Perfect Riot

Perfect Riot are one of the front-runners of the Blackpool punk scene. This four piece are one of the most uncompromising, outspoken and committed bands we have come across in our time at the radio station (and as music fans in general). A powerful live force - Perfect Riot are one of a kind and Moonlight Radio are proud to present their latest EP "Emerald City in Ruins" playing in our Listen Live section. The tracks are: Fall, Be The End, This Descent, and Wanna Die Happy.

In their own words, introducing Perfect Riot -

Perfect Riot were formed in late October 2002 in the miserable seaside town of Blackpool, Lancashire - once a major tourist attraction but now a dirty sprawling testament to what happens when you invest all your money in a tourist public that has long since discovered cheap flights to Spain. The grey streets, lack of enjoyable nightlife and seemingly endless number of drug addicts in search of spare change provided a perfect backdrop for the band's despondent, angry, socially conscious music.

The band are unique because they tackle subjects most aren't aware of or don't mention. Unashamedly outspoken, issues tackled in their songs range from American imperialism to Irish republicanism, racism in Britain and the simple feeling of loneliness in everyday life, or the escape found through alcohol.

A mixture of viewpoint and personal experience make up the majority of the band's lyrics, and despite a number of line up changes over a course of time the band, perhaps now more than ever, are producing mood altering, communicative music that is both accessible and catchy.

Having built up a wealth of experience gigging across the North West and with limited experience towards the East coast, the band will continue to branch out to a wider audience.

Provocative, powerful, proud and with the essential touch of arrogance, Perfect Riot are a band continuing to write their story with the intention of imprinting it on the mind of the nation.

Perfect Riot are:

Rob van Riot - vocals/lyrics

Tom Gregson - guitars

Laura Nolan - bass

Luke Graham - drums

Here is some info on the "Emerald City in Ruins" EP.

Release date: September 2004
Track listing: Fall, Be The End, This Descent, Wanna Die Happy
Availability: From this website, from the band at any gig, from the band by post if requested, from several other websites.
Description: Superior recording quality and a finer, more mature lyrical and musical style give this EP a wide and varied appeal. Powerful melodic hard rock - the band finding themselves at a new peak, and improving all the time.

Previous EPs include - Substitute for Conversation (Feb 03), Testament to Futility (August 2003) and This is a Riot - Live CD (Summer 2003) - ultra rare.

As a final treat for Moonlight fans, here are the lyrics printed in their glory!

Fall

Said "forget it" in a whisper
As I walked away from my home
I've seen enough of love in silence
Enough of staying together by habit
An undertaker in the mirror
Tight skin on bone, eyes a shadow
Towards the darkness of a high rise
Look down on skinheads and young fake lesbians

This isn't working, I'm empty to all intent
Can't sleep for pressure, for pain, for intelligence
I'm looking over the edge

Eyes closed in the moonlight
A blissful end to uncertainty
Even your most tender words
Turn into heat that blisters me

This isn't working, I'm empty to all intent
Can't sleep for pressure, for pain, for intelligence
I'm looking over the edge

Air beneath my feet.

Be The End

Give me something to aim for
Give me Hiroshima mentality
Believe in something to live for
Believe that something can change an empty rage

Holidays or weekend breaks away
Find another way to pass the time
From London Docklands to Falcarragh
Protestant or Catholic bombs

Sometimes I wish I had a gun
Some nights I pray for a nuclear bomb
I am war, I'm the chosen one
I'll be the end of everyone

Bradford, Oldham, Burnley, Preston
Make immigrants an enemy
Northern towns forgotten by London
Beneath the shadow of the BNP

Sometimes I wish I had a gun
Some nights I pray for a nuclear bomb
I am war, I'm the chosen one
I'll be the end of everyone

Shave your head, you're so very primal
This is not your En-ger-land
You eat kebabs, wear clothes by GAP
This is not your En-ger-land
This is not your En-ger-land

This Descent

Look in my eyes, I'm fractured
Falling apart way past dawn
Lost forever in tatters
All my chances spent, can't stop this descent

In here we drink to escape
Out there they drink to forget
Can't feel, can't see, can't taste
You seem so heaven sent, can't stop this descent

I don't believe in it
I don't believe in anything
So bored, so tired, so cynical
All youth need to escape

We're adrift in anarchy
We lost the trust of the 60s
We live so lonely divided
Forget what love meant, I can't stop this descent

I'm burning up in fragments
You're wasting time in a ghost town
My shaking hands can't reach you
One priceless moment cannot stop this descent

I don't believe in it
I don't believe in anything
So bored, so tired, so cynical
All youth need to escape
Need to stop this descent.

Wanna Die Happy

Time just burns and makes me bitter
Stop your struggling and down
Cannot function or speak I'm..
Lonely in a crowd

Stuck on this I feel so worthless
Bittersweet recall
Pills to help me sleep or wake up
No comfort here at all

Silent tears and silent screams
Broken lives and broken dreams
Years of misery with no end in sight
I wanna die happy so kill me tonight

Emerald city in ruins
Summer only in my mind
Dead flowers, forgotten headstone
Wish I could die on demand

This skin is cold to the touch
A lifeless hand held in my own
Bleeding dry, there's no salvation
In a world that you disowned

Silent tears and silent screams
Broken lives an broken dreams
Years of misery with no end in sight
I wanna die happy, so kill me tonight

Don't let them change a thing about you
Don't let them say a thing about me

Silent tears and silent screams
Broken lives and broken dreams
Years of misery with no end in sight
I wanna die happy, so kill me tonight