Sky were an English–Australian instrumental rock group that specialised in combining a variety of musical styles, most prominently rock, classical and jazz. The group's original and best-known line-up featured two Australians - classical guitarist John Williams and electric guitarist Kevin Peek - alongside three Britons - bass player Herbie Flowers, drummer/percussionist Tristan Fry and keyboard player Francis Monkman.

History

Roots and prehistory

In 1971, John Williams released the fusion album Changes, his first recording of non-classical music and the first on which he played electric guitar. Among the musicians working on the album were Tristan Fry (an established session drummer who was also the timpanist for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and had played Timpani on the Beatles' "A Day in the Life") and Herbie Flowers (a former member of Blue Mink and T. Rex, as well as a busy session musician who, among other things, had recorded the bassline for Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side")."'It was very mixed – we could get some lovely nuns as well as rockers': The story of Sky, the least rock’n’roll band of all time" - article by Paul Lester in Prog, 18 April 2024"John Williams - The Subtlety of Emotions" - interview by Anil Prasad in Innerviews, 2024

The three musicians became friends, kept in touch and continued working together on various projects during the 1970s. One of these was Williams' 1978 album Travelling, another substantially commercially successful cross-genre recording. As well as Fry and Flowers, the record featured former Curved Air member Francis Monkman (who, in addition to his progressive and psychedelic rock background as guitar and synthesiser player, was a trained and accomplished classical harpsichordist).

In 1979, Monkman performed on Louis Clark's album (per-spek-tiv) n., on which he collaborated with Australian session guitarist Kevin Peek. Peek was equally adept at classical guitar and pop/rock styles, having built a reputation both as a chamber musician and as a long-standing member of Cliff Richard's band, as well as from working with Manfred Mann, Lulu, Tom Jones, Jeff Wayne, Shirley Bassey and Gary Glitter.

First line-up, Sky and Sky 2: 1979–1980

The success of Travelling inspired Williams and Flowers to set up Sky, their own long-term cross-genre band. The band name Sky was suggested by flautist Pinuccia Rossetti, a member of the Carlos Bonell Ensemble, and a friend of Williams. Fry and Monkman were swiftly recruited, with Kevin Peek being the final addition. The band began writing and recording instrumental music drawing on their collective experience of classical, light pop, progressive and psychedelic rock, light entertainment and jazz. After a protracted search for a record company, Sky signed with the small European label Ariola Records.

Although Sky was run democratically (with all members contributing music and/or arrangements), the presence of John Williams in the line-up was regarded as the band's biggest selling point and was emphasised in publicity. Williams' concurrent solo instrumental hit – "Cavatina – Theme from The Deer Hunter" – also helped to raise the band's profile. However, this selling was counterbalanced by some negative reviews from critics accustomed to Williams' classical performances, who remained unimpressed by his new direction with Sky.

Sky's self-titled debut album (released in 1979) was highly successful in Britain and Australia, quickly reaching gold record status and eventually topping out as a platinum record. The album featured versions of Eric Satie's "Gymnopedie No. 1" and Antonio Ruiz-Pipò's "Danza", as well as original compositions by Monkman and Flowers. Monkman's 'Cannonball' was a minor hit single, and the keyboard player also contributed the twenty-minute second-side composition "Where Opposites Meet" (a piece remembered by Williams as "an absolute masterpiece"), which was intended to combine and display the band's diverse influences."Album review: SKY – Reissues (Sky, Sky 2)" - review in Get Ready to Rock, 13 December 2014 The band toured the UK in summer and autumn 1979, particular triumphs being sold-out concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and the Dominion Theatre in London (the latter a five-night sellout). In 2024, Williams recalled "we'd really go places. We'd play the Apollo venues in London, Glasgow, and Manchester. Those were in areas you wouldn't want to find yourself at two o’clock in the morning on your own. A lot of the audience were rough and ready, but with hearts of gold."

Sky managed to appeal to a surprising breadth of music fans, with Monkman recalling in 1999 that "the audiences contained a greater variety of people than you would believe possible - leather-clad youth refusing to sit next to their parents, that sort of thing. Amazing!", while Fry would add in 2024 "it was very mixed – we could get some lovely nuns as well as rockers." In 2024, Williams remembered "Francis would play Padre Antonio Soler's 'Fandango in D minor' and it would go on for twelve minutes. The rock and roll audience at the Apollo in Glasgow would jump up and down and go wild with enthusiasm. Culturally, this was really important. You wouldn’t get them into a normal harpsichord recital at a small hall. It was because of this setting. [Kevin Peek] and I would also play some Praetorius sixteenth-century pieces — just for five or six minutes — and the audience would hear them in a way they’ve never heard them before."

The band were also technologically ambitious, with Williams noting "we were the first to combine acoustic and electronic instruments [in] the way we did. We coupled the harpsichord with a Fairlight CMI and Oberheim synths. So, when you played the harpsichord, it would have a half-organ sound with all the dynamics of the harpsichord." (Note - it has been suggested elsewhere that Monkman's harpsichord was actually doubled with the Prophet-5 synthesizer, via "a clever pre-MIDI interface"."Francis Monkman's Sandy Rogers 'Scarlatti' harpsichord (kit)" - note on Equipboard)

In 1980, Sky recorded and released their second album, Sky 2. This was a double album that built upon its predecessor's success, becoming the tenth highest selling album in Britain that year. The album included Monkman's side-long rock suite "FIFO", a piece inspired by computer information processing techniques ("First In, First Out"). It also featured four classical pieces including three established chamber music pieces (played entirely straight) and the band's souped-up electric treatment of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor". The latter was released as a single (under the name "Toccata") and reached number 5 in the national pop charts, giving the band the opportunity of performing on Top of the Pops."Sky: Vinyl Reissues album review" - review by Jerry Ewing in Prog, 13 June 2016

Other tracks on Sky 2 included a Williams conflation of Spanish folk tunes, a Fry-penned tuned percussion piece, a cover of Curved Air's "Vivaldi", Peek's Arabic-influenced "Sahara", the psychedelic faux-Spanish folk dance "Hotta", plus several cheerful Flowers compositions including his tuba showcase "Tuba Smarties" and the longer-form "Scipio". Flowers described the latter piece as "the first piece of music to have Parts I & II running simultaneously", although an unimpressed Monkman would later claim that it had been "motivated by a 'look, anyone can write a long piece' attitude". Notably, Monkman refused "point blank" to ever play "Scipio" live.

In 1980, the BBC produced the television series Great Railway Journeys of the World which included an episode set in Australia. The music for this programme was by Sky, featuring tracks from the first two albums.

Following further tours of Australia and the UK, Francis Monkman left the band in October 1980 to concentrate on his own projects (having scored success with his soundtrack to the film The Long Good Friday). Monkman had also become dissatisfied with the band's direction, commenting later in 1999 "all I can say is, there seemed to emerge (from where?) a need for Sky to re-invent itself, come the third album, as a 'true' MOR outfit... So, clearly outvoted in the dash for mediocrity that the third album, for me, represents, I quit."

In 2014, Fry recalled, ruefully, "there was nothing personal as far as I know... one day he came in and said it wasn't for him any more - not quite those words, but something like that."Sleevenotes for Sky 3 2015 reissue, compiled by Sid Smith, 2014 In the same interview, Flowers added, more pointedly, "I think [he] felt a little bit that the music should all be completely original and serious... maybe by then the width of our material was too wide, you couldn't pin us down, and I think Francis might have felt that it was beginning to take a bit too much time."

The remaining Sky members, however, had no doubts about carrying on despite the fact that Monkman had been Sky's most prominent original composer and arranger.

Second line-up, Sky 3, Sky 4: Forthcoming, Sky Five Live and Cadmium: 1980–1984

Monkman was replaced as Sky's keyboard player by Steve Gray."Sky - Sky3 & Sky - Sky4 Forthcoming" - review by Henri Strik in Background Magazine Like most of the other band members, Gray was an established session musician: he had previously played with Back Door, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Michel Legrand, Lalo Schifrin, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr and John Barry. More recently, he had led WASP, a studio-based jazz-fusion band specialising in high-quality library music. Recalling Gray's recruitment, Flowers asserted "there aren't many musicians to my mind with whom everything they play and everything they write is beautiful... but Steve Gray was," adding "Steve was the gentlest of men, and when he rolled up it was just wonderful from the start." Gray's jazz credentials also appealed to Flowers, who confessed to being "an old jazzer" at heart.

Despite Gray's initial reluctance to return to playing live, he was persuaded to join the band in time for their first European tour. This was followed by another UK tour and (on 24 February 1981) the "Sky at Westminster Abbey" concert. A benefit show to commemorate the 20th anniversary of human rights organisation Amnesty International, the latter was conceived by British producer Martin Lewis and was the first-ever rock concert held at the abbey. The landmark event resulted in Sky receiving considerable positive media coverage: it was also videotaped for a BBC TV special and subsequently released on home video and laserdisc.

The Westminster Abbey concert was also the launch event for the band's third album, Sky 3. A generally brighter and breezier album than its predecessors, the record demonstrated Steve Gray's new and prominent compositional role within Sky, moving away from the harpsichord-orientated and psychedelic elements of the Monkman years and taking the band towards a more jazz-influenced sound. Flowers jokingly described the recording sessions as having been "a lot of laughter with some music in between." Sky went on to tour Australia, Europe and the UK in support of the release.

The fourth Sky album, Sky 4: Forthcoming, was released in March 1982. Sky's first album to feature no original material, it consisted predominantly of arrangements of classical compositions and was marketed under the slogan "Genius Past, Genius Forthcoming". Flowers has spoken of having thought that "John [Williams] needed to be considered more. Perhaps the other albums had got a little too rocky and the idea of this [one] was to slide us a little bit nearer to where we were all very comfortable... John was keen to do 'Fantasy' by Bach."Sleevenotes for Sky 4: Forthcoming 2015 reissue, compiled by Sid Smith, 2014