ARMADA

Armada biography
ARMADA was a project started by the legendary, jazz multi-instrumentalist Sammy RIMINGTON and singer, flautist Terry COOKE from Great Britain as a way to explore the fusion of rock and jazz. The band was founded in 1970 and active through 1974. Though the band never released any albums or never gained the notoriety that they deserved, they did record several studio and live tracks, and some of these were collected and released on an album called "Beyond the Morning: Unreleased Recordings 1972-74, This collection was released in 2011 mostly due to the popularity of RIMINGTON.

The band was comprised of Sammy RIMINGTON (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, saxophone, clarinet, flute), Graham "Kirby" GREGORY (guitar), Terry COOKE (vocals, flute, bongos), Geoff SKATES (lead guitar, rhythm guitar), Alan WICKETT (drums, xylophone), Brian STANLEY (bass), Colin ELLAR (bass), and John DONALDSON (keyboards). The band explores fusion, but also adds in several other styles that include folk and progressive elements that give it a definite Eclectic Prog sound.

The band later changed their name twice to RIMINGTON, and then RATS, but their music became more commercial, then the group disbanded going their separate ways: RIMINGTON of course became quite famous in the jazz genre, KENTON joined ROXY MUSIC for a short period and GREGORY later joined CURVED AIR.

The band has been compared to VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, early KING CRIMSON, CARAVAN, WISHBONE ASH and others.

======Bio by TCat======