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The Royal Court of China
The Royal Court of China is a rock n' roll band that formed in the mid-1980s in Nashville, Tennessee. This coincided with the emergence of a golden era in Nashville rock and with the ascendance of alternative music and college radio in the Southeast. With REM and Jason and the Scorchers leading the charge, cities like Athens, Atlanta and Nashville proved to be hotbeds of original rock n' roll talent. Alongside the Scorchers and bands like Walk the West, the Georgia Satellites, Raging Fire and Webb Wilder, the Royal Court of China rose to the forefront of Nashville's mid-1980's scene with raucous, frenetic live shows and a sound that evoked classic influences like the Rolling Stones and The Byrds.

The seeds of the band were sown when journeyman singer/songwriter/guitarist Joe Blanton, a veteran of such early Nashville rock bands as the Ratz, joined with drummer Chris Mekow to form punk pop combo The Enemy in 1984. The band became a popular local draw, but fractured in the summer of 1985. In need of a lead guitarist and bassist, Mekow brought former jam buddies Oscar Rice and Robert Logue into the fold. The resulting overhaul in the band's sound led to a new musical direction and a name change. Wasting no time, the musicians honed their new sound onstage with opening slots for 10,000 Maniacs, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Meat Puppets in the fall of 1985 and re-christened the band "The Royal Court of China" at year's end. By the summer of 1986 the band was packing clubs all around the area and soon had a slew of major labels coming to call. In December of that year, the band agreed to a deal with David Anderle of A&M Records.

1987 was spent recording their self-titled, self-produced debut record for A&M, and touring with the likes of the Kinks, REO Speedwagon and the Hooters. In September, a Kevin Kerslake-directed video for the single 'It's All Changed' debuted on MTV and, after a packed hometown record release show, the band took to the road on the 'Fourplay Tour', a package tour which also featured new bands Will (Sexton) and the Kill, the Northern Pikes, and Brit-rockers Hurrah! When this tour ended at Thanksgiving, the band took a few days off in Nashville, then continued traveling for the rest of the year. It was while touring in Florida with the Hooters in December that the band's equipment trailer was stolen along with most of their amps, guitars, drums, and lights. The band was forced to finish the shows using rented equipment. After the last show in Atlanta, the band took several weeks off to replace their gear.

However, Atlanta would prove to be the original line-up's last concert; as so often happens, tensions were developing within the band and patience and communication skills were in short supply. In the spring Logue and Rice left to devote full time to their alt-folk acoustic band The Shakers, while Blanton and Mekow recruited new musicians and moved to Los Angeles. The second line-up recorded a more metallic album called "Geared and Primed" (featuring bassist Drew Cornutt and guitarist Josh Weinberg) with the late Motorhead producer Vic Maile. Soon Blanton and Mekow replaced Weinberg with Nashville guitarist Jeff Mays and promoted the 'Geared and Primed' record via a video for the single 'Half the Truth' (directed by a young director named Sam Raimi and produced by Bruce Campbell) and later on tours with Joan Jett, Cheap Trick and others.

By 1992 the Royal Court of China had broken up and Blanton and Mekow drifted back home to Nashville. Predictably, the original members soon found themselves in a rehearsal studio, and after a packed reunion show at the Exit/In continued on for a series of regional shows during the last six months of that year. During this time, they entered the studio with members of the original Elvis Presley band, including legendary musicians Scotty Moore, DJ Fontana, Floyd Cramer and the Jordanaires. It was the first time that cast had assembled to play together in over 30 years. Fittingly, the musicians recorded "Santa Claus Is Back in Town"; this Elvis Christmas classic had been the last song the original RCC line-up had performed together at that December show in Atlanta years before. The band performed the song live one more time on the nationally broadcast cable TV show 'Nashville Now'.

As of this writing in 2012, singer Joe Blanton fronts a band called The Bluefields, which also includes Georgia Satellites singer/guitarist Dan Baird and Jason and the Scorchers guitarist Warner Hodges; drummer Chris Mekow lives in west Tennessee, serving as a park ranger at Shiloh National Military Park and occasionally acting in period documentaries. He and Blanton have occasionally played reunion shows with the band's Mach 2 'Geared and Primed' line-up in Nashville. Guitarist Oscar Rice lives outside Nashville and has in recent years released two albums of acoustic music under the moniker "Hendersonville Song Company"; bassist/mandolinist Robert Logue also lives near Nashville, where he owns 'Logue's Black Raven Emporium', a store which not only sells new and vintage clothing, used books, art, dvd's and more on its upper level, but also boasts a pub and movie theatre downstairs, hosting classic '70s grindhouse and exploitation films weekly, as well as other events.