Ben Harding (guitarist)

3 Colours Red
3 Colours Red, 1997. L-R: Chris McCormack, Pete Vuckovic, Keith Baxter and Ben Harding.
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Hard rock, punk rock, Indie, Britrock
Years active	1995–1999 / 2002–2005
Labels	Creation, Mighty Atom, Epic (US), Sanctuary
Website	Official 'myspace' page

3 Colours Red were a rock band from the United Kingdom. They achieved their biggest chart success at the end of the 1990s, along with other Britrock bands such as Ash and Feeder. The band was named by sticking a pin in a London listings magazine, Time Out. It landed randomly on an advertisement for the concluding part of the Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski's, Three Colors, trilogy. They went on to record two UK Top 20 albums, and six Top 40 singles.Fox Soccer Channel currently feature their 1997 hit "Copper Girl" as background music when announcing scores and goal summaries at half time and full-time.

In 1995, it was suggested by a mutual friend that bass player/singer Pete Vuckovic should contact guitarist Chris McCormack (ex-Forgodsake/Gunslinger) to start a band. Both had recently left their previous bands and were looking for something new. Vuckovic made the call. At first he was told that McCormack was not available as he was busy with Honeycrack. A few weeks later, after McCormack didn't get the gig with Honeycrack, they decided to work on some songs together. Due to location they spent the following months trading four track recordings and developing song ideas via post, until they had enough material to record a demo. The demo, a three song effort featuring the newly acquired drummer Keith Baxter was sniffed at but didn't click. Vuckovic left the early incarnation of the band.

In the meantime, and undeterred, McCormack liaising with Gina Walters, herself working at Warner Chappell Music is put onto a producer/manager called Terry Thomas.

It is this inclusion of Terry Thomas that convinces Pete Vuckovic to change his mind and do another demo, after a 30 minute phone call from McCormack begging him to come back to London.

Terry Thomas would eventually manage them as well as produce the demos (the first to feature guitarist Ben Harding) that secured their recording contract.

McCormack is the younger brother of Danny McCormack, ex-bassist in The Wildhearts, another British rock band who had already achieved commercial success, and with whom 3 Colours Red would play some of their first concerts. Ben Harding had been a founder member of Senseless Things, whilst Vučković's stint with Diamond Head had galvanised his songwriting, and Keith Baxter's drumming with Skyclad provided the band with backbone.