Stan Ridgway

Stan Ridgway is an American singer and songwriter who led Wall of Voodoo, a group emerging from Los Angeles’ late-1970s punk and new-wave scene. Their music combined synthesisers, rhythm machines and harmonica with a cinematic approach to American stories. Call of the West, released in 1982, included Mexican Radio.

After leaving the band in 1983, Ridgway collaborated with Stewart Copeland on Don’t Box Me In for Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish. His first solo album, The Big Heat, appeared in 1986 and included Camouflage. His songs often place distinctive narrative voices within arrangements drawing on film music and popular song.