Yes, it's Instant Sunshine!

 

Sounds like a holiday in the Seychelles or the latest high-fibre offering from Kelloggs. But actually we're probably more of a cross between Flanders & Swan and the Cirque du Soleil.

 

Variously described as the cutting edge of comic song or the evening wear window at Moss Bros, Instant Sunshine is three dinner-jacketed men of a certain age, singing our own original humorous songs, gently mocking the British way of life.

 

The three founder members - Peter Christie, David Barlow and Alan Maryon Davis - are still going strong after more than 40 years hovering on the fringes of showbiz. Peter pens the music and lyrics and also plays the guitar, trumpet and ukulele. David is the lead guitarist and doubles on mouth organ and spoons. Alan is the group's percussionist and rubber face.

Together with our occasional double-bass player Tom Barlow (and his predecessor the late Miles Kington) we have wowed audiences as far afield as New York, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Bermuda.

We have more than 100 Instant Sunshine songs on vinyl, cassette or CD, and have written and performed many signature tunes for radio and TV, including Oneupmanship, One is Fun, Money Box and for our own three series of Jackanory.

In the mid-1980s there were three series of Instant Sunshine Reasonably Together Again on BBC Radio 4 (in 1985, 1986 and 1988) which are still occasionally repeated on BBC7. A recent recording of the history of Radio 4's Today programme includes songs from the band. It was our long association with Radio 4's Stop the Week (1975-1992) that gave us the opportunity to reach a wide audience, with a three-minute slot most weeks to sing a song about whatever topic was under discussion - anything from unrequited love to weeding the herbaceous border.

We have performed privately for the Royal Family and publicly at the North Peckham Civic Centre. And now, thanks to the wonders of the World Wide Web, we are here with you in cyberspace.

 

The Founder Members

Instant Sunshine are (L to R):

Alan Maryon Davis

Peter Christie

David Barlow

 

 

 

Alan Maryon-Davis
David Barlow
Peter Christie
....and when we have a bass - Tom Barlow.

 

Please do have a look around our website and check into our forum. We'd like to hear from you - especially if you have any archive material we could add to the site.