History 51/50s

51/50s (pronounced “fifty-one-fifties”) is a British rock band formed in London, UK in 2007. The story of 51/50s has a somewhat bittersweet beginning, when the band’s founder and lead singer Rikki Lee started writing songs about his life experiences while being homeless and living on the streets. Rikki composed many of the band’s first songs during those times and most notably the songs “Lies” and “Hypnotised”, which reflect his experiences rather vividly.

An early form of 51/50s saw daylight in December 31st, 2004 in London, but under a different name at that time. It took two more years for the band to get their second line-up together with Billy and Jason joining the band on September 2006. A month or two followed with the band rehearsing from Monday to Friday seven hours a day, after which they started an intensive gig tour performing all over the UK.

On September 2007 the band got an incredible opportunity of going through direct financing via Slicethepie, which enables artists to raise money directly from their fans to professionally record and release an album, and became one of the first bands to get financed through the new media service. The band ended up raising £15,000 from fans and went through an extremely busy schedule of gigging, writing and rehearsing. At this point Ollie, who was a close friend of Billy and Jason, joined the band and soon after the band changed their management along with their name, and so the current form of 51/50s came into being.

The main influences of the band float around various styles of music, but the core inspiration remains to be good old fashion rock ‘n’ roll. Bands such as Rolling Stones, Guns N’ Roses, Thin Lizzy and Oasis, just to name a very few, have had their influence on 51/50s’ music.

Now, through hard work and determination 51/50s are stronger than ever with a relentless drive to make a difference in the UK’s rock scene and to of course entertain rock fans around the globe.

Official website: http://5150smusic.com

Line-up:

Rikki-Lee - Vocals

Ollie Cook - Guitars

Billy Baker - Drums

Jason Gale - Bass

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