Sky- A Time To Confess.

[captainhaddock]

Despite having been a faithful Shadows fan from an early age, I must confess that at one time I strayed and was un-faithfull.
It came about in early 1980 when at the age of 17 and being rather bored by "String Of Hits" I found that my head was being turned by another. The "Other Party" was a single record by "Sky" and was called "Tocatta/Vivaldi". Although the record was a kind of cover version, it was so different to what my old love, The Shadows, was doing at the time that I found I couldn't resist it and found myself in need of more from my new love. I was so pleased to find that Sky had already issued an LP with the "tempting" and imaginative title "Sky", I listened to this offering with a trembling excitement as there were tracks on this LP which although The Shadows could have tried to make, they didn't try to produce. Over the next 7 years, Sky were to produce another 7 albums, Sky 2, Sky 3, Forthcoming, Five Live, Cadmium, The Great Balloon Race and Mozart. Once again these albums could have provided inspiration to the Shadows, but apart from a comment by Bruce on the "Live at Abbey Road " album, Sky seemed to pass by un-noticed. I would not have wished The Shadows to have copied some of Sky's more lengthy offerings, I am not really a fan of tracks that take up one side of an LP. But given the fact that The Shadows, were capable of longer than normal tracks like the classic "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue" and the brilliant "Bermuda Triangle", maybe they could have tried something different to inspire them?. Maybe the Public wouldn't let them, however Sky achieved over 200 weeks on the album charts so maybe it might have been worth a try?. Confession over, three hail Marys
enough?.

[hbmartin]

I think SKY was controlled by the same managers as the Shadows have now. Does anyone know if i'm right.

[Jay Bass]

Hi
A Great Bunch of musicians Herbie flowers On bass great.
Francis Monkman keyboards, didnt he play keyboards on one of the shadows tours?

Jay

[captainhaddock]

I believe that Francis Monkman played Keyboards on the "Twenty Golden Greats " Tour. He claims to have fallen asleep on stage. Maybe he felt that the image of the Shadows was a little un-cool for him . Kevin Peek played Guitar for Cliff at one time and Steve Gray had involvement with the "String Of Hits" album.

[Pedro]

One of my all time favourites by Sky was 'Scipio' which brought Herbie Flowers to the fore. I do not think they could produce 'Scipio' live. far too complex.
I beleve I am right in saying Kevin Peek played on the Hank Marvin Guitar Syndicate album

[Moderne]

I remember buying Sky's Cannonball single (a Francis monkman composition) in 1979 from a record shop in Mill Hill. I think it's a fantastic piece of music. (I remember feeling that was the musical direction The Shadows should have gone in rather than the inexorable slide into cover versions which started with Don't Cry for Me Argentina and - apart from the patchy Guardian Angel album - never really ended. But I understand it now!) I also bought their Toccata single but some of their later stuff seemed rather self-indulgent and inaccessible. It's amazing how popular they were for a while and yet now they're virtually forgotten and charity shops are full of their old LPs.

Clive

[cockroach]

Philip,

Don't be shy about liking Sky. They were all incredibly good musicians- John Williams was/still is one of the finest classical players and musicians in the world, and is another Australian too!. I saw them twice here in Australia when they toured years ago.

Kevin Peek , who came from here in Adelaide, South Australia, was a well known local guitar hero to many of us in the '60's- I learned more by watching him play every week for about two years at his band's gigs than I ever could have done from lessons etc! Kevin could read music and play fingerstyle- and he could and did play rock, r'n'b, jazz, classical, Chet Atkins style, and Shadows and other guitar instrumental stuff too...a fantastic musician.

[rogera]

I too regarded Sky as being a good group until I went to see them in concert in Glasgow.

I was left with the realisation that although Individually they were excellent musicians, they were most certainly not a good group.

[Martin Page]

Despite having been a faithful Shadows fan from an early age, I must confess that at one time I strayed and was un-faithfull.
It came about in early 1980 when at the age of 17 and being rather bored by "String Of Hits" I found that my head was being turned by another. The "Other Party" was a single record by "Sky" and was called "Tocatta/Vivaldi". Although the record was a kind of cover version, it was so different to what my old love, The Shadows, was doing at the time that I found I couldn't resist it and found myself in need of more from my new love. I was so pleased to find that Sky had already issued an LP with the "tempting" and imaginative title "Sky", I listened to this offering with a trembling excitement as there were tracks on this LP which although The Shadows could have tried to make, they didn't try to produce. Over the next 7 years, Sky were to produce another 7 albums, Sky 2, Sky 3, Forthcoming, Five Live, Cadmium, The Great Balloon Race and Mozart. Once again these albums could have provided inspiration to the Shadows, but apart from a comment by Bruce on the "Live at Abbey Road " album, Sky seemed to pass by un-noticed. I would not have wished The Shadows to have copied some of Sky's more lengthy offerings, I am not really a fan of tracks that take up one side of an LP. But given the fact that The Shadows, were capable of longer than normal tracks like the classic "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue" and the brilliant "Bermuda Triangle", maybe they could have tried something different to inspire them?. Maybe the Public wouldn't let them, however Sky achieved over 200 weeks on the album charts so maybe it might have been worth a try?. Confession over, three hail Marys
enough?.

"Close that door as Sky might try and pick up some tips..." or words to that effect...

Martin.

[captainhaddock]

Must admit that I was never actually shy about liking Sky, just a little nervous about admitting the fact on a Shadows website. The mention of Sky's single "Cannonball" reminds me that Sky produced so many tracks that were perfect "Driving" music. Cannonball was one of the tracks that I constantly played in my Car after fitting my first Radio Cassette player,it had a wonderful tempo that was ideal for long car journeys. Sky 3 was for me one of their best albums, it seemed to display each band member at their best and contained many of the bands best numbers ie Chiropodie No1, Moonroof and Meheeco. On the subject of the brilliant Kevin Peek, he released two solo albums in the 80's, "Awakening" and "Life and other games" these are well worth catching even though their price seems to be rather high. I also have a vague recollection that he was involved in a project to make a version of "The Planet Suite" similar to "War of the Worlds" this also involved Rick Wakeman.