Runner were a short-lived British rock band, formed in 1978 out of a friendship between Steve Gould of the band

Rare Bird Rare Bird were an English progressive rock band formed in 1969. They had more success in other European countries. They released five studio albums between 1969 and 1974. In the UK, they never charted with an album but charted with one single ...

and

Alan Merrill Alan Merrill (born Allan Preston Sachs; February 19, 1951 – March 29, 2020) was an American vocalist, guitarist and songwriter. In the early 1970s, he was one of the few resident foreigners to achieve pop star status in Japan. He was the write ...

of the band Arrows. Steve Gould had been touring with Merrill's live band Arrows after his band Rare Bird broke up in 1976. When the Arrows broke up in 1978 both singers were looking for new projects. They went into the studio to do a rough demo with bass player Mick Feat, who was playing with

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

at the time, and drummer

Dave Dowle David 'Duck' Dowle (born 20 October 1953 in London, England) is an English drummer who has played with the bands Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, Streetwalkers, Whitesnake, Runner, Midnight Flyer, Bernie Marsden. Biography Dave Dowle started ...

who was playing with the band

Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own entit ...

. After a demo from the band they were signed by

Arista Records Arista Records () is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertainmen ...

subsidiary Acrobat Records in the UK and

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...

in the USA immediately. They went to The Manor recording studio in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

England and recorded their first and only album with James Guthrie producing. The ''Runner'' album charted in the US, spending four weeks on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of art ...

and peaking at #167, but due to musical differences the band broke up whilst recording their second album with

Alex Sadkin Alex Sadkin (April 9, 1949July 25, 1987) was an American record producer, engineer, mixer and mastering engineer. Sadkin grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida across the street from Bennett Elementary School, and played saxophone in Sunrise Junio ...

producing. After the band split, Mick Feat and Steve Gould went on to record with

Alvin Lee Alvin Lee (born Graham Anthony Barnes; 19 December 1944 – 6 March 2013) was an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lead guitarist of the blues rock band Ten Years After. Early life He w ...

, Dave Dowle with the

Maggie Bell Margaret Bell (born 12 January 1945 in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish rock vocalist. She came to fame as co-lead vocalist of the blues-rock group Stone the Crows, and was described as the UK's closest counterpart to American singe ...

band Nightflyer, and Alan Merrill joined

Rick Derringer Rick Derringer (born Richard Dean Zehringer; August 5, 1947) is an American guitarist, vocalist, producer and songwriter. He came to prominence in the 1960s as founding member of his band, the McCoys. Their debut single, "Hang on Sloopy", was ...

's band Derringer. The band Runner never toured, in spite of their making the American charts.

Discography

* ''Runner'' (Acrobat/

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

, 1979) *#"Fooling Myself" (2:58) *#"Run for Your Life" (4:10) *#"Broken Hearted Me" (3:42) *#"Truly from Within" (3:21) *#"Dynamite" (4:22) *#"Sooner Than Later" (3:23) *#"Rock & Roll Soldiers" (3:29) *#"Gone Too Long" (5:42) *#"Living Is Loving You" (3:01) *#"Restless Wind" (4:11)

References

External links

Runner fan site
British rock music groups Island Records artists Musical groups established in 1978 Musical groups disestablished in 1980 1978 establishments in England 1980 disestablishments in England {{UK-rock-band-stub