The Great Balloon Race

In September 1984, Sky began recording their seventh album - The Great Balloon Race - in Kevin Peek's Tracks Studio in Western Australia. This album was the first Sky album to feature entirely original material without any classical content (although two pieces, "Allegro" and "Caldando" were strongly classically-inspired). Guest included Ron Aspery, Lee Fothergill, pan-pipe player Adrian Brett and former Jeff Beck Band keyboard player Tony Hymas (who contributed the unusual semi-spoken album opener "Desperate For Your Love"). The band were dropped by Ariola Records while The Great Balloon Race was being mixed, and the album was eventually released on Epic Records (who were also the label releasing John Williams' albums). Despite some favourable reviews, the album sales were significantly lower than on previous occasions. Sky toured the UK - this time with Rolling Stones keyboard player Nicky Hopkins and multi-instrumentalist Paul Hart (a former composer for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra who'd also played bass guitar for John Dankworth and both violin and piano for Cleo Laine). Significantly, the band found themselves playing to smaller audiences than on previous tours.