John Du Cann

Who was John Du Cann?

John William Cann, later known by his stage name John Du Cann, was an English guitarist primarily known through his work in the 1970s band, Atomic Rooster. His early bands included the Wiltshire-based The Sonics and London-based The Attack, which released "Hi Ho Silver Lining" a few days prior to Jeff Beck. He went on to lead a psychedelic, progressive, hard rock band called Andromeda, before being asked to join Atomic Rooster, featuring re-recorded guitar parts and vocals for their 1970 self-titled debut album, and the albums Death Walks Behind You and In Hearing of Atomic Rooster.

Upon departing Atomic Rooster in 1971 he led Daemon, then Hard Stuff, both of which were based more heavily on aggressive guitar work. In 1974 he was a temporary guitarist in Thin Lizzy for a tour of Germany. Sometime following this, his manager suggested a name change for him from John Cann to John Du Cann.

As a result of being signed to the same management company, 1977 saw the pairing of Du Cann with Francis Rossi of the British rock band Status Quo. Rossi was invited to produce Du Cann's proposed new album, The World's Not Big Enough, which remained unreleased until 1992. The session musicians for this album included Rossi on guitar, Andy Bown on keyboards, future Quo drummer Pete Kircher and bassist John McCoy. The album was described in Record Collector magazine at the time as sounding like "Quo mixed with the Sex Pistols".