John Du Cann

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John Du Cann

Background information
Birth name	John Cann
Born	(1950)
Origin	England
Years active	1960s - present
Associated acts	The Attack, Andromeda, Atomic Rooster, Hard Stuff

John Du Cann (born John Cann, in 1950) is a guitarist primarily known through his work in the 70's band Atomic Rooster. His first bands included the Wiltshire-based 'The Sonics' and London-based 'The Attack,' which released "Hi Ho Silver Lining" a few days prior to Jeff Beck. He went on to lead a psychedelic, progressive, hard rock band called Andromeda, before being asked to join Atomic Rooster. Upon departure from that group, he led Hard Stuff, which was based more heavily on aggressive guitar work. In 1974 he was a temporary guitarist in Thin Lizzy for a tour of Germany.

1977 saw the pairing of Du Cann with Francis Rossi of British rock band Status Quo, when Rossi was invited to produce a new album, "The World's Not Big Enough", which remained unreleased until 1992. The session musicians for this line-up included Rossi and Rick Parfitt on guitar, Andy Bown on keyboards, future Quo drummer Pete Kircher and bassist John Gustafson from the Big Three. The album was described in Record Collector magazine around the time as sounding like "Quo mixed with the Sex Pistols".

In September 1979 he had a hit on the UK Singles Chart with "Don't Be A Dummy", a former Gary Numan song from a Lee Cooper Jeans television advert from 1978. The single reached number 33.