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Kevin Peek
guitars |
Steve Gray
keyboards |
Herbie Flowers
bass |
Tristan Fry
percussion |
Guest Musicians:
Ron Aspery (Saxophones & Flutes on Peter's Wedding)
Adrian Brett (Pan Pipes)
Lee Fothergill (Guitars)
Tony Hymas (Synthesiser & Vocals on Desperate For Your Love)
Clare Torry (Vocals)
Released: April 1985
Availability:
If you're looking to buy this album, you're out of luck. It's not been available for a very long time, since shortly after its release.
There is usually at least one copy floating around on eBay at any given time, but be prepared to pay collectors' prices for it on CD (you can usually get it on vinyl or cassette for a fair price). If the seller isn't aware of the CD's potential value, then be prepared to find stiff competition from other bidders.
In the track listing below, each track title is a link to a short MP3 sample (approx. one minute). Don't ask me to include full tracks on this site - it'll never happen for a multitude of reasons.
Short Review:
The first album to be released after John Williams' departure and over a year in the making, this is perhaps the most jazz-influenced of all Sky albums. The opening track by modern classical composer Tony Hymas doesn't fit the mood of the remaining tracks and is a jarring incongruity. Allegro, The Lady and the Imp, Caldando and Roleystone are pretty typical of many Sky compositions - workmanlike, tuneful, but nothing to write home about. Peter's Weddding (probably the least "Sky-like" track from all their recorded output) and the title track are two of the highlights for those who enjoy Herbie Flowers' humour, while "The Land" is definitely up among the best of their work, very evocative and atmospheric. The album closes with the obligatory "simple" piece, which certainly deserved to do better on its release as a single, although it's hardly dance music, is it? Agree? Disagree? Have your say in the Forum!
Track listing (including original liner notes from the band):
Desperate For Your Love (Hymas)
It's inevitable that The Voice comma whether it be
talking comma singing comma or la-la-ing comma would crop
up on the band's repertoire full stop After all it is
a musical instrument full colon and as such should be
written for full stop
Tony Hymas - an English composer - wrote this so he
recites the poetry at the front: it would sound too
arty-farty if we got a professional actor to do it and
no one sings one's own stuff like one's self (eh!)
'Caliban' is a monster from Shakespeare's 'Tempest'.
Say goodnight to the folks, Gracie! H.F.
Allegro (Gray)
This is a quick piece. "Allegro' means quick.
Would that all titling decisions were so simple. S.G.
The Land (Peek/Spencer)
Perhaps it should have been titled 'The Timeless Land' but
the whole thing about the Australian Aboriginal "Dream-time'
legends and the timelessness of the Australian bush has been
a little overdone of late (not, of course, in any way that
degrades the items mentioned). When Trevor and I wrote the
piece we were trying to maintain in our minds the vast
feeling of native Australia (and the native Australian, the
Aborigine) blended with the arrival and enterprise of the
first European settlers (mainly British). The hardships
that those first settlers endured has always been a point
of wonderment and interest to me (I don't think I would
have survived) and even now many years on, the land and
the climate remain virtually as harsh and impregnable as
ever. The Australian white man/woman/persons are, in many
cases, slowly learning to blend in with the country and
not fight it - to preserve rather than destroy.
K.P
Peter's Wedding (Flowers)
Peter married Isobel on a boat in Sydney Harbour
last year.
It was a really windy day and it was a lady that
did the ceremony and on the video it looks as if
everybody was tipsy because of the swaying of the
boat.
All the band, crew and friends were there with a
smattering of children, plus hundreds of seagulls,
and it was the most magical day.
What a smoothie, our Peter. He's SKY's manager, by the way. Without him - well, who knows? Me - I couldn't manage a dog fight.
H.F.
The Great Balloon Race (Flowers)
I haven't got the pluck to go up in a hot air balloon,
so how dare I write a piece called 'The Great Balloon
Race'? Instead I sit at home watching people doing
it on television and say to myself "God, I must have a go at that".
More pie in the sky. H.F.
The Lady And The Imp (Flowers/Gray)
Herbie and I noticed that our sales in Ballymacarbry
and Boston, Massachusetts weren't all that they
should be so we came up with this one. It's a bit
of scurrilous mischief, really: of which there can never be too much. (I find the six bars after the
drum solo particularly naughty). S.G.
Caldando (Gray)
There is (I hope) no such word as CALDANDO, although the
New Oxford Companion to Music lists Calando, Calcando and
Calmando as meaning, respectively, "lowering", "trampling"(!)
and "calm".
Originally when we recorded this piece in Australia I
simply repeated the tune at the end of the first chorus.
On reflection this seemed to be quite a lot of a not very
good thing so when we got the tapes back to London I wiped
the first 17 bars of the second chorus clean: chopped one
bar's worth of tape out altogether and inserted the 16 bar
pan-pipe interlude. Fortunately the mechanics all worked:
although there was a time half-way through the operation
where we all needed nerves of steel and an absolute
conviction that we were doing the right thing.
The pan-pipes are played by Adrian Brett; the electric
guitar that accompanies them by Lee Fothergill who, with
Ron Aspery, was SKY's guest for our 1984 U.K. and
Australian tours. S.G.
Roleystone (Peek)
That's where I live in Australia. I wasn't
thinking about Roleystone at all when I wrote
it but I was sitting in it. In my usual style
(or lack of it) I hadn't a clue as to what title
to give the piece and rather than call it KP 496
Herbie said "call it 'Roleystone' you stupid !&@@!!!**$$£!." K.P.
Night Sky (Gray)
We wrote this originally to tuck up a television
station for the night and it came on the album
as an afterthought. When we reviewed what we had
done we thought it would be nice to have one
simple piece-with no tricks. So this is it:
guitar, bass, drums and piano. (There is an
electric piano overdub on the last section,
actually, but then keyboard players always need
a bit more help). 5G.
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