Flight 19 originated in Sheffield in the early 1980s from the breakup of Monza. Nigel Ward and Gary Flounders going on to form Flight 19 and thanks to a connection with the drummer from another Sheffield NWOBHM-era band (the great Geddes Axe) hooked up with the legendary “father of NWOBHM” Neal Kay who took them under his wing.
Flight 19’s style much towards the melodic end of the musical spectrum – though they had a lot of bite in there amongst the soaring hooks, harmonies and lush keys interplaying with clean, driving riffs, some scorching solos and clean, powerful vocals.
Despite the Neal Kay connection it didn’t work out for Flight 19. A number of demos were recorded over the latter half of the 1980s and early part of the 1990s with none released bar a couple of them appearing on the Metal for Muthas ’92 compilation.
However the demos have now been released on a limited edition CD of 500 copies as part of the “Lost ULK Jewels” series and it is a joy to listen to.
Fresh sounding mixture of NWOBHM/melodic rock with some AoR chucked in. It all stands up very well amongst similar stuff today. May be the likes of FM is a reasonable comparison.
The dozen tracks include a couple of quite strong ballads and a fine thumping instrumental in amongst the more rocker stuff, which is deceptively heavy and every listen makes the monster hooks and melodies get in to your head more and more.
Some examples being Leonie, Flame and Nothing but a Loser. Each high class with some fine guitar work going on. Also there’s Don’t Shine the Light, which is perhaps sums up what Flight 19 were all about. Have a listen:
No weak tracks anywhere here. With demos as good as this and the style to match you’d have thought they’d have gone down a storm in the States against the likes of Foreigner.
Alas, it wasn’t to be for Flight 19. A record deal was not forthcoming and that was that.
Bag one of the 500 if you can. Sourced mine from AOR Heaven in Germany:
https://www.aorheaven.com
Top marks for the Lost UK Jewels people to knock this out as part of their collectors’ series.