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In the beginning there were three young lads from Cov in the ....UK..... ....

David Freeman, Joe Hughes and Neil O’Connor.....

Neil was slightly older than the other two and had made their acquaintance through David’s mum, Esther Freeman, a lovely lady who was Neil’s Yoga teacher. ....

(yeah he was a bit of a late flowering hippy….)....

Joe took up the bass, Dave and Neil, the guitars and voices and they started to try ....

to do something.....

They gave themselves the name "Midnight Circus" and were probably bloody awful but, hey, it was a good laugh.....

In those days there was never a full time drummer except for one guy, ....

Paul Angelopolis, an American guy from ....Florida...., in the same age group as them who wasn’t half bad except for when he partook more than he should’ve. ....

Sadly Paul abused too much and died of a barbiturate overdose at the age of 24. ....

And that was sort of the end of "Midnight Circus".....

By now it was 1977 and there was a change in the air. So they dropped the name ....

and reincarnated as "The Flys". ....

But still no drummer.....

Around this time they happened upon a guy named Chris King who started to take a managerial interest in the lads and, as luck would have it, had a younger brother, ....

Pete King, who was a good drummer and so deserved an audition.....

Here was the guy they’d been hoping for years to meet.....

And so The Flys became Dave, Joe, Neil and Pete.....

Chris had a huge amount of belief in the band and proposed that he’d set up a small indie label and sign up the band to release a limited edition 7 inch EP and so they went off to Pathway studios, an 8 track in Islington where all the great Stiff recordings had been made, to spend a Saturday recording their repertoire of 14 songs, or so. Then 5 of the recordings were chosen, mixed, mastered and became the EP "Bunch of five" on ....

Chris King’s "..Zama.." label which included the titles….....

"Love and a Molotov cocktail"....

"Can I crash here"....

"Civilisation"....

Eventually EMI were to sign the band after having heard the EP and seeing the band on stage opening for The Buzzcocks tour in the Autumn of ’77.....

A condition of the contract was that the "..Zama.." indie release had to be limited to 2,500 copies as EMI wanted to re-launch with the title "Love and a Molotov cocktail".....

In the late winter of ’78, with EMI money, they went on a UK nationwide tour opening for John Otway and Wild Willie Barrett and as spring arrived moved to London and started to record their first album for EMI, "Waikiki beach refugees".....

Maybe they’d been too long in each others company, it’s hard to know exactly why but rifts started to appear.....

The first casualty was Chris.....

The Flys were no exception to any other bands in that they were full of insecurity and that insecurity pushed Chris away. ....

Pete continued to play with the band who, by now, were opening for "The Ruts" around the ..UK.. and playing shows in their own right around ..Europe.. but he was never totally happy without his brother around. ....

Probably he felt torn in his loyalties, which is no surprise and eventually he was offered the chance to join "After the fire" who, at the time, were about to tour with ELO. ....

For Pete this became a dream come true as ELO’s drummer became to ill to play and so Pete ended up playing drums for ELO for most of the tour.....

After Pete they recruited Graham Deakin, a lay it down Keith Moon type who came to the band from John Entwhistle’s "Ox".....

And so with new drummer, Graham, the guys went down to a 16 track in ....Somerset.... to record their second album which was to be called "Own".....

Although they continued to record more singles, EP’s, tour and make many TV and Radio appearances throughout the ..UK.. and ..Europe.. their time together started to unravel and in the spring of 1980 they called it quits.....

Neil went on to play guitar and record with his sister Hazel O’Connor. ....

Eventually, in the mid 80’s, he moved into the field of recording and producing working mainly from Martin Rushent’s "Genetic studios".....

David went on to follow a solo career securing a publishing/ development contract with Dave Stewart. ....

Eventually Joe joined him, they called themselves "The lover speaks" and in the ‘90s they were rewarded with a huge songwriting success when Annie Lennox covered their song "No more I love you’s".....

Sadly Pete succumbed to cancer before he could reach the age of 30.....

Graham was never heard from again.....

These days Neil lives in ....Montreal.., ..Canada.... producing and performing still.....

Joe and his wife split their time between the ....UK.... and the States with their band ....

"....Cicero.... Buck". ....

David’s a bit of a hermit as of writing.....

"Die Toten Hosen" from ....Germany.... and "Duanne Peters" have both covered ....

"Love and Molotov cocktail".....

Hazel included it in one of her TV shows too.....

Photo L to R ( taken by Pete Vernon 1978 )....

Neil O’Connor - guitar, keys, vox ....

David Freeman - guitar, vox ....