Knox (musician)
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Knox (born Ian M. Carnochan, 4 April 1945) is a British musician. Born in London, he spent his formulative years in Cricklewood, (North London) and then Watford, where he became interested in the guitar at the age of thirteen. He was in various school bands, based at Watford Grammar School for Boys, including The Renegades (dress - black shirts and sunglasses), and Knox and the Knight Ryders.
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[edit] Art School
Knox's budding musical development was gradually put on hold when he went to art school (in Watford, and in the West of England), where he developed an interest in painting. Knox's painting was inspired by both classical artists, and contemporary artists like Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton, etc., plus one of his friends, the artist Andrew Garnet-Lawson. Knox painted continuously from 1967 until 1992.
[edit] The Vibrators
In 1972 Knox returned to playing music and in early 1976 was a founder member of The Vibrators, one of the very first punk rock bands in the UK. As well as being the frontman he was the main songwriter for the band, writing such hits as "Baby Baby", "London Girls" and "Automatic Lover" (all Top 40 UK Singles Chart hits). The band played the legendary 100 Club Punk festival, and also gigged and recorded with the guitar legend Chris Spedding which produced the single, "Pogo Dancing".
[edit] Solo and collaborations
Knox also worked as a solo artist, recording an album Plutonium Express, which came out on the Razor record label in 1983. He also played guitar on Robyn Hitchcock's solo debut, Black Snake Diamond Role. He did two gigs working with Alex Chilton (singer with The Box Tops, The Letters, and later in Big Star) one of which was recorded and released as the album Live in London. Also in 1983 Knox played guitar and wrote material for the Urban Dogs, a band with Charlie Harper from the U.K. Subs (another punk band), producing an album of the same name.
In 1984 Knox started the Fallen Angels band which exclusively performed his material, and had Hanoi Rocks (Scandinavian precursors to Guns N' Roses) as his recording band.
[edit] Punk plays on
With the renewed interest in punk the original line-up of The Vibrators reformed in 1983, and has continued working since doing several tours a year. The band produced a further fifteen studio albums (their latest Punk: The Early Years is out on the U.S. label Cleopatra Records), numerous live albums, compilation albums and albums of early demos. The majority of the songs being written by Knox. During this period a further two Urban Dogs albums with material written by Knox were released, plus two more Fallen Angels albums written entirely by him. Knox's main lyrical inspiration comes from Lou Reed (Velvet Underground), Bob Dylan, and Iggy Pop.
Knox also wrote a book on the Vibrators The Vibrators –21 Years Of Punk Mania - "nobody else seemed interested in doing it so I did it".
Knox is a prolific songwriter and, to date, the two most successful covers of his compositions are the ballad "Baby Baby", which sold in excess of 250,000 copies when recorded by Die Toten Hosen in Germany, (and was also recorded by R.E.M. as a Christmas single for their fan club); and "Troops of Tomorrow" covered by The Exploited (the title track of their Top 20 placed album).
[edit] Punk portraits
He has painted numerous punk portraits recently: Joe Strummer, Joey Ramone, etc., Leatherface (he of the baby skin mask from the film The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), plus paintings of landscapes and buildings. (About eighty of Knox’s paintings can be seen at the second external link shown below).
