Flying Pickets

The Flying Pickets are a British a cappella vocal group, who had a Christmas number one hit in 1983 in the UK Singles Chart with their cover version of Yazoo's track "Only You". The band of six was founded by Brian Hibbard in 1982 from a group of actors who had been active with him in John McGrath's 7:84 theatre group, a fringe theatre organisation who had sung a cappella in their production of the 1981 play One Big Blow. The group chose the name The Flying Pickets as band members had played a part in the UK miners' strikes of 1972 and 1974. (read more on wikipedia)

Links to Peel
Peel was attracted to the group's a cappella vocal style and perhaps their socialist links to the UK miners strike, that he invited them to do a session for his show in early 1983, which they did. Many months later in the same year, the group released their debut single, Only You, which started to climb the UK singles chart ultimately reaching number 1 in December 1983 and staying there for five weeks. It is not known whether Peel played their hit single on his BBC Radio One shows, as many playlists from late 1983 are not complete on this site. However, Peel never played their material on his BFBS shows throughout 1983. Although, he did introduce them on Top Of The Pops, where he never claimed any responsibility to their success.

Sessions
1. Recorded: 1983-03-30. Broadcast: 06 April 1983
 * Get Off My Cloud / Psycho Killer / Disco Down / Factory

Other Shows Played

 * None, according to available playlists