Revenge of Riff Raff

Live Review: Monster Magnet, Koko's London, 25th November, 2011

December 11, 2011 Add Comment Edit

The atmosphere is positively jovial tonight; I keep bumping into smiling strangers saying 'hallo!' a lot. How lovely. This kind of ...

Album Review, Aerosmith, "Get A Grip"

December 09, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Three songs in this album don't look too promising. Good by most bands' standards, average by Aerosmith's, despite their distinc...

Revenge Recommends: "Destroyer of the Universe" by Amon Amarth

November 29, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Amon Amarth are a legendary Swedish melodic death metal band whose lyrics, sung in a guttural death grunt by giant frontman Johan Hegg...

Album Review, Soundgarden, "Badmotorfinger"

November 28, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Seattle's premier sub-poppers go one step beyond Louder Than Love with an album that is sure to elevate them higher and open up a wider...

Album Review, Lita Ford, "Dangerous Curves"

November 27, 2011 Add Comment Edit

After an absence of almost two years raunchy Rock Goddess LITA FORD returns with this, her third solo album since departing the ranks of gir...

Preview: Children of Bodom

November 20, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Death metal band with some unlikely covers Taking their moniker from the lakeside location of an infamous murder in their native Finl...

Album Review: Air "10,000 Hz Legend"

November 14, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Music originally started as sound representation of visual reality. Approaching Air's new album, 10,000 Hz Legend in these terms,...

Revenge Recommends: "Take Me To The Otherside" by Mechanical Smile

November 14, 2011 Add Comment Edit

The valley of the River Irvine in central Ayrshire is a minor hotbed of rock talent, having already produced World-beaters Biffy Clyr...

Photo: Mike McColgan, Street Dogs

November 11, 2011 Add Comment Edit

The original singer of the Dropkick Murphys, Mike McColgan on stage at Liquid Room, Tokyo, with his new band The Street Dogs. Like the ...

Live Review: Michie Koyama,Saitama Bunka Centre, 16th Oct, 2011

November 09, 2011 Add Comment Edit

I guess it's the T-shirt factor. When an audience shows up dressed in baggy shorts, flip flops and other attire more suited for a da...

Riff Raff II

November 06, 2011 Add Comment Edit

The second issue of Riff Raff hit the newstands in January 1990 with Jon Bon Jovi on the cover. Editorial was by Mark Crampton, Mark L...

Live Video: Cathedral at Quattro Shibuya, Tokyo

November 05, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Cathedral live at Quattro Shibuya on the 20th of April, 2011. Live Report . Video: Colin Liddell

Preview: Ringing World

November 05, 2011 Add Comment Edit

RINGING WORLD are a Scottish band based in London. The four-piece are fronted by singer/ guitarist Robert Farrell. They are attracting maj...

Album Review, Lou Reed & Metallica, "Lulu"

October 31, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Not bad just different, so the mantra goes, but basically Lulu sounds like Metallica wanting to emulate The Who, Pink Floyd, and other ...

Revenge Recommends: "Being A Dickhead's Cool" by The Grand Spectacular

October 28, 2011 Add Comment Edit

This witty song is by the obscure outfit, The Grand Spectacular. Not much is known about them except that they possibly come from Cambri...

Interview: Alice Cooper

October 25, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Social Stoopidity You'd think dragging Alice Cooper out of rehearsals in order to obtain an interview would be a dodgy move, ...

Video Review: AC/DC, "Clipped"

October 23, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Ah...and now for a little pre-Donington taster. It's the loudest rock n' roll band on the planet (Heavy Metal!? My dog's ass...

Revenge Recommends: "Shipping Steel" by Cold Chisel

October 19, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Shipping Steel is a classic track by Australian hard rockers Cold Chisel from their 1979 album Breakfast at Sweethearts . The song is...

Photo: Billy Duffy, The Cult

October 15, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Guitar hero and David Beckham lookalike Billy Duffy of the Cult in action at Studio Coast, Tokyo, 14th of May, 2010. Colin Liddell Re...

Revenge Recommends: "Grendel" by Marillion

October 06, 2011 Add Comment Edit

The best progressive rock bands can hardly lie content with simple subject matter. Their musical dexterity and munificence require muc...

Album Review, Simple Minds, "Graffiti Soul"

October 04, 2011 Add Comment Edit

This is the sound of the New Wave rock legends emerging from the shadows with a re-energized and sparkling cluster of sophisticated rock...

Album Review: Journey, "Eclipse"

October 01, 2011 Add Comment Edit

With the belated success of Don't Stop Believing , Arnel Pineda is always going to be fighting an uphill battle to step out of Steve Pe...

Revenge Recommends: "I'll Bite Your Face Off" by Alice Cooper

September 30, 2011 Add Comment Edit

One of the tracks from Alice Cooper's new album Welcome 2 My Nightmare . This has a skanky, Rolling Stones feel, and plays on the ...

Live Review: Blind Melon, Milton Keynes Bowl, 29th May, 1993

September 21, 2011 Add Comment Edit

I like Blind Melon. Their debut album isn't so much about distinctive songs. It's more about a free-flowing vibe; a superior sort o...

Video Review: AC/DC, "Live at River Plate"

September 15, 2011 Add Comment Edit

When you're AC/DC, making a new studio album is not something you take lightly. You just know it's gonna be massive all round t...

Preview: The Who, Japan, 2008

September 14, 2011 Add Comment Edit

It's surprising. Japan is a country that loves rock legends, but for the Who – a group often mentioned in the same breath as the ...

Album Review: Baby Animals, "Baby Animals"

September 10, 2011 Add Comment Edit

"Fame is notorious for causing stress." So the lyric goes on Rush You , the opening blast on BABY ANIMALS’ self-titled debut albu...

Interview: Nigel Mogg, The Quireboys

September 09, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Time to Party… Those rollicking rock n' roll merchants THE QUIREBOYS have indeed made their mark on the British rock scene this y...

Art: Tribute to Amy Winehouse

September 08, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Whatever her merits and demerits as a singer and a human being, Amy Winehouse was a truly iconic figure and will be sadly missed. Foll...

Interview: Mark Knight, Bang Tango

August 26, 2011 Add Comment Edit

Dancin’ to a Different Tune With their first two releases, Live Injection , on the independent World of Hurt Records and Psycho Café , the...

Revenge...?

Riff Raff was a legendary rock magazine based in London in the late 1980s and 1990s. Edited by the ultimate music biz insider, Mark Crampton, and employing such talents as Mark Blake, Jerry Ewing, Mike Harris, Paul Smith, Chris Collingwood, Alan McCrorie, Simon Robinson, Lyn Guy, Anna Marx, Nick Douglas, Marion Garden, Peter "Grunty" Grant, Joe "The Crow" Mackett, Billy "The Kluck" Kulke, and, lastest and mostest, the incredible Liddell Brothers, Mark (a.k.a. "El Perro") and Colin (a.k.a. "Der Fly"). Unfortunately, Riff Raff was just too R n' R for its own good. A genuine working class rock mag, written, edited, and translated into 16 European languages in a drug-N-Jack-D-fuelled haze, often on the back of motorbikes, with spell checking by our staff of attentive rock bimbos (chosen purely for their blondeness and big knockers), it soon fell behind more trainspotterly, nerdish, and politically correct publications like Q, Kerrang, Mojo, Metal Hammer, and Horse & Hound. This website is an archive and kind of shrine dedicated to the writing of its greatest writers, some of whom, luckily for the Rock Kosmos, still continue to write about music. This is the REVENGE of Riff Raff...Rock on!