Biography
Centered on three siblings from West Virginia, this six-piece funk outfit consisted of Billy, Mike and Kenneth Young. Following their relocation to East Orange, New Jersey in 1970, the brothers launched the Young Movement together with ex-Aurra member Buddy ‘Hank’ Hankerson on bass, keyboards and guitar plus drummer Dave Reyes. Four years afterward the ensemble adopted the name Flashflood and cut sides alongside Slave and Aurra. The 1979 arrival of vocalist Jackie Thomas, the group’s sole female member, prompted their first recordings under the Young & Co. banner. Of the three initial demos, ‘I Like What You’re Doing’ proved decisive in landing a Brunswick Records agreement. Although the single reportedly shifted more than 250,000 copies inside the USA, it registered on neither the domestic R&B nor pop listings; Excalibur’s 1980 release nevertheless carried it into the UK Top 20. Later releases appeared on Sounds Of London and Atlantic Records, yet no comparable success followed.