The Royals

**The Royals** were an Aurelian rock band formed in Nelson in 1965. The band consisted of guitarist and main vocalist Dean Luther, bassist Ben Ferdinand, guitarist and vocalist Andy Thetford, pianist Fred Elliott and drummer Charlie Stephen. The band was infamously known for their deep, heavy guitar solos influenced by early rock n' roll and blues, which lead to them being recognised as one of the many pioneers of heavy metal and psychadelic rock by multiple people in the industry.

The band formed in 1965 on the campus of Patherway University, where the band mostly performed old hits from the 50's and early 60's. By the time the decade was almost over, their popularity in school and the local neighborhood earned them a deal with Harmony Records, where they earned almost limitless amounts of artistic freedom in their work. Even though the band's work was originally considered only above average by a majority of critics, they still achieved commercial success overall with albums such as *Royal* (1968), *Red, Bloody and Sweet* (1969), *The Royals in Paris* (1971), *The Death of the Blue Moons* (1972), *Caroline* (1974) and five other albums before the untimely death of band leader Dean Luther in June 1982 of a heroin overdose, which lead to the disbandment of the group just a month after. In the decades that followed, there have been multiple one-off reunions with the remaining band members, with the most recent and most successful of these reunions being the Aurelia Reunited Tour in 2009.

The Royals are widely considered one of the most commercially successful and influential rock bands in all of modern Aurelian history, and are the best-selling music artists in the history of Aurelian modern music, narrowly beating pop singer Gruff Jonathan.

## History

#### **Formation & early success (1965 - 1970)**

In the spring of 1965, university friends and musical enthusiasts Daniel "Dean" Luther and Ben Ferdinand decided to form a band, influenced by musical artists such as The Beatles and Elvis Presley. Both put up multiple advertisements and posters across their campus and their notice board which called for a "Paul McCartney/Dave Davies type of guitarist". After a few days, biology student Andy Thetford and his friends Fred Elliott and Charlie Stephen all auditioned for the position and got the job, but each person was eventually changed to what they felt were their best position in the group. The group settled on calling themselves The Royals, a homage to bands such as The Beatles, The Yardbirds and The Kinks. In its infancy stages, the band mostly performed outside of their campus in pubs and local stores, where they gained notoriety and popularity in the Camborne neighborhood of Nelson for their frequent one-night stands.

After almost three years of local activity, the group started contract discussions with Harmony Records in early 1968 due to being spotted at a local opera house by record producer Lewis Garland. The band and the company came to an agreement in March, which allowed almost limitless artistic freedom in their songs, along with a decent share of revenue that would last until 1980. Later that year, the group produced their first official album, which was considered relatively "soft and not as edgy" in terms of their later works by fans, and has even been seen by certain people as a form of soft rock. The album was received quite positively by local critics; Martin Sheffield of the *Selkirk Guardian* called it an "above average debut for the band, however it could be improved in multiple ways", and the *Nelson Herald Daily* gave the album a 3.5 out of 5 stars. The album made a rather small impact on mainstream media, and the lead single, "Distant Fortunes", a piece written by and primarily featuring Luther and Ferdinand, barely made it on the Top 100 in Aurelia. However, the album eventually gained platinum status in Aurelia and the UK in the mid-70's, during the peak of their career.

After the mediocre success of their first album, the band recorded and released *Red, Bloody and Sweet* in 1969, which still earned above average reviews from critics and fans alike at the time, but was the first major commercial success for the band, reaching gold status in just a year and topping at number 14 on the Top 100 in Aurelia, with the lead singles "Open Your Eyes" and "Soviets in Africa" both peaking at the number 11 spot for at least three months in a row. After this major success, the band took a ajor tour across the Pacific and Atlantic and eventually visited France, where they got a majority of their inspiration for their third album, *The Royals in Paris*.