Rich Eardley, aka Colossous, is a seasoned artist who has headed and played for numerous bands - the most notorious being Melys - a John Peel favoured band who recorded twelve sessions for his show on radio one over the years. He Plays songs on acoustic guitar with both pop and punk attitude and overtones, and if you listen to his tracks you'll see the transformation the tracks take from acoustic to an eclectic mix of styles from electronic to harder rock, quite dramatic and impressive!
Colossous / Rich Eardley Biog
It all started in 1986 when myself and my Brother bought a set of Technics SL1200 turntables and a Realistic (Tandy) dual channel mixer with crossfade. Spinning hip hop and early Rap and some of the first Chicago House music to hit the UK shores on American import vinyl we played some of the clubs in North Staffordshire and Cheshire. Forward to 1991 and i moved to North Wales and became involved with bands in the locality the first of which a horrible punk outfit called The Scabbz.
http://link2wales.co.uk/1994/archive-reviews/the-scabbz-release-3-track-single/
The bass player for the Skabbz was Alun Tan Lan who now plays guitar in Welsh surfer sound types Yr Niwl. The band were a Zeitgeist outfit with a short but memorable life involving high energy Ankst fuelled live sets and were scouted by by record labels in their short life. After a few different projects in 1997 i joined Melys on bass guitar playing duties. Melys recorded eleven sessions for the BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel including many live sessions from venues and his home fondly known as Peel acres. The band also shot many video’s for Tv programmes and had regular appearances on radio as well as travelling Europe and an appearance at 2004’s South by SouthWest Festival in Austin Texas.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/77282/welsh-act-melys-takes-no-1-in-dj-peels-poll
https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/johnpeel/artists/m/melys
Around the time Melys petered out after the release of their last album in 2005, i started a solo project called the Peakz and one of the first songs Conway Valley Love Song was played by John Peel shortly before he died. The song was part of a compilation album released on FF Vinyl titled ‘The North and South Divine’ shortly after a band was formed and an unreleased album recorded before the band came to an end in 2010 due to illness.
http://link2wales.co.uk/2013/videos/the-peakz-hot-wheels-in-action/
In 2012 i started a BSC in Music Technology and Production at the University of South Wales in Cardiff. Colossous appeared at this time - a more eclectic mix of electronic and guitar based songs. When i graduated in 2015 i continued to write songs under this moniker and in 2017 i played my first live gig in a long time, an acoustic guitar along with a friend playing a six string electric. This set up along with a Cajon drum is the new rehearsed style but the electronic material is not forgotten as i have a set that i can play accompanied by an i-Pad featuring some of the electronic songs. Vanarchy in the Uk is an EP being released by Colossous being a loosely road trip themed affair the title track of which is a tongue in cheek affair nudging towards the growing modern trends for people living in converted motorhomes.