The Flying Pickets are a British a cappella vocal group which had a Christmas number one hit in 1983 on the UK Singles Chart with their cover version of Yazoo's track "Only You".
History
The band of six was founded by Brian Hibbard in 1982 from a group of actors who had been active with him in John McGrath's 7:84 theatre group, a fringe theatre organisation who had sung a cappella in their production of the 1981 play One Big Blow. The group chose the name the Flying Pickets as band members had played a part in the UK miners' strikes of 1972 and 1974.
Performing in clubs and pubs in London, the Flying Pickets came up with a concept of transferring the art of a cappella to the pop music scene. Joining Hibbard in the group were Rick Lloyd (who also wrote the music to One Big Blow), Gareth Williams, David Brett, Ken Gregson (real name Kenneth Gregory) and Red Stripe (real name David Gittins). The members were internationally renowned for their flamboyant appearance: Hibbard's huge sideburns, Stripe's thick eye-liner, and the others showing off gaudy suits and large hats. Two of the other original members, Ron Donachie and Christopher Ryan, left the band before "Only You".
"Only You", their first single, was the UK Christmas number one in 1983, spending five weeks at the top, A second single, a cover version of Van McCoy's "(When You're) Young and in Love" (originally written for Ruby and the Romantics), reached number 7 in the UK, but their third, a cover of the Eurythmics' "Who's That Girl", barely charted. Hibbard and Stripe tried to stay in the music industry, forming their own act called Brian and Stripe, but their first and only single, a cover version of Yazoo's "Mr. Blue", failed to chart, and they returned to their separate acting careers.
In 1987, the Flying Pickets sang the title song (in Latin, Dives in Omnia) and end titles reprise to Porterhouse Blue, in the style of a medieval university drinking-song.
The group sang two songs on the Eric Woolfson/Alan Parsons 1990 album Freudiana.
The Flying Pickets' line-up has changed throughout the years, but the band never died; since the Pickets began, there have been around 27 members. The last member of the original line-up, David Brett, left the band in 1990. However, in 1994, the original line-up (minus Lloyd) reformed to record one more album.
Brett toured with the English Shakespeare Company and appeared as Mad Mike the Mechanic in the BBC children's TV programme Marlene Marlowe Investigates. In 2000, Brett played the part of Dedalus Diggle in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Williams toured in a production of South Pacific and also with The English Shakespeare Company; he played Nathan Detroit in a production of Guys & Dolls. He also worked with Jonathan Miller on a TV adaptation of Henry Mayhew's London Labour, London Poor. In 2009, he understudied and went on for Patrick Stewart in the Theatre Royal Haymarket production of Waiting for Godot.
Gittins worked in bread delivery after leaving the band, then decided to move to Australia where he took a job as a stage mechanist at the Victorian State Theatre. He also co-developed the techno act Poets of the Machine.