The Flying Lizards were an experimental English new wave band, formed in 1976. Formed and led by record producer David Cunningham, the group were a loose collective of avant-garde and free-improvising musicians, including David Toop and Steve Beresford as instrumentalists, with Deborah Evans-Stickland, Patti Palladin and Vivien Goldman as main vocalists.
In August 1979 the Flying Lizards appeared twice on the BBC’s TOTP performing their hit single “Money (That’s What I Want)”. They also appeared in February 1980, performing follow-up single “TV”. Virgin Records extended the band’s recording contract after the success of “Money”. The group released their début album ‘The Flying Lizards’ in 1979. The album included two songs – “Her Story” and “The Window” – written and sung by Goldman. Their single issues included their postmodern cover versions of songs such as “Summertime Blues” and “Money”.
The 1981 album Fourth Wall received praise from critics but did not sell well. Top Ten (1984), with vocalist Sally Peterson, released by Statik records, consisted entirely of covers, done in a similarly deliberately emotionless, and robotic, style (described by the NME at the time as “Sloane Rap”), including two singles, James Brown’s “Sex Machine” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”, as well as an album track of Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne”. Cunningham and Peterson worked together on music production for film and advertising after Top Ten was released, including a re-recording of “Money”.
The Flying Lizards version of Barrett Strong’s “Money” remained popular, and was used in the film soundtracks for The Wedding Singer, Empire Records, Charlie’s Angels and Lord of War, as well as in the award-winning American television medical drama Nip/Tuck, documentary series People’s Century. It was also used in the episode “Venus Rising” of WKRP in Cincinnati, the episode “Follow the Money” of “Family Guy”, and in a commercial for Taco Bell in 2011.
An album of dub instrumentals, The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards, recorded by David Cunningham mostly in 1978, was finally released in 1995. The first two albums, The Flying Lizards and Fourth Wall, were re-released by RPM in 2010, with the catalogue number RETROD883.
