Sky

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm intrigued by this band. There was a picture of them in my Guinness Book of Records when I was very young, and they seemed to have sold a lot of records fast. Apparently "everyone's heard something by them, even if they don't know it".

I thought it was time to knowingly listen to this group. Yet I can't even find a single song by them on Soulseek.

Can anyone enlighten me?

[Mumpo]

Sky

Most people know them for Dance Of The Little Fairies or Toccata

Here's Wikipedia

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sky

Yeah, I saw wiki. But I forgot youtube.

[Alderman Barnes]

Sky

I seem to remember them always being on Swap Shop. I bet Noel Edmonds had a hand in that pie.

[Ray de Galles]

Sky

Was there any link between Sky and Violinski

[Alderman Barnes]

Sky

Violinski - another Edmonds fave.

I think we may another micro-genre here: Swap Shop Rock.

B.A. Robertson - there's another one.

[imp]

Sky

You bastards. I actually owned the first four Sky albums. They were my third favourite band after ELO and Wings. And I had the Violinksi single Clog Dance.

Light pop-classical crossover, if they must have an assigned genre. Post-enlightenment, I gave them all to my Mum.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Sky

Music for Young Tories, who didn't consider pop music 'proper' enough.

[imp]

Sky

If only it had been that political.

[Ray de Galles]

Sky

Spearmint Rhino wrote:

Music for Young Tories, who didn't consider pop music 'proper' enough.

You're not including ELO in that?

[Andy C]

Sky

Music for Young Tories, who didn't consider pop music 'proper' enough.

Nonsense. One of my acquaintances who bought their records was an extremely fogeyish Young Liberal.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sky

Music for Young Tories, who didn't consider pop music 'proper' enough.

As I get older, I increasingly like the idea of "properness". You know, some people who can play their instruments and have a broad knowledge of music. Who might not struggle to put out a second album because they couldn't spend enough time doing any work for it.

Isn't pop about more than the records? I don't like the Sky tracks I've heard at all but I'll make them my favourite band for the reasons I've described.

[Andy C]

Sky

The main problem with classical musicians who stray across into pop music is that, for the most part, they're totally incapable of playing with any sort of swing or groove.

[Wyatt Earp]

Sky

Is that John Williams playing the Spanish guitar there? I have a vague memory of this band now.

I'd walk a mile on hot coals to hear Williams play Rodrigo or Albeniz, but I can't stand that shit. Am I safe from accusations of Toryness?

[Andy C]

Sky

Yep, that is indeed John Williams. And yes, in the classical field he has very few peers. In fact, I saw him once performing duets with Julian Bream and it was absolutely sublime.

But this...

[Furtho]

Sky

Didn't Asia have something to do with Sky? Or have I completely made that up?

[Spearmint Rhino]

Sky

When I was at school I had a digital watch which played Toccata. I replaced it with one which played the Can Can, which made me much happier.

Being into Sky was as much of a surefire Mark Of The Cunt as being into Dire Straits.

[Pants]

Sky

Hold on, I always thought Dire Straits was Dad Music, not Cunt Music.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Sky

There's a dad/cunt crossover.

[Guest]

Sky

Sky was a banged together group of classically trained musicians who wanted to..er...'rock out' and appeared to have been influenced by Mike Oldfield in some of their longer compositions.

There was that really annoying 'zany' member Herbie Flowers and, yes, they did appear on things like Swap Shop and Nationwide and really were smug beyond help...

I'm amazed they did four albums. If I remember correctly Sky 1 had moments of almost JMJ cross over stuff, whilst Sky 2 had a couple of hit singles on and sold buket loads.

Truly horrible stuff all round really.

I have to disagree with this though:

"I increasingly like the idea of "properness". You know, some people who can play their instruments and have a broad knowledge of music. Who might not struggle to put out a second album because they couldn't spend enough time doing any work for it."

...nahhhh....Musical instrument shops and hi-fi shops are full of people of that type who can play something well but who seem totally unable to have an original thought on any type of new music, can't write a decent song to save their lives, are anal beyond belief and think 'Brothers in Arms' by Dire Straits was good....

Everytime I think of that type of person I think of the likes of 'It Bites'......a cold sweat has broken out on my brow....

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sky

Disnee Girl, musicianship is like stonework on a medieval cathedral. Self-delighting, born of love; it therefore bestows a dignity upon the labourer entirely lacking in modern pop. Just as the Gothic mason might devote his life's work to a single building, so the musician might devote his life to a single album. Indeed, a single track, hesitating over every phrase like Flaubert.

Just a shame Sky are crap really.

[Andy C]

Sky

Architecture is frozen music, eh?

Thing is, you need much the same skills but applied with very different attitudes to build and finish, say, a cricket pavilion or a bus station.

(A song can be thought of as a tithe barn, with the music, or beams, providing a space to accommodate the words, or pile of silage...)

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sky

It's quite common to compare art to music. Pater said all art aspired to the condition of music, and people like Whistler like using musical terms for paintings. Architecture's perhaps a less common comparison but we might be on to something here, Andy.

Sky resemble some cheap "Commissioners' Gothic" church from about 1820. But I still like their style.

[Andy C]

Sky

Sadly, Goethe got there a couple of hundred years before us.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sky

Oh well.