PILOT (UK)

The band formed in 1973 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The founding members were David Paton and Billy Lyall who had both been in an early (pre-success) incarnation of The Bay City Rollers. They recorded a number of demos and came to the attention of EMI records. Their first album, ‘From The Album Of The Same Name’, would contain their first 2 hits, ‘Just A Smile’ which made it to 49 in Australia and ‘Magic’ which peaked at 11 in the UK and 5 in the US as well as getting to 12 in Australia and toping the Canadian charts. Their biggest hit came with ‘January’ which topped the UK, Australian and Irish charts. In total they would manage 4 UK charting hits (with just the 1 chart topper) and 3 US chart hits (with ‘Magic’ giving them their best peak). Paton would go on to work with Kate Bush, Elton John and Alan Parsons (who had produced their hit, ‘Magic’). Lyall would also work with Alan Parsons as well as Sheena Easton. Ian Bairnson, who played on the hit ‘Magic’ as a session musician would join the band as a full member after their first album.

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
21-Mar-1971	Magic	11	6
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	6

Biggest climber awards	0
Star rater climbs	1
Biggest fallers	1
Weeks with oldest in the charts	0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)	6
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts	0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)	0
Top 30 points ranking	=1014
Top 20 points ranking	=992
Top 30 points	95
Top 20 points	35

Hits featuring David Paton:

Song	Act	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
Wuthering Heights	Kate Bush	3	11
Nikita	Elton John	1 (4)	23
I Don’t Want To Go On With you Like That	Elton John	27	2
		Total hits	3
		Total weeks	26

Total chart involvement by the band and its members:

Number of hits	4
Weeks	32
No of No.1’s	1
Weeks at 1	4

Billy Lyall is credited with playing on Sheena Easton’s album which features the hit ‘9 to 5 (Morning Train)’ while Ian Bairnson is credited with playing on Bucks Fizz’s album containing their hit ‘making Your Mind Up’. I have not been able to verify if they actually played on the hits mentioned and one may argue that Bairnson was not a full band member when Pilot had their hit mentioned above. However, if you want to include the 2 songs that they may have played on the involvement stats read 6 hits and 47 weeks with no additional number 1’s.