Fear Of Flying ft. Charlie Dore

A demo of the obscure Charlie Dore song "Fear of Flying" recorded one day in 1979/1980 when Dore visited Harrison's house was rediscovered by Olivia Harrison while searching through George's archives, a section of which was used on the Jools Holland show on BBC Radio 2.

Olivia Harrison: "It's a demo, it's not embellished, it's just him, George, on an acoustic guitar. I don't know how he'd feel about it being played, but I think it's really sweet."


Written by the lady herself, backed by "Hula Valley" and produced by Bruce Welch and Alan Tarney for Island records, "Fear Of Flying" was Charlie's Dore's debut single. And it didn't fly!

She learned her lesson, or maybe her record buying public did, and her next release literally flew: "Pilot Of The Airwaves". The latter went on to become an enduring radio favourite, reaching #13 on the US Billboard Hot 100, earning Dore the Record World New Female Artist of the Year, an ASCAP award and charting in Canada, Australia and Europe.

George's demo is a great find.
But that was not enough for the BDJ team. Based on the fragment (ca 1 minute) of the acoustic demo, we recreated the complete song, as it would have sounded if George had finished it.