Bob Andrews (guitarist)
| Bob "Derwood" Andrews | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Robert Ian Andrews |
| Also known as | Derwood |
| Born |
17 June 1959 Fulham, London, England |
| Genres | Rock, punk rock, post-punk, glam rock, electronic rock, alternative country, blues |
| Occupation(s) | Pop musician |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Associated acts | Paradox, Generation X, Empire, Westworld, Moondogg, Dead Horse, Speedtwinn |
Bob "Derwood" Andrews (born Robert Ian Andrews; 17 June 1959, Fulham, London) is an English pop music guitarist, and former member of the bands Generation X, and Empire.
Andrews was born in Fulham, West London in 1959. He started learning to play the guitar at 10 years of age. On leaving school at 16, he spent a year as an assistant gardener at Kensington Palace.
In the Winter of late 1976 Andrews was playing lead guitar with an amateur rocker band entitled Paradox. Whilst performing at a gig at the Fulham Arts Centre he was talent-spotted by the punk-rocker Billy Idol, who was at that time looking for a guitar player to complete the line-up of a new band that he had just formed that would be named Generation X. Andrews was recruited to become its lead guitarist, in the process freeing Idol from the band's guitar role which he held at that moment to become its frontman/singer.
The band subsequently signed a recording contract with Chrysalis Records, and released its first single, Your Generation, in September 1977, which went to #36 in the United Kingdom's Singles Chart. Andrews remained with the band through their first two long-player albums, the self-titled Generation X (1978), which reached #29 in the U.K. Albums Chart, followed by Valley of the Dolls (1979).
After two propitious opening years, with a hectic touring schedule and several record releases increasingly impacting the charts, the release of the Valley of the Dolls long-player at the start of 1979, although being marked simultaneously by their highest chart hit with the single King Rocker achieving #11 in the U.K. Singles Chart, initiated the beginning of a deterioration in the success of the band's commercial output, and differences began to surface within it between Andrews and Billy Idol and the bass player Tony James as to its future musical direction. The disagreement about direction was augmented by Idol and James' refusal to allow Andrews to contribute to their song-writing partnership, and an increasing personal antipathy that had developed between Andrews and Idol. In May 1979 Andrews warned them that he was increasingly feeling like leaving Generation X, which was avoided by focusing on the band's first international tour in Japan mid-year, but on returning to England, during the recording sessions for the band's abortive third long-player (which would be released retrospectively 20 years later under the title Sweet Revenge) internal disputes came to a head, and Andrews quit the band just before Christmas. He would be joined by the band's drummer Mark Laff a month later, who Idol and James asked to leave over another disagreement.
...
Wikipedia