Flash

Following his ouster from Yes in favor of Steve Howe, Peter Banks turned his attention toward assembling a fresh ensemble called Flash. Assembled in 1971, the band came together after Banks enlisted his longtime collaborator Ray Bennett, formerly of Gun, along with Colin Carter, who had previously played with Pete Bardens' Camel, and Mike Hough. Completing the lineup was Tony Kaye, the keyboardist from Yes's earliest days. Although Flash's music evoked the style of Yes's debut and sophomore efforts, it incorporated a somewhat more pop-inflected sensibility. Moreover, the group embraced a looser, more improvisational method in their technically proficient performances instead of sticking rigidly to composed arrangements. The band's debut, the self-titled Flash, appeared in 1972. Tony Kaye departed not long afterward, yet rather than seeking a substitute, the remaining members continued as a quartet. This configuration yielded two subsequent releases, In the Can and Out of Our Hands, both issued in 1973. The ensemble disbanded soon thereafter, though a concert recording titled Psychosync—which had circulated earlier as a bootleg—emerged on Voice Print Records in 1997.