' Congress record label) It also reached No. 6 on the AC chart. Their first LP, which was self-titled, was released by Janus Records in 1969. By 12 December that year the single had sold a million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. [5] The song was written by Tony Macaulay and Geoff Stephens. [6] Despite being released by Pye Records in the band's native UK, the record did not appear on the UK Singles Chart.
A follow-up single, a cover version of "Baby Make It Soon", first recorded by Marmalade, achieved the U.S. Hot 100 the following year. [7] A final single, "The Devil Has Possession Of Your Mind", was released, after which the Flying Machine split up.
Bassist Colman went on to a successful career as a session musician, record producer and BBC Radio disc jockey.
The Archies is a fictional American rock band that features in media produced by, and related to, Archie Comics. They are best remembered for their appearance in the animated TV series The Archie Show. In the context of the series, the band was founded by guitarist/vocalist Archie Andrews, drummer Jughead Jones, bassist Reggie Mantle, percussionist/vocalist Betty Cooper and keyboardist/vocalist Veronica Lodge. In the cartoons, Veronica is shown playing a large keyboard instrument styled after the X-66, a then-current top-of-the-line organ made by the Hammond Organ Company.
Episode Six were an English rock band formed in Harrow, London in 1965. The band did not have commercial success in the UK, releasing nine singles that all failed to chart, but they did find minor success in Beirut at the time. Group members Ian Gillan and Roger Glover left in 1969 to join Deep Purple, while drummer Mick Underwood founded Quatermass and later collaborated with Gillan.
James Taylor and the Original Flying Machine is an archival release of 1966 recordings of American singer-songwriter James Taylor's band The Flying Machine, first released in February 1971.
David Holland was an English drummer, best remembered for his time with the rock band Trapeze from 1969 to 1979 and Judas Priest from 1979 to 1989.
Janus Records was a record label owned by GRT Records, also known as General Recorded Tape. The label was in operation from 1969 to 1979.
The Foundations were a British soul band who were primarily active between 1967 and 1970. The group's background was: West Indian, White British and Sri Lankan. Their 1967 debut single "Baby Now That I've Found You" reached number one in the UK and Canada, and number eleven in the US. Their 1968 single "Build Me Up Buttercup" reached number two in the UK and number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. The group was the first multi-racial group to have a number one hit in the UK in the 1960s.
Sheldon Talmy is an American record producer, songwriter and arranger, best known for his work in the UK in the 1960s with the Who, the Kinks and many others.
The Sorrows are a rock band formed in 1963 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, by Pip Whitcher, and were part of the British beat boom of the 1960s. They were a fixture in the English mod scene and are sometimes referred to as freakbeat.
Tony Macaulay is an English author, composer for musical theatre, and songwriter. He has won the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors Award twice as 'Songwriter of the Year'. He is a nine time Ivor Novello Awards winning songwriter. In 2007, he became the only British person to win the Edwin Forrest Award for outstanding contribution to the American theatre. Macaulay's best-known songs include "Baby Now That I've Found You" and "Build Me Up Buttercup" with The Foundations, "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All," as well as "Love Grows " and "Don't Give Up on Us".
Ian Stuart Colman was an English musician, record producer and broadcaster. Allmusic noted that he "has an impressive catalogue as a record producer and much of Shakin' Stevens success can be attributed to Colman". Over the decades, Colman worked with a diverse array of musicians including Billy Fury, The Blasters, Cliff Richard, Phil Everly, Alvin Stardust, The Jets, The Inmates and Little Richard.
Alan Warner is an English musician who has been active from around the mid 1960s. He was a member of groups such as The Ramong Sound, The Foundations, Pluto, and The Polecats.
Pinkerton's Assorted Colours were an English pop band active during the 1960s. They are best known for their 1965 release, "Mirror, Mirror", which reached No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1966.
Harvey Mandel is an American guitarist best known as a member of Canned Heat. He also played with Charlie Musselwhite and John Mayall as well as maintaining a solo career.
Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band are an England-based soul band.
Anthony Ralph Clarke was an English rock music record producer and guitarist. Born in Coventry, he is best known for producing The Moody Blues from 1966 to 1978.
"Solomon Grundy" is a song written by Eric Allandale, a member of the English Multi-racial group The Foundations. The song is loosely based on "Solomon Grundy", the 19th century children's nursery rhyme. It appeared on their 1969 Digging The Foundations album that featured the hit single "In the Bad Bad Old Days ", and it was the B side of their minor American hit single "My Little Chickadee". The singer pronounces it "Solomon Grandy" throughout the song, even though it foils the rhyme. It was also released as a single by Hong Kong beat group Danny Diaz & The Checkmates and it was the song that first brought Polly Brown & Pickettywitch to notice when they appeared on ITV's Opportunity Knocks television talent show. It was also the B side of Pickettywitch's 1969 debut single "You Got Me So I Don't Know".
The Montanas were an English 1960s and 1970s pop rock band from Wolverhampton, England. Though they never found significant success in their home country, they had one moderate hit in the United States.
"That Same Old Feeling" is the title of a pop song composed by John Macleod and Tony Macaulay which in 1970 was a Top Ten UK hit for Pickettywitch, an English band fronted by Polly Brown. In the US the Pickettywitch single vied with a rival version by The Fortunes, with both versions scoring well-enough regionally to reach the Top 70 of the Hot 100, the national hit parade maintained by Billboard magazine.
Madison Blues – Live & Studio Recordings is a compilation album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 2003. It is a compilation of BBC session tracks and live concert material from the band's first post-Peter Green line up, none of which had previously been officially released. The album focuses on the period between the successful Peter Green period and the start of the Bob Welch period which eventually led to another successful period for the band in the mid to late 1970s. Packaged as a double CD with a DVD interview with guitarist Jeremy Spencer, it came in a cardboard box with a foldout inner sheet.
Digging the Foundations is the final studio album by English soul group the Foundations. The album includes two of the group's hits, "In the Bad, Bad Old Days" and "My Little Chickadee". The album was released in the UK on the Pye label in 1969. There would be various issues relating to the album that would be a cause of concern for the group.
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