Rowan Robertson
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Rowan Robertson (born November 22, 1971 in Cambridge, United Kingdom) is an English guitarist.
Rowan Robertson took up guitar at the early age of five. From an early age he took an interest in the band Dio as he started learning Dio songs in 1984 from the The Last in Line album. Robertson's influences on the guitar were Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai, Randy Rhoads, Vivian Campbell and Eddie Van Halen. His musical influences in general included AC/DC, The Beatles, Deep Purple, The Police and many others.
Robertson heard that Dio were looking for a new guitarist. He sent a tape to the record company phonogram. After six months he got the reply that, at the moment, they were not interested in him, after which He then called the Dio Fan Club who asked him to send his demo tape to them.
Robertson got a good response from Dio and in late January or early February 1989 he was flown to Los Angeles for an audition with Dio. He was auditioned twice and right after the second audition he was invited to the band. The press-release of the joining was dated on July 18th, 1989 and the press was invited to see the guitarist on July 20, 1989 at Oliver's Pub in New York City, USA.
The first Dio album he started working on was Lock up the Wolves together with Jimmy Bain, Vinny Appice and Jens Johansson. The band had started writing and recording when Jimmy Bain and Vinny Appice were fired from the band. They were replaced with Teddy Cook and former AC-DC drummer Simon Wright. Recordings do exist from the sessions with Bain and Appice but were never released.
In 1990, Lock up the Wolves was released and the band set out touring. Lock Up The Wolves became a live favourite on the tour. Dio's voice was in its prime as well as they played four Rainbow songs...Man On The Silver Mountain, Tarot Woman, Stargazer and Long Live Rock N Roll.
Robertson stayed in Dio until Ronnie James Dio rejoined Black Sabbath in 1991. Ronnie and Robertson had been writing songs for an album to be released in May 1991. When Dio was put on ice - or more or less disbanded - Robertson started to work on an instruction video for guitar players. After it was released on Star Licks in July or August 1991, supposedly only in the USA - he teamed with vocalist Oni Logan (ex Lynch Mob) and drummer Jimmy Paxson (ex Triangle) and started to record on an album together on Atlantic Records. Their band should be called Freedom, but its status is unknown at the moment.
In April 2005 Robertson embarked in a short West Coast tour with his new band Happy Birthday, supporting Jimmy Chamberlin's band, The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex.
Currently Rowan is working with a Finnish bassist/composer Marko Pukilla on a new hard rock band. The band may be called Wicked Outlaw. They are still looking for a drummer and singer and plan to tour the U.S and release an album when the band is put together. Rowan also just joined the band DC4 who are working on an album that should be released in 2007.
Robertson lives in Los Angeles.
[edit] Bands
- Dio (1989-1991)
- Violet's Demise (1991-1995)
- VAST (1998-2000)
- AM Radio (2001-2004,2006)
- Happy Birthday (2005)
- Wicked Outlaw (2005-)
- DC4 (2006-)
[edit] Discography
- Dio- Hey Angel(CD Single)- 1990
- Dio- Wild One(CD Single)- 1990
- Dio- Born On The Sun(CD single)- 1990
- Dio- Excerpts from Lock up The Wolves(E.P)- 1990
- Dio- Lock up the Wolves- 1990
- Dio- Diamonds :Best Of Dio- 1991
- Dio- Master Series- 1998
- VAST- Visual Audio Sensory Theater- 1998
- Dio- The Very Beast Of Dio- 2000
- Dio- Anthology Vol Two- 2001
- Logan/Robertson- Revisited- 2001
- AM Radio- AM Radio- 2001
- Dio- Anthology - Stand Up And Shout- 2003
- AM Radio- Radioactive- 2003
- Dio- The Collection- 2003
