Red Rider

Red Rider are a Canadian rock band popular in the 1980s. While the band achieved great success in Canada, in the US, the band never had a song in the Top 40. In 1978, Tom Cochrane joined up with Rob Baker on drums, Jeff Jones on bass, Peter Boynton on keyboards and Ken Greer to form Red Rider.

They released their first album Don't Fight It in 1980 with the singles "White Hot" and "Don't Fight It". Their second album As Far as Siam was released in 1981 and featured the hit "Lunatic Fringe" which was used in the 1985 movie Vision Quest.

Red Rider's third album Neruda, released in 1983. "Napoleon Sheds His Skin" would become one of the more popular songs from the album. It was followed by their 1984 album Breaking Curfew.

The band would be officially became known as Tom Cochrane and Red Rider, and released their self-titled fifth album in 1986. In 1987, Capitol released a compilation CD titled Over 60 Minutes with Red Rider, covering the band's first four albums. Also in 1987, the band was nominated 11 times for Juno awards and won group of the year.

In the fall of 1988, the band released their sixth album Victory Day which contained the track "Big League," about the death of a young hockey player. The young man's father approached Cochrane on the day of a concert, mentioning that his son was a big fan of Red Rider's song, "Boy Inside The Man." Cochrane asked the man if his son was going to be attending the concert, and the man responded that his son had recently died in a car accident.

Red Rider's final album, The Symphony Sessions, was released in 1989. Cochrane's solo career was taking off and the band broke up shortly after the album was released. The three-CD box set Ashes to Diamonds, which includes material by both Red Rider and Cochrane as a solo artist, was released in 1993.

Cochrane, Greer and Jones reunited in 2002, and have been touring as Tom Cochrane and Red Rider since.