Ricky Warwick

Stray cat: What, you don't know Ricky Warwick? Come on, everybody knows Ricky. At least, everybody in the Irish music scene does, cos we meet him all the time at gigs, ligs, festivals and various other rock-type events. He's the wiry guy with the tattoos; looks like a biker who works in a garage and plays in a rockabilly band. Used to be in The Almighty and New Model Army. It seems like Ricky's been around forever, but it was only last year when he finally got to release his first solo album, Tattoos and Alibis. Surprisingly, the album was a far cry from The Almighty's punk-metal attack, being imbued with the American frontier flavours of Johnny Cash, Springsteen, Tom Petty and Steve Earle. "I learned how to play guitar from my dad's Johnny Cash records and an Eagles songbook," says the 38-year-old from Northern Ireland. No surprise to find that the album was co-produced by Ricky's long-time pal and singer with Def Leppard, Joe Elliot.

Wild boys: After a brief spell playing guitar with crusty band New Model Army, Ricky formed The Almighty in Glasgow in 1988 with guitarist Tantrum, bassist Floyd London and drummer Stump Munroe. Although the foursome shared punk roots, they moved in a more metallic direction, growing their hair long and adopting biker chic. Their début album was produced by Andy Taylor from Duran Duran. Their final album, in 1996, saw them move back to their punk roots, but it was already too late, and The Almighty's 15 minutes were up.

Waitin' for an alibi: Ricky formed a new band, the short-lived Sic, but when he began to forge his own musical identity, his path became more assured. "I found myself writing songs that were radically different from what I had done in the past, but it came naturally," he says. "I also completely changed my singing style. I realised you don't have to shout to get your point across." When his pal Joe heard demos of the new songs, he couldn't wait to get Ricky into the studio to lay down such tracks as Mysterio, Can't Live With Maybe, Minor Miracles and Can't Get Arrested. The album features guest appearances from Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy and Peter O'Toole of Hothouse Flowers.

Road warrior: Ricky has been touring Europe and the US, both solo and with a band, and doing support slots with The Allman Brothes Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow and, of course, Def Leppard. In July, Ricky blew 'em away at the Oxegen festival; he's doing an Irish tour later this month with a full band, playing dates in Dundalk (the 23rd), Limerick (24th), Dublin (25th) and Cork (26th). Don't be surprised if a Lep or a Lizzy jumps up on stage and joins in.