Roy Flynn

Roy Flynn is an English former music manager. He managed The Speakeasy Club in 1960s London, in which capacity he associated with and befriended rock stars of the era like Keith Moon and Jimi Hendrix. He began managing bands, and after one night when Yes was called in at the last minute to replace Sly and the Family Stone at a 1968 gig, Flynn was so impressed with the band he offered to manage them.

Flynn would become best known for managing Yes, to whom he devoted his sole attention and much of his personal savings. The band was signed to Atlantic Records and recorded their first two albums on that label. But those albums failed to sell well in Britain and made no impression in the U.S., leaving most of the members unhappy with Flynn. As the band was writing songs and rehearsing for its third album, The Yes Album, at a Devonshire farmhouse he was renting for them, he and the band parted company.

After Brian Lane replaced him and Yes finally achieved the success it sought, Flynn negotiated a deal which, in addition to a share of the band's publishing revenues, gave him five percent of all its future revenue. They were not happy about this, and renamed a short Bill Bruford-penned instrumental on their next album, Fragile, "Five per Cent for Nothing", as a protest. Flynn claims he did not receive any revenue from the deal, and sued the band and Lane, eventually settling for what he considers to be a small portion of what he was owed.

In 1966, Flynn opened The Speakeasy Club at 48 Margaret Street in London, just north of Soho. It soon became a regular hangout for popular musicians of the era, like The Beatles, and leading record label executives, along with film and television stars like Dudley Moore and Albert Finney. The presence of the former led to impromptu jam sessions. Jimi Hendrix, who became a close friend of Flynn's, was a frequent visitor and performer, known for jamming with whoever might be playing that night, on whatever instrument he could, Family's Charlie Whitney recalled. Ritchie Blackmore, later guitarist for Deep Purple, also sat in with many acts.

In the audiences watching were other prominent musicians of the day, some of whom distinguished themselves by their nonmusical antics. Cream drummer Ginger Baker once threw his meal at a rival; (In hindsight, Flynn agreed it would have made more sense to sign with Stigwood who, having just started his label and having few other artists (he had not yet signed The Bee Gees), would unlike Ertegun have been more willing to commit to promoting Yes.)

"Everywhere we looked, others flourished," wrote Bill Bruford, Yes's drummer at that time, years later. By contrast, during those two years, "Yes managed only to tread water, run red lights and lose money at gigs in Kidderminster that cost us more to do than we were paid." After touring to support Time and a Word, the band settled down on a Devonshire farm to write and rehearse songs for their third album, the last one Atlantic was contractually obligated to release. (Lane accomplished this by taking advantage of that year's British postal strike, which prevented Melody Maker from compiling it since record stores at that time sent their sales reports in through the post.) In its stead, Richard Branson began compiling one from the sales reported at his store, Virgin Records, and some others in London, which the BBC and the newspapers used as an alternative. Lane went to Virgin and bought every copy of The Yes Album he could for several weeks, making it one of the best-selling albums there and assuring its presence on the chart. When Melody Maker was able to resume publishing its chart, the album had taken off outside of London, eventually reaching No. 4.

Fragiles release was an even greater boon to Yes than its predecessor had been, getting the band radio airplay and concert dates in North America. But Flynn saw no money from the deal he had made.