Apologies
Apologies for poor data gathering. Most messages were lost, undated, signed mysteriously, and/or, in some cases, totally unintelligible.
Intro
Over the years people have written in (even before the internet) and told us of their various sightings of the FPG.
These were often very poetic and beautiful and re-cast images long lost in the mists of time and abused neural pathways.
Some more have begun to appear through the social media and we wanted to try to log them and to encourage more recollections and to try to build up a timeline of where they were and when (we haven’t, for the most part, a clue).
If you would care to, please try to recall where you were and what the circumstances were when you first (or ever) came across the FPG? Year and month would be great too, but certainly not necessary. Does anything stand out in your mind? Any images come back?
Please feel free either to post directly to this page or “message” or post to the Facebook page via the link at the bottom. Responses can be acknowledged or kept anonymous, whichever you prefer.
Many thanks and best wishes.
East Coast Road Productions
Random Feedback
1. o yez! o yez! o yez! plz letz b friendz…FPG changed mi lyf wen i woz likle….onelove inuit! – mi
2. are you guys still roaming ? i remember when you played in my bus – ME
3. Wow Fuck I remember you guys from Stonehenge / Glastonbury way back in the mid 80’s, you guys rock, many a memories of microdots and joints by the fire, some ol JJ Cale numbers, fond memories, thanks guys, – GMR
4. Hey this is amazing! Flying must be the secret to long life and happiness! I remember you from SOOOO long ago in UK fests and then when you 2 turned up in the South of France it was so cool! The year . . mid 80’s? A festival with horses galloping round . .remember? Were you at the Strawberry Fair in cambridge last year? Oh well ,nice to see you again. – MG
5. Goodness… 1st time was Elephant Fayre in nineteen eighty something… a number of times afterwards too… but always appearing at exactly the right time. Hats off to FPG – MW
6. I remembers…. you would be sittin by a fire somewhere out in tent city, and you would hear guitars driftin through the early hours , then out the dark came dressed in white the flyin patrol group…. i guess i was 11 or 12 the first time, places like silver moon? rougham tree? molsworth? westbury white horse? so long ago i cants remember exactly , but twas ace, helpt make me who i is… – ATC
7. guys, if u ever feel the need to play a set of weirdness the silent disco has a slot for you – CT
8. Thank you mate. I don’t know who you are but I fucking love your song In Uniform. I remember it from the 80s when I lived in a bus. We had the only cassette on site. Didn’t know there were any proper recordings. So glad to accidentally come across it last week. Are you still playing live? Much love to you all. XXX – MJ
9. great days indeed…. remember you fading in and out of our collective acid hazed consciousness at molesworth too! magical! Recently got back into playing after a massive hiatus as no one else seemed interested. After about 7 years of badgering my mate saying I’ve got some ideas for a few tunes we actually got it sorted last year, done a couple of gigs playing 80’s style crusty punk… and I love it! Thanks for adding me, I lok forward to sharing a few more memories along the way. – DB
10. Saw your name pop up the other day and just had to make contact….we probably have not met properly since the Savernake post Beanfield refugee camp….we had a little park-up group and live music when you guys came stolling past ripping some great guitar…….I am sure we have encountered since then…but at which gig/parkup I have no idea…anyway…nice to see you still about… ..nice to reconnect with some folks who were around at that pivotal time in travelling history..amid the sun dappled leaves…an uncertain future ahead…blessed be! – NV
11. Remember them at Molesworth 85- up all night in the snow waiting for the construction workers to come. Seems like a million years ago! SW Awesome. – BW
12. l little LED lights flashing in the dark in the eighties were so very exciting! elephant fayre xx – Leigh Powell
13. Middle of the night on top of Westbury Hillfort in June 85 you came out of the dark and played round our fire, it was magical, my mate had an even better time: he thought you were angels! Who could disagree with him. – Neil’s Sari Stall Dom
14. Another happy memory from the mid-’80s, this time of a rare radio appearance: Down at Elephant Fayre (I’d been working as a scaffolder) I was sitting round idly gassing with the guys in the walkie-talkie control station, which was a smallish room in the stables on the Port Eliot estate. It was the graveyard shift, maybe 3.30-4.00 in the morning, when we heard a gentle JJ Cale tune come drifting towards us from the outer darkness, and in came the FPG. The controller put the station on Transmit, and for 5 minutes or so the bored, cold, lonely guys dotted round the edge of the festival site had sweet, sweet music to warm and comfort them – until as usual the FPG, still playing, walked slowly backwards out of the room and into the night… – Jamie Matthews
15. So would love to see FPG perform is it ever possible? In uniform is the best song ever x – Gaynor Styles
16. It was on one of your cassettes that I bought at a festival, possibly from you yourself. It was the second time that I’d seen you and your partner. doing your thing. The first time I was tripping my nuts off, tents everywhere, it was misty and we heard you before we could see you. When you hoved into view I think you were clad in white boiler suits with gas masks on, and a PA in a rucksack singing “Boys in Uniform’. Being peace campaigners we knew the reality and thoroughly agreed with the sentiments expressed in that number. I thank you kindly for that amazing experience. <3 x – Pogle Stowell
17.cant remember where or when… but whenever i came across you guys, it was always a treat. – Dave Smith
18.It was September 1985 at Tottington Festival, a few days off by 34th birthday; I had been freelancing in Norwich and the long ago guys who ran Monday Lunch (Helen & John, who sold kites and juggling gear) gave me a spare bed until I could sort out a flat. They mentioned an up-coming ‘hippie’ festival and that, as a trainee juggler, I really should attend. More jugglers than a person could shake a bong at. I think TUMT were there. – We were sitting round a blazing fire, the stars were out and the conversation hushed when I thought I could hear music coming from somewhere, distant and yet wending it’s way towards us. Well obviously this must have been the result of something I’d eaten earlier. But no, in the glo-m of ni–t*, loomed from the gloom two guys with guitars reflecting dancing fire light from their white suits and played to us for too short a time. They were magical and intrepid, festooned with their own personal PA and bringing a smile of wondrous joy to every face who was there. They stepped backwards into the gloom and vanished, slow enough for the music to come to a natural fade out. I had to wonder later how come they didn’t fall flat on the backs, tripping over some unseen tent guy rope. Since they were obviously mystical beings they’d know all about guy ropes. Asked my companions who they were and, stunned at my ignorance, was told they were the Flying Patrol Group. Wow! Years later as a promoter I tried to find them, to have them wander through an auditorium between bands but I couldn’t find them – that’s it then, I imagined the whole thing … – So thanks guys, you were stunning. *glo-m of ni–t : from a Terry Pratchett novel. Love, Light & Peas – Al Stokes xx
19.I think I was 16 or 17 ,you came out in /of the mist one cider infused morning on hay bales in Norfolk and you let me be one of you , I was delighted, you took a break and I rolled up the boiler suit arms and legs and pootled around in the mist strumming “a” and “g “ for a time , what a lovely memory it is and happy am I to have it , Mark Anderson you were there too ..1981??2?? I’ll never forget the time that I was one , in Norwich at 2 am, in the mist and dark, what a fab night, I caould only play three chords but that was enough! thanx for the experience FPG! – Sonja Balogna
20.Sometime in the mid-’80s, we invited them onto the Glastonbury Acoustic Stage (I was compère at the time) for a late night spot – it was very unusual for them to appear on stage at all. Their vocal and instrumental sound came from their own thigh-mounted battery amps. We put a mike in front of each of these. As per their usual ambulatory appearances/disappearances, they finished their set by stepping backwards from our mikes and walking slowly, and still playing, off the stage. I came on for the formality of asking the enraptured audience if they’d like more – “Ye-e-e-es!!” – so I went to find the FPG…. …but they’d gone. Magic. – – Jamie Matthews
21.Jamie I was there it was magical! – – John Boocock
22.One would just be sitting there, perhaps having a tea in the small hours or maybe lying in a hedge trying to ride out a particularly large wave, and they would appear out of nowhere to make it all right, or better. Damn fine work. – – Michael West
23.They are amazing when your tripping your nuts off you hear this shit hot music then in my befuddled tripping mind two spacemen/astronauts walk towards me the music is comming from them and these spacemen are amazing my god yes I’m lucky to have seen 3-4 patrols and I saw them just normally stoned a few times at Waterloo and they were shit hot then but their patrols were something else truly awesome!! – – Tim Roberts
24.me 2 – they were awesome and kind of tripped us all right out w i remember seeing these guys at glastonbury 86…they were wandering around at night like travelling minstrels,with amps strapped to their chests,they would wander up to a group of people sat round a fire, play a few numbers then wander off to the next fire, playing as they went…fukkin awesome! – f4 husband & i….(we were 18yr old punx)….& our jus born daughter, ebonyjade….had travelled up from norwich to pilton festival wid our friend in his red morris noddy car…it woz owa 1st propa festival…(altho’ de 1st rok band i saw woz deep purple at norwich theatre, wen mi madre mistakenli thort she woz takin’ uz 2 a play……& i had been to knebworth to see led zep/rundgren/southside johnny/chaz & dave…..wid mi much olda marine boyfriend…..but i didn’t feel lyk i woz at home there….it woz mor abowt 1st drug experience than ‘festival)……ANYWAY….we arrived at abowt midnyte…& i woz holdin de baby az de guyz were puttin up owa nylon nightmare 4 de 1st tym….we were on de main dragup nr greenfieldz…wen u guyz came out ov de dark…..well it woz ur noize 1st…..& i knew evryting woz gonna b alright….& i knew i’d come home…..u stopped & played for a while…then drifted off….down de drag….it woz majik…..& mi daughter & i went on road afta that gig….& came west….neva went bak!….havn’t bin able 2 fynd much ov u on utube….jus de odd snippet…..good i spose…..i styl have a cassette ov u i play….wid robert johnson on de b syde…..u styl makin whoopie?.… – – AM
25.Hi .. I remember you guys … I caught your act at Molesworth 1984 . – Luke D Duke
26.hi wow still flying guys? with a big hello – CH
27.Some time ago we were chatting about Westbury in 85 and I mentioned that my mate took a whole blotter of White Lightening and then after dark when you played at our fire in your white overalls he thought you were angels; later he ran for miles down the hill and across the fields, you wondered if he was the same chap who once came to a FPG gig and danced starkers, it wasn’t my him as normally he was always fully clothed, but perhaps this was the chap, if so him turning up at one of your gigs was an accolade, cheers hope you are all well. – Neil Hudson
- https://www.facebook.com/sightingsFPG/
Can I get a witness? – the FPG sightings page. 198 likes. This is a Page dedicated to Sightings of the Flying Patrol Group as they set about their work….
East Coast Road Productions