Robert Byron Hardy (born August 16, 1980) is the bassist of the Glaswegian band Franz Ferdinand. August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... A Fender Jazz Bass Bass Guitar refers to an electric or acoustic stringed instrument with a similar appearance to the guitar, but with a larger body, commonly 4 strings, longer scale neck and tuned an octave lower in pitch than a guitar. ... Glasgows location in Scotland Glasgow (or Glaschu in Gaelic) is Scotlands largest city and unitary council, situated on the River Clyde in the countrys west central lowlands. ... Franz Ferdinand is a Scottish alternative rock band. ...

Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK, Hardy moved to Glasgow in his adult years to pursue a study of painting at the Glasgow School of Art (it is also said that his love for Glasgow band Belle and Sebastian encouraged this location). While earning his degree, he regularly visited Glasgow's hippest bars and clubs, including the famous 13th Note, where he met a bartender named Alex Kapranos Huntley. Hardy didn't make the best first impression: Kapranos later admitted he thought he seemed to be a "vulgar idiot". Hardy has been known to tell disturbing jokes about dead babies. Location within the British Isles This article discusses the city Bradford, in West Yorkshire, England. ... West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in England, corresponding roughly to the core of the West Riding of the traditional county of Yorkshire. ... Glasgows location in Scotland Glasgow (or Glaschu in Gaelic) is Scotlands largest city and unitary council, situated on the River Clyde in the countrys west central lowlands. ... ... Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley (born March 20, 1972 in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire) is the guitarist and lead singer of the Glaswegian band Franz Ferdinand. ...

They became good friends and Kapranos got him a job as a dishwasher and chef in the kitchen where he worked. Kapranos saw some glimmer of potential in Hardy and when he received a bass guitar from Mick Cooke of Belle and Sebastian who requested that he "do something useful with it," it was Hardy, with no musical experience whatsoever, that he took the time and effort to learn to play. ...

Hardy was initially reluctant to play music, as he claimed he was an artist, not a musician. Upon realizing that they were both ways of expressing one's self, he eventually agreed to play, and together, he and Kapranos formed the basis of Franz Ferdinand, later recruiting Paul Thomson and Nick McCarthy.