Album Review: The Quireboys, "Bitter Sweet and Twisted"

It's been a long time coming but Bitter Sweet shows a maturity on its predecessor. Main difference being that it's more personal and passionate than A Bit Of What You Fancy. The heartfelt ramblings of "King of New York," "Last Time," and "Take No Revenge" go deeper, whilst the rolling funk of "Brother Louie" and the laid back swing of "Hates To Please" display more of that 'suitcase' spirit you'd now associate with Da Boys.

On the cuff, the party down, rock n' roll elements of Fancy show through in the stomping, good time boogie of "Tramps And Thieves," the streetwise swagger off "Don't Bite the Hand," "Debbie," and "My St Jude."

Fancy, though, with its numerous on-the-road anthems may have had the edge on the ole' ears, but Bitter Sweet, in time should prove its worth. Give yourselves 20 Marlboro and a double Scotch, and Bitter Sweet will work its remedy.

Grade B

Mark Crampton
Riff Raff
June 1993

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!