The Flying Hat Band were an early 1970s

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

hard rock act that, alongside Judas Priest, ranked as the Midlands' favourites to succeed. Despite not having released an album, the band proved a successful club act and eventually went on to support Deep Purple on one of their European tours. The band folded in April 1974 following

Glenn Tipton Glenn Raymond Tipton (born 25 October 1947) is an English guitarist. Often noted for his complex playing style and classically influenced solos, he is best known as one of the lead guitarists for heavy metal band Judas Priest. Early life and ...

's departure to become the second guitarist in Judas Priest, who at the time had just signed their first record deal with Gull Records.

Peter "Mars" Cowling Peter "Mars" Cowling (May 26, 1946 – March 20, 2018) was an English bass guitarist, best known for his work with Canadian blues rock guitarist Pat Travers. Cowling for many years lived in Grimsby where, in 1962, he formed The Syndicate with ...

joined Canadian rocker

Pat Travers Patrick Henry Travers (born April 12, 1954) is a Canadian rock guitarist, keyboardist and singer who began his recording career in the mid-1970s. Early life Travers was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Soon after picking up the guitar at ag ...

in 1975, and was part of Travers' band for several years. Trevor Foster joined folk rock group The Albion Band and Little Johnny England.

Personnel

;Final lineup *

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

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 ...

(d. 2018) * Steve Palmer - drums ;Former members * Trevor Foster - drums * Andy Wheeler - bass * Pete Hughes - vocals * Steve Burton - vocals * Frank Walker - bass guitar *Dave Shelton - bass and guitars

Discography

Signed to

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...

, in 1973 the trio recorded a studio album which was never released. In 1992, small German label SPM International released a split CD entitled "''Buried Together''", featuring Scottish rock band Iron Claw (erroneously labelled as Antrobus) alongside four Flying Hat Band demo tracks, dated back to 1973. Those tracks are: * ''Seventh Plain'' - 2:55 * ''Coming Of The Lords'' - 6:46 * ''Reaching For The Stars'' - 4:36 * ''Lost Time'' - 2:39

Trivia

Drummer Steve Palmer is the brother of

Carl Palmer Carl Frederick Kendall Palmer (born 20 March 1950) is an English drummer best known as founding member and the last surviving member of the progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer. He was also a founding member of progressive rock s ...

(

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar, producer) and Carl Palmer (drums, percus ...

). Original members Dave Shelton and Pete Hughes were also in Tipton's earlier bands Merlin and Shave'Em Dry, the latter with future Starfighters and

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

drummer Barry Scrannage.

References

External links

Musicmight band page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flying Hat Band, The English hard rock musical groups Musical groups established in 1971 Musical groups disestablished in 1974 1971 establishments in England 1974 disestablishments in England Judas Priest Musical groups from Birmingham, West Midlands