Ron François (born April 1958) is a British musician, who first came to notice as the lead singer and bass player of the English R&B band The Strutters, which was involved in the London pub rock scene of the mid-1970s. In 1978, he recorded the debut album '' Stateless'' with the

Lene Lovich Lili-Marlene Premilovich (born March 30, 1949), known professionally as Lene Lovich ( ), is an American-British singer. She first gained attention in 1979 with the release of her hit single "Lucky Number", which peaked at number 3 on the UK Sin ...

band, from which came the UK hit single "

Lucky Number In number theory, a lucky number is a natural number in a set which is generated by a certain " sieve". This sieve is similar to the sieve of Eratosthenes that generates the primes, but it eliminates numbers based on their position in the rema ...

". He then toured with the

band on the

Stiff Records Stiff Records is a British independent record label formed in London by Dave Robinson (music executive), Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera. Originally active from 1976 to 1986, the label was reactivated in 2007. Established at the outset of the p ...

"Be Stiff Route 78 Tour" of the UK and New York. From 1978 to 1981, François worked with ex-Strutters Mark Kjeldsen and Bobbi (Irwin) Trehern in

the Sinceros The Sinceros were a New wave music, new wave and power pop band from London, England, who recorded two albums for Epic Records, ''The Sound of Sunbathing (The Sinceros album), The Sound of Sunbathing'' (1979) and ''Pet Rock (album), Pet Rock'' ...

, who made two albums for

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

, '' The Sound of Sunbathing'' and '' Pet Rock'', and achieved moderate success before they disbanded in 1981. François continued playing sessions while remaining with Epic Records, releasing a solo single, "If You Love Me", before joining the Teardrop Explodes for their '' Wilder'' album tour of the UK, Europe, Australia and the US. He also played on the 1984

Julian Cope Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...

solo album '' World Shut Your Mouth''. In 1984, François played bass guitar on the album '' This Island'' with

Eurogliders Eurogliders are a band formed in 1980 in Perth, Western Australia, which included Grace Knight on vocals, Bernie Lynch on guitar and vocals, and Amanda Vincent on keyboards. * First edition (online copy): * Second edition: In 1984, Eurogli ...

. Produced by Nigel Gray in his

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

studio, the album included the top ten single "

Heaven (Must Be There) "Heaven (Must Be There)" (sometimes shortened to just "Heaven") is a song by the Australian pop and new wave band Eurogliders from their album '' This Island''. The song was released on 7" and 12" vinyl in May 1984. The single brought the ba ...

". François left the UK to live and work in Australia. He played bass and synthesizer on the Eurogliders next LP, '' Absolutely''. The album was in the charts for 47 weeks and spawned three Australian top ten singles, including "The City of Soul" which featured François' trademark funky bass techniques. Parting company with Eurogliders in 1987, François formed the power pop trio Panic Poets, who released the independent single "Let's Go" in Australia in 1988, gaining good airplay. In recent years, François has collaborated on several albums with West Australian percussionist Murray Campbell, as part of Campbell's Beatworld project. Now living in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, François is still very much involved in songwriting and production with local artists at his recording studio (Point Studio) on the Central Coast.

References

* Colin Larkin, ''The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music – Page 3578'', Guinness, 1995,

External links

Beatworld

Point Studio
1958 births Living people The Sinceros members English rock bass guitarists British male bass guitarists English male singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters English session musicians English rock keyboardists English record producers English new wave musicians The Teardrop Explodes members English expatriates in Australia {{UK-musician-stub