Great Seal Of The United States

It’s a difficult world out there, let’s dial up some uncomplicated tonight. Some uncomplicated with a batshit crazy murderous seal mascot, that is. Welcome to Riot Rock City, an unfathomably well kept secret from 1977.

Shit these guys should have been massive! Just hit this beauty up:

Say hello to the city life,
Say hello to your dreams.
Say hello to the candy man,
Say hello to your rock 'n roll queens

Every single thing about the title track of Rock City is perfect. The intensity, the sheer guitar noise, the little fringes of chaos around the edges of the song, that guitar solo … when I eventually get to play Madison Square Gardens I’ll cover it as my first encore track in tribute to these sons of NYC.

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Formed in 1975 Riot put out Rock City on an independent label in ’77 and despite successful support gigs never quite gained traction in a crowded market until us Brits discovered them in ’79 seeing parallels between NWOBHM’s energetic no-frills guitar strafing, which gave the band a new lease of life. In 1980 Riot were the second ever band to play at Castle Donnington.

Riot City is an ace 33 minute, 9 song thunderflash played aggressive and hard. Men are warriors desperately racing in overdrive, chicks are angels and gypsy queens, but mostly irrelevant*, probably in case they distracted the dudes from smacking down another awesome solo.

Right from the get-go Riot hit us upside the head with their road dog finest on ‘Desperation’ and their sound harks to Thin Lizzy’s sense of melody but armour-plated with a harder sensibility, the beats are faster and more intense.

Second track ‘Warrior’ is another one that makes me leap up and punch the air repeatedly. I mean look, Riot are half way there with the title alone but add in a great searing guitar solo, hurtling rhythm and some brilliant melodies into the mix and, well, I have no defences, ‘Shine, shine on, Warrior‘.

I may have mentioned the title track before, just in passing, IT’S FREAKING GREAT!! As is ‘Overdrive’ that follows it, maybe just a teensy-tiny nanometre not quite as great – I prefer songs that speed up into the chorus, rather than change down a gear into them – it has a better guitar solo though and cool echoey drums from Peter Bitelli, ‘Rock Candy’ style. Actually the way the track speeds up at the end too … maybe it is just as good.

The band hurtle on through ‘Angel’ and the ace ‘Tokyo Rose’, racking up some serious rocking along the way; the guitaring on the later is just incendiary. I really like ‘Heart Of Fire’ too as it rattles along but keep getting distracted by some strange (I assume) talk box noises. For my money the last two tracks are lesser, not bad, but definitely lesser. It’s one of 1537’s laws** that only Ronnie James Dio is allowed to sing about sexy gypsies so ‘Gypsy Queen’ was never going to cut the mustard and ‘This Is What I Get’ just isn’t the thunderous juddering sweaty climax that Rock City deserves.

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Riot’s playing is just great on this LP, truly great. The sound of 5 guys just absolutely going for it because they really don’t know if they’ll get another chance to do it. The rhythm section of Peter Bitelli and bassist Jimmy Iomni^ really lay it down, bringing a fierce drive to proceedings. Guitarists Mark Reale and L.A Kouvaris really bring their chops to bear, some of the soloing is off-the-scale good, nothing too fancy either like I prefer. Meanwhile singer Guy Speranza is absolutely excellent, a real belter with a great vocal reach.

Riot had it all, apart from the luck. The comparison I keep coming back to is the first Montrose LP, okay so the heights here don’t quite match Ronnie’s lot but I think overall the songs are better and more consistent here. They really are up there with Starz and the Godz in my list of should haves.

But never mind all that ruminative shit, we’re here for the simple joys tonight. Cue up Rock City again and just rage along. Definitely bang that head that doesn’t bang!

Well all the fancy cars, and all the funky bars.
Feel the fire burnin' under your feet.
When the smoke clears honey, you ain't got no money.
Then you'll start to feel the heat.
Rock City, Rock City!

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Blessed/Cursed with one of the very weirdest covers in the entire 1537, Rock City certainly stands out. It’s all thanks to the insane seal-headed mascot thang, which as well as, I assume, laying waste to the city behind it appears to have slain a disconcertingly busty and, more disturbingly, nude female alien thing behind it^^.

1065 Down.

PS: Because it is just brilliant. This is from 1981 around their incredible LP Fire Down Under – now there’s an album!

*although it would surely take a pretty hard-hearted exemplar of the lady persuasion to resist the chat-up line, ‘Get ready, stand steady / I’m gonna shoot you full of Rock ‘n Roll’, (from ‘Angel’). It’s how I won my wife’s heart.

**adopted unanimously as a UN Resolution in 2001.

^he’s the mean-looking moustachioed one at the far right hand side of the cover, cool surname too. Although previous bassist Phil Feit played on 3 tracks here.

^^mind you if you really want batshit crazy check out Riot’s next LP Narita, where seal thing adopts a sumo stance over a littering of skulls, well either that or he’s preparing to defecate on them. True story.