The Flying Lizards

This article is about the band. For other uses, see Flying lizard (disambiguation).

The Flying Lizards
Origin	United Kingdom
Genres	Post-punk,[1]new wave[2]
Years active	1976–1984
Labels	Virgin, Statik
Past members	David Cunningham Steve Beresford Bob Black Deborah Evans-Stickland Robert Fripp Vivien Goldman Peter Laurence Gordon Julian Marshall Patti Palladin Sally Peterson David Toop

The Flying Lizards were an experimental English new wave band, formed in 1976. They are best known for their deliberately eccentric cover version of Barrett Strong's "Money" featuring Deborah Evans-Stickland on lead vocals, which reached the UK and US record charts in 1979.^[2][3] The group disbanded in 1984.

Contents

• 
  1 Career
  


• 
  2 Band members
  


• 
  3 Discography
  
  
  
  • 
    3.1 Albums
    
  
  
  • 
    3.2 Singles
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  4 See also
  


• 
  5 References
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Career

Formed and led by record producer David Cunningham, the group was a loose collective of avant-garde and free improvising musicians, such as David Toop and Steve Beresford as instrumentalists, with Deborah Evans-Stickland, Patti Palladin and Vivien Goldman as main vocalists.

In August 1979 the band appeared twice on BBC's Top of the Pops performing their hit single "Money (That's What I Want)".^{[citation needed]} They also appeared in February 1980 performing follow up single "TV". Virgin Records extended the band's recording contract after the success of "Money".^[2] The group released their début album The Flying Lizards in 1980. The album included two songs – "Her Story" and "The Window" – written and sung by Goldman.^[4] Their single issues included their postmodern cover versions of songs such as Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" and "Money".^[5]

The 1981 album Fourth Wall received praise from critics but did not sell well.^[2]Top Ten (1984), with vocalist Sally Peterson, released by Statik records, consisted entirely of covers, done in a similarly deliberately emotionless, and robotic style, (described by the NME at the time as "Sloane Rap"), including two singles, James Brown's "Sex Machine" and "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" as well as an album track of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne". Cunningham and Peterson worked together on music production for film and advertising after Top Ten was released,^[2] including a re-recording of "Money".

The Flying Lizards version of Barrett Strong's "Money" remained popular, and was used in the film soundtracks for The Wedding Singer, Empire Records, Charlie's Angels and Lord of War, as well as in the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television medical drama Nip/Tuck and the follow-up to the UK TV drama Life on Mars, called Ashes to Ashes. In 2011, the song was used in a commercial for Taco Bell.

An album of dub instrumentals, The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards, recorded by David Cunningham mostly in 1978, was finally released in 1995.^[2] The first two albums, The Flying Lizards and Fourth Wall, were re-released by RPM in 2010, with the catalogue number RETROD883.^{[citation needed]} With only one single making the UK Top 40,^[6] the Flying Lizards join the list of one-hit wonders.

Band members

• David Toop


• Steve Beresford


• Michael Upton


• Julian Marshall


• Michael Nyman


• David Cunningham


• Vivien Goldman


• Robert Fripp


• Bob Black


• Deborah Evans-Stickland


• Patti Palladin


• Peter Laurence Gordon


• Sally Peterson


• Rory Allam

Discography

Albums

• 
  The Flying Lizards (Virgin Records, 1979) (UK No. 60, US No. 99^[5])


• 
  Fourth Wall (Virgin, 1981)


• 
  Top Ten (Statik, 1984)


• 
  The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards (Piano Records, 1996)


• 
  The Flying Lizards & Fourth Wall (re-release, RPM Records, 2010)


• 
  The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards (vinyl re-release, Staubgold, 2010)

Singles

• "Summertime Blues" (Virgin VS230, 1978)


• "Money" (Virgin VS276, 1979) (UK No. 5 US No. 50^[5])


• "TV" (Virgin VS325, 1979) (UK No. 43^[5])


• "The Laughing Policeman" (under the pseudonym 'The Suspicions', Arista 361, 1980)


• "Move On Up" (Virgin VS381, 1980)


• "Hands 2 Take" with Michael Nyman (Virgin VS392, 1981)


• "Lovers and Other Strangers" (Virgin VS421, 1981)


• "Sex Machine" (Statik tak19, 1984)


• "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" (Statik tak25, 1984)


• "Money"/"T.V." (Old Gold, 1988)

See also

• List of new wave artists and bands


• List of performers on Top of the Pops


• List of post-punk bands

References

1. 
   ^ Greene, Doyle (2014). The Rock Cover Song: Culture, History, Politics. McFarland & Company. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7864-7809-5..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


2. 
   ^ ^abcdef Deming, Mark. "The Flying Lizards – Artist Biography". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
   


3. 
   ^ "Allmusic ((( The Flying Lizards > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles )))".
   


4. 
   ^ Allen, Mark (April 2001). "The Flying Lizards: A Pop Band Arranged According to the Laws of Chance". No. 6. Sound Collector. Retrieved 2008-11-18.
   


5. 
   ^ ^abcd Strong, Martin C. (2003) "Flying Lizards", in The Great Indie Discography, Canongate,
   ISBN 1-84195-335-0
   


6. 
   ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 206. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
   

External links

• David Cunningham website


• The Secret Dub Life of The Flying Lizards


• The Flying Lizards biography


• RPM Records


• Staubgold

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