Years active 1986–1992 Past members Nick Burton Active from 1986 | Active until 1992 | |
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Albums Rockulator, Beatbox Rock'n'Roll Members Bob Andrews, Elizabeth Westwood, Nick Burton Similar Susan Fassbender, JoBoxers, Haysi Fantayzee, Owen Paul, The Lotus Eaters | ||
Westworld were a British three-then-four-piece electronic rock band active in the late 1980s. They are best known for their 1987 UK Top 20 hit single, "Sonic Boom Boy".
Contents
Career
Named after the sci-fi film Westworld, they were formed in 1986 by former Generation X guitarist Bob "Derwood" Andrews and American vocalist Elizabeth Westwood. The line up was completed by drummer Nick Burton. Before the recording and release of their third and final album, Burton left the band and was replaced by Gary "Gaz" Young and Tracey "T.J." O'Conner, making them a quartet.
Visually the band were styled in a way reminiscent of comic book art and musically they were a blend of classic 1950s rock and roll, glam and punk, updated with beatboxes and sequencer. They had an early success with their debut single "Sonic Boom Boy", which reached #11 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1987, and was used in Sony's advertisements. They had one more Top 40 hit, "Ba-Na-Na-Bam-Boo" which reached #37 in May the same year. They released three albums before moving to the Arizona desert in the US in 1992 to form the band Moondogg.
Although not successful in the US, their song "Painkiller" reached #17 on the San Francisco modern rock station Live-105's (KITS) "Top 105.3 Songs of 1988".
The JAMs' "Whitney Joins the JAMs", a house mash-up single, was built around samples of Whitney Houston, Isaac Hayes, Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme tune, and (according to later sleevenotes), Westworld.
Westworld's track, "Ba-Na-Na-Bam-Boo", appeared on the soundtrack to the 1987 film, Planes, Trains & Automobiles; whilst another of their songs, "So Long Cowboy", was on the soundtrack to the 1991 movie Point Break.
Albums
Singles
Songs
Sonic Boom BoyRockulator · 1987
So Long CowboyPoint Break: Music From the Motion Picture · 1991
Ba-na-na-bam-booRockulator · 1987