Flash

Flash was an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 group

Band (music)

In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...

, formed by former Yes

Yes (band)

Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...

 guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 Peter Banks

Peter Banks

Peter Banks is an English guitarist. He was the original guitarist of the progressive rock band Yes.-Early career:When Banks was a young boy, his father bought him an acoustic guitar...

 and vocalist Colin Carter in August 1971. Bassist

Bassist

A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...

 Ray Bennett and drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 Mike Hough completed the line-up.

The band went into the recording studio

Recording studio

A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...

 in November 1971 to record its debut album, and performed its first gig on 14 January 1972. Coincidentally, exactly one year later, on 14 January 1973, Flash would fill New York's Philharmonic Hall.

There is some controversy over whether fellow ex-Yes member, keyboardist Tony Kaye

Tony Kaye (musician)

Tony Kaye is a British musician.Kaye was the original keyboard player for the progressive rock group Yes from 1968 to 1971, and rejoined Yes from 1983 to 1995...

, who appeared on the first Flash album, was actually an "official" member of the group, or merely a guest. The confusion stems from the fact that Kaye is listed alongside the other members of the group on the back cover. Interviews with all the parties confirm that, though Kaye was invited to join he declined, and should have been cited as a guest on the first album. He went on to found Badger

Badger (band)

-One Live Badger:The band was co-founded by keyboardist Tony Kaye after he left Yes, with David Foster. Foster had been in The Warriors with Jon Anderson before Anderson co-founded Yes. Foster later worked with the band on Time and a Word...

 in 1972. Other potential keyboard players were approached or auditioned at the time, including Ian McDonald (formerly of King Crimson

King Crimson

King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...

), Rick Wakeman

Rick Wakeman

Richard Christopher Wakeman is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes...

 (soon to join Yes) and Patrick Moraz

Patrick Moraz

Patrick Philippe Moraz is a progressive rock keyboard player. He is best known as the keyboardist for the progressive rock band Yes, from 1974 to 1976, and the Moody Blues from 1978 to 1991...

 (also a future member of Yes), but eventually the band decided to carry on as a keyboard-less quartet, with Carter handling the occasional synthesizer part.

Flash had a minor hit with "Small Beginnings" (1972, #29 Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

 chart

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

) which was featured in the movie

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

, Record Review. The song "Small Beginnings" has also been included in numerous compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

s, most recently Bob Stroud's Rock 'n Roll Roots, Vol. 10.

The band released three albums, Flash (1972), In The Can (1972) and Out Of Our Hands (1973).

Flash were signed with Sovereign, a sub-label of Capitol Records and received support from the label, who were hoping for a similar level of success to other progressive rock bands such as ELP or Yes. The debut LP sold in excess of 100,000 copies. They toured North America a total of four times, and Continental Europe (Holland, Belgium and Germany) once, in early 1972, while regularly playing gigs in their native UK, including a joint tour with Beck, Bogert & Appice

Beck, Bogert & Appice

Beck, Bogert & Appice was a hard rock supergroup and power trio formed by guitarist Jeff Beck and evolving from The Jeff Beck Group. the line up included bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice who were both previously in Vanilla Fudge and Cactus....

 in 1973. Flash also did a brief tour of Australia, while making their third album.

Flash disbanded during an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 tour in Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...

, New Mexico

New Mexico

New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

 in November 1973. At this point relationships inside the band had soured, particularly between Banks and the rest of the band. It was suggested that the band find a replacement for Banks and carry on, it resulted in the band's demise. At the insistence of Capitol, the third album was released under the name Flash - featuring England's Peter Banks, to avoid a legal challenge from another local band named "Flash", and to capitalise on the interest generated by Banks' solo album Two Sides Of Peter Banks which was released almost concurrently.

A 1997 release, Psychosync, compiled a live recording made in 1973 for a WLIR radio broadcast as well as their two song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

s performed on The Midnight Special

The Midnight Special (TV series)

The Midnight Special is an American musical variety series that aired on NBC during the 1970s and early 1980s, created and produced by Burt Sugarman. It premiered as a special on August 19, 1972, then began its run as a regular series on February 2, 1973; its last episode was on May 1, 1981...

TV show.

Flash after 1973

In the years following the band's breakup, the musicians kept working together in various combinations.

Bennett and Carter tried to start another band, eventually joined by Hough, with keyboard player Chris Pidgeon and ex-Flaming Youth

Flaming Youth

Flaming Youth can refer to:* Flaming Youth , a 1923 film starring Colleen Moore and Milton Sills* Flaming Youth , a 1960s British rock group* Flaming Youth , a novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams...

 member Gordon Smith on guitar, later replaced by Barry Paul (ex-Savoy Brown

Savoy Brown

Savoy Brown, originally known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, are a British blues rock band, formed in 1965, in Battersea, South West London...

). After playing what turned out to be its only gig at London's Marquee Club, the band (unofficially named Blaze) settled in New York, but failed to secure a record deal (its management having turned down several offers hoping for a better one to turn up) and broke up.

In 1975, Banks invited Bennett to join him in a new project with Sidonie Jordan [aka Sydney Foxx] (vocals) and Andrew McCulloch (drums, formerly of King Crimson

King Crimson

King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...

 and Greenslade

Greenslade

Greenslade is an English progressive rock band. It was originally formed in the autumn of 1972 with the following line-up:* Dave Greenslade - keyboards...

). Initial rehearsals in London led to a demo recording, but despite the help of Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend

Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...

 and Robert Stigwood

Robert Stigwood

Robert Stigwood is an impresario and entertainment entrepreneur who relocated to England in 1954...

, Banks failed to secure a deal. Later, Bennett recorded another demo with Jordan and McCulloch, but without Banks.

In 1976, Bennett was briefly a member of Banks' new project Empire, again featuring Jordan, but the reunion was short-lived.

In the early 1980s, with all ex-Flash members now based in Los Angeles, a reformation was attempted but failed to take off. Banks and Bennett kept playing together informally until they fell out again.

More recently, Bennett and Carter have been working together again under the Flash name (Hough was initially involved but later dropped out, and there was, briefly, talk of Banks taking part but, in the end, he declined). Bennett and Carter played together as a duo at the 2005 Baja Prog musical festival in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

.

Bennett and Carter posted new Flash material on the flash/bennettcarter MySpace website in July, 2009. Titles of the new songs are "Grand Canyon," "How The West Was Won," and "10,000". Videos of the reunited Flash can be found on YouTube.

In addition to the new material, Flash posted rehearsal videos of original Flash songs released on earlier albums. These include "Children of the Universe" from the debut album "Flash," and "Manhattan Morning" from the third album Out of our Hands.

On 31 August 2010, the band made their first public appearance since the breakup, a "live dress rehearsal" in preparation for an upcoming mini-tour. It took place at The E-String Bar in Henderson, Nevada

Henderson, Nevada

-Demographics:According to the 2000 census, there were 175,381 people, 66,331 households, and 47,095 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,200.8 people per square mile . There were 71,149 housing units at an average density of 892.8 per square mile...

, just southeast of Las Vegas. The lineup consisted of Colin Carter (vocals), Ray Bennett (guitar, vocals), Wayne Carver (bass, vocals), Mark Pardy (drums), and Rick Daugherty (keyboards).

Flash made their official reunion debut headlining the International ProgDay Festival in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...

 on 4 September 2010.

Discography

• Flash [recorded November 1971] (January 1972) U.S.
  United States
  The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
  
  #33.

1. "Small Beginnings" [Banks/Carter] - 9:22
2. "Morning Haze" [Bennett] - 4:37
3. "Children Of The Universe" [Bennett] - 8:59
4. "Dreams Of Heaven" [Banks/Carter] - 12:56
5. "The Time It Takes" [Banks/Carter] - 5:49
6. "Small Beginnings" (Single Version) (Bonus Track) - 3:11

• In The Can [recorded June 1972] (1972) U.S. #121

1. "Lifetime" [Carter] - 10:09
2. "Monday Morning Eyes" [Bennett] - 5:15
3. "Black and White" [Banks/Bennett] - 12:06
4. "Stop That Banging" [Hough] - 1:59
5. "There No More" [Bennett] - 10:31
6. "Watch Your Step" [Flash] (Bonus Track) - 2:49
7. "Lifetime" (Single Version) (Bonus Track) - 2:59

• Out Of Our Hands (1973) U.S. #135

1. "Open Sky" [Banks] - 0:40
2. "None The Wiser (King)" [Bennett] - 3:19
3. "Farewell Number One (Pawn)" [Bennett] - 1:39
4. "Man Of Honour (Knight)" [Bennett] - 4:44
5. "Dead Ahead (Queen)" [Bennett] - 4:42
6. "The Bishop" [Bennett] - 4:21
7. "Psychosync (Escape Farewell Number Two Conclusion)" [Banks/Bennett] - 4:52
8. "Manhattan Morning (Christmas '72)" [Carter] - 6:25
9. "Shadows (It's You)" [Carter] - 3:20

• Psychosync 1997 (Blueprint - live WLIR radio broadcast 1973)

1. "Small Beginnings"
2. "Room With a View"
3. "Children of the Universe"
4. "Dreams of Heaven"
5. "Dead Ahead"
6. "Psychosync"

• Two Sides of Flash: Live in the USA 2005 (may) (Voiceprint)
  • Two concerts in 1973

Flash also released two singles: "Small Beginnings" c/w "Morning Haze", and "Lifetime" c/w "Watch Your Step". ("Watch Your Step" is available on the CD reissue of In The Can, on the Esoteric Recordings label).

External links

• Psychosync - The Flash Homepage
• Flash MySpace website