The City Riots look set to carry on the charge after a solid 2007 playing a heap of shows winning over fans on mass. This looks set to continue on an international scale after being invited to play The Great Escape in the UK in May plus some other shows in the UK and US as well. Ricky sounded excited about what the future whilst thinking about what to play at the Adelaide Uni O’Ball.
With all these great Adelaide bands doing great things at the moment do you think it is a little competitive? “I don’t think it is so much of a competitive thing,” Ricky thought. “It is a definitely healthy way to look at it from a music perspective rather than it being a competition. I think being a small town and everyone playing the same venues and everyone knows each other it’s more of a big friendship and a sense of comradery. Whenever we get offered a gig we usually get asked who we want to play with and there’s like a list of six or seven to choose from.”
Do you think 2008 will be your year? “That’s the plan,” Ricky believed. “It’s pretty tough and sometimes it’s like who knows what’s going to happen. In the last two weeks I can see a small smidgen of light at the end of the tunnel. Have you heard about the Great Escape thing in the UK?”
Say what? “We got asked to play that,” Ricky revealed. “I got the call the mobile last Thursday, which was a nice wake up call. Martin Elborn who books bands for festivals like Glastonbury was at our show. At the time I had no idea how influential he was in the UK until after we had a meeting with him. After he left I thought wow, this guy is a big deal. So, he was in town and saw us play and said ‘do you want to play The Great Escape.’ We said sure, that would be wonderful. Playing with bands like The Wombats, Automatic, The Subways and a heap of other cool bands.”
Did you know he was in the crowd? “I had an idea,” Ricky said. “When he spoke to us after the show he looked pretty under the weather or pretty drunk. I don’t know how much attention he was paying at the time. He liked our show and our songs, which was really cool.”
Are you looking to line up some more shows over there? “Yeah,” Ricky answered. “Martin has been super supportive organising a showcase in London for us. It’s like he puts this on and then tells his industry friends to come and check out this Adelaide band. It will be interesting to see what comes of that and the other two shows that are being booked as we speak. We’re also playing a festival called North By Northeast in Canada, which is well attended by industry people. It’s not quite as much of a rat race compared to South By Southwest.”
The City Riots join Former Child Stars, Mad Shapes and The Shiny Brights for an all-ages super-gig at The Gov on Friday April 11. Tickets $10 at the door from 7:30pm.
