“Don’t it always seem to go?
That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”
When Joni Mitchell penned those words in 1970, she wasn’t singing about a group of studio and classical veterans playing sorta, kinda instrumental rock music. But she could have been. Today, the music created by Sky has nearly disappeared from the minds and playlists of even those who enjoyed it at the time – which is a shame. If you go back and listen, you can appreciate it perhaps even more than when these songs were made in the 1980s and ’90s.
Sky’s music bridged various genres, as it combined classical, rock, new age and jazz. It followed in the footsteps of everyone from Claude Bolling and Jean-Pierre Rampal, Billy Cobham and Blood Sweat and Tears to the King’s Singers. You can debate the merits of such cross-pollinations, as there have surely been stumbles along the way. But combining jazz and rock (Mahavishnu, Steely Dan), classical and jazz (Free Flight), classical and rock (Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer), rock and country (the Eagles) or a multitude of genres (Dixie Dregs, take a bow) often resulted in a joyful, fresh, intoxicating blend.
Which brings us to Sky. The musical amalgam created by John Williams, Kevin Peek, Francis Monkman, Tristan Fry, Herbie Flowers, Steve Gray and their cohorts received plaudits and admittedly a few brickbats. Yet this instrumental stew somehow scaled the charts, especially in their native countries (Britain for Monkman, Fry, Flowers and Gray; Australia for Williams and Peek). Sky’s first album even went platinum in the U.K.
The band’s roots can be traced to the John Williams album Changes (later re-released as Cavatina), originally released in 1971. On that recording, the celebrated classical guitarist included contributions from keyboardist Rick Wakeman, bassist Herbie Flowers and drummer Tristan Fry, timpanist with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (remember that group). Williams’s 1978 album Travelling featured Flowers, as well as classically trained harpsichord player Francis Monkman.
The success of those two albums spurred the creation of Sky, which was completed with Williams’s countryman Kevin Peek on both electric and acoustic guitar. Peek had chamber experience and had played with a host of pop and rock performers (Tom Jones, Gary Glitter, Lulu). He had also worked with Francis Monkman. All five boasted classical backgrounds, as well as spending time in the studio and/or performing with various pop and rock outfits.
Sky took a fresh approach to combining genres. While several members wrote original music, the group also depended heavily on classical composers. Their first album included Satie’s “Gymnopedie No. 1,” while pieces by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi and Rameau graced subsequent releases. Sky 4: Forthcoming leaned entirely on material by Wagner, Berlioz, Ravel, Villa Lobos, even Hoagy Carmichael. The band’s last recording Mozart was devoted entirely to the Austrian composer’s work and went so far as to feature Fry’s other band, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
Most of Sky’s albums included a mix of classical pieces (often arranged by Williams) and original tracks penned primarily by Flowers, Peek, and Monkman; Steve Gray became the band’s primary composer when he replaced Monkman.
What was it like? The albums with Francis Monkman tended toward more classically inclined, given his background and penchant for harpsichord. Yet there was a definite rock beat to it, and traces of psychedelia. After all, Monkman had also been a mainstay of the early prog band Curved Air. When Gray came aboard, the band leaned into more of a jazzy, new age-y feel. Through it all, the guitars of Williams and Peek alternated between classical and rock, giving the tunes both balance and a tension between those genres’ extremes.
Those with a hankering to re-familiarize themselves with Sky’s output can opt for the eight-disc collection The Studio Albums, which collects the band’s seven studio efforts as well as a live DVD from 1990. Completists will want to also spring for Five Live. Originally released in 1994, it features a number of compositions not on the studio albums, as well as expanded versions of previously recorded tracks.
The first two albums with the founding members featured a number of outstanding moments: “Danza” is a glorious harpsichord feature, which you just don’t hear a lot of in rock music these days. “Cannonball” is a driving rock tune with some gorgeous unison guitar lines from Peek and John Williams. Portions of the 19-minute “Where Opposites Meet,” also from Sky’s 1979 self-titled debut, bear resemblance to another epic genre-busting effort: Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. The wistful version of Satie’s “Gymnopedie” is a highlight.
The cleverly titled Sky 2 opened in 1980 with the burbling beat of “Hotta,” relieved by the alternate electric and acoustic lines by the guitarists. It also includes the single “Toccata,” Sky’s reworking of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.” While history doesn’t tell us how high in the charts Bach’s original made it, Sky’s version rose to a somewhat astonishing No. 5 on Britain’s national pop charts. The album also included Sky’s version of “Vivaldi,” originally penned by Monkman for Curved Air.
By the time of 1981’s Sky 3, the harpsichord solos were gone, as Monkman left the band. Williams opens the disc with the brief “The Grace,” yielding to Peek’s electric guitar and the rhythm section on “Chiropodie No. 1.” The two guitarists trade phrases with Gray. Williams also shines on his arrangement of Handel’s “Sarabande,” while the syncopated rhythms on Gray’s “Sister Rose” are enhanced by Flowers’s funky (!) bass.
With no originals, 1982’s Sky 4: Forthcoming instead features the group’s interpretations of numerous classical pieces. “Waltz No. 2” by Ravel may be the most beautiful moment on the recording, though the concluding update of “Skylark” by Hoagy Carmichael gives that a run for its money.
Sky delivered live as well. Early in its career, the original group sold out concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and five nights at the Dominion Theatre. Their fifth album, 1983’s Five Alive, is taken from live shows in Australia. The live DVD on The Studio Albums was recorded during a performance in Nottingham in 1990. Both show a band that enjoys playing live; the latter, recorded after John Williams’s departure, includes Paul Hart on violin, lute and keyboards. They also feature tunes not available on their studio efforts or that are stretched out as befits a live concert. Kevin Peek especially showcases his abilities on both electric and acoustic.
Though it was Williams who provided the impetus for the band and who was its biggest individual draw, he’d never planned for his membership to be permanent. He left Sky in 1984 following the release of 1983’s Cadmium. The recording is probably one of their strongest statements. The mood varies from jaunty to contemplative while the beat changes and Steve Gray’s phalanx of keyboards provides atmosphere or the occasional lead line, sometimes echoed by one of the guitarists. Tristan Fry’s drumming wisely stays in the background most of the time. Prokofiev’s “Troika” is the only classical piece. “Son of Hotta,” which closes the album, is another Sky classic, building in classical fashion and featuring electric guitar.
Williams was not immediately replaced, but the band began supplementing its sound with a variety of guest musicians, both live and in the studio. They included guitarist Lee Fothergill and woodwind player Ron Aspery, who toured with Sky and were onboard for 1985’s The Great Balloon Race, along with keyboard player Tony Hymas and Adrian Brett on pan pipes.
Throughout its existence, Sky approached its music from a classical perspective, even following Williams’s departure. The Great Balloon Race was the group’s only recording to feature all originals, but that classical background showed in the compositional structure, even their titles: “Allegro” features a lengthy electric rock guitar solo from Peek, but in a classical framework. “The Land” includes shimmering keyboards with synthetic or sampled sounds, such as voice, carillon and harpsichord. The title track is all atmospheric and burbling synthesizers. Guest artist Adrian Brett’s panpipes give “Caldanado” a wistful feel, while the gentle “Night Sky” concludes the disc on a contemplative note.
All told, The Great Balloon Race is one of the best recordings in Sky’s catalog. The subsequent tour found keyboard player Nicky Hopkins and multi-instrumentalist Paul Hart accompanying the band, while a tour of Australia featured old friend Rick Wakeman.
The group’s final studio recording was perhaps its least successful musically. So of course it was the most successful chart-wise in the U.S. Mozart, released in 1987, was the first and only recording by Sky to feature one composer (guess who) and an orchestra, as Sir Neville Marriner conducted the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
It’s just too bad the album didn’t feature Sky. Instead, the band was relegated to accompanying the orchestra. While it’s a pleasant, even at times engaging album, Mozart is not really necessary, and it would have been just as good without Gray, Peek, Fry and Flowers.
Sky and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performed together only once, on Nov. 1, 1987, at the Royal Albert Hall. Subsequent live dates featured the core four plus Hart, who eventually became a full-time member, bringing the lineup back to a quintet.
By the ’90s, it was apparent that Sky was running out of steam, as was its audience. The band continued to perform, albeit to smaller and smaller venues, with dates coming farther apart. Kevin Peek left in 1991, and was replaced by guitarist Richard Durrant. Despite the fact that live performances from Sky’s last eight years featured new material, the group never again released a studio recording. They ceased activity in 1995, though the band never officially broke up.
Sure, one can make criticisms – and people did. For example, a less-than-flattering review of Sky 2 in Musician magazine suggested, “This should go down well with the wine and cheese set.”
As to the band itself, Tristan Fry’s unswerving straight time and occasionally bombastic drumming doesn’t do the group any favors. A more supple drummer, or a more energetic one – say, Steve Smith, Bill Bruford or Simon Phillips, perhaps with experience in rock and jazz – might have loosened things up.
Then there are the musical missteps (besides Mozart), such as Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” on Sky 4, which is at least as over the top as Wagner gets. In fact, the following “March to the Scaffold” isn’t much better, as Sky plays repeated false endings. The band’s sometimes off-putting sense of humor cropped up from time to time: Herbie Flowers’s “Tuba Smarties” on Sky 2 is one example, as is another tuba feature, “Dance of the Big Fairies” on Sky 3. The jokey “Peter’s Wedding,” on The Great Balloon Race is another.
So yes, you can pick on the occasional clunker. For the most part, however, Sky is engaging, occasionally enthralling, and almost always musical.
“You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”
No, Sky wasn’t musical paradise, but it was an excellent band. While the music hasn’t been paved over, it’s unlikely there will be any further reunion shows or recordings. Gray and Peek have both passed away, and while the other members and those in their orbit continue to compose and/or perform, it’s unlikely they’ll reform.
Of course, stranger things have happened. The folk-renaissance-prog band Gryphon ceased activity following its 1977 album Treason, only to reform and release their first new album in 41 years in 2018. We keep hearing rumors of a new album from Blood Sweat and Tears, which last recorded as a group in 1980. So, maybe never say never. But until or unless that happens, Sky left us plenty of exciting, enjoyable music.
- Dave Bainbridge of Downes Braide Association: The Albums That Shaped My Career - October 9, 2024
- Greg Cahill of Special Consensus: Albums That Shaped My Career - September 16, 2024
- Narada Michael Walden: The Albums That Shaped My Career - September 9, 2024
