Ryder (band)

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title: "Ryder (band)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["british-pop-music-groups", "eurovision-song-contest-entrants"] description: "British band" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryder_(band)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British band ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist "]

Field	Value
name	Ryder
background	temporary
origin	England
genre	Pop
years_active	1986
past_members	Maynard Williams
Dudley Phillips
Paul Robertson
Andy Ebsworth
Geoff Leach
Rob Terry
::

| name = Ryder | image = | alias = | background = temporary | origin = England | genre = Pop | years_active = 1986 | label = | website = | current_members = | past_members = Maynard Williams Dudley Phillips Paul Robertson Andy Ebsworth Geoff Leach Rob Terry Ryder was a purpose-made pop group led by Maynard Williams whose primary purpose was to represent the United Kingdom at the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest in Bergen, Norway. Ryder performed the song "Runner in the Night" which was placed 7th. They were criticised in the media for being a particularly weak and unsuitable entry. The song was the first UK Eurovision entry to fail to reach the top 75 since 1964, managing a peak of only #98.

"Runner In The Night" was the only single released by the band, but Williams teamed up with the song's composers Maureen Darbyshire and Brian Wade to compose the theme song to the BBC drama series Truckers, in which he appeared. The single from the programme failed to chart.

Williams, the son of actor Bill Maynard, had previously reached the final 24 of the UK heat in 1985. He had earlier featured in the BBC's 1975 Christmas production Great Big Groovy Horse, a rock opera based on the story of the Trojan Horse shown on BBC2 starring Julie Covington, Bernard Cribbins and Paul Jones. It was later repeated on BBC1 in 1977. At the time of the band's victory in the A Song for Europe 1986 contest, Williams had just completed a lengthy run as 'Electra' in the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe stage musical Starlight Express in the original London production.

Discography

Singles

::data[format=table title="List of singles, with selected chart positions"] | Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | UK | "Runner in the Night" | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1986 | 98 | | | | | ::

References

References

1. "Ryder - Full Official Chart History". Official Charts Company.
2. (18 December 1975). "Great Big Groovy Horse".
3. (15 December 1977). "Great Big Groovy Horse".
4. "The UK's highest charting Eurovision stars revealed!".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::