The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group.[1][2] Despite achieving only limited commercial success, the band was a major influence on the punk rock movement in both the United States and, perhaps to a greater extent, in the United Kingdom.
All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname “Ramone”, although none of them were related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years.[2] In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played a farewell concert and disbanded.[3] Only a little more than eight years after the breakup, all three of the band’s founding members—lead singer (and, at the time of founding, drummer) Joey Ramone, guitarist Johnny Ramone, and bassist Dee Dee Ramone—had died