Rio Goldhammer (born 17 May 1990) is an English musician, filmmaker, and writer from the West Riding of Yorkshire.
He is best known for fronting the Bradford Post Punk band 1919 since their reformation in 2014.Goldhammer started on the Leeds underground scene in the mid 2000s, eventually setting up Bunnysnot Records in 2011 as a vehicle for releasing his early work.
In 2014, Goldhammer started working with 1919's founding guitarist Mark Tighe as he set about re-forming the group.
Not wanting to waste time, the pair released a video for their demo of Revenge as a transitional line-up in which Goldhammer performed bass in addition to vocals.
Whilst this video would ultimately catch the eye of Mick Reed and see Tighe's ambition for a 1919 renaissance realised, the interim period saw the pair join up with legendary Leeds producer Will Jackson on a project called Circle of the Absurd (COTA).COTA though, was indefinitely shelved when the 1919 reunion got into full swing.
The band self-released a live CD, 2015: "The Madness Continues" Sessions (subsequently released on vinyl by Old Skull in 2018), which contained classic 1919 songs alongside four new tracks which would become the Death Note EP.
Amidst a busy touring schedule over the next year, 1919 signed to Westworld Recordings to release their second studio album, Bloodline, which was well received by fans and critics.
This was followed up by the D.N.A EP, the inaugural physical release on the band's Cry Wolf label, after Tighe's death in 2017.
During Tighe's illness, Goldhammer re-started work on the COTA album hoping that his bandmate would be able to hear some of it finished.
Thanks to the hard work of producer Jackson, who also provided programming and synths for the album, and filmmaker Carl Arnfield (who had made the Revenge, Death Note, and Bloodline videos), Goldhammer was able to release the eponymous Circle of the Absurd video just days before losing his friend to cancer.
The first four completed COTA tracks were released as a limited edition cassette on Bunnysnot Records later that year, and Goldhammer's video for A Hymn to the Night, the second A-side track on D.N.A, featured performances from Tighe's daughters in a moving tribute to their late father.