The Rats

The Rats are known by very few listeners, and they most likely know about them because <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Mick Ronson</a> was a member before playing on <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">David Bowie</a>'s highly influential early-'70s albums. Formed in Hull, England, the first version of the group did not include <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a>, but did manage to release a couple of singles on Columbia U.K. in 1965. This included a tough cover of "Spoonful" that -- although the liner notes of Pebbles, Vol. 6 assert the contrary -- did not feature <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a>. A decent but unexceptional R&B/rock unit, the Rats continued to slog it out in Hull over the next few years, with <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a> joining in 1966.

Although the Rats stayed together (with varying lineups) through the rest of the '60s, they didn't make any more records, although a few unreleased tracks finally surfaced in the '90s. They evolved into a heavier blues-rock combo, <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a> in particular showing the influence of <a href="spotify:artist:0AD4odMWVQ2wUSlgxOB5Rl">Jeff Beck</a>, whose group the Rats opened for at a March 1968 show. By 1969, one-time Rats drummer John Cambridge was in <a href="spotify:artist:2CtNvplVTOJdN6MkZymtz0">Junior's Eyes</a>, which briefly became <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a>'s backup band. Cambridge recommended <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a> to <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a> as a lead guitarist, and <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a>'s crunchy style was a key ingredient on <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a>'s 1970 album The Man Who Sold the World. Woody Woodmansey, who had replaced John Cambridge as drummer in the Rats in 1969, also played on the record.

The Rats' confusing history (considering they only made a couple of singles) had a final twist in the interim between The Man Who Sold the World (1970) and <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a>'s rise to full-fledged stardom. As <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a> woodshedded for a while in the early '70s to focus on songwriting, <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a>, Woodmansey, early <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a> producer and bassist <a href="spotify:artist:46ISQ20xfCvHum4YeV08XF">Tony Visconti</a>, and Rats vocalist Benny Marshall formed the short-lived Ronno. They released a single on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vertigo%22">Vertigo</a>, but the project came to an end when <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a>, Woodmansey, and <a href="spotify:artist:4II8BC6J4dkVTmU6QCYQhJ">Trevor Bolder</a> (who had replaced <a href="spotify:artist:46ISQ20xfCvHum4YeV08XF">Visconti</a> in Ronno) became <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a>'s backing group, the <a href="spotify:artist:6np1kzep4TkKxsH7Afzuk0">Spiders from Mars</a>. The <a href="spotify:artist:6np1kzep4TkKxsH7Afzuk0">Spiders</a> backed <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a> on his most famous early-'70s albums, including Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust, before the singer disbanded the group in mid-1973, although <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a> worked with <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a> for a while longer. A Rats CD, cobbled together from their singles, unreleased '60s material, and '90s versions of the group, appeared in 1998. A competent but undistinguished lot, the Rats are primarily worth investigating by British '60s rock completists and <a href="spotify:artist:0oSGxfWSnnOXhD2fKuz2Gy">Bowie</a> historians who want to hear <a href="spotify:artist:2jzjxYOe3G5aeucbMg0Smp">Ronson</a>'s roots in particular. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi