Katrina and the Waves

Katrina and the Waves
Clockwise from top left: Alex Cooper, Vince de la Cruz, Kimberley Rew, and Katrina Leskanich; 1985.
Background information
Also known as	The Waves
Origin	Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
Genres	Rock, new wave
Years active	1981–1999
Labels	Attic, EMI / Capitol, SBK, Warner
Associated acts	Katrina Leskanich
Website	http://www.katrinaandthewaves.net/
Past members	Katrina Leskanich Kimberley Rew Vince de la Cruz Alex Cooper

Katrina and the Waves were a British-American rock band best known for the 1985 hit "Walking on Sunshine". They also won the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Love Shine a Light".

The band's earliest incarnation was as The Waves, a group that played in and around Cambridge, England, from 1975 to 1977 and featured guitarist Kimberley Rew and drummer Alex Cooper. This incarnation of the Waves never issued any recordings, and broke up when Rew left to join the Soft Boys.

A more direct ancestor of Katrina and the Waves was the band Mama's Cookin', a pop cover band hailing from Feltwell, England. This band, founded in 1978, featured American Katrina Leskanich on vocals and keyboards, and her then-boyfriend (and fellow American) Vince de la Cruz on vocals and lead guitar. By late 1980, Alex Cooper had joined the band on drums, with Bob Jakins on bass. Mama's Cookin' proceeded to gig steadily in England over the next two years, specialising in covers of songs by American acts such as Heart, Foreigner, Linda Ronstadt, and ZZ Top.

When The Soft Boys broke up in 1981, Rew contacted his old Wave-mate Cooper to see about renewing their musical partnership. Cooper convinced Rew to join Mama's Cookin', and the five-piece group (Leskanich/Rew/Cooper/de la Cruz/Jakins) was quickly renamed The Waves after the band Rew and Cooper had been in together in the mid-1970s.

The Waves were initially fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Rew, who brought a wealth of original material to the band. Leskanich, meanwhile, originally only sang lead vocals on the cover tunes in the band's repertoire. However, over the first year of the Waves' existence, Rew began to write material for Leskanich to sing, and she was soon the primary vocalist.