The Rivals - First Ever Sessions CD review

The Rivals, First Ever Session 78 & Demos. 1977 Records (link)

Having had a very worn out tape of The Rivals for years, i was looking forward to getting this CD. The previous CD "If Only" puts together all the best known Rivals tracks and has been in my player for ages so was really excited when this dropped thru the letter box.

So what we have is a collection of twelve tracks which show The Rivals at their best and rawest. the first seven tracks compromise the Session 78 part of this CD compilation.
Two Of the tracks, live favourites Bastard Blues and American Faces are vastly different versions than appeared on "If Only". Paul singing Bastard Blues instead of Mark, with a sneering dont care attitude that epitomised what punk was all about. Superb.
The CD opens with Outward Bound and its long instrumental begining which was quite novel for a punk band at the time. Marks unique guitar style cutting thru most of the track and quite an excellent intro showing what good musicians The Rivals realy were
Waiting For The Dead was a title i didn't know but soon realised that it had a different title on the tape i had where it was called Good Friends. Next the aforementioned American Faces swiftly followed by Evil Place which i feel was missing from If Only.
Following Bastard Blues is Saturdays Anthem with its huge triple guitar onslaught at the begining and dual vocal throughout followed swiftly by Never Sixteen, teenage angst spread all over it.
The next 5 tracks are from the original demo tape the exceedingly rare Fatal Strips cassette. The track listing here is slightly misleading as track eleven is listed on the cover as Hideaway (the correct title) but listed on the CD as Happy Days (and listed on my tape as Just A Game).
The wonderfully childish Schooldays is on here complete with hilariously childish intro as is the equally childish Roll Over Mary Whitehouse.
Essential listening and nice to hear the tracks without the tape hiss, wow and flutter

I dont know if this CD is available in the Uk or even Europe - my copy came from Japan with a free Rivals badge of the front cover.

Bloody expensive for 32 minutes but a must have for any Rivals fans out there.

Note to The Rivals.
If there are any more unearthed Rivals gems you may want to get out there please dont opt for a Japan only release. Get in touch and im sure we can do something.

Live Rivals would be excellent

A Bunch Of Kents - Volume 1 - Podcast

A Bunch Of Kents is the first in what will be an on-going series of podcasts from Urban Fallout featuring Punk/Alternative bands from Kent.
The first couple of podcasts will be music only and about the length of a good punk set - about 45 mins.
Later on we will be putting interviews in with the music as well as adverts for punk gigs in Kent. So if you got anything to say or want an audio advert get in touch.

Onto the music - if we stuck to decently recorded songs of Kent bands we would get to about volume 2 and run out, so we thought sod that, there is so much good punk / alt music in Kent that its a shame that a lot of it doesnt get heard, so we are going to change that.
You will find well recorded CD tracks along with dodgy bedroom tapes and just about listenable live recordings as these are the only things left of some of the best bands the world has never heard.
We tried to improve the quality a bit on some of them to make them more listenable, but you will find a fair amount of hiss on some of the tracks which have been ripped from Demo tapes and live recordings, we also have some extremely rare, unreleased and in some cases unheard music from the best and the worst bands - in other words A Bunch Of Kents

Track Listing (demo / live tracks noted)
(Download link below or click post title)

1. The Rivals - The Feeling Starts Here
2. Anthrax - Exploitation
3. Naked - Alien
4. All Flags Burn - Heart Of A Riot
5. S.O.R.B - Inside Out
6. Apunkalypse Now - Wasted (Unreleased Demo)
7. The Last resort - Cockleshell Heroes
8. Razor Sharp - Johnny Temple (Unreleased Demo)
9. Decades Of Pleasure - Creeping Paranoia (Unreleased Demo)
10. Curse In Vain - Klling Moon (Unreleased Demo)
11. Epidemic - Your Mistake (Demo)
12. Jesus Fix - Forever (Demo)
13. Crimewave - You Make My Piss Boil (Demo)
14. Surgery Without Research - Squaddie
15. Belinda Carbuncle - Kevs Unfortunate Encounter
16. The Twits - Liar Liar (Unreleased Demo)
17. Ignerents - Wrong Place, WrongTime
18. Wasteland - Leave Me Alone

DOWNLOAD


Another podcast coming soon - If you have any tracks you want included or got something to say about the Kent punk/alt scene in general then please get in contact.
If anyone has any better or alternative versions of any of the tracks here, then again contact us coz we would lke to feature them in the podcasts.

Thanks for this cast go to: John Wood & Chris Hogg (Jesus Fix) and Nob (The Twits) who came up with the title for the podcast.

The Rivals - Rose Of England

First of a few posts today.
The Rivals were one of the best Kent Punk bands ever, who infamously turned down a support slot to The Clash and were denied a Top Of The Pops appearance with "Here Comes The Night" because of a technician strike and split up soon after.
This song was covered by The Last Resort on their debut album "Skinhead Anthems - A Way Of Life"
Band members later went on to play with The Thoughts/Naughty Thoughts, The Gems, Decades Of Pleasure, The Resort, Heavy Metal Outlaws, Anti Nowhere League, Brand New Heavies and Leftfield

Rose Of England was never released originally but is available on the "If Only" Cd
Bin Liner | RUBBISHCD 007
Record Collector Review Here

More on The Rivals when the website is up and running.