The Chinese A Cappella Center (現
The Pickets will treating local audiences to a cappella cover tunes from its recently released album, Live in Hamburg -- the first release with the current line-up of Andrea Figallo, Dylan Foster, Andy Laycock, Henrik Wager and Michael Henry -- as well plenty of other pop and rocks classics.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CHINESE A CAPPELLA CENTER
They are tunes that over the past 20 years have established the combo as one of the world's leading pop/rock a-cappella, or popapella-cum-rockapella acts.
Originally formed in 1982 by members of the socialist fringe theater group, 7:84 Theatre, the group took its name from the protesters who traveled the UK to man picket lines during the minor's strike of early 1980s. From its early days spent trawling the clubs and pubs of London the group went on to become a household name in the UK in a remarkably short period of time.
In 1983 the group released its debut record, Live at the Albany Empire, sales of which were impressive enough to warrant the attention of Virgin Records. Signing the group the same year, Virgin released the Flying Pickets' first single, a cover version of the Yazoo hit, Only You in Nov. 1983. The tune went straight to number one in the UK pop, where it remained for five weeks and brought a cappella into the mainstream, turning the Flying Pickets into singing socialist superstars almost overnight.
Although continuing to play to full houses throughout the UK, the group never again repeated its initial chart success. The closest it came was in April 1984, when the group's a cappella version of The Marvelettes' When You're Young and In Love, reached number seven in the UK pop charts.
Along with touring extensively and releasing nine more albums throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the combo also wrote a musical for the London-based Theatre Royal and penned the score for the popular BBC television adaptation of Tom Sharpe's, Porterhouse Blue.
The Flying Pickets' most recent album was recorded at the Fliegende Bauten in Hamburg last year and was released earlier this year. It is the first since 1989's Vox Pops and features a selection of atypical Pickets' popapella covers. It includes Michael Jackson's, Billy Jean, Ricky Martin's Livin' la Vida Loca Robbie Williams's Let Me Entertain You and of course, Yazoo's Only You, among others.
The Flying Pickets will perform at 7pm this evening at the Family Theatre (台北市政府親子劇場), on the second floor at Taipei City Hall (台北市市府路一號二樓). Tickets cost from NT$400 to NT$800 and are available at the door.
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