Progday, Chapel Hill, NC, USA - latest news

FLASH...They've got guts, they are musicians with the chops and they've got enough insight into the mechanics of music-making to be able to offer more in the way of intelligent, innovative musicianship than nine-tenths of their contemporaries.
Gordon Fletcher, ROLLING STONE (circa 1973)

The original FLASH, and YES, grew out of the same psychedelic rock scene in early 70's London from a common musical genesis (sorry no pun intended)... which, in the UK, meant British lads with a varied musical background. Some were jazzers, some had classical roots, and almost all of them had absorbed THE BEATLES' creative outpouring - rock in full-frontal creativity.

A few years after the break-up of their first local blues band, THE BREED, bassist RAY BENNETT often stayed with drummer BILL BRUFORD as a non-rent paying guest in the London flat of Bruford's budding new band, Yes. These were the early years of a new era when Yes was slowly beginning to have an impact. As yet, KING CRIMSON had only played one or two gigs, STING was still at school and AC/DC meant electricity. Future 70's rock bands - and legends - were being born.

It was during these formative days that Bennett met PETER BANKS, watching his innovative, guitar pole-vaulting onstage with Yes. Banks also saw his future FLASH bandmate, Bennett, frying eggs, rolling joints and playing bass with THE GUN.

Later, in 1971, when Banks became the first ex-Yes guitarist, COLIN CARTER, formerly lead singer with PETER BARDEN'S CAMEL became the voice of FLASH by initiating the idea to form a new band. Bennett, who had gone to look for America, reappeared in London after two years...right on time to fill the bass spot. MIKE HOUGH had been a hard working drummer with a jazz, rock and big band background. He was discovered by Banks and Carter playing in a ballroom in London.

These talented musicians pooled their efforts - and very distinct identities - to form FLASH, creating another "original" in that first progressive rock era.

Yes keyboardist, TONY KAYE was a guest on the first FLASH album, not an original band member as is often reported. Kaye was invited to join, but when he declined FLASH decided to carry on without keyboards, even turning down PATRICK MORAZ who later joined Yes. What a tightly knit group of talent swirled around and intertwined during those early London days!

Critics often made much of the comparisons between FLASH and Yes - who was copying who? - but anyone who really listened, or saw FLASH, knew they were their own masters. Colin Carter, Peter Banks, Ray Bennett and Mike Hough were FLASH.

"...Though FLASH had done over fifty dates in two months, with the likes of ALICE COOPER, URIAH HEEP, BLACK SABBATH and THE KINKS, though they had kept their first single on the charts (#28 Billboard) for over three months, and though they had sold over 100,000 copies of their first LP, (Flash, on Capitol Records) and all within less than a year of their first rehearsal, there was no question about it - the band was being knocked (by critics) as an imitation of Peter Banks' old group (Yes). ...despite all the similarities there is an undeniable difference between FLASH and Yes no amount of musical analysis could quite pin down. If he'd (Banks) been foolish enough to set the new band up as a vehicle for his guitar solos, FLASH might well have been a cheap copy of what the Yes group was when Banks was in it. Flash is far from being a vehicle for his obviously talented guitar work. It is, rather, a band without a leader. ...when the stage lights went up on Ray Bennett bending over his bass, on Peter Banks jabbing his guitar with gearshift movements, and on Colin Carter leaning back and belting into the microphone, the four of them were more determined than ever to show 'That this is FLASH music, and nothing to do with Yes.' "
Peter Jay Philbin & Howard Bloom, CIRCUS MAGAZINE

FLASH in the early 70's put out three albums on EMI/Capitol Records, had a hit single "Small Beginnings", toured Europe and the USA four times, and even made it to Australia - for one gig. They appeared with GENESIS, HUMBLE PIE, TODD RUNDGREN, SANTANA, JOE WALSH, STEVE MILLER, THE BYRDS, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD, CHUCK BERRY, JEFF BECK, BADFINGER, FOGHAT, MOTT THE HOOPLE, J GEILS BAND, EARTH WIND & FIRE and more. They headlined at the New York Philharmonic (Avery Fisher Hall), appeared on radio and TV in Europe and America including the legendary Midnight Special...and all in only two years.

After two and a half years of successful touring and three studio albums, FLASH disbanded while on tour - dramatically - leaving the volatile guitarist Banks behind in a hotel in Albuquerque, NM while the rest of the group boarded a plane back to London. It was impetuous, and a great loss to all concerned, including their growing number of loyal fans. Despite their contentious break-up, all four members later reunited in various combinations during the late 70's and early 80's and some of the recorded output appears on Ray Bennett’s 2001 archival CD “Angels & Ghosts.” By 1982 the FLASH members went their separate ways.

Flash forward: In 2002 all four original members made contact again and were initially enthusiastic about a FLASH reunion. Now spread out across the globe, plans to get together were discussed over several months but in the end, Banks and Hough failed to commit. In late 2004 it was FLASH songwriters, Ray Bennett and Colin Carter, who began working together again.

Bennett (having long since made the shift from bass to lead guitar) and Carter, initially launched THE BENNETT/CARTER BAND, a loose-format jam band with a varying cast of bass players and drummers, re-establishing their musical partnership playing FLASH songs, new originals and covers. They played small venues from 2005 to 2006, both Bennett and Carter playing guitar, sharing lead vocals and exercising their trademark vocal harmony work. They also performed as a duo.

In 2005 whilst gigging as The Bennett/Carter Band they also officially re-launched their musical partnership as FLASH, bravely playing the classic FLASH repertoire as a duo at the invitation of The Baja International ProgRock Festival. This gave impetus to their desire to carry on as FLASH with a new line up.

Late 2009 saw the almost miraculous resurrection of the fully realized FLASH. Gibson Guitars listed FLASH's "In the Can" as one of their top 10 vintage classic prog-rock albums. Also in 2009 all of their albums were reissued yet again. The band has been kept alive over the years through the undying loyalty of their early fans and a growing new generation who have discovered them through word-of-mouth, reissues and on youtube.

Now, with a spectacular new line-up on bass, drums and keyboards, and a new album in the works, these prog-rock pioneers set sail again with renewed vigor and their hallmark originality, ready to continue their saga and write new prog-rock history.

Advance copies of the new album should be available in September at Progday. Songs from the new album are also being previewed on FLASH's My Space page linked below.

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"Where one branch of 70s prog was rooted in a mulch of dark portent and spiritual unease (King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator), there was another which instinctively grew towards the light. The early Yes albums are often derided for their simplistic hippy sentiments, but they radiate a fierce, heart-bursting euphoria. One of the chief architects of that sound was guitarist Peter Banks, who formed Flash in 1971 following his contentious departure from Yes. Comparisons are tiresome but inevitable: Flash is a riot of fervid extrapolations-on-a-theme, cockily juggled time signatures, rattling Rickenbacker bass and Gordian Knotted guitar runs. With two very significant fifths of the original Yes on board – keyboardist Tony Kaye guests throughout – there’s no reason why anyone should have any problem with that. Furthermore, the band’s contagious joie de vivre and we-set- sail vigour – particularly prevalent on the glorious cartwheel of Small Beginnings and Children Of The Universe – renders criticism meaningless. This album hoses fresh hope lesser and unforced goodwill directly into your synapses. Buy it right now – but don’t play it until the first bright sunny morning thereafter, so as to fix it in your mind with the appropriate setting. Alternatively, play it anytime to banish the clouds within."
*****  Marco Rossi, review for reissue of "Flash"

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Web:

www.myspace.com/flashbennettcarter

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Video Links:

• Rehearsal videos

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MP3 Sample: "Small Beginnings"
from Flash

MP3 Sample: "Black And White"
from In The Can

MP3 Sample: "How Thee West Was Won"
from Flash 4

MP3 Sample: "10,000"
from Flash 4

Check the MUSIC PLAYER PAGE
to hear music samples from other bands.

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Discography:

• Flash (1972)
• In The Can (1972)
• Out Of Our Hands (1973)
• Psychosync (archival recording from 1973) (1997)
• Flash 4 (To be released 2010)

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