The opening phrases of JS Bach’s Toccata And Fugue In D Minor represent an iconic moment in musical history. So too did Francis Monkman’s performance of those phrases on Top Of The Pops in 1980, when instrumental band Sky became pop stars for a few weeks. Prog looked back in 2009.
If ever there was a band least likely to have a hit single, it must be Sky. The combination of serious musicians John Williams (guitar), Herbie Flowers (bass), Kevin Peek (guitar), Francis Monkman (keyboards) and Tristen Fry (drums) was never meant to reach the charts.
But in 1980 their version of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata And Fugue In D Minor made it to Number 5, under the title of Toccata. It spent four weeks in the top 20 and a total of 11 weeks in the top 100. Not bad for a three-century-old piece of music.
“All sorts of things were possible in those days,” says Monkman, laughing at the thought of Sky actually being pop stars for a brief time, complete with an appearance on Top Of The Pops.
Peek adds: “The arrangement we did was stimulated largely by its use as the theme for the film Rollerball (1975), which had the main motif played on piano with a traditional pop rhythm section and strings.
“I felt that it would suit a smaller group arrangement and, in particular, that the main melody would sit very nicely on guitar instead of piano.”
Monkman had previously done TOTP with Curved Air, but it was a new experience for the others. “The oddest thing was the audience having to try and enjoy themselves when the sound system was barely audible,” he says of the moment captured in video.
The band members are clearly enjoying the experience, partly for its weirdness – and note the bloke chewing gum nonchalantly as Monkman punches out one of the most dramatic keyboard phrases in history.
“But it wasn’t as if we weren’t used to success,” he continues. “We’d already had a Number One album with Sky [1979] – and the double Sky 2 was about to do the same internationally.”
One can imagine the mainstream popularity of Toccata triggering a backlash from classical music buffs, horrified that such a revered piece could be tarnished by a chart profile. But Monkman doesn’t think it happened.
“I never heard any negativity towards it,” he said. “Maybe that’s because what we’d done was so obviously a derivative of the original, rather than a direct representation, so there was a difference.
“I’d like to think we got pop fans into classical music!”
