In 1976 a bunch of friends from Hamilton and Viewpark in Uddingston got together to form Red Ellis, Chic McSherry (guitar) Joe Cochrane (vocals) David Sweet (bass) and 14 year old Joe James (drums)  (Later on Ian Harris and Jim McClelland took over from Chick McSherry on guitar) , their key musical influences were among others Led Zepplin, Bad Company, Deep Purple and Jmmi Hendrix.
The band originally rehearsed in the changing hut of the local football team Thorniewood United and their first gig was at The Holy Cross School in Hamilton 1977 moving on to do a few shows in Glasgow university that same year.
Joe Cochrane got on well with Henry Gorman and the band played a lot of gigs in partnership with The Henry Gorman Band in places such as The Victorian Carriage (Greenock) Davie Jones Locker (Gourock) The Queens Hall (Dunoon), the Navy bases in Dunoon and Edzel in Aberdeen and the Royal Hotel in Wick.
Locally the band built up a decent following playing in The Tower and The Salmon Leap in East Kilbride and The Dial Inn in Glasgow.
In 1980 they opened the second day of The Loch Lomond Rock Concert, other bands that played that day were The Henry Gorman Band, Ian Gillan, Denny Laine, Saxon, Lindesfarne, Wilde Horses, Wishbone Ash and Krokus.
In 1981 Red Ellis played a low key UK tour opening for Thin Lizzy relishing the chance to play on the same stage as Phil Lynott, who they claimed “Lynott was everything you hoped he would be”
That same year they also toured with another rock hero Frankie Miller.

“ I didn't think we were particularly talented writers, nor did we feel we understood that it was the music business, record deals, albums and stuff, we were just a wee bunch of mates who through having a lot of practice and rehearsing could put on a bit of a show. We could make quite a racket with just bass, drums and one guitar. Chick was a really talented guitar player, wee Joe was a good lookin fella, he looked like a rock star on stage he acted the part as well he would not have looked out of place fronting Free, Bad Company or Rainbow.
Davie (Sweet) the bass player and I became a really tight rhythm section and I could count to 4 and then count to 4 again so I suppose I could drum a bit.
As we got into playing then so did the folk who would come along to watch, I think the early gigs in Laurencekirk helped us to cut our teeth and we were comfortable getting up and doing our thing towards the end, I guess we must have been pretty good to watch.
I don't recall that the band ended in an enormous flash of light, bust up or fall out, we just dropped everyone off after a gig one night and that was kind of it ".