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 four 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 composition and arrangement.
As a solo artist, Rory has released albums of progressive rock (Passing Decades, 2006) and classical music (A Question of Expression, 2006). These include compositions written whilst studying at London University in the 1980s. He did further work on them in the 1990s but did not publish any of the recordings until 2006 (after he learned that his band's music had a following in Japan).
In retirement, he has released Ghost Rap - his first single - as one of seven tracks on his third album (Come Dance with Me, 2025). Enthused by the experience, he is now busy writing/recording again and is due to release a fourth album (Balustrania, 2026) of orchestral, rock and jazz music.
As a co-founder of Protos, Rory wrote prolifically, and also co-wrote 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 1970s. 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 included on Rory's first solo album. 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 adds to the Protos legacy as a solo artist.