Rosendo Mercado Ruiz (born 23 February 1954, Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish rock singer and songwriter. He was a member of bands ?u and Le?o, and is a prominent exponent of the so-called urban rock in Spain. 　　His family was from Bola?os de Calatrava, in the province of Ciudad Real, but he was raised in Carabanchel, where he still resides (as of 2005). After dropping out of ICAI engineering school, he joined the band Fresa as a guitarist, in 1972. Fresa usually played covers of hits of the time, and sometimes they also backed other soloists and singers. Following some changes, including singer José Carlos Molina joining the band, this changed its name to ?u. In 1974 Rosendo discovered Rory Gallagher's music, who became one of his main influences, together with other bands such as Jethro Tull, Canned Heat, Cream, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.