Artist description Their songs have been recorded by the STRAY CATS, BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA, DAVE EDMUNDS and many others. If you like The Beatles or The Beach Boys with a current twist, get ready to get hooked. Their music is centered around catchy, well written acoustic/electric guitar based pop/rock. There's a strong focus on vocal harmony & full arrangements using piano, organ, guitars, the occasional string section, & some other classic instruments, and enough humor to get you there & back!

Music Style Pop / Rock

Musical Influences Beach Boys / Beatles

Similar Artists Brian Wilson, Beach Boys, Beatles, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Neil Finn, Michael Penn

Artist History A long time ago, on a really screwed up planet far,far away, two guys from separate lives grew up together with a true passion for pop music with a good hook, a separate peace and an honest feel for the trueness of the realness. You know, that kindastuff. But that’s a tale for another time. They didn’t meet up in this lifetime on THIS planet until their early adult years when Rick Bell (an assumed name)moved his band, Wire and Wood, out from Philidelphia, Pa. to California. The details are hazy after all this time but as far as anyone can recollect, Jiva (Michael’s band) and Wire and Wood played a gig togther at the legendary Topanga Corral. Both bands were very impressed, one with the other and so decided to play more gigs together at The Corral and other venues in the L.A. area. At one point, they started putting the two bands together in a sort of a grand finale, learning several Beach Boy songs in the process. Rick and Wire and Wood eventually moved back to Philidelphia. That was then, this is now. After many years, phone calls and correspondence with Michael, Rick found himself back on the Left Coast chasing rodents and a dream that WOULD NOT DIE! Well, let’s just say he had a burning talent/passion for expressing himself thru music. Michael,on the other hand, was teaching metal shop at a retirement home when a mutual friend told Michael that Rick was back in town. They hooked up right away, started writing songs together for an evil publisher whose name you can look up someday in the Book Of Hades. They wrote songs for movies, television and had it tucked away in the back of their minds that they would someday make their own album. On their journey to do just that they wrote several songs for producer/roots rock legend Dave Edmunds, The Stray Cats and French recording star Sylvie Vartan, not to mention a bunch of artists who never saw the proverbial light of day. After much deliberation, they decided the day had finally come to make their own album. That was five years ago. Hey, give ‘em a break! S#!^ happens, O.K.? So what if an earthquake swallows you and spits you back to Philly? So what if your institutionalized for extreme mental illness? Hey, it happens. Get over it. The point is that the CD is finally here. IT'S ONLY ROY - The record that WOULD NOT DIE!!! By the way, the band was originally called 'Grown Men',until someone snatched the trademark from them by a couple of months. Then the lawyers came calling. From a guy named Paul Allen. Yeah, the co-founder ofMicrosoft! Seems he had a band too & was using our name.Though we had proof that we used the name long beforehe did, there are those 'Deep Pockets' to consider, and need we go further? Hey, who cares! 'It's Only Roy', anyway!!!

Group Members Rick taught himself to play guitar at the age of 13 by listening to The Beatles and added piano a year later after hearing the Beach Boys. That gave him a jump start that has proven to be deep and solid. He performed all over the East Coast with various bands, honing his writing and vocal harmony skills,before meeting and establishing his partnership with Michael Lanning.He has recorded & written with Michael (Maniac) Sembello, for movie & T.V projects such as "SALSA"& NBC's "Dance 'Til Dawn", a movie of the week. He's also written and recorded songs that can be heard in the movies "Fast Food"(Ed Varney), "Phantom of the Mall", and "Rich Girl". He has also written songs for ROAR (Santana's Band)"Hungry For Your Love", Kathy Sledge (from Sister Sledge)"Reason for This", SaFire, "I Wasn't Born Yesterday", Denise Lopez "Everlasting Love". Rick has co-written "From Here To Eternity" with Brain Setzer for his new Brian Setzer Orchestra release "VAVOOM!". He is also working on some new things with Michael Sembello as well as writing and recording new material for It's Only Roy. Michael was part of the original broadway cast of The Civil War. He began performing in theater at the age of 9. With an extensive background and education in music and theater, Michael has been a featured performer in many theater companies. Michael has recorded and/or toured with many greats, including Fleetwood Mac, Donovan, Rockpile, and George Harrison. A songwriter and a music publisher, "Lanningsongs" have been recorded by producer/guitar legend Dave Edmunds.Rick & Michael have collaborated on material for the movies "Cocktail" (Tom Cruise), "Child's Play",and T.V.'s "Baywatch", as well as recordings by The Stray Cats "Cry Baby", Dave Edmunds "Everytime I See Her", & Sylvia Vartin "Qui Tu Es / I'm Not You".

Instruments Acoustic & electric guitar, keyboard, bass, drums, percussion, various midi orchestration

Albums ART IS ON VACATION

Press Reviews 2001 TOP-TEN NEW ALBUMS (and honorable mentions) Matthew Greenwald Crawdaddy! (U.S.) / Voodoo (U.K.) -------------------------------------- 1) Bob Dylan "Love And Theft" Columbia/Sony CK 85975 -------------------------------------- 2) Rufus Wainwright "Poses" Dreamworks 0044-50237-2 -------------------------------------- 3) ITıS ONLY ROY - "ART IS ON VACATION" - BEL`LAN RECORDS / GM 2000-1 -- "ITıS ONLY ROY" PROVE THAT THE OLD ADAGE, "IF YOU HANG IN THERE LONG ENOUGH, YOUıRE NUMBER IS BOUND TO COME UP" IS INDEED TRUE. THE DUO OF RICK BELL AND MICHAEL LANNING HAVE BEEN VETERANS OF THE POP SONGWRITING WARS FOR OVER A DECADE, BUT THIS DEBUT ALBUM PUTS THEIR OWN CONCEPT IN ONE SOLID PACKAGE. MUSICAL REFERENCES FROM THE BEATLES ("ITıS ALIGHT") TO THE BEACH BOYS (ABOUT HALF THE ALBUM) ABOUND, YET THE RECORD AND THE DUO CLEARLY DEFINE THEIR OWN SPARKLING, LIFE-AFFIRMING INDIVIDUALITY, MAKING THIS THE BEST DEBUT ALBUM OF 2001. -------------------------------------- 4) The Higher Burning Fire "In Plain Song" Second Nature SNO 27 www.secondnaturerecordings.com -------------------------------------- 5) CPR "Just Like Gravity" Gold Circle GC 20002-2 www.crosby-cpr.com -------------------------------------- 6) Luther Russell "Spare Change" In Music We Trust IMWT002CD www.inmusicwetrust.com -------------------------------------- 7) Carole King "Love Makes The World" Rockingale Records www.caroleking.com -------------------------------------- 8) Baby Lemonade "High Life Suite" Sympathy For The Record Industry SFTRI 610 www.sympathyrecords.com -------------------------------------- 9) James Angell "Private Player" PsychEclectic Records 001 www.jamesangell.com or www.psycheclectic.com -------------------------------------- 10} Carla Olson "The Ring Of Truth" Evangeline Records GEL 4024 www.evangeline.co.uk ---------------------------------------------------- HONORABLE MENTIONS The records listed below would have probably made it on my top-ten in any other year but this, as there were such a large number of great (mostly independent) releases. I recommend these following five albums unreservedly. M.G. Wilco "Yankee Foxtrot Hotel" (unreleased) ---------------------------------------------------- Fernando "Dreams Of The Sun And Sky" Domingo 001 www.oldmanmotel.com ------------------------------------------------------ Paul McCartney "Driving Rain" Capitol CDP 7243 5 35510 2 5 --------------------------------------------------------- Coldplay "Parachutes" Capitol 06700630162-2 3 --------------------------------------------------------- Tom Freund "Sympatico" Surf Road Records www.tomfreund.com ITıS ONLY ROY (Formerly 'Grown Men') / BEL-LAN RECORDS GM-2000-1 / www.ItsOnlyRoy.com / Crawdaddy! CD review by Matthew Greenwald / I get a lot of CDıs in the mail, and itıs not as much of a bonanza as you might think. It seems that I tend to spend as much time sorting CDıs than I do listening. Iıll be perfectly frank here ­ and all apologies to the nice folks that send me stuff, ­ over half of the discs I get end up getting traded in or given to friends. It can be a daunting task, going through all of this stuff, but one that is ultimately rewarded when I come across a record as great as this. "Itıs Only Roy" (formerly known as Grown Men) is a pop/rock duo consisting of Rick Bell and Michael Lanning. Both are veterans of the professional songwriting wars, having collectively and individually written songs for Dave Edmonds, The Stray Cats, French pop singer Sylvie Vartan, as well as providing songs for a host film and television projects, and some of these cinematic achievements are better not mentioned here. But original music and recording and producing their own songs is clearly the duoıs appointed destiny. This album is filled with musical references that will be familiar to the Crawdaddy! family: The Beatles and The Beach Boys are two obvious influences. However, "Itıs Only Royıs" music is for more than being revisionist. A strong sense of virtue, strength of spirit and a life-affirming bent surrounds all of the songs here, and itıs damned inspiring. This, friends, is music that speaks of the politics of the present tense. With all of that said ­ and although comparisons may indeed be a short cut to thinking ­ there are some obvious musical influences that must be discussed and celebrated here. Most importantly, Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. Throughout many of the songs, especially "I Still Believe In Love" and the pointlessly fun "Downtown California", Itıs Only Roy stirs up virtually dozens of Wilson and the Boys musical motifs, some obvious, but many delightfully obscure. Then thereıs the out-and-out Carl Wilson memorial, "Gentle Soul", which takes quotes from "Feel Flows", Dennis Wilsonıs awesomely underrated "Pacific Ocean Blue", and even some gorgeous "Smile" - inspired soundscapes. The song pays tribute to Carl Wilson beautifully without resorting to cloying, overly-sentimental statements. Like "For What Itıs Worth", it succeeds precisely due to itıs sense of understatement. The song segues into a sickeningly beautiful surf instrumental, "Sea Dream". This mini-medley provides the heart of the album, but my favorite track is "Itıs Alright", a solid, life-enhancing, Beatles-inspired rocker that is one of the most uplifting four minutes of pop to be released in recent memory. There are many other fabulous moments on this album, and Iıll leave you to the joy of discovery. Now, due to the overwhelming wisdom of the major record label mentality, you may have some difficulty finding this album at your record store. However, Iıll point you in the right direction: check out the bandıs website: www.ItsOnlyRoy.com , where you can order it directly. You need this album. İ2001 Matthew Greenwald

Location Philadelphia, PA - USA

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