Music Spotlight ~ Blink-182

In the Spotlight:

Blink-182

Bio:

Blink-182's beginnings can be traced to the fall of 1991, when the sister of Mark Hoppus (bass, vocals) introduced him to then-14-year-old Tom DeLonge (guitar, vocals). The son of high-tech weapons engineer, Hoppus had an early childhood characterized by constant relocation and world travel necessitated by his father's occupation. By the late '80s, the family had settled in San Diego, where Hoppus — then in his midteens — bought a bass guitar and began emulating songs by the Cure and the Descendents. At the time he met DeLonge, he had just dropped out of college.

Raised in an upper-middle class home just outside San Diego, DeLonge worked a job lifting and loading concrete bags at construction sites prior to meeting Hoppus. With the addition of aspiring drummer Scott Raynor, the first incarnation of Blink-182 — then known as Blink — began playing clubs in and around San Diego. Presaging themes that would later surface in its songs, the group's early shows featured mildly risqué audience-participation routines such as wet T-shirt and wet pants contests. Meanwhile, Hoppus and DeLonge befriended the Orange County punk rock group the Vandals, whose tiny label, Kung Fu, released Blink's cassette-only debut recording (titled Buddha) in 1994.

Less than a year later, Blink came to the attention of Cargo Records, who signed the band to a one-album deal. The group's 1995 effort for the label, Cheshire Cat, was pedestrian at best, but there was no denying the band's growing popularity as a live act. Impressed by Blink's rabid following in Australia, MCA signed the group in 1996. After a slight modification to its band name (a nondescript Irish band already had dibs on "Blink," and it threatened to sue), the newly christened Blink-182 released its major label debut, Dude Ranch, the following year. The album quickly achieved platinum sales in Australia, while reaching gold status in Canada and the U.S.

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PICTURES:

Left to Right: Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker, Tom DeLonge