Rock in Opposition

Henry Cow spent most of their last five years touring mainland Europe. There they encountered many innovative groups who were virtually unknown outside their own countries. What Henry Cow had in common with these groups was that record companies were not interested in their music. Henry Cow's contract with Virgin Records was cancelled when Virgin realised the band were not profitable. In early 1978, Nick Hobbs, Henry Cow's manager at the time, decided to expose some of these European groups to British audiences and invited them to tour the United Kingdom with Henry Cow under the banner "Rock in Opposition". With the help of a £1000 grant from the British Arts Council, Hobbs organised a Rock in Opposition festival in London with the slogan: "The music the record companies don't want you to hear". The event took place on 12 March 1978 at the New London Theatre with the following groups performing: :*Henry Cow (England) :*Stormy Six (Italy) :*Samla Mammas Manna (Sweden) :*Univers Zero (Belgium) :*Etron Fou Leloublan (France) The tour of the UK never materialised, but the festival did generate "a lot of press around the world", and this prompted the five bands to discuss future plans. While "Rock in Opposition" was never intended to be a formal organisation, they met at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland in December 1978 to reconstitute the movement as a collective. By this time Henry Cow no longer existed as a group, but as RIO's prime mover its former members still actively participated. RIO's primary aim was to represent and promote its members. It was decided that membership should remain closed and small, although new members would be welcome provided they (i) adhered to "musical excellence" (as evaluated by the collective); (ii) worked actively "outside the music business"; and (iii) had a "social commitment to Rock". RIO as a genre RIO became a minor category or genre after it ceased being an organisation at the end of 1979. =="Reunions"==