"There’s a street in Glasgow called Victoria Road, I got off the bus in Victoria Road, there’s a shop with two glass doors, one of the doors had a poster with a girl wearing a pair of rider jeans, the other door had a poster advertising a club night called ‘Cosmic Dreams’, but it’s also the name of an Australian gay condom, it’s also the name of the frontline troupes in the Spanish civil war, you know the mad men who went into battle first"
-- Daniel Wylie on how name of the band came about (from an interview, in his words)
The Cosmic Rough Riders were originally Daniel Wylie, Stephen Fleming, Gary Cuthbert, Mark Brown & James Clifford, however on the 4th March 2002 the lead singer of the band, Daniel Wylie, left the band leaving Stephen Fleming
(previously guitarist) to be lead vocals. Both are releasing albums independantly (soon aparently).
Up untill that point their line up was something like this:
That out of the way, the Cosmic Rough Riders are all from Laurel Canyon, a suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. Flemming worked at the Castlemilk recording studio in the city, when Wylie came to record they would get together and jam, this led to them eventually becomming a duet, then filling out into their current state.
Their sound is very much influenced by the likes of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Eagles and The Doobie Brothers as well as some more modern bands such as Kula Shaker and King Crimson. They have supported such artists as Robert Plant, Ian McCulloch, Natalie Imbruglia, and even played at Wembley Arena with Lenny Kravitz. Since 1999 they have released four albums; Enjoy the Melodic Sunshine, Deliverance, Panorama and Pure Escapism. I have heard of copies of Deliverance and Panorama changing hands for up to £200 and both also have entries in Virgin's Encyclopaedia of the Greatest Albums of All Time.