Andy from UK ska band the Riffs has kindly given skaface a couple of gig reviews from recent Riffs gigs, so here they are.
30th Bad Manners / The Riffs, Rayners Hotel, Middlesex.
Saturday 30th December 2000 saw The Riffs performing their first festive
show of the new Millennium. Tickets sold out in advance, once again proving
that when billed together Bad Manners and The Riffs are a formidable force.
As the lads have been busy writing and in the studio recently,
preparing for a new album, this event was a welcome release for them. Well,
once they'd remembered to rehearse the old favourites anyway! The beers
started flowing during soundcheck, which was as it is everywhere, a long
and drawn out process, and then the doors were opened.
The venue was Club Ska 2000 at the Rayners Hotel, near Harrow, London. For a number of The Riffs this meant that bus loads of local fans and friends could come along and join in the Season's festivities with them. As is also usual with such great gigs, the bar staff seemed completely oblivious to the fact that hundreds of alcoholics were trying to celebrate the New Year a day early. It was a struggle throughout the night trying to get served, unless of course you had a private bar backstage! Still, the combination of bikers, scooterists, skinheads, hippies, punks, mods, rockers, students, young and old, male and female, didn't let such things spoil their fun. This show had one of the best atmospheres I've seen at any concert for a long while.
The Riffs took to the stage around 9pm with a storming version of the favourite, "Monday Morning". This got peoples feet up and dancing, with the rest of their torsos joining in later. From a band point of view this was great, although as usual our set list had gone out of the window already! A couple of songs later and The Riffs performed for the first time theirversion of The Boomtown Rats' classic tune, "I Don't Like Mondays" and it went down so well it may find itself into our set on a regular basis. Alsoperformed for the first time was a full-length version of self-penned instrumental. "Spin Out", from the CDEP of the same name. Despite the presence of Captain Feedback in our monitors, these were joined by other Riffs tunes such as; "Blind Date", "The Girl Is Mine", "A Song For Europe" and "Wendy's Bits", as well as versions of Desmond Dekker's "Honour Your Mother" and The Stranglers' "Golden Brown".
Before you knew where you where though, our time was up. But being as it was Christmas/New Year, The Riffs were not simply going to leave it there. For the last number, "Ruff & Tuff" a sing-a-long medley of "007", "The Tide Is High, and Rudy", "A Message To You" we were joined on stage by a friend by the name of Paul Fox, guitarist of The Ruts (Babylon¹s Burning, Staring At The Rude Boys, Jah War, etc). The Riffs and The Ruts bought the first half of the evening¹s festivities to a wonderful end with a great part atmosphere. And if that wasn¹t enough, the audience still had Bad Manners to go as well!!!
Buster and the lads soon got the place back on its feet afterthe interval and kept them there until the very end, wringing every droplet of sweat out of them.
Here¹s to a wonderful time in 2001.
Morecambe Ska Fest.
Back in June Mark skaface travelled up to Morecambe for the three day ska fest, click here to read the review.
This is Andy from The Riffs view of the Festival:
Just found your site and like It. Well Done! Read your review
of Morcambe and it was good to read what we missed by going home Sunday
morning.
Although I wasn't there I must agree that it surprised me that a two-tone
covers' band should have a place at a Ska Fest, especially so high up on
the bill. No offence to the band as obviously we play a couple of two-tone
covers ourselves, it just surprised me a bit. In the defence of the the
promoter, Darren, I believe they were a last minute addition to fill a
gap.
But then I feel that he could have done a bit more to prevent those gaps from appearing. Now before I carry on I want to make it perfectly clear that these are just my personal opinions and observations and not those of any other member of the band. I am not condemning the guy as any one who undertakes an event of this size should certainly receive a large pat on the back. It was a brave move and we look forward to working with him again, hopefully at a similar event next year. I remember, sadly, the fiasco of the so called "International Ska Festivals" in London during the early nineties that ended up nothing more than a few bands playing all day long in a pub. Anyone who helps to restore the UK's reputation after that deserves applause!
However, it could certainly have been better. We were first contacted
towards the end of 99, and promptly lost the letter! Doh! As soon as I
found it I called him back and said we were interested. At an event this
big we would be foolish to be absent from the bill. The next thing I receive
is a bunch of flyers with a proposed line-up (inc The Riffs). Ok, so he
wants us. I offered our help in promoting the event through the many channels
and contacts we have built up over 10 years in the Ska scene, as
well as distributing the flyers he'd sent and using our web. At the end
of the day, the more people who turn up (punters and press),
the better it will be for us all. Not much response there, but
anyway, a few calls later and we've finally sorted out the billing (roughly)
and cash.However, we did not receive a contract.
After a few calls it was explained that he doesn't usually do them!!!!!
Alarm bells start to ring. Now while this is maybe ok with a promoter you
are used to working with, being asked to
lash out a few hundred quid with no guarantee of any return is a risky
move. I can understand why many bands didn't appear. Would you travel
from Europe or the States because some bloke 'says' he will give you some
cash? Hmmm. As much as
we love our music, at the end of the day we are seven lads trying to
hold down jobs, pay the rent, put food on the table,
and play ska music. It ain't easy. Anyway, Mark from the Hotknives
knew the promoter from days gone by and vouched for his integrity. We reasoned
that as he was in the UK, if the worst came to the worst we could always
go to his house and nick his microwave (only joking Darren!).
So yes, we had a good time, England won, although we wished that both Ska Fest 2000 and Euro 2000 could both have been more successful. Acorns into trees I hope.
With regards to The Riffs yes, we did play a number of covers I grant
you, although there was a pretty even mix. I feel our version of Dirty
Bum (House of the Rising Sun) and Golden Brown are not actually covers
though, but great
interpretations of classic songs. We were only given a short set, just
before the footy, and although it was difficult to judge exactly what the
audience wanted (apart from England to beat Germany), I feel we were the
first band to get a great show of stomping that day (and maybe the best
before our chums the Hotknives took to the stage!).
After the show and of course, the footy we did interviews for UK, US, Irish, European and Aussie press/radio. Groove Records sold a respectable amount ofour CDs (unless we were so drunk after the match we simply gave them away. Nah, we wouldn't....would we?), and we've received some positive postal feedback from flyers that were distribute (apologies to those who tried to email although I believe that theriffs@hotmail.com is working again!).
Best wishes, Andy.
Check out the Riffs @ www.theriffs.co.uk