History
Flash and the Pan was formed by Harry Vanda and George Young in mid-1976 in Sydney, Australia. It was initially a studio-only pop rock band, with both members on guitar, keyboards and vocals. [1] [2] The duo had been the key creative members of the Easybeats, and subsequently worked, both in Australia and in the United Kingdom (UK), as the songwriting and producing team, Vanda & Young. [1] [3] From mid-1973, they were A&R agents for Albert Productions, and its in-house producers at Albert Studios in Sydney. [1] [3]
Flash and the Pan's debut single, "Hey, St. Peter", which they had co-written and co-produced, was issued in September 1976 on Albert Productions "as an engaging diversion from the real job of record production for other artists." [1] [2] [4] It peaked at No. 5 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart in February 1977. [5] [6] Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane felt "[t]he music was based around an accessible, yet inventive synthesiser-based pop rock sound with an emphasis on George's spoken-word vocals and shouted chorus." [1]
John Paul Young (no relation), speaking to Kathy McCabe of News Corp Australia, remembered the story of the song: "George was in New York chatting to the hotel doorman about the weather and the African American guy says 'Oh well, man, when my time comes, I am going to say to St Peter "You can't send me to hell, I have done my time in hell in New York!'" George just picked up things you and I would say and turn them into songs." [7] John Paul Young had hit singles written and produced by Vanda & Young, including "Yesterday's Hero" (1975) and "Love Is in the Air" (1977). [8]
"Hey, St. Peter" was released in July 1977 on Mercury Records for continental Europe, where it reached No. 6 on the Belgian Ultratop 50 Singles chart and No. 7 on the Netherlands' Dutch Top 40. [2] [9] [10] In the United Kingdom, it appeared on the Ensign Records label, and for the North American market it was issued in July 1979 on Epic Records, peaking at No. 76 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August of that year. [11] Their second single, "Down Among the Dead Men", was issued in Australia in July 1978, and peaked at No. 4 on the Kent Music Report. [1] [5] [6] On the UK Singles Chart, re-titled "And the Band Played On", it reached No. 54. [1] [12] In November, they followed with their third single, "The African Shuffle". [1] [5]
The group's debut album, Flash and the Pan , was issued in Australia on Albert Productions in December 1978, and internationally in the following year on Mercury, Ensign and Epic. [1] [2] It was recorded at Albert Studios in Sydney, co-produced by the duo, who co-wrote nine of its ten tracks. [1] [2] [4] Aside from Vanda and Young, the studio musicians included Ray Arnott on drums, Les Karski on bass guitar and Warren Morgan on piano. [13] [14] Vanda & Young signed Arnott to Alberts with a recording contract and Karski produced Arnott's solo debut album, Rude Dudes in 1979, as well as providing bass guitar. [2] [15] The Ray Arnott Band, which included both Karski and Morgan, toured to support the album. [2] [15]
Although Flash and the Pan appeared on various national charts, including reaching No. 14 on Sweden's Swedish Albums Chart [16] and No. 80 on the US Billboard 200, [17] the duo did not support its release with a tour. As McFarlane said: "[they] preferred the sanctity of their 24-track Albert Studio enclave". [1] AllMusic's Steven McDonald rated the album as four-and-a-half stars out of five and explained that it had "some seriously deranged songwriting, with quirky but attention-grabbing music peppered with pointy, strange lyrics. A soundtrack for the dark side of the moon that's well worth searching out." [14]
For the group's second studio album, Lights in the Night (early 1980), Vanda and Young again used Arnott, Karski and Morgan. [1] [2] [18] All eight tracks were co-written by Vanda and Young, who also co-produced the album. [2] [18] The album reached the top 100 in Australia, and peaked at No. 1 on the Swedish Albums Chart in June. [5] [16] It provided two singles, "Welcome to the Universe" (July 1980) and "Media Man" (December 1980). [1]
In October 1981, UK-based artist Grace Jones released her cover version of "Walking in the Rain", the B-side of "Hey, St. Peter", as a single, which peaked at No. 34 in New Zealand. [19] Dmetri Kakmi provided Stereo Stories with his recollection of first hearing it: "I was transported. Vanda and Young's lyrics and Jones's detached delivery captured the restlessness, alienation and pent-up emotions of a stifled adolescence... By the end of the track I was liberated, lifted out of a traditional Greek upbringing and pointed toward a future filled with wide horizons." [20]
Headlines , their third studio album, appeared in August 1982. [1] [2] Joining Vanda and Young in the studio were Arnott; Alan Dansow; Lindsay Hammond on backing and lead vocals (on loan from Cheetah); Ian Miller on guitar; Ralph White on brass instruments and keyboards; and Stevie Wright on backing vocals, as well as lead vocals on two tracks, "Where Were You?" (July 1982) and "Waiting for a Train" (December 1982), both of which were issued as singles. [1] [2] McFarlane felt that Headlines "featured a more basic rock approach, but with no loss of power or originality." [1] Headlines reached No. 13 on the Swedish Albums Chart. [16]
Hammond's group, Cheetah, was signed to Alberts in 1978 by Vanda & Young. [21] Arnott, Karski and Miller were all members of Cheetah during 1982, alongside Hammond and her sister, Chrissie. [2] [21] Wright was the duo's bandmate from the Easybeats, and they had written and produced material for his solo career, including his number one hit "Evie" (April 1974). [1] [22]
"Waiting for a Train" reached the top 100 in Australia, [5] [6] but had greater chart success in Europe when issued there in April 1983: [1] [5] [6] it peaked at No. 7 in the UK, [12] No. 15 in Belgium and No. 26 in the Netherlands. [9] [10] According to Duncan Kimball of MilesAgo, it is "a song with definite drug overtones that could well have been written about Stevie's predicament." [22]
Late in 1984, they issued their fourth studio album, Early Morning Wake Up Call which, according to Neil Lade of The Canberra Times , showed that the duo were "content to rest on their laurels... they have lapsed into the world of 'gimmick' songs... [and] an exercise of the bland and boring... Trite lyrics are made even more limp by droning vocal work." [23] Their next studio album, Nights in France , appeared in October 1987 via Epic Records. [1] [2] It provided two singles, "Ayla", in September, and "Money Don't Lie" in April 1988. [1] Their final studio album, Burning up the Night , was issued in October 1992, with two further singles, "Burning up the Night" (October) and "Living on Dreams" (March 1993). [1] [2] Thereafter, the duo concentrated on their songwriting and production work for other artists.
