Tom Cochrane & Red Rider

Red Rider
Tom Cochrane & Red Rider perform in Halifax August 2007
Background information
Origin	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Rock, hard rock
Years active	1975–1990 2002–present
Labels	Capitol, RCA
Members	Ken Greer Tom Cochrane Jeff Jones Davide Direnzo Gary Craig
Past members	Rob Baker Peter Boynton Jon Checkowski Arvo Lepp Steve Sexton John Webster Ken "Spider" Sinnaeve Randall Coryell Peter Mueller Jamie Oakes Randall "Mongo" Stoll Troy Feener Bill Bell Gary Craig

Red Rider, later known as Tom Cochrane & Red Rider, is a Canadian rock band popular in the 1980s. While they achieved great success in Canada, the band never had a song in the Top 40 in the United States, although "Lunatic Fringe" became a hit on album-oriented rock radio.

Red Rider was formed in Toronto in 1975 when Peter Boynton (keyboards, synthesizers, vocals), Ken Greer (guitars, keyboards, backing vocals) and Rob Baker (drums) joined up with Arvo Lepp (guitar) and Jon Checkowski (bass) and began playing around Toronto, performing both original and cover music.

In 1978 their manager at that time was contacted by Capitol Records about adding singer/guitarist/composer Tom Cochrane to the group. Tom was invited to one of the band's gigs in London, Ontario to rehearse with them. Boynton, Greer and Baker were impressed with Tom's playing and songwriting but Lepp and Checkowski were not as enthused over him and decided to leave the band. Jeff Jones (formerly with Ocean and the original bassist for Rush) was then brought in on bass, and it was the lineup of Cochrane, Boynton, Greer, Baker and Jones that were signed to Capitol and released their first album Don't Fight It in October 1979. With the singles "White Hot" and "Don't Fight It", the album quickly reached gold status.

Their second album, As Far as Siam, was released in June 1981 and featured the hit "Lunatic Fringe", which strongly featured steel guitarist Greer, whose soaring, searing lines gave Red Rider its distinctive sound. The song was also used in the 1985 movie Vision Quest, appeared as well in the Miami Vice episode "Smuggler's Blues" and saw high rotation on the United States cable network MTV. It is now a mainstay on American classic rock radio.