From Rags To Rags And On To Oblivion
In 1986 the band “Desperado” which contained four members of “Raised On Rusks” quit the music scene as they could no longer tolerate the workingmen’s club circuit and the dreaded ever present concert chairman.
Colin Bradley emigrated to Canada where he still plays in a variety of successful country bands. John Whittingham opened a small recording studio, whilst Alun Edwards found work as a session singer, in addition to playing briefly in the local band “Fat Chance”.
Dennis Johnson also gigged on a sporadic basis and Mick Sandbrook appeared to have settled down to a pipe and slipper retirement.
And so it continued until the autumn of 1993. Colin’s brother Joe received a call from Colin’s wife saying that they were coming home to England for Christmas and could a surprise reunion gig be arranged for Colin. After some detective work and frantic phone calls Joe was able to contact the members of the old band “Desperado” The band members met up in a local hostelry to organise the event and were even able to track down Colin’s trusty old Fender Telecaster he'd sold to Tom Cowley before he left.
The result was two extremely well received concerts one of which was performed in the now defunct Teesbeat Studio which was recorded free of charge by Dimmer Blackwell and Mike Frankland.
Following the buzz created by performing again, the band "Raised On Rusks" was formed on the understanding that:-
The only music to be performed would be that of which all the band members enjoyed.
The band would play a limited number of gigs throughout the year in venues where live music was appreciated.
They would play an acoustic first set to vary the musical content of the show.
Merrick Hamilton a hugely talented acoustic and electric guitarist was drafted into the band to complete the line up.
Sixteen years later and knocking on a bit, we're still at it and still enjoying the unique buzz generated when playing to an audience.
The Name?
Well, if we were going to play again it had to be just for fun so the name had to be something tongue in cheek.
Names like "Sheepahite", "Sacacack", "The Old Gits " or "The Simbollicks" (Alun would be Sim), were bandied about for a while then somebody said "why don't we call ourselves Raised On Radio", but a bright spark piped up "I don't know about you lot but I was raised on rusks", and the name stuck!
