The opening phrases of JS Bach’s Toccata And Fugue In D Minor signify an iconic second in musical historical past. So too did Francis Monkman’s efficiency of these phrases on High Of The Pops in 1980, when instrumental band Sky turned pop stars for just a few weeks. Prog appeared again in 2009.
If ever there was a band least more likely to have successful single, it should be Sky. The mixture of significant musicians John Williams (guitar), Herbie Flowers (bass), Kevin Peek (guitar), Francis Monkman (keyboards) and Tristen Fry (drums) was by no means meant to succeed in the charts.
However in 1980 their model of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata And Fugue In D Minor made it to Quantity 5, below the title of Toccata. It spent 4 weeks within the prime 20 and a complete of 11 weeks within the prime 100. Not unhealthy for a three-century-old piece of music.
“All kinds of issues had been doable in these days,” says Monkman, laughing on the considered Sky truly being pop stars for a quick time, full with an look on High Of The Pops.
Peek provides: “The association we did was stimulated largely by its use because the theme for the movie Rollerball (1975), which had the primary motif performed on piano with a conventional pop rhythm part and strings.
“I felt that it could go well with a smaller group association and, particularly, that the primary melody would sit very properly on guitar as an alternative of piano.”
Monkman had beforehand executed TOTP with Curved Air, nevertheless it was a brand new expertise for the others. “The oddest factor was the viewers having to try to take pleasure in themselves when the sound system was barely audible,” he says of the second captured in video.
The band members are clearly having fun with the expertise, partly for its weirdness – and word the bloke chewing gum nonchalantly as Monkman punches out one of the dramatic keyboard phrases in historical past.
“Nevertheless it wasn’t as if we weren’t used to success,” he continues. “We’d already had a Quantity One album with Sky [1979] – and the double Sky 2 was about to do the identical internationally.”
One can think about the mainstream recognition of Toccata triggering a backlash from classical music buffs, horrified that such a revered piece could possibly be tarnished by a chart profile. However Monkman doesn’t suppose it occurred.
“I by no means heard any negativity in the direction of it,” he stated. “Perhaps that’s as a result of what we’d executed was so clearly a by-product of the unique, slightly than a direct illustration, so there was a distinction.
“I’d wish to suppose we acquired pop followers into classical music!”
