Rollo was born to an Irish publisher and a French-English poet. His younger sister is singerDido.[3] He studied at theUniversity of York and was an active member of the student radio stationURY. Later bandmateSister Bliss has claimed that Rollo experiencessynaesthesia, seeing "music as colours".[4]
Rollo has appeared on a large number of music projects, both within groups and solo, using various monikers, includingFaithless (which he formed in 1995 withSister Bliss,Jamie Catto andMaxi Jazz), Rollo Goes ..., Our Tribe (withRob Dougan), andDusted.
In late 1991, Rollo founded Cheeky Records, releasing two singles before the label folded.[5] In 1992Champion Records stepped in to help with funding and advice, and the label was restarted, withReverence by Faithless its first album release (it has since been bought out byBMG).[5] In 1992, Rollo co-wrote and co-producedFelix's hit single "Don't You Want Me", which reached number 1 in Finland, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, as well as reaching number 6 on theUK Singles Chart.[6]
On 11 October 2019, Rollo released his first solo album,The Last Summer under the alias "R Plus".[9][10] It charted at No. 96 on the UK Album Sales Chart[11] and at No. 55 on the UK Album Download Chart.[12] On 19 July 2020,The Last Summer (Deluxe Edition) was released, and credited as by both R Plus and Dido.[13]
After moving record labels toArmada Music, Rollo (as R Plus) released a cover ofJoy Division's 1980 hit "Love Will Tear Us Apart" on 7 May 2021, and features singer Amelia Fox. Rollo spoke of the remake: "[The song] meant the world to me when I was teenager, and it still does. I stole my first Joy Division T-shirt from a shop inCamden Market, and got to fleetingly meet guitaristPeter Hook years later at a party at the Hacienda in Manchester. It took a long time before I felt brave enough to cover this song, before I felt I knew what I was doing as a producer [...] To introduce Amelia Fox and the new R Plus album to the world, we thought it would be good to start with this cover. We wanted our version to sound like a piece of music found in a time capsule buried under the now empty DJ booth at the Hacienda, and wanted to capture both the sadness of the song and the late-night euphoria of that legendary club."[14][15] In July 2021, R Plus released "Hey Lover" again featuring Fox.[16]
On 13 May 2022, R Plus releasedWeDisappear, a collaboration album with Amelia Fox.[17][18][19] "Makes Me Feel Good"[20] and an edited version of "Let's Really Have Some Fun", released 28 April 2023, were released as singles.[21] On 24 November 2023, R Plus released the albumFor Lovers, Not Killers, alongside Fox.[22] Some streaming services erroneously list Faithless as a collaborative artist on R Plus releases, due to Armstrong's involvement in both projects.[23]
^"The official UEFA EURO 2008 music"(PDF).UEFA EURO 2008: 100 days to go.UEFA. 28 February 2008. pp. (page 5). Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 3 October 2008. Retrieved7 October 2008.For the first time ever, the European Championship has an official melody...composed by Rollo Armstrong of Faithless on behalf of UEFA.
