America is an American rock band formed in London in 1970 by US artists Dewey Bunnell, Dan Peek, and Gerry Beckley. The trio met as sons of US Air Force personnel stationed in London, where they began performing live. Achieving significant popularity in the 1970s, the trio was famous for its close vocal harmonies and light acoustic folk rock sound. The band released a string of hit albums and singles, many of which found airplay on pop/soft rock stations.
Oingo Boingo was an American new wave band formed by songwriter Danny Elfman in 1979. The band emerged from a surrealist musical theatre troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, that Elfman had led and written material for in the years previous. Their highest-charting song, "Weird Science", reached No. 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in the UK, Australia, Canada, and the U.S. including "Stray Cat Strut", "(She's) Sexy + 17", "Look at That Cadillac", "I Won't Stand in Your Way", "Bring It Back Again", and "Rock This Town", which the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has listed as one of the songs that shaped rock and roll.
Fishbone is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1979, the band plays a fusion of ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. AllMusic has described the group as "one of the most distinctive and eclectic alternative rock bands of the late '80s. With their hyperactive, self-conscious diversity, goofy sense of humor, and sharp social commentary, the group gained a sizable cult following".
Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual and impressionistic approach to his guitar tones which, rather than relying on standard instrumental tones, often resemble sound effects or noises made by animals and machines.
Terry John Bozzio is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and Frank Zappa. He has been featured on nine solo or collaborative albums, 26 albums with Zappa and seven albums with Missing Persons. Bozzio has been a prolific sideman, playing on numerous releases by other artists since the mid-1970s. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1997.
Redd Kross is an American rock band from Hawthorne, California, who had their roots in 1978 in a punk rock band called the Tourists, which was started by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald while Steve was still in middle school. With the addition of friends Greg Hetson and John Stielow on drums, the band's first gig was opening for Black Flag. The band has since released seven albums and three EPs.
The Gun Club were an American post-punk band from Los Angeles that existed from 1979 to 1996. Created and led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce, they were notable as one of the first bands in the punk rock subculture to incorporate influences from blues, rockabilly, and country music. The Gun Club has been called a "tribal psychobilly blues" band, as well as initiators of the punk blues sound cowpunk – "He (Pierce) took Robert Johnson and pre-war acoustic blues and 'punkified' it. Up until then bands were drawing on Iggy & The Stooges and the New York Dolls but he took it back so much further for inspiration."
Steven John Bator, known professionally as Stiv Bator and later as Stiv Bators, was an American punk rock vocalist and guitarist from Girard, Ohio. He is best remembered for his bands Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church.
Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson is an Icelandic musician.
The Beat Farmers were an American rock band that formed in San Diego, California, United States, in August 1983, and enjoyed a cult following into the early 1990s before the death of drummer and sometime lead singer Country Dick Montana. Their music has been described as an amalgamation of jangle pop, roots rock, hard-twang Americana, country rock, rockabilly, and swamp rock. The San Diego Reader summed up their sound as ..."like Bo Diddley, CCR, Joe South, and the Yardbirds, ham fisted into a food processor, stuffed into a shotgun shell, and blasted into a beer keg at three in the morning."
John Du Prez is a British musician, conductor and composer. He was a member of the 1980s salsa-driven pop band Modern Romance and has since written several film scores including Oxford Blues (1984), Once Bitten, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), and the final Carry On film, Carry On Columbus (1992). He contributed to The Wild (2006) soundtrack.
Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, also known as HÖH, is a musician, an art director, and allsherjargoði of Ásatrúarfélagið.
Robert Fleischman is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for briefly working with the rock band Journey as their lead vocalist in 1977 and occasionally thereafter as a songwriting collaborator.
Frederick George Moore was an American musician best known for his 1980 song "It's Not a Rumour", which he co-wrote with his ex-wife Demi Moore, and recorded with his band The Nu-Kats. The song was not a chart hit, but the video did receive airplay on MTV in the early 1980s. Moore's career spanned decades and included teaching himself to play guitar, writing the lyrics to 1,000 original songs, forming multiple bands, and even starring in a few film roles. Moore's bands performed at legendary Los Angeles clubs, including Whisky a Go Go, The Troubadour, and Starwood, and headlined alongside The Police, The Knack, and The Motels. His memoir, It's Not a Rumour, published in 2021, chronicles his unorthodox story of making it big in music and life without ever making any money.
The Plugz were a Latino punk band from Los Angeles that formed in 1977 and disbanded in 1984. They and The Zeros were among the first Latino punk bands, although several garage rock bands, such as Thee Midniters and Question Mark & the Mysterians, predated them. The Plugz melded the spirit of punk and Latino music.
Terrence Williams is a Welsh rock drummer. During the 1970s and early 1980s Williams was drummer with Dave Edmunds / Rockpile and Man. Rockpile split in 1981 and Williams joined Dire Straits from 1982 until 1988.
Rubber City Rebels are an American punk band from Akron, Ohio that formed in 1976.
London is an American glam metal band formed in Hollywood, California in 1978. The band included several members that would go on to play in more famous bands, such as Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses, W.A.S.P. and Cinderella.
Humberto "Tito" Larriva is a Mexican-American songwriter, singer, musician, and actor. He came to prominence leading The Plugz, one of the earliest Los Angeles punk rock groups. Since the 1990s, his main musical outlet has been Tito & Tarantula.
