Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard rock music was produced by the Kinks, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Cream, Vanilla Fudge, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In the late 1960s, bands such as Blue Cheer, the Jeff Beck Group, Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Golden Earring, Steppenwolf and Deep Purple also produced hard rock.
AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and heavy metal, but the band calls it simply "rock and roll".
UFO are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They became a transitional group between early hard rock and heavy metal and the new wave of British heavy metal. The band's current lineup includes vocalist Phil Mogg, lead guitarist Vinnie Moore, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Neil Carter, bass guitarist Rob De Luca, and drummer Andy Parker. They have gone through several line-up changes, leaving Mogg as the only constant member, and had two breaks. The band also featured former Scorpions guitarist and Michael Schenker Group (MSG) founder Michael Schenker, who was a member of UFO from 1973 to 1978 and rejoined the band sporadically between 1993 and 2003, when Moore replaced him. In May 2018, Mogg announced that he would retire from UFO after one last tour as a member of the band in 2019; however, the band plans to resume their farewell tour in 2022.
Malcolm Mitchell Young was an Australian musician who was the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and songwriter of AC/DC. Except for a brief absence in 1988, he was with the band from its beginning in 1973 until retiring in 2014 due to health reasons. As a member of AC/DC, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.
Rose Tattoo are an Australian rock and roll band, now led by Angry Anderson, which formed in Sydney in 1976. Their sound is hard rock mixed with blues rock influences, with songs including "Bad Boy for Love", "Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw", "Nice Boys", "We Can't Be Beaten" and "Scarred for Life". Their first four albums were produced by Harry Vanda and George Young who also worked with AC/DC. They disbanded in 1987, subsequently reforming briefly in 1993 to support Guns N' Roses on an Australian tour. They reassembled again from 1998 and have since released two more studio albums.
Phillip Hugh Norman Rudd is an Australian drummer, best known as the drummer of AC/DC across three stints. On the 1977 departure of bass guitarist Mark Evans from AC/DC, Rudd became the only Australian-born member of the band. In 2003, he entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the other members of AC/DC. In 2014, Rudd released his first solo album, Head Job. Due to ongoing legal problems in New Zealand, where he is a resident, Rudd was unable to join the band for the 2015 Rock or Bust World Tour and was replaced by Chris Slade. On 30 September 2020, AC/DC confirmed that Rudd would be rejoining the band for their comeback album Power Up.
Clifford Williams is an English musician, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. He started his professional music career in 1967 and had previously been in the English groups Home and Bandit. His first studio album with AC/DC was Powerage in 1978. Williams was inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of AC/DC in 2003. Williams announced his retirement from AC/DC in 2016, but returned for their 2020 comeback album Power Up along with band mates Brian Johnson and Phil Rudd. His side projects include benefit concerts.
British Steel is the sixth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 11 April 1980 by Columbia Records. It was the band's first album to feature Dave Holland on drums.
Mark Whitmore Evans is an Australian musician, the current bass guitarist for rock band Rose Tattoo, and also a member of hard rock band AC/DC from March 1975 to June 1977. His playing featured on their albums T.N.T, High Voltage, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock and '74 Jailbreak. Evans has played for numerous other groups, sometimes on lead guitar, including Finch, Cheetah, Swanee, Heaven and The Party Boys. Evans' autobiography, Dirty Deeds: My Life Inside/Outside of AC/DC was released in December 2011.
Samantha Maloney is an American musician best known for playing in the bands Hole and Mötley Crüe. She has also performed live with Eagles of Death Metal and Peaches.
William Whitfield Crane IV is an American singer and founding member and lead vocalist of the rock band Ugly Kid Joe, which was formed in 1989. He has also worked in music outside his band, from performing guest vocals on numerous songs to contributing to musical efforts with other rock bands such as Life of Agony, Another Animal, and Richards/Crane.
Exciter is a Canadian speed metal band from Ottawa, Ontario, formed in 1978. Named after a song by Judas Priest, they are considered to be one of the first speed metal bands and a seminal influence of the thrash metal genre. The band was heavily influenced by a variety of music styles, including Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Rush, Jethro Tull and Grand Funk Railroad. Despite many changes in personnel, as well as two break-ups, Exciter has managed to keep a small but dedicated following over the years.
Anvil is a Canadian heavy metal band formed in Toronto, Ontario, in 1978. The band currently consists of founding members Steve "Lips" Kudlow, Robb Reiner, and Chris Robertson (bass). As of 2022, the band has released nineteen studio albums, and have been cited as having influenced many notable heavy metal groups, including Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, and Metallica.
Boss were a hard rock band, which formed in 1979 in Adelaide. Long-term members were Craig Csongrady on lead vocals and Kevin Pratt on lead guitar. The group issued a sole album, Step on It, in October 1984 before disbanding in 1986. Three members from the final line-up, Csongrady, Pratt and Peter Heckenberg (drums), founded another hard rock group, BB Steal, in 1987.
Starfighters are an English heavy metal band from the new wave of British heavy metal movement founded in Birmingham, England, in 1980. They attracted a strong British cult following but were not able to translate this into any lasting success, producing just two full studio albums in the early 1980s. Ex-member Stevie Young brought in some attention to the group after he joined the hard rock band AC/DC in 2014..
This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1980.
Australian heavy metal music has its roots in both the Australian hard rock and pub rock tradition of the 1970s and the American and British heavy metal scenes. Since the mid-1980s, Australian heavy metal has been particularly influenced by foreign bands, particularly Swedish death metal, American thrash metal and black metal from Norway. Within Australia heavy metal has always remained part of the underground but since the mid-1990s many Australian metal acts have found widespread acceptance in overseas markets, particularly in Europe.
Michael Thomas Cocks, known professionally as Mick Cocks, was an Australian musician, most noted for his guitar and songwriting work with Rose Tattoo. His original sound and style heavily influenced Guns N' Roses, who recorded a cover of the Rose Tattoo song "Nice Boys". He was also a member of Heaven, The Headhunters, Illustrated Men, Doomfoxx, Pete Wells' Heart Attack, and the Ted Mulry Gang. On 16 August 2006, Rose Tattoo were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame.
Black Steel is an Australian heavy metal band, whose career highlights include supporting rock legends Deep Purple (2000), Judas Priest, Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society (2006) and appearing at the Metallica-headlined 'Big Day Out' Perth show in 2004. They are listed in Garry Sharpe-Young's 'The A-Z of Power Metal', and have received international acclaim in the genre. Most notably in 'Kerrang!' magazine. with a KKKK rating, and 'Power Play' magazine with a 7/10 rating. Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson also spoke favourably of Black Steel during his BBC radio show 'Bruce's Rock Show', playing the track 'Slaughterhouse' from the band's 2005 album 'Hellhammer'.
Koritni is an Australian rock band from Sydney, descended from the band Green Dollar Colour.
