The group was first formed in 1982 by members of the 7:84 Theatre group, a socialist fringe theatre group who used acappella singing in a production called One Big Blow, the story of the 1982 miner's strike in the UK, from the miner's point of view. They enjoyed the singing so much that they started to work around the pubs and clubs of London, at a time when nobody else in the UK was performing pop/rock based acappella, and found immediate success.

The first recording was a live show 'Live at the Albany Empire' on the group's own label, which sold so well that they soon came to the attention of Virgin Records, who signed the group in 1983.

 

 

The very first single with Virgin, "Only You", a cover of a song by Yazoo, went straight to number 1 in the UK charts and was to remain there for five weeks over the Christmas of 1983 before going on to repeat the success throughout almost every country in Europe. This was soon followed by the Lost Boys album (1984).

 

 

 

 

More albums followed - Flying Pickets Live (1986) and Waiting For Trains (1988),

In 1989 the group were commissioned to write a musical theatre production for the Theatre Royal Stratford in London, a whole show based on songs about the working life, which they performed for a successful 4-week season. Around the same time, the group also performed the musical score on the BBC TV series Porterhouse Blue, which won a BAFTA TV award for Best Original Music.

 

 

 

In 1991 the group recorded the Blue Money album, which had huge success throughout Europe, and continued through the nineties with the albums The Warning (1994), Politics Of Need (1996) and Vox Pop (1998).

 

 

 

In 2003 the album Live in Hamburg was released, and the group made their first visit to Asia with 2 tours of Taiwan. 2005 has seen the release of the album Everyday, produced by bass singer Andrea Figallo.

The group celebrate theie 25th anniversary with a new show CHANGING TIMES, which is touring from October 2006 to December 2007.