''Flash'' is the self-titled debut studio album by British band

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid F ...

, released in February 1972 by Sovereign Records.

Background

Guitarist

Peter Banks Peter William Brockbanks (15 July 1947 – 7 March 2013), known professionally as Peter Banks, was a British guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and producer. He was the original guitarist in the rock band Yes, and also the Syn, Flash, and Empire. ...

played with several bands before forming Flash, including The Nighthawks in 1963, The Devil's Disciples in 1964, The Syndicats in 1965 and then

The Syn The Syn are an English band that were active from 1965 to 1967, and then reunited as a progressive rock band in 2004. The band was founded by Steve Nardelli, Chris Squire, Andrew Pryce Jackman, Martyn Adelman and John Painter. Chris Welch, in ...

with

Chris Squire Christopher Russell Edward Squire (4March 1948 – 27June 2015) was an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Yes. He was the longest-serving original member, having r ...

on bass in 1965. He then joined

Mabel Greer's Toyshop Mabel Greer's Toyshop are an English progressive rock (initially as psychedelic rock) band formed in London and initially active from 1966 to 1968. The band was the precursor to the rock band Yes. Their music was marked by a combination of p ...

which would be the basis of Yes in 1966, again with Chris Squire, but briefly left to join a band called Neat Change and recorded a single, "I Lied to Aunty May"/"Sandman", with Peter Frampton playing guitar on side A while Banks played on side B. He then rejoined Mabel Greer's Toyshop, who became Yes. He left them after their second album, ''

Time and a Word ''Time and a Word'' is the second studio album by English rock band Yes, released on 24 July 1970 by Atlantic Records. It was put together several months after the release of the band's 1969 eponymous debut, during which they continued to tour ...

'' in 1970 to form Flash. Their bassist Ray Bennett played with another band prior to Flash called The Breed which included

Bill Bruford William Scott Bruford (born 17 May 1949) is an English former drummer and percussionist who first gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. After leaving Yes in 1972, Bruford spent the rest of the 1970s recording ...

on drums.

Reissue

A remastered version was issued in the US in 2003. Curiously, it was coupled with their third album "Out Of Our Hands". There appears to be no CD release to date of the band's second album, ''In the Can''.

Track listing

Personnel

FlashFlash - ''Flash'' (1972) album releases & credits at Discogs.com
/ref> * Colin Carter – lead vocals,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

–

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

, acoustic and Spanish guitars,

ARP synthesizer ARP Instruments, Inc. was a Lexington, Massachusetts manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before de ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

* Ray Bennett –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

; lead vocals and acoustic guitar on "Morning Haze" * Mike Hough – drums,

cymbals A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

Additional personnel * Tony Kaye – ARP synthesizer, Hammond organ,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

Production

Derek Lawrence Derek John Lawrence (16 November 1941 – 13 May 2020) was an English record producer, famous for his work for Joe Meek's Outlaws, Deep Purple, Flash, Machiavel and Wishbone Ash. Lawrence came in contact with Meek circa at the end of 1963, ...

– producer *

Martin Birch Martin Birch (27 December 19489 August 2020) was a British music producer and sound engineer. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, W ...

– engineer *

– arrangements * Maurice Tate – artwork * Barry Wentzell – photography *

Hipgnosis Hipgnosis were an English art design group based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black Sabbath, UFO, 10c ...

– design, photography

References

* Peter Banks - Bands Archives : http://www.peterbanks.net/archive/bands/

External links

Flash - ''Flash'' (1972) album to be listened
as stream at Spotify.com * Peter Banks Official Site : http://www.peterbanks.net/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Flash (Flash Album) 1972 debut albums Progressive rock albums by English artists