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Robert Caruso (March 13, 1965) is a rock singer, songwriter and guitarist who also worked as an actor and published poetry. He started working as a professional musician aged 13 and is considered a prime mover of Punk Rock in Italy using Rob Leer as his stage name. He left his native Italy aged 19 and moved to London, England in 1985. After performing with the band The Electric Kids, Caruso started performing solo in 1990 in an acoustic style rooted in Blues. He later had a break from music and entered the academic world. After obtaining a BA in philosophy and English Literary Studies at London's Middlesex University, Caruso obtained a MA at UCL (University College London) and was set to finish his PhD when he returned to music and released his first album, The Best-Kept Secret In Rock'n'Roll in 2012, using the imprint Roca Records through digital distributor TuneCore. Since then Caruso has released three more albums and seventeen singles mostly self-produced and toured in Britain and abroad either solo or with a four-piece band usually billed as The Shades. His music is not easy to categorize; his influences are many, from 1950s' Rock and Roll to early Punk Rock, New Wave, Post Punk to his love for Mississippi Delta Blues, especially when performing and recording solo and acoustic. Caruso has created his own style and image and remains an underground figure in the pantheon of rock music.

Biography

Robert Caruso was born Roberto Caruso in Cosenza, south Italy on March 13th, 1965. His father was a public servant and his mother a high-school teacher who had published several books of short stories and novels. His brother Ugo, ten years Robert's senior, a journalist and film critic, and even older cousins were instrumental in introducing Robert to the 1960s' Beat music in vogue in Italy when Caruso was a child and through them he was introduced also to cinema, literature and the theatre. Caruso learned to play guitar aged ten and debuted at a musical competition aged thirteen. The winner was the act who would receive the most applause from the audience and Caruso, singing and playing acoustic guitar and performing Lou Reed's hit Walk On The Wild Side, won the competition. A year later he re-entered the competition and won again. At age 14 he knew already what he was going to do with his life, adopted the stage name Rob Leer and learned how to play electric guitar, harmonica and electric organ. In 1980 Caruso formed his first four-piece band in Cosenza, known as both the Rob Leer Band and as Rob Leer & The Electric Kids. The band members were usually older than Caruso and the band had a "revolving door" type of line-up, with Caruso using any musicians he could find to perform live regularly in Cosenza and other Italian cities. He had already written and demoed a repertoire of his own songs, derivative of Garage Rock and Proto Punk. Although a greaser into 1950s' Rock and Roll and Doo Wop, his earliest recording are reminiscent of what would become known as Garage Punk. Self-produced cassettes were sold at gigs and in 1983 Caruso, still using the Rob Leer moniker, inspired by the break-up with an older girl, wrote and produced the album Waiting For The Light which he recorded single-handed using an electronic Casio keyboard's sequencer, drum-machine and synthesizer and electric guitar, recording it single-handed on a two-track tape machine. His Garage Punk style hence met the Techno Pop sound of the early 1980s. After graduating from a grammar high school in August 1983, Caruso moved to Rome, enrolled at university at the faculty of Letters and formed a Roman version of The Electric Kids. He gained some popularity from playing live frequently and from appearing as himself in the television film Primi Amori by director Domenico "Mimmo" Rafele, produced by Italian state television RAI. The film was broadcast on Italian RAI TV twice in 1984 and again in 1985 with Caruso playing a small part and appearing with The Electric Kids performing his song Motor Kid, written on purpose for the film which depicted the dramatic love story of two adolescents runaways who survive shop-lifting and stealing scooters. Despite being offered a record contract by an independent record label in Rome, by the end of 1985, having just turned twenty, Caruso left Italy and moved to London for good.

1980s

In London Caruso formed a new version of The Electric Kids and became friends with rock musicians such as Nico, Stiv Bators and Johnny Thunders. The Electric Kids' drummer was Dave New, younger brother of guitarist Steve New who had played in The Rich Kids and with Iggy Pop, among others and the band became part of a thriving scene of London bands. For the next few years Caruso lived in squats, made a living busking and even as a gigolo' for some months. The first demo recorded by The Electric Kids was broadcast by legendary DJ John Peel on BBC radio; the band played regularly in London but in the end split-up in 1988. By then Caruso was living an extremely bohemian, adventurous life of "sex, drugs and rock'n'roll" until The Electric Kids split-up in 1988. In the meantime he had been drafted in the Italian army which still had a mandatory national service. Caruso never showed up and became wanted by the authorities and unable to return to Italy where he would have faced military prison for desertion.

1990s