Much loved Sydney band Red Riders have split up. The Triple J favourites were much hyped around the middle of the last decade, touring with Franz Ferdinand and playing the Big Day Out, but things went a bit quiet when singer Adrian Deutsch quit to go solo, leaving Alex Grigg to take over vocals. Coming out of the same scene that spawned Dappled Cities and The Red Sun Band, Grigg had focused on his other band Straight Arrows over the last year, while current guitarist Brad Heald has been called back to active duty with his other band The Vines.
An announcement on their website last night said:
Hey Guys,
This is kinda hard to say, but anyway here goes: after eight immensely fun years of playing together as Red Riders it seems like now’s the right time to bow out. We’re all still the closest of friends, but just feel like the entity that is Red Riders has run its course, and rather than grind something that’s special t…o us into the ground, we’d like to call it quits while we can still stand proudly behind everything that we’ve made together. We wanna thank everyone who’s ever bought a record of ours, come to one our shows, shared our music with someone, written about us, put our music on the airwaves… Basically, to anyone who’s ever given a damn, thank you! It’s been mad sharing a part of our lives with way more people than we had any right to expect to. We’re gonna keep making music in other guises so keep a ear out, and if you see us at the pub, or lurking up the back of a show someplace, come say hi. We can grab a beer.
Love,
RR.
P.S We’re gonna play a couple of special farewell shows in Sydney and Melbourne in June, but otherwise the upcoming shows supporting Children Collide will be our last. Hope to see you there!
