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Utopia (rock band)

Utopia
Todd-utopia-atlanta-77.jpg
Utopia, 1977. L-R: Roger Powell, Willie Wilcox, Todd Rundgren and Kasim Sulton.
Background information
Also known as Todd Rundgren's Utopia (1973-1976)
Origin New York, New York, United States
Genres Rock, progressive rock, hard rock, soft rock, art rock, New wave, pop rock
Years active 1973-1986, 1992, 2011-present
Labels Bearsville, Network, Passport, Epic, Rhino
Website Allmusic link
Members Todd Rundgren
John Siegler
Ralph Schuckett
Kevin Ellman
Kasim Sulton
Jesse Gress
Past members Jean Yves "M. Frog" Labat
David Mason
Hunt Sales
Tony Sales
Mark "Moogy" Klingman
Roger Powell
John "Willie" Wilcox
Doug Howard
Utopia discography
Studio albums 10
Live albums 4
Compilation albums 4
Singles 3

Utopia is an American rock band. In its initial incarnation, in 1973-75, the group was a progressive rock band with a somewhat fluid membership known as "Todd Rundgren's Utopia". Most of the members of this early incarnation of Utopia also played on Rundgren's solo albums of the period up to 1975.

By 1976, the group was known simply as Utopia and was a stable quartet of Todd Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell and John "Willie" Wilcox. This incarnation of the group gradually abandoned prog-rock for straight rock, new wave and power pop, and scored the top 40 hit "Set Me Free" in 1980. Though often thought of as a Rundgren-oriented project, all four members of Utopia wrote, sang, produced and performed on their albums; "Set Me Free", for example, was sung by Sulton.

Utopia broke up in 1986, but reunited briefly in 1992. More recently, beginning in 2011 the earlier prog-rock incarnation known as Todd Rundgren's Utopia was revived for a series of live shows.

For a short period of time (1973–74) Todd Rundgren's Utopia consisted of Rundgren plus Hunt and Tony Sales together with David Mason and Jean-Yves Labat (who at first played rhythm guitars). (The late Mason, a musician from Gainesville, Florida, was not to be confused with the former member of Traffic of the same name.) However, the lineup had changed by the time the band recorded its first release.

The first two albums — Todd Rundgren's Utopia (1974) and Another Live (1975) — featured lengthy, complex and highly arranged progressive rock pieces, performed by a six-piece multi-instrumentalist ensemble. It was originally composed of Rundgren (guitar and vocals), Kevin Ellman (drums and percussion), Mark "Moogy" Klingman (keyboards), Jean-Yves "M. Frog" Labat (now on synthesizers), Ralph Schuckett (keyboards), and John Siegler (bass and cello). Klingman had played with Rundgren as early as his first album Runt; both Klingman and Siegler had played on tracks on Side 4 of Rundgren's third album Something/Anything, and together with Schuckett they had also played on Rundgren's fourth album A Wizard, A True Star. Meanwhile, Rundgren had played on Labat's solo album M. Frog. Ellman debuted with Rundgren on the album Todd.


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