Despite a long career, classical musician-turned-founder member of Curved Air, Francis Monkman preferred to avoid the spotlight and allow his playing to take centre-stage instead. A key member of Sky and the supergroup 801, his recent death from cancer at the age of 73 has left behind a remarkable musical legacy that combines his passions for all things progressive and classical. We pay tribute to the pioneering instrumentalist.
“If Francis found out there were Curved Air fans in the audience he’d sneak part of Piece Of Mind into his playing of Bach’s music with great feeling.” In recalling their founding member, keyboard and guitar player Francis Monkman, who died in May, UK prog rockers Curved Air perhaps answered a question that some fans may have wondered since he last featured in the band in 1990: whatever happened to Francis Monkman?
In truth, the classically trained musician remained working with music, notably with his beloved harpsichord and the work of composer Johann Sebastian Bach, but stayed out of the public spotlight, something that always seemed to be more comfortable to the musician than hogging the limelight. And yet ironically, thanks to Monkman’s involvement in scores of some of the biggest films of the 1980s and 1990s, millions would have heard his work, albeit possibly without knowing it. And he never forgot his progressive rock roots.
Born Anthony Francis Keigwin Monkman in Hampstead, London, on June 9, 1949, he showed a flair for music at an early age, studying both organ and harpsichord at Westminster School, where he was a pupil. He later attended the Royal Academy Of Music where he won the Raymond Russell prize for virtuosity on the harpsichord, before gaining membership of The Academy Of St Martin In The Fields.
“Francis and I first met at the Orange music shop in Denmark Street in 1969,” recalls his soon-to-be Curved Air colleague, violinist Darryl Way. “I was there trying out my newly amplified electric violin when Francis strode over and we got talking. During the conversation we discovered that we had a lot in common. Both of us were classical music students, Francis studying at the Royal Academy and me at the Royal College, and both of us had a burning desire to get into rock music.”
That desire initially manifested itself in early progressive rock outfit Sisyphus.
“Francis, at that time, had been doing some jamming with Rob Martin on bass and Pat Deneen on drums,” Way continues. “I’d been putting some ideas together with an American classical pianist who was also studying in London. So, we decided to po
