Andrew Edge (born David Andrew Edge; 8 December 1956) is a musician from

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, England. He moved to London in the late 1970s, and joined the

Thompson Twins Thompson Twins were an English Pop music, pop band, formed in 1977 in Sheffield. Initially a New wave music, new wave group, they switched to a more mainstream pop sound and achieved considerable popularity during the early and mid-1980s, scori ...

. After eighteen months Edge left the group and joined Uropa Lula, who released three singles (on

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

) and supported

Big Country Big Country are a Scottish Rock music, rock band formed in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1981. The height of the band's popularity was in the early to mid 1980s, although they have retained a cult following for many years since. The band's music inc ...

on a tour of Britain. Edge then joined

Savage Progress Savage Progress was a pop group in the 1980s from England that had hits in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The band was founded by Rik Kenton (b. 31 October 1945, in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England) Glynnis (voc) Ned Morant (perc.) Carol ...

, who supported the Thompson Twins on a tour of Britain in 1984. Edge changed to vocals and writing songs after he moved from

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

, Austria. He started the group YOYO in 1990, bass/vocals Andreas Raffetseder, guitar/vocals Christoph Raffetseder, guitar Manfred Cellnigg, drums Hans Riener signing with

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

records, before working with

Robert Ponger Robert Ponger (born 1950, Vienna) is an Austrian songwriter and record producer, most famous for his work with Austrian singer Falco. Ponger produced and shared writing credits on Falco's first two solo albums, 1982's ''Einzelhaft'' and 1984's ' ...

(producer of Falco). Edge later released a solo album in 1996; ''Northern Sky'', on BMG records (Austria). Edge released a CD in 2011 under the name Drumsing, with percussionist Judy Klausner.

Leeds

Edge took drum lessons from Leeds drummer Doug King, and also Geoff Myers, as Myers was a noted drum teacher in Leeds, and played with the

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

Syd Lawrence Orchestra. Edge later worked with musicians from the

Leeds College of Music Leeds Conservatoire (formerly known as The Leeds Music Centre, the City of Leeds College of Music, and Leeds College of Music) is a higher education music conservatoire based in the Quarry Hill district of Leeds, England. It was founded in 19 ...

in the group GPO (with Dave Cass, who later worked with

Jive Bunny Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers are a British novelty pop music act from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The face of the group was Jive Bunny, a cartoon rabbit who appeared in their music videos. Costumed actors also made promotional app ...

), as well as local Working Men's Club bands, like Street Choir.

London

The Thompson Twins

The Thompson Twins auditioned for drummers at The Point Studio, 9 Eccleston Street, Victoria, London. Edge played with them for eighteen months with Tom Bailey, Pete Dodd and Jon Roog.

Uropa Lula

Edge later played drums for Uropa Lula (later called Viva Lula), with David Lloyd (voc/gtr), Allan Dias (bass), Pete Fromm (kybd) Carol Isaacs (kybd), and Chester Kamen (gtr) who is the brother of pop singer

Nick Kamen Ivor Neville "Nick" Kamen (15 April 1962 – 4 May 2021) was a British singer, songwriter and model of mixed Burmese, Irish, Dutch and French descent. He was best known for the singles "Each Time You Break My Heart" from 1986 and "I Promised My ...

. Uropa Lula toured with Big Country in June 1983. Arista Records released two singles by the group: ''Our Love Has Just Begun'' B/W ''I've Suddenly Remembered Something'' (ARIST476, 1982) as Uropa Lula. (Musicians: Lloyd, Fromm, Dias & Edge) ''Fell Upon A Jewel'' B/W ''She Appears to Vanish'' (ARIST498, 1983) as Uropa Lula. (Musicians: Lloyd, Dias, Edge, Isaacs and Kamen). Arista later dropped the group, and Edge joined Savage Progress.

Savage Progress

Savage Progress signed a contract with 10 Records (a subsidiary of

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

) and released their first single, "My Soul Unwraps Tonight". Their first album was ''Celebration''. Savage Progress joined the Thompson Twins on their "Into The Gap" tour of Britain (February, 1984) as support act. In October of the same year they went on a tour of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, to capitalize on the success of their single releases.

Session drummer

Edge also played as a session musician for bands like

The Chills The Chills are a New Zealand indie rock band that formed in Dunedin in 1980. The band were fronted by founding mainstay singer-songwriter, guitarist Martin Phillipps (singer), Martin Phillipps (2 July 1963 – 28 July 2024). During the mid-1 ...

("Pink Frost")

Julian Cope Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...

(" Lunatic and Fire Pistol") and

Freur Freur were a Welsh new wave and synth-pop band featuring Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, who went on to form the electronic band Underworld. It was their second band, following their art school collaboration, the Screen Gemz. Their best known song ...

("Doot Doot", which was initially produced at the Point Studio by Alex Burak). Edge also worked again with Dodd and Roog from the Thompson Twins in a band called Big View, recording a single called ''August Grass'', which was released on Point Records (owned by Merton, the Thompson Twins publisher) in 1982. Edge played a two-week tour of France with the Australian group

Died Pretty Died Pretty, sometimes The Died Pretty, were an Australian alternative rock band founded by mainstays Ron Peno (lead singer) and Brett Myers (lead guitarist and backing vocalist) in Sydney in 1983. Their music started from a base of early elec ...

in 1986, as drummer Chris Welsh had broken his foot in London.

Linz

Edge moved to

in the late 1980s, and recorded a piece called ''Experiment 501 – Investigating the Magic of the Right Steps'', in 1989, with interactive artist Sam Auinger, which was presented as an

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

piece for the Chemie Linz (Agrolinz Melamine International) and ÖMV (OMV Aktiengesellschaft) companies. Edge then sang for the Austrian band Camorra, with Peter Androsch (guitar) Robert Spour (keyboards) Sandy Sonntagbauer (bass) and Andreas Luger (drums).

YOYO

Edge later formed the band YOYO in Linz, signing with EMI records in Vienna. They played as the headlining act at the ''Linz Fest'' in 1991, and supported

The Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...

at a concert in Linz.

Solo

Edge later worked with Robert Ponger, who was producer of Falco, and Austrian duo Paper Moon. Ponger arranged for Edge to support

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (, ; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing mo ...

at the Arena, Vienna. Edge's collaboration with Ponger lasted three years, but Edge only used two songs (from 12 demo songs) for his solo CD on BMG records (Austria) called, ''Northern Sky'' (1996).

Session singer and songwriting

Edge sang

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

for

LaLa Brooks ''LaLa'' is a monthly Japanese manga magazine published by Hakusensha on the 24th of each month. The magazine's bonus contents are usually calendars for New Year issues, drama CDs, and so on. In a 2006 survey conducted by Oricon, Japanese girls ...

(formerly of

The Crystals The Crystals are an American vocal group that originated in New York City. Considered one of the defining acts of the girl group era in the first half of the 1960s, their 1961–1964 chart hits – including " There's No Other (Like My Baby)", ...

) on her BMG (Austria) CD ''LaLa Brooks & Friends'' in 1994. In 1997, Edge sang ''Silent Night'' (in German) with Rainhard Fendrich. Edge has worked with Mojique v2.0, Karli Möstl, Bob Zabek, Edge recorded a CD with Josef 'Judy' Klausner (percussion) featuring only voice and percussion.Walkner-Möstl CD
discogs.com - Retrieved 17 November 2016

References

External links

Andrew Edge at Blogspot.com
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CD listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edge, Andrew 1956 births Living people Musicians from Leeds People from Seacroft English rock drummers English session musicians English male singers English new wave musicians English male songwriters English expatriates in Austria Thompson Twins members