The Flying Lizards -

The Flying Lizards were an English electro/art-pop group that charted with 1979 reinventions of two rock standards: “Summertime Blues” and “Money.” Producer David Cunningham led the project through multiple iterations, first with singer Deborah Lizard and multi-instrumentalist Steve Beresford.

Lizards’ 1981 second album, Fourth Wall, features Robert Fripp, Snatch singer Patti Palladin, and Eye to Eye keyboardist Julian Marshall. For 1984’s Top Ten, Cunningham worked with bassist John Greaves (Henry Cow, National Health). In 1991, they cut the ambient-vocal disc Greaves, Cunningham.

Members: David Cunningham (piano, glockenspiel, synthesizer, percussion), Deborah Lizard [Deborah Evans-Stickland] (vocals, 1979), David Toop (drums), Steve Beresford (piano, trumpet, euphonium, bass), Patti Palladin (vocals, 1981)

Background

David Cunningham was born on December 20, 1954, in Armagh, Northern Ireland. At age 18, he moved to London to study painting at Maidstone College of Art.

His early musical endeavors included Les Cochons Choc, an untutored thirteen-piece ensemble divided by rhythm and “surface” players who added textures through a delay unit. They partook in a competition where the backing tapes failed midway through their ten-minute number. Despite this, amused attendees (weary of the “serious” competition) demanded an encore.^>

In 1977, Cunningham self-released Grey Scale, comprised of variations of the same piece at different stages of development; a documented work in progress.

As Cunningham experimented with processed music layers, he realized that commercial pop records typically concern cars, money, TV, and sex.

Singles

On October 27, 1978, Flying Lizards released “Summertime Blues,” a reinvented Eddie Cochran classic backed with “All Guitars,” a Cunningham original.

A. “Summertime Blues” — originated as a July 1958 Liberty a-side by Oklahoma singer–guitarist Eddie Cochran, co-written with his manager Jerry Capehart; it peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 18 on the UK Singles Chart. Blue Cheer took the song to No. 14 on the Hot 100 in 1968, and The Who recorded a live version for their 1970 album Live at Leeds, which charted at No. 38 in the UK and No. 27 in the US.
B. “All Guitars”

On July 27, 1979, Flying Lizards released “Money,” a re-imagined Motown standard backed with “Money B,” a continuation of said song.

A. “Money” — originated as a 1959 Tamla a-side by Barrett Strong — the first hit for Berry Gordy’s nascent Motown enterprise, co-written by Gordy and label staffer Janie Bradford; it reached No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 23 on the Hot 100. The Beatles covered it on their 1963 UK album With the Beatles, and The Kingsmen took their version to No. 16 on the Hot 100 in 1964. Cunningham’s version expands to nearly six minutes of dub-stretched space and peaked at No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100.
B. “Money B”

Flying Lizards mimed “Money” for the August 9 and 29 broadcasts of Top of the Pops, which thrice aired the song amid summer ’79 hits by Angelic Upstarts (“Teenage Warning”), Cliff Richard (“We Don’t Talk Anymore”), The Crusaders (“Street Life”), The Jam (“When You’re Young”), Joe Jackson (“Is She Really Going Out With Him?”), Judie Tzuke (“Stay With Me Till Dawn”), Madness (“The Prince”), The Merton Parkas (“You Need Wheels”), The Planets (“Lines V”), and The Ruts (“Something That I Said”).

The Flying Lizards

The Flying Lizards released their self-titled debut album in February 1980 on Virgin.

The album divides between a front half of bent pop constructs and a back half of dub-informed soundscapes. Cunningham drew in improvisers Steve Beresford and David Toop — credited together as General Strike — alongside vocalist Deborah Evans-Stickland and writer Vivien Goldman, who co-wrote “The Window” and “Her Story.”

The Flying Lizards opens with “Der Song von Mandelay,” a Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill standard delivered with quivering, rolled operatic vowels well removed from its source. “Her Story” moves at a low, discordant pace with layered vocals; “TV” takes a spoken-word approach over warped, shuffling backing. “Russia” sets multiple voices talking over a stiff, quasi-military pulse.

The two hit singles anchor the first side’s close and open the second: “Summertime Blues” strips the Eddie Cochran original to bare percussion and near-toneless spoken delivery, while “Money” expands to nearly six minutes of dub-stretched space. The back half — “The Flood,” “Trouble,” “Events During Flood” — pushes further into texture and drum-dominated abstraction. “The Window,” with Goldman’s co-authorship, closes the album in quieter, more atmospheric territory. Cunningham produced.

A1. “Mandelay Song” (2:27) — Brecht/Weill
A2. “Her Story” (4:37) — Solomon/Cunningham/General-Strike/Goldman
A3. “TV” (3:51) — Cunningham/Evans-Stickland/General-Strike
A4. “Russia” (6:11)
A5. “Summertime Blues” (3:09) — Eddie Cochran/Jerry Capehart

B1. “Money” (5:52) — Berry Gordy/Janie Bradford
B2. “The Flood” (4:57)
B3. “Trouble” (2:46)
B4. “Events During Flood” (3:25)
B5. “The Window” (4:52) — Vivien Goldman

Virgin released “TV” as a single in January 1980, backed with “Tube,” an instrumental remix of the same track. The album reached No. 60 on the UK Albums Chart, No. 37 in Australia, No. 28 in New Zealand, and No. 99 on the US Billboard 200.

Between albums, Cunningham produced an album of sliced and overdubbed pieces by Jamaican reggae DJ Jah Lloyd, who sourced the material from his 1978 album The Humble One. After years in the vaults, the album appeared as The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards, released in 1996 on Cunningham’s Piano label.

Fourth Wall

The Flying Lizards released their second album, Fourth Wall, in June 1981 on Virgin.

Where the debut leaned on detached pop parody, Fourth Wall turns the same deconstructive method toward a denser and more unsettled result. Patti Palladin handles lead vocals throughout, her presence lending a harder edge to Cunningham’s arrangements. Guitarist Robert Fripp appears on “Glide/Spin” and “Lost and Found,” saxophonist Peter Gordon on “Glide/Spin,” and saxophonist Gareth Sager on “A-Train.” Drummer J.J. Johnson anchors the rhythm across the album, with Val Haller on bass for “In My Lifetime” and “A-Train.”

“Lovers and Other Strangers,” co-written by Steve Beresford, opens with a buoyant, bobbing figure that collapses mid-track into layered dub, percussion cascades, and found-sound intrusions. “Glide/Spin” moves at an unhurried, swinging pace with Fripp’s guitar cutting across the pulse. “In My Lifetime” keeps a prowling, tense rhythm under a hoarse male vocal repeating a single phrase. “A-Train” builds on a loping, percussive figure with Sager’s saxophone driving raw, lateral bursts over an arched keyboard riff.

The experimental pieces — “Cirrus,” “An Age,” and “New Voice” — work through loop and repetition, with voices processed and displaced in the mix. “Hands 2 Take,” co-written with Michael Nyman, deploys Nyman on piano alongside staccato reeds, trombone, bass clarinet, rebec, and massed horns in a dense, blustering arrangement around Palladin’s vocal. The album’s cover, Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up,” subjects the source to a stark, stripped treatment — spare bass, percussive clatter, and background processed sound. “Another Story” drives on a complex rhythm with harpsichord-type keyboard figures, while “Steam Away” maintains a rapid, machine-tight bump. “Lost and Found,” co-written with Fripp, closes the album.

A1. “Lovers and Other Strangers” (3:09) — Cunningham/Palladin/Beresford
A2. “Glide/Spin” (3:30) — Cunningham, Palladin
A3. “In My Lifetime” (2:20)
A4. “Cirrus” (1:24)
A5. “A-Train” (5:09) — Cunningham/Palladin
A6. “New Voice” (5:42)

B1. “Hands 2 Take” (4:05) — Nyman/Cunningham/Palladin
B2. “An Age” (2:31)
B3. “Steam Away” (4:47)
B4. “Move On Up” (5:27) — Curtis Mayfield
B5. “Another Story” (3:08)
B6. “Lost and Found” (2:47) — Cunningham/Fripp

Cunningham co-designed the artwork with graphic illustrator Laurie-Rae Chamberlain. The front cover sets the band name and album title in bold green type against a white ground, flanked by a pre-Columbian deity figure rendered in red, yellow, and green, alongside three small photographic rectangles in tinted green, gold, and blue. The back cover repeats the deity illustration, now against a red ground, with the personnel and tracklist printed in small type to the right. Chamberlain also illustrated sleeves for Adam & The Ants (“Xerox”) and This Heat (Deceit).

Virgin preceded the album with “Move On Up” in October 1980, backed with “Portugal.”

“Hands 2 Take” followed in January 1981 with “Continuity” on the reverse. Virgin released the album’s third single, “Lovers and Other Strangers,” in June 1981 backed with “Wind.”

Top Ten

The Flying Lizards released their third album, Top Ten, in November 1984 on Statik.

Top Ten consists entirely of covers, pulling from soul, pop, and early rock ‘n’ roll standards of the 1950s and 1960s. Bassist John Greaves underpins “Tutti Frutti” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”; keyboardist Julian Marshall appears on “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” “Sex Machine,” and “Great Balls of Fire”; saxophonist and clarinetist Peter Gordon plays on “What’s New Pussycat” and handles percussion on “Then He Kissed Me”; Steve Beresford takes piano on “Tears.”

Violinists Alexander Balanescu and Elisabeth Perry appear as the “Flying Lizards Strings.” Voice on several tracks is credited to Sally.

A1. “Tutti Frutti” (2:42) — D. La Bostrie/R. Penniman
A2. “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” (2:05) — Larry Williams
A3. “Sex Machine” (5:09) — Byrd/Brown/Lenhoff
A4. “What’s New Pussycat” (3:49) — Bacharach/David
A5. “Suzanne” (5:30) — Leonard Cohen

B1. “Then He Kissed Me” (2:54) — P. Spector/E. Greenwich/J. Barry
B2. “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” (3:33) — D. Williams/S. David
B3. “Purple Haze” (4:14) — J. Hendrix
B4. “Great Balls of Fire” (1:57) — J. Hammer/D. Blackwell
B5. “Tears” (4:31) — B. Uhr/F. Caprano

The sleeve dedicates the album to Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, inventor of the metronome, with the motto “rhythm is not arithmetic” and the note that “the interpretation is innocent.” Cunningham recorded the album in London and Geneva and mixed it digitally in London.

Discography: