Rooster

Rooster were an English rock band. They rapidly gained popularity in countries like Japan ,Singapore and Australia, among other East Asian countries. Rooster were formed in 2002 by Nick Atkinson (vocals), Luke Potashnick (guitar), Dave Neale (drums) and Ben Smyth (bass). Atkinson and Potashnick were former school friends who reunited while living in London, after both admitted they were struggling to make an impact with their respective bands. They formed Rooster with Neale and Smyth and, after only a few live shows, were signed to the new BMG affiliate label Brightside. The band's self-styled "griff rock" combined hard rock with pop but was marketed primarily at the UK teen rock market recently cornered by Busted and McFly. Rooster's debut single, "Come Get Some", reached the UK Top 10 in November 2004. Live shows saw the band improvising and extending songs; Neale often performed a four minute long drum solo during "Drag The Sunrise Down". Rooster were known to incorporate covers, such as, Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love", Free's "All Right Now", Jamiroquai's "Deeper Underground", Blackstreet's "No Diggity" and The Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction" into their live sets. Perhaps one of their problems was the fact that on CD they were one band but on stage they were very much another, giving much confusion to their predominantly teen fanbase. Rooster's self-titled first album reached no. 3 in the UK charts. However, after spending time in Japan, they had become less well-known in the UK, and their second album "Circles and Satellites" only reached number 193 in the charts, mainly through record stores and websites having little or no stock of the album. This was due to a severe delay in its release. The album, recorded in LA ,was totally remixed and the record company was less than impressed by the route the boys were taking. As a consequence they parted company with their record label who refused to support their change from pre marketed Busted types to fully fledged rockers. Inevitably, the band announced their split via their MySpace on 24th January 2007.