The Flying Lizards

All Music Guide:

The Flying Lizards are remembered by most listeners as new wave one-hit wonders thanks to their deliberately eccentric cover of Barrett Strong's "Money," which became a surprise chart success in 1979. But the Flying Lizards were in fact the brainchild of David Cunningham, a well-respected avant-garde composer, producer, and visual artist, and it became one of the first salvos in a long and fascinating career. Cunningham was born in Ireland in 1954, and once told a reporter he first took up music in school as a way of avoiding playing rugby with his schoolmates. Cunningham later developed a keen interest in both music and visual art, and he left Ireland when he was accepted at the Maidstone College of Art in Canterbury, Kent, where he studied film and video installation. While in school, Cunningham began doing live sound for rock bands playing on campus, which led to an interest in recording and music production.

In 1975, Cunningham self-released an album of minimalist music, Grey Scale, and using borrowed gear he recorded a deliberately harsh and minimal version of the old Eddie Cochran hit "Summertime Blues," with art school chum Deborah Evans contributing flat, tuneless vocals. Cunningham claims the low-tech single cost just 20 pounds to make, and after it was turned down by a number of labels, Virgin Records picked it up for release in 1978, under the assumption that it was inexpensive enough to recoup its costs quickly. Released under the name the Flying Lizards, "Summertime Blues" attracted enough press attention to sell a few thousand copies, putting the project solidly in the black, and Cunningham decided to take another stab at reconfigured pop. With its clanking prepared piano, crashing percussion sounds (a combination of tambourine and snare drum), and another monotonic vocal by Evans, "Money" was considerably more manic than "Summertime Blues," through the recording budget was similarly cheap, and the single became an unexpected chart hit both in Europe and the United States.

Cunningham's deal with Virgin was for only two singles, but with "Money" climbing the charts, they signed him to a new contract, and the Flying Lizards' first album soon followed, which featured dub-style audio experiments with improvisational musicians Steve Beresford and David Toop, and bent interpretations of pop music constructs along with the two freak hit singles. The album sold just well enough to justify Virgin financing another Flying Lizards LP, but 1981's Fourth Wall put its focus on the eclectic experimentalism of Cunningham's music, and despite the presence of another bent cover of a pop classic (in this case Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up") and contributions from Robert Fripp, Patti Palladin, and Michael Nyman, the album was a commercial disappointment though it received strong reviews.

By this time, Cunningham was devoting much of his time to producing other artists (including This Heat and Wayne County), and after releasing 1984's Top Ten -- which combined Cunningham's eccentric take on pop with sleek electronic textures and the vocals of Sally Peterson -- Cunningham retired the Flying Lizards. Since then, he's continued to create multimedia installations, produced a number of Michael Nyman's film scores, staged improvised performances with other visionary musical artists, and composed music for film, television, and dance projects. An unreleased dub music project from 1979, in which Cunningham reworked recordings by Jah Lloyd, received a belated release in 1995 as The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards.

Wikipedia:

The Flying Lizards were an English experimental rock band, who were formed in 1976 in England. They are best remembered as New Wave one-hit wonders, thanks to their deliberately eccentric cover of Barrett Strong's "Money", which became a UK and US chart success in 1979.

Career

Formed by and led by record producer David Cunningham, the group was a loose collective of avant-garde and free improvising musicians, such as David Toop and Steve Beresford as instrumentalists, plus Deborah Evans-Stickland, Patti Palladin and Vivien Goldman as main vocalists. It also included the painter Michael Upton.

Cunningham's recording contract with Virgin Records was for only two singles, but when "Money" started to climb the charts they signed him to a new contract. The group released their debut album The Flying Lizards late in 1979. The album included two songs – "HerStory" and "The Window" – written and sung by Goldman. Their single issues included their postmodern cover versions of songs such as Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" and "Money".

The album sold enough copies to justify Virgin's financing another Flying Lizards album, but 1981's Fourth Wall put its focus on the eclectic experimentalism of Cunningham's music. Despite the presence of another mangled cover of a pop standard (Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up") the album was a commercial disappointment, though it received strong reviews.

Their 1984 album Top Ten consisted entirely of covers, done in a deliberately emotionless, harsh and robotic style, including James Brown's "Sex Machine", and Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne". By this time Cunningham was devoting much of his time to producing other artists (including This Heat and Wayne County). After releasing 1984's Top Ten, which combined Cunningham's eccentric take on pop with electronic textures and the vocals of Sally Peterson, Cunningham retired the Flying Lizards.

Their version of Barrett Strong's "Money" remained popular, and was used in the film soundtracks for The Wedding Singer, Empire Records, Charlie's Angels and Lord of War, as well as in the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television medical drama Nip/Tuck and the follow-up to the UK TV drama Life on Mars, called Ashes to Ashes. In 2011 the song was used in a commercial for Taco Bell.

An album of dub instrumentals, The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards, recorded by David Cunningham mostly in 1978, was finally released in 1995. The first two albums, The Flying Lizards and Fourth Wall, were re-released by RPM in 2010, with the catalogue number RETROD883.

With only one single making the UK Top 40, the Flying Lizards join the list of one-hit wonders – a list that includes other UK punk or new wave acts such as The Banned, John Cooper Clarke, Jilted John, 999, Radio Stars, Rich Kids and The Vibrators.