The Flying Lizards
The Flying Lizards were a British musical group that worked mainly in the 1980s. The music remained largely avant-garde and is counted as post-punk . With only one song among the top 40 in England, the band was a so-called one-hit wonder.
history
The Flying Lizards were founded and directed by producer David Cunningham. The group formed a loose alliance of avant-garde and free improvising musicians such as David Toop and Steve Beresford as instrumentalists, Deborah Evans-Stickland, Patti Palladin and Vivien Goldman as main singers. Other band members were Michael Upton, Julian Marshall (previously with Marshall Hain ), David Cunningham, Bob Black, Robert Fripp and Peter Laurence Gordon.
In August 1979 the band appeared twice on BBC's Top of the Pops with their hit single Money (That's What I Want) , which hit the top 40 in the UK charts in October 1979. In February 1980, the follow-up single TV was released . The record deal was renewed and expanded by Virgin Records after the success of Money . In 1980 the group released their debut album The Flying Lizards . The album included two songs written and sung by Goldman, Her Story and The Window . Other titles included postmodern cover versions of Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues and Money .
The 1981 album Fourth Wall received critical acclaim but did not sell well. The album Top Ten (1984) with singer Sally Peterson, released on the Statik label, consisted entirely of cover versions that were sung in a similarly deliberately emotionless robot style, which the NME called Sloane Rap . Among them were z. E.g. James Brown's Sex Machine and Dizzy Miss Lizzy as well as a version of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne . Cunningham and Peterson worked together on music productions for film and commercials that were released after the Top Ten album , including a re-recording by Money .
The Flying Lizards version of Barrett Strong's song Money remained very popular and was featured in the soundtracks of films such as "The Wedding Singer", "Empire Records", " Charlie's Angels ", " 23 - Nothing Is As It Seems " and " Lord of War - Merchant of Death " used. In the US TV series Nip / Tuck, which was awarded by Emmies and Golden Globes, and the follow-up to the British TV drama " Life on Mars - Trapped in the 70s ", the film " Ashes to Ashes - Back to the 80s " was "Money" also used. The song was used again in a US commercial for Taco Bell in 2011.
A dub instrumental album "The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards" was recorded by David Cunningham in 1978 and finally released in 1995. The first two albums "The Flying Lizards" and "Fourth Wall" were re-released by RPM in 2010 under catalog number RETROD883.
Discography
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Albums
- The Flying Lizards , 1979
- Fourth Wall , 1981
- Top Ten , 1984
- The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards , 1996
Singles
- Summertime Blues , 1978
- Money (That's What I Want) , 1979
- TV , 1979
- The Laughing Policeman , 1980
- Move On Up , 1981
- Hands 2 Take , 1981
- Lovers and Other Strangers , 1981
- Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine , 1984
- Dizzy Miss Lizzy , 1984
- Money / TV , 1988