Artists - R
R.E.M.
In Athens, Georgia (USA), Michael Stipe and Peter Buck met in 1978 in the record store where Buck worked and discovered they shared an interest in post-punk British music. Two years later they formed REM,...
Rabbit
Formed in 1973 in Newcastle (NSW, Australia), Rabbit were originally a three-piece band playing covers of songs by artists such as Alice Cooper, The Who and The Move
Greg Douglas joined as lead vocalist in 1974 but was...
Racey
"When I met you, you were seventeen, not just another teenage queen" - Shakespeare? Dylan? Lennon & McCartney?
While not strictly speaking 'one-hit wonders', Racey had a very short stay at the toppermost of the poppermost with...
Rachel Sweet
By the age of 16, Akron-girl Rachel Sweet was a veteran performer, having been on the stage since the age of nine as well as recording commercials and TV advertising jingles.
Amongst the products she promoted...
Radiators, The
Singer Brian Nichol and guitarist Stephen 'Fess' Parker had played together in a high school band in the NSW south coast town of Bega before moving to Sydney where they became the core of a...
Radio Birdman
The Radio Birdman saga began in Sydney, Australia, in 1973 with The Rats - a band comprising Mick Lynne on bass, Rob Younger on vocals, Warwick Gilbert on guitar and Ron Keeley on drums.
At the...
Radio Luxembourg
Arguably the earliest commercial radio station broadcasting in the English language, Radio Luxembourg started broadcasting to the entertainment-starved listeners of the United Kingdom.
Often mistakenly referred to as a ‘Pirate' radio station, Radio Luxembourg offered an English speaking...
Radio Stars
Radio Stars was formed by Martin Gordon (ex-Sparks), vocalist Andy Ellison (ex-John's Children) and Ian MacLeod in 1977.
The band signed to Chiswick Records and released their debut single, Dirty Pictures, in April 1977, which came in...
Radiohead
It is a well-known fact that the weight of just one hit single can destroy a band - should you duplicate your sound and be accused of selling out, or follow your artistic ideas and risk...
Railway Children, The
The Railway Children formed in 1985 in Wigan, Lancashire. After a batch of demo tapes, the four 19-year-olds found themselves being feted by numerous record companies, eventually settling on a contract-free deal with Factory Records.
A...
Rain Parade
This psychedelia-tinged, late-60s-influenced new wave band hailed from Los Angeles.
After a promising debut single, What She's Done To Your Mind on their own Llama label, the band issued Emergency Third Rail Power Trip to critical acclaim in 1983, followed...
Rainbow
A few months prior to his departure from Deep Purple in 1975, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore teamed up with members of a decidedly mediocre American band called Elf and recorded Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow for Polydor.
Although it was basically...
Raincoats, The
Formed in 1976 while Gina Birch (bass) and Ana Da Silva (guitar and vocals) were at Hornsey Art College, The Raincoats were a London-based female (apart from occasional drummer Charles Hayward) band of post-punk musical...
Ral Donner
Ralph Stuart Emanuel Donner was born in Norwood Park, Chicago and sang in church as a child. He sang in local talent shows as a teen, and formed two of his own bands, The Rockin'...
Ramases
Once glance at the grammatically-challenged and logic-dodging sleeve notes on the 1971 Space Hymns album will convince you that Mister Ram (Kimberley Barrington Frost to his Earth mum) was a couple of coins short of a hexagram.
Sounding...
Ramatam
Ramatam appeared in 1972 with a self-titled debut album on Atlantic and a line-up featuring Mitch Mitchell (ex-Jimi Hendrix Experience), Mike Pinera (from Iron Butterfly and Blues Image) and female guitar virtuoso, April Lawton.
The line-up...
Ramones, The
The Ramones were nasty, ugly and played music so fast and simple it was borderline inane, but this band of creeps from Forest Hills in Queens, New York, would go on to have an influence...
Randy Newman
Randy Newman was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Southern California. His career in music began while he was at UCLA, thanks to his childhood friend Lenny Waronker, whose father owned a record...
Rare Earth
Having played the club circuit since 1961 under the name The Sunliners, it was on joining Motown's subsidiary Rare Earth Records - set up by Barney Ales as a home for white rock acts - that...
Raspberries, The
The Raspberries, a Cleveland-based band, summed up everything classic power pop was about (before the term was even being used); simplicity, Beach Boys-esque harmonies, and delightfully skilled melodies - all underpinned by an instrumentation that paid homage to many British...
