Tuesday 5 August 2014

Rikki and the Last Days Of Earth - City Of The Damned

This was Rikki and the last Days Of Earth's second single. released on DJM records at the end of 1977. This donation came from two different people nearly at the same time, so a thanks to Andre Ijsselstijn for the rip and a thanks again to PaulSpizzle (again) for another rip and the cover pictures.

'City of the Damned' sounds like the early John Foxx incarnation of Ultravox!. Rikki's vocal are a little theatrical (listen to their third single 'Loaded' on ASFM). but I like it. The b-side 'Victimized' is not as good as the a-side, but it's still not bad.

So leave a comment and tell ASFm what you think and also leave a thanks you to Andre and Paul.

Band: Rikki and the Last Days of Earth
Label: DJM
Year: 1977
Tracks:
1. City Of The Damned
2. Victimized

Ripped from Andre's glorious scratched vinyl:

14 comments:

45 Revolutions said...

This band suffered from some particularly bad artwork, and their records were cheapo-bin staples at the time: no-one took them seriously.
I don't think we were wrong!

JamesTrash said...

I've got a soft spot for their version of "Street Fighting Man", but then that was a good song already. "City Of The Damned" is OK-ish, but the LP is pretty miserable stuff. Steve's right about the artwork, the same design over 2 singles and an album (and a dodgy design at that) is just lazy.

Punkzer0 said...

Hi James and Steve, I'm with both of you on the lazy artwork, as I said in the posting I like Loaded, Street Fighting Man and City Of The Damned, but that's it for me.

arstider said...

Hello again

Thanks a lot for this one.
I have always loved this single.
Never heard the LP anyone know
where to find it ?

Best wishes from Sweden

45 Revolutions said...

Arstider, I have one for sale!:
www.lowdownkids.com

Might be worth keeping an eye on eBay for a cheaper copy though, cos there would've been plenty of these around back in the day...

Anonymous said...

yeah, this is what happens when your bands has no original ideas and is just ripping ideas off of other bands. "City Of The Damned" is soooooooooo bad, such a horrible John Foxx-era Ultravox attempt. And in "Victimzed" he sounds a bit like Jello from DK but it still sucks.

It seems they worked more on the stage image than the actual music and production. I guess they just wanted some chicks and kicks.

Anonymous said...

It's still not as bad as the music on Bad Relegion's lost "new wave" album..."beyond the earth" or whatever that piece of shit was titled. You know the 1982 album they deleted from the catalog.

otto

Punkzer0 said...

You know even though they have copied other bands styles, I still like it

Anonymous said...

Bad News: Rikki Sylvan, the singer of that band, passed away, as Steve Wilkinson wrote in his homepage http://www.dharmajester.com/rikki_sylvan.html

Punkzer0 said...

That's sad news, he can't of been very old.

Anonymous said...

is it me or does the track Victimized sound alot like jello biafra ,dead kennedys was inspired by the vocals of this band hehe

Punkzer0 said...

Hi anon, I know where your coming from, but I bet Jello has never heard of this band. :-)

Anonymous said...

I'm certain Rikky & Co. had an album as I recall because there's a tune about my hometown on it :)

Amsterdam, that is.

Not sure if these guys should be classified as "fake punker bandwagon jumping Brits who, however made a great album" such as the DEPRESSIONS, SUBURBAN STUDS et al.

Punkzer0 said...

Hi Tony, they definitely do have an album (which I don;t have, check out some of the earlier comments and you will see it mentioned.

and yep a lot of people would classify them as fake punks, but as I always say, if you like the song, who cares.