Biography
The Flying Lizards are recalled by most listeners as new wave one-hit wonders due to their intentionally off-kilter version of Barrett Strong's "Money," which turned into an unexpected chart success in 1979. Yet the project actually stemmed from David Cunningham, a respected avant-garde composer, producer, and visual artist, launching what would become a lengthy and compelling body of work. Born in Ireland in 1954, Cunningham once told a reporter he first took up music in school as a way of avoiding playing rugby with his schoolmates. He later cultivated deep interests in both music and visual art, departing Ireland after gaining acceptance to Maidstone College of Art in Canterbury, Kent, where he focused on film and video installation. While enrolled, he began providing live sound for rock bands performing on campus, an experience that fostered his engagement with recording and music production.
In 1975, Cunningham self-released the minimalist album Grey Scale. Using borrowed equipment, he captured a deliberately harsh and minimal take on the old Eddie Cochran hit "Summertime Blues," with art school chum Deborah Evans supplying flat, tuneless vocals. Cunningham claims the low-tech single cost just 20 pounds to make, and after rejections from several labels, Virgin Records acquired it for release in 1978, reasoning that its modest expense would allow quick recoupment. Issued as the Flying Lizards, "Summertime Blues" drew enough press attention to move a few thousand copies, placing the venture in profit and prompting Cunningham to pursue another reconfigured pop effort. With its clanking prepared piano, crashing percussion sounds (a combination of tambourine and snare drum), and another monotonic vocal by Evans, "Money" proved considerably more manic than "Summertime Blues," though the recording budget remained similarly cheap, and the single became an unexpected chart hit both in Europe and the United States.
Cunningham's agreement with Virgin covered only two singles, but as "Money" ascended the charts the label offered a new contract, after which the Flying Lizards' debut album appeared, incorporating dub-style audio experiments with improvisational musicians Steve Beresford and David Toop along with bent interpretations of pop constructs and the two freak hit singles. The album sold just well enough to secure Virgin financing for another Flying Lizards LP, yet 1981's Fourth Wall centered on the eclectic experimentalism of Cunningham's music, and despite the inclusion of another bent cover of a pop classic (in this case Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up") and contributions from Robert Fripp, Patti Palladin, and Michael Nyman, the release proved a commercial disappointment even as it earned strong reviews.
By this point Cunningham was devoting substantial time to producing other artists (including This Heat and Wayne County), and after issuing 1984's Top Ten—which fused Cunningham's eccentric approach to pop with sleek electronic textures and the vocals of Sally Peterson—he retired the Flying Lizards name. Since then he has continued creating multimedia installations, produced a number of Michael Nyman's film scores, staged improvised performances with other visionary musical artists, and composed music for film, television, and dance projects. An unreleased dub music project from 1979, in which Cunningham reworked recordings by Jah Lloyd, received a belated release in 1995 as The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards.
In 1975, Cunningham self-released the minimalist album Grey Scale. Using borrowed equipment, he captured a deliberately harsh and minimal take on the old Eddie Cochran hit "Summertime Blues," with art school chum Deborah Evans supplying flat, tuneless vocals. Cunningham claims the low-tech single cost just 20 pounds to make, and after rejections from several labels, Virgin Records acquired it for release in 1978, reasoning that its modest expense would allow quick recoupment. Issued as the Flying Lizards, "Summertime Blues" drew enough press attention to move a few thousand copies, placing the venture in profit and prompting Cunningham to pursue another reconfigured pop effort. With its clanking prepared piano, crashing percussion sounds (a combination of tambourine and snare drum), and another monotonic vocal by Evans, "Money" proved considerably more manic than "Summertime Blues," though the recording budget remained similarly cheap, and the single became an unexpected chart hit both in Europe and the United States.
Cunningham's agreement with Virgin covered only two singles, but as "Money" ascended the charts the label offered a new contract, after which the Flying Lizards' debut album appeared, incorporating dub-style audio experiments with improvisational musicians Steve Beresford and David Toop along with bent interpretations of pop constructs and the two freak hit singles. The album sold just well enough to secure Virgin financing for another Flying Lizards LP, yet 1981's Fourth Wall centered on the eclectic experimentalism of Cunningham's music, and despite the inclusion of another bent cover of a pop classic (in this case Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up") and contributions from Robert Fripp, Patti Palladin, and Michael Nyman, the release proved a commercial disappointment even as it earned strong reviews.
By this point Cunningham was devoting substantial time to producing other artists (including This Heat and Wayne County), and after issuing 1984's Top Ten—which fused Cunningham's eccentric approach to pop with sleek electronic textures and the vocals of Sally Peterson—he retired the Flying Lizards name. Since then he has continued creating multimedia installations, produced a number of Michael Nyman's film scores, staged improvised performances with other visionary musical artists, and composed music for film, television, and dance projects. An unreleased dub music project from 1979, in which Cunningham reworked recordings by Jah Lloyd, received a belated release in 1995 as The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards.
Albums
Singles
