Empire (English Band)

Robert Ian Andrews (born 17 June 1959) is a British rock guitarist, and former member of the bands Generation X, Empire and Westworld.

Early life

Andrews was born in Fulham, England, on 17 June 1959, the son of a mother who was a secretary, and a West London cobbler father. He began to play the guitar at the age of 10, being musically influenced particularly by the work of the British blues rock guitarist Paul Kossoff and Rory Gallagher, and in his youth also rode in junior Motorcycle Speedway competitions in West London. On leaving school at 16, he spent a year as an assistant gardener at Kensington Palace.

Generation X

In late 1976, Andrews was playing lead guitar, his preferred instrument being the Fender stratocaster, with an amateur rocker band called ''Paradox''. Whilst performing at a gig at the Fulham Arts Centre he was talent-spotted by the punk-rocker Billy Idol, who was at that time looking for a guitar player to complete the line-up of a new band that he had just formed that would be named Generation X. Andrews was recruited to be its lead guitarist, in the process freeing Idol from the band's guitar role to become its frontman/singer. Andrews was subsequently christened with the punk pseudonym "Derwood" by the band, a name invented on the spur of the moment by a friend of his whilst under interrogation from Tony James, the band's strategist, about school nicknames that Andrews had in search of a punk stage-name, to avoid James discovering and using the name "Dobbin", which Andrews' prominent front teeth in his school years had attracted. After less than a week, and a handful of rehearsals, Andrews took the stage for the band's first gig, at the Central London College of Art & Design on 10 December 1976.

The band subsequently signed a recording contract with Chrysalis Records and released its first single, "Your Generation", in September 1977, which went to No. 36 in the UK Singles Chart. Andrews remained with the band through their two long-players, the self-titled ''Generation X'' (1978), which reached No. 29 in the UK Albums Chart, followed by '' Valley of the Dolls'' (1979).

After two propitious opening years, with a hectic touring schedule and record releases entering the charts, the release of the ''Valley of the Dolls'' LP at the start of 1979, although being marked simultaneously by their highest chart hit with the single "King Rocker" (No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart), initiated the beginning of a deterioration in the commercial success of the band, and differences began to surface within it between Andrews and Billy Idol and the bass player Tony James as to its future musical direction. The disagreement about direction was augmented by Idol and James' refusal to allow Andrews to contribute to their songwriting partnership, and an increasing personal antipathy that had developed in Andrews towards Idol. In May 1979, Andrews warned them that he was increasingly feeling like leaving Generation X, which was avoided by focusing on the band's first international tour in Japan mid-year, but on returning to England, during the recording sessions for the band's abortive third album (which would be released retrospectively 20 years later, by Andrews in the face of opposition from Idol, under the title '' K.M.D. – Sweet Revenge'') internal disputes came to a head, and Andrews quit the band just before Christmas. He would be joined by the band's drummer Mark Laff a month later, who Idol and James asked to leave over another disagreement.

Empire

In early 1980, Andrews and Laff recorded as session musicians on Jimmy Pursey's first solo album ''Imagination Camouflage'' (1980) (Andrews receiving co-writing credit for two of the LP's songs, ''Freak Show'' and ''Situation's Vacant''), before in mid-1980 Andrews and Laff with the bassist Simon Bernal formed the three man post-punk band Empire, with Andrews as the act's lead vocalist. Empire commercially released via the new label Dinosaur Discs, backed by a record shop of the same name at No. 17 Barons Court Road in West Kensington, the song "Hot Seat" (1981), with a B-side entitled "All These Things", which failed to enter the UK Singles Chart. A long-player entitled ''Expensive Sound'' (1981), recorded without a producer at Alvic Studios in Barons Court, also failed to enter the UK Album Chart. The band played a handful of gigs around London before Bernal left. After an unstable line-up and some more gigging in 1981–1982, Laff left the act in February 1983 in frustration with its lack of apparent commercial development.

In early 1983, Andrews renamed the act New Empire after recruiting the vocalist Babel Wallace, Mike Gregovich (one of the sound engineers at Alvic Studios who had recorded the band's ''Expensive Sound'' LP) playing bass, and Crispin Taylor on the drums. The new line-up released a white label 12" titled "Inside You", and toured in the UK in 1983 as a support act to John Miles and Roman Holliday, and also in Spain, where it found some unanticipated and mysteriously caused popularity with well attended shows. However, without a record label's support, New Empire's increasingly adverse financial circumstances led to Andrews ending it in February 1984 at a gig at the Thames Hall in Slough, Berkshire; Andrews signaling the defeat by wrecking his amp

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