Founded in Sydney, Australia in 1976, Flash and the Pan is an Australian new wave musical group formed by Harry Vanda and George Young, acclaimed songwriters, producers and founding members of the Australian rock band The Easybeats. Their first two singles “Hey, St. Peter” (1976) and “Down Among the Dead Men" (re-titled as “And the Band Played On”) reached number 5 and 4 in the Australian Singles Chart, respectively and the group’s debut album, released in December 1978, featured the single “Walking in the Rain” which was memorably covered by American singer Grace Jones in 1981. Flash and the Pan’s second album Lights in the Night (1980), peaked at number 1 on the Swedish Albums Chart followed by Headlines (1983), with lead single “Waiting for a Train” enjoying considerable success in Europe and the UK, reaching number 7 on the UK Singles Chart and number 15 in Belgium. The band’s fourth release Early Morning Wake Up Call (1984) continued to attract success in Sweden, however after the album failed to chart in Australia, along with their final albums Nights in France (1987) and Burning Up the Night (1992), Vanda and Young once again returned to writing hit songs for other artists and were inducted into the inaugural ARIA Hall of Fame in 1988.
