About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Riot/Clone

Encyclopedia : R : RI : RIO : Riot/Clone

Riot/Clone were a punk band often associated with the anarcho-punk scene, active from 1979-1983 and then revived in the early 90's until they split up again in 2005. The band were originally known as Riot but the name became Riot/Clone after two members of the original lineup wanted the band's name to become Clone.

History

They were formed by Dave Floyd in August 1979. They went through many line-up changes in the first few years, something which contributed greatly to them being almost unheard of outside their native West London. Their first two cassette albums, Musical Destruction (1980) and Crime Pays (1981) were only ever released in very small quantities, and it was only when they finally got the money together to release an EP in April 1982 (There's No Government Like No Government) did they make the jump to a wider audience, the EP completely selling out within three weeks. A track from that EP, "Death to Humanity", was also included on the compilation album, Punk & Disorderly - Further Charges. All royalties from this release were donated to the ALF, and had the record company state exactly that on the cover. Two more EPs followed. August 1982 saw the release of "Destroy the Myth of Musical Destruction" and after many unfortunate delays, their third EP, "Blood on Your Hands?", finally came out in January 1984, however the bands line-up had disintergrated the year before.

In 1992, Dave Floyd put together a project named Mad Dog along with Pete Spence, also a former member of Riot/Clone. The band didn't last long, but due to feedback from the tape release, the Riot/Clone EPs were reissued along with a book detailing the band's history. This in turn led to the opportunity to record a new Riot/Clone album, and the band were reborn.

Still No Government Like no Government was released in the summer of 1995. It was a mixture of re-recorded material and some new songs. The CD contained forty tracks in all, and came bundled with a 142 page booklet. 1996 saw the release of this LP on double vinyl, with the original recordings of the EPs added on side four, but without the booklet.

In 1997 they released To Find a Little Bluebird, clothed in a bizarre cover. The albums music was probably the closest to 'hardcore punk' Riot/Clone ever achieved. The album was loosely themed around a short story that came printed on the lyric sheet of the blue vinyl release, and as a spoken word track on the CD. More line-up changes ensued, delaying further releases, until Do You Want Fries With That?, an explicit animal rights album with a cover picture of a dead cow's head. Many regard this as Riot/Clone's best album to date. 2004 saw the release of the final Riot/Clone EP, Mad Sheep Disease, on the Californian label Alternative Records.

Since reforming they played only a few UK shows, instead engaging in numerous tours of Europe and America. In May 2005, lead singer and founder member, Dave Floyd decided to move to America and so the band had to call it a day. All the band members carried on with new projects: Dave forming the band Wotnot and all the remaining members of Riot/Clone forming a new band, Refuse/All.

Discography

External Links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: