Music

Rory's Music Career

Rory Ridley-Duff is the co-founder of the progressive rock band Protos as well as a solo artist. He has released three studio albums and a live album with Protos, and five studio albums as a solo artist.

Born in 1962, he was self-taught until the age of 18 when he enrolled on a Jazz/Popular music course at his local college. He went on to study music at Royal Holloway College (London University) and graduated in 1986 after specialising in orchestration and composition.

Rory's Solo Albums

As a solo artist, Rory has released albums of progressive rock (Passing Decades, 2006) and classical music (A Question of Expression, 2006). These compositions, written whilst studying at London University, were not recorded and published until 2006, when Rory's learned that his band's music had developed a following in Japan.

In retirement, he has released progressive rock, neo-classical and jazz music on three albums (Come Dance with Me, 2025; Balustrania, 2026; Passing Decades (20 Years On). His latest album is a 20th Anniversary Edition of the original Passing Decades album, with nine 're-booted' tracks that combined recordings from 2006/07 with new (overlay) recordings made this year.

Rory's Band Work (with Protos)

As a co-founder of Protos, Rory wrote prolifically. He co-wrote some tracks with guitarist Stephen Anscombe. Their first album (One Day a New Horizon, 1982) developed their reputation in their home town. However, the Japanese magazine EuroRock hailed it in 1993 as 'the best progressive rock album to come out of the UK' since the 1977. When they learned of this (over a decade later), Rory and Stephen started writing together again. EuroRock ordered 500 copies of their original CD, and 250 copies of a second album (The Noble Pauper's Grave, 2007). They also supported sales of a 'bootleg' album of live recordings from the 1980s (Into the Mouth of the Tiger, 2007).

15 years later - after Stephen was diagnosed with a terminal illness - Rory began working on a legacy project. He recorded new versions of all the tracks on the 1982 album (with Stephen overseeing the re-creation of his guitar work). Their final album (The Infinite Horizon, 2024) incorporates changes made by band members during their 1983-84 live performances as well as changes pioneered on Rory's first solo album (Passing Decades). Stephen died before the legacy work was finalised, but Rory completed it posthumously, and released it in Stephen's memory. The Protos story has ended, but Rory's own music continues the band's committment to writing engaging instrumental rock/jazz-rock/neo-classical music.

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