Rik L Rik; Pioneering Punk Rocker

Rik L Rik, 39, a singer who was part of the first wave of Los Angeles punk rock. Rik, whose real name was Richard Elerick, fronted the band F-Word, one of the youngest groups to play the Hollywood punk mecca, the Masque. The band’s 1978 live album “Like It or Not” was the first “Class of ‘77” independent punk album from an L.A. County band, according to Masque owner Brendan Mullen. While most of his peers were based in Hollywood, Elerick was from Covina, and he was a key figure in punk’s spread to such suburbs as Orange County, where it grew into commercial and critical prominence. Elerick contributed solo tracks to the seminal anthology album “Beach Blvd.” in 1979, and had recently been working on recordings with a group called the Celestials. In Riverside on Friday of brain cancer.