About The Flying Hat Band

Glenn was playing in Merlin but the band shortly developed into the Flying Hat Band. In the very beginning, after a gig in Newcastle, Glenn guitar (Pink strat) was stolen off the stage!
The things seemed very dark for our master Glenn. No guitar. No money. Not making enough money with the music. He decided to give up and get a 9 to 5 job in a boring office.
But some days after, a masked angel offered Glenn a Fender Strat per 30 pounds. After landscaping some gardens to raise the money, rock ´n roll was back on the track.


The band line up kept changing. Some of the first core was Trevor Foster (Drums) and Andy Wheeler (Bass), besides the lead vocalist Pete. The songs were own compositions, with some sketches of Glenn’s later style. There was scope for some rock ‘n roll and blues covers as well.
Instead, the one who decided to give up his musical career was Pete. He decided to join the RAF and left the band. Not finding a singer immediately, Glenn took over the vocals and they became a three-piece band after a rebuild with Steve Palmer (brother of Carl Palmer) and Mars Cowling.  The band was probably as strong as it had ever been. Playing at the Cavern in Liverpool, at the Marquee in London, and then, Baptism of Fire! playing as a support to Deep Purple touring through Europe.  
Thereafter the tank was empty. No contracts, no label, no good management, and the band just dismantled.


They have never released any track, but some recordings may be found on the internet. Raw quality representative of the times.
About the experience, Glenn states: “It’s said that everything happens for a reason. At the time The Flying Hat Band were working with an agency in Birmingham owned by Jim Simpson, which happened to be the same agency as Judas Priest. Priest were with Gull Records who suggested the band either add a keyboard player or another guitarist. As the Flying Hat Band was breaking up they approached me to see if I was interested in joining. This was in May 1974 before the first album “Rocka Rolla”. I agreed, and it didn’t take long to realize that we had a very unique chemistry as a band and particularly as writers. Something very special had happened.”

If you want to know more, you can go to this link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Hat_Band