Flash And The Pan* ‎– Flash And The Pan

Nearly everyone considered Flash and The Pan, not Flash in the Pan, to be a product of the late 70’s new wave genre, filled with catchy tunes and electronic effected cryptic lyrics that almost no one understood. Through truth be told, members of this band, composed of Henry Vanda on guitar and vocals, George Young, holding down synthesizer and lead vocals, along with Les Karski on bass, Ray Arnott on drums, and Warren Morgan on piano, have a long and rich history, stretching back to the mid 60’s. Henry Vanda and George Young, known then as The Easy Beats bolted onto the AM music scene with the now classic “Friday On My Mind,” which was given solid credentials when covered by David Bowie on his album “Pinups.”

Of course, the album cover composed of people sitting on a warm summer beach with frisbees sailing wildly around them caused listeners to smile, when instead, they should have been looking at the prophetic mushroomed cloud in the background, connected the dots with the movie “On The Beach,” the fact that the boys were from Australia, and that in the movie, Australia was the only remaining haven for mankind ... or so we were lead to believe. And with that vision, Flash and The Pan painted an apocalyptic dreamscape of new wave numbers, where they immersed themselves in a parody of destruction and death, with the song “Rain” revolving around depression, “Down Among The Dead Men,” about the sinking of the Titanic, and of course “California,” being about accidental nuclear war. “Hey Saint Peter” was the album hit, and I’ll let you figure that one out. The outing is solid, the music is considered, well played and thoughtful, especially at a time when the music world seemed downright goofy.

Of course the band could have gone to complete oblivion had the pair not decided to concentrate on production and songwriting, delivering a couple other unnoticed releases, but shattering the world when George Young helped his brothers Angus and Malcolm form AC/DC.

Review by Jenell Kesler