Thursday music corner: The Flying Pickets are a British a capella vocal group formed in London in 1982 from a group of theatre actors. Taking their name from a union term for mobile strikers who join picket actions, the group was founded by Welsh actor / singer Brian Hibbard, and originally consisted of six members.
The band had a huge British hit single at Christmas 1983 with their cover of Yazoo's Only You, which was the Christmas number one and topped the British singles charts for five weeks. This bested Yazoo's chart performance for the Vince Clarke-penned single, which reached number 2 in the UK charts in May 1982.
The Flying Pickets have released 13 albums, the first of which, Lost Boys, reached number 11 in the UK albums charts in 1984, and number 19 in Sweden. Their cover of Only You also topped the singles charts in West Germany and the Republic of Ireland, and hit the top five in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. The band's follow-up single, the Van McCoy cover When You're Young & In Love, reached number 7 in the UK.
Flying Pickets - Only You (1983)