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Rock in Opposition or '''RIO''' was a Movement representing a collective of Progressive bands in the late 1970s united in their opposition to the Music Industry that refused to recognise their music. It was initiated by English Avant-garde Rock Group Henry Cow in March 1978 when they invited four Mainland European groups to come to London and perform in a festival called "Rock in Opposition". HISTORY Practically ignored in their own country, 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 found that they were not making money for them.) Henry Cow decided to expose a few of these European groups to with the following groups performing:
While "Rock in Opposition" was never intended to be a formal organisation, the festival did generate "a lot of press around the world". 1 This prompted the five bands to discuss future plans and in December 1978 they met at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland to reconstitute Rock in Opposition 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. Chris Cutler had established Recommended Records earlier in 1978 as a model for a non-profit music company which provided RIO and other similar artists with a Record Label to release their music on. RIO's primary aim was to represent and promote its members. It was decided that membership should remain closed, although new members would be welcome provided they
Using the above criteria, three new members were elected: Art Zoyd , Art Bears and Aksak Maboul . A second RIO festival, organised by Stormy Six, took place between 26 April and 1 May 1979 at al Teatro dell'Elfo in Milan , Italy where all seven groups performed, the original four (minus Henry Cow) plus the three new groups. During the festival, the RIO members met formally again to discuss the way forward. However, despite some constructive discussion, disagreements arose between the groups regarding RIO's role and matters were left unresolved. Two further RIO festivals took place in Sweden and Belgium, but no new meetings, and RIO as an organisation "quietly slipped away". RIO as a genre with the Peter Blegvad Trio performing at a RIO Festival in Southern France in April 2007. (© Michael S. Eisenberg) 2 ]] When RIO ceased being an organisation its name moved into the Public Domain where it took on the meaning of a Music Genre . While RIO never referred to a type of music (the original RIO bands were quite diverse musically), it became used by listeners, musicians, and distributors to classify bands (generally bands that appeared at the RIO festivals or bands related to or derived from the original RIO bands). Bands familiarized with the RIO movement and genre today include: Thinking Plague (USA), Present (Belgium), Miriodor (Canada), Ahvak (Israel), NeBeLNeST (France), 5uu's (USA), Guapo (UK) and U Totem (USA). The term "RIO" today is almost synonymous with Avant-progressive Rock or Experimental Rock . "REUNIONS" A "reunion" festival took place in France in April 2007. The spirit of the original festival was preserved in that only artists of quality, innovation and the willingness to be "in opposition" to the commercial music industry performed. The lineup at this event included: Magma , Faust , the Peter Blegvad trio (including Chris Cutler ), Present , Zao , Mats Morgan , Guapo , NeBeLNeST , Salle Gaveau and GMEA . 3 SEE ALSO FOOTNOTES REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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