History
The band was formed in November 1976 by Rikki Sylvan (whose real name was Nicholas Condron) (vocals) and Valac Van Der Veene (guitars), joined shortly afterwords by Nik Weiss (keyboards), Andy Prince (also called Andy Prinz) (bass) and a drummer called Nigel Bartle. In May 1977, Bartle was replaced by Hugh Inge-Innes Lillingston.
Although the band seemed to be working-class (a stereotypical characteristic for a punk musician), they had a middle-class (or even upper-class) upbringing. Sylvan lived in Kensington and went to public school; Prince lived with his parents in Addlestone; Weiss went to public school; and Inge-Innes Lillingstone lived in Thorpe Hall, near Tamworth, was the son of a Lieutenant Commander, and attended Eton School.
The band's official live concert debut was at "The Man In The Moon" in Chelsea, on May 28, 1977.
A single called Oundle RocSoc (early versions of City Of The Damned and Dorian Gray) was recorded at Tin Pan Alley studio and released in May 1977. In the late summer of 1977 the band signed with DJM Records, and a new, re-recorded version of City Of The Damned was released as a single in November.
In January 1978, the band released the single Loaded (backed with a cover of the Rolling Stones' song Street Fighting Man). Later, in May, Twilight Jack was released as a single, but failed to chart. Shortly afterwords, they released their 4 Minute Warning album, which according to one critic was "roundly ignored". While the band were recording a second album at the CBS studio in London, they were dropped by DJM and split up shortly after. Their records generally received bad reviews in the British press.
Later, Sylvan mixed Gary Numan's albums Replicas, with Numan's previous band Tubeway Army, and The Pleasure Principle. He also released a solo album "The Silent Hours", and then formed a band called 3AM with Steve Wilkin (guitar) and Derek Quinton (drums), both ex-members of Neo. Van Der Veene became a journalist, interviewing New Wave icons. Prince went to work with Random Hold, but also worked with his ex-bandmate Sylvan in the 1980s.
Stylistically Rikki and the Last Days of Earth can be grouped with the earliest incarnation of Ultravox, circa their debut Ultravox! album, which was released in February 1977. Other features of the band's sound, such as dramatic Goth vocals and heavy guitars, can be stylistically linked to the Long Beach, California band T.S.O.L..
The band were managed by Frank Case.
Read more about this topic: Rikki And The Last Days Of Earth
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