Instant Sunshine is a comedy musical cabaret group who sing to an acoustic guitar accompaniment. It was formed in 1966 by three doctors at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, Peter Christie, David Barlow and Alan Maryon-Davis. In 1972 they were joined by the journalist and double bass player Miles Kington. In 1998 Kington left the group and Tom Barlow joined in his place for several years.
Variously described as the cutting edge of comic song or the evening wear window at Moss Bros, Instant Sunshine is three dinner-jacketed men of a certain age, singing our own original humorous songs, gently mocking the British way of life. Peter Christie is the leading spirit and writes the words and music. Their style has been compared to Flanders and Swann. The lyrics typically have an element of surreal fantasy (one song begins “Our Budgie has Changed to an Orang-Utang”), while the tunes are usually wistful and mock-sentimental. Their act contains an abundance of comic “business” and sound effects, usually provided by Alan Maryon-Davis. They perform at music festivals or in cabaret at private bookings, and have played alternate years at the Edinburgh Fringe since 1975.
The group have also performed many songs for radio and television programmes, being particularly known for their regular contribution to BBC Radio 4’s Stop The Week over a period of about ten years. They provided the theme song for the BBC television version of Stephen Potter’s Oneupmanship (1979), had three series of their own on Radio 4 (1985, 1986 and 1988) and a book “The Instant Sunshine Book – with hints for struggling supergroups” (Robson Books 1980). There are more than 100 Instant Sunshine songs on vinyl, cassette or CD, and they have written and performed many signature tunes for radio and TV, including One is Fun, Money Box and for three series of Jackanory.
They produced five vinyl LPs: “Live at Tiddy Dols” (Page One 1968), “Instant Sunshine” (EMI 1976), “Funny Name for a Band” (EMI 1977) “Reasonably Together Again” (EMI/One-Up 1979) and “The Instant Sunshine LP – Songs for struggling supergroups” (EMI/NTS 1980). There are currently seven CDs in print, “Instant Sunshine Comes of Age” (Merlin Classics 1987), “Jubilee” (Merlin Classics 1992), “Live at the Old Vic” (Merlin Classics 2002), “50 Not Out” (Instant Sunshine 2017) and remixed versions of the EMI recordings “Instant Sunshine”, “Funny Name for a Band” and “Reasonably Together Again” (all Instant Sunshine 2008). The recordings are currently occasionally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra and are available via the BBC iPlayer.
