RUDOLF ROCKER is a group formed by very tall brothers Mark and Steve Goodall. Other members include small-but-perfectly-formed keyboard player/effects man Jeremy Dyson (who is also a writer and film/TV director) and medium-height multi-instrumentalist Tim Crusher (who can speak fluent Spanish and devises systems for getting pictures of ladies’ underwear into catalogues).

Mark and Steve were in cult groups DUCHAMP’S TOPEE and THE IDEAL GIANTS with Greg Johnson from LORD MONGO (see http://www.myspace.com/lordmongoband). They were also members of very noisy post-punk power trio NERVE RACK. Mark was once a guitar player in GOODBYE MR MACKENZIE (with Shirley Manson) but was sacked due to ‘ideological differences’ and the fact that he was taller than the lead singer. John Peel once frankly assessed that Steve’s group LEMON ICE CREAM meanwhile were “saddled with a frightful name”. Jeremy played in indie-goth legends FLOWERS FOR AGATHA who, like Charles Manson, have an obsessive fan-base in California (see http://www.myspace.com/flowersforagatha).

RUDOLF ROCKER have released records on the Mook label including a 10” EP with a hand printed cover, a coloured vinyl 7” single, a CD EP, a track on a German compilation and two excellent full-length albums. They have performed live right the way across the North Riding.

The idea behind RUDOLF ROCKER is to combine melodic lines, intricate chord structures, amusing sound effects and enigmatic poetic/political lyrics with violent outburst of noise and frequent dollops of absurd, silly humour. This heady mix, whilst tantalising for the discerning listener, seems to escape the dulled ears of corporate mainstream media outlets who can’t even spell the name properly.
RUDOLF ROCKER have remained, however, defiantly silent about this silence.

In one sense RUDOLF ROCKER’s work is a protest against the increasing uncritical blandness and formulaic quality of contemporary popular music, especially so-called ‘indie’ music, the ‘alternative’ aspects of which seem to have completely vanished. “All that is solid melts into air” Marx once observed, a philosophy RUDOLF ROCKER wish to strongly endorse and possibly write a song about.

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