SOUTHALL RIOT started at about the same time as 1998. PHILM RIOT and STUART THOMPSON joined 4-tracks and between March and August recorded the 'INTO THE CHICAGO ABYSS' EP which they released on their own VICTORY GARDEN label on 3rd Sep 1998.

Whew, I mean , lot's more than that happened in those first few months, but we're sticking to detail here, no rambling off into the ethereal netherworlds of loose chit-chat or makeweight stocking filler type Sunday newspaper journalism. Nope, we, us and you, are here for pure, simple, hard FACT.

'CHICAGO' did well, gaining some excellent reviews and selling around 150 copies in its first month, and leading to a frenzied and undignified race of sharpsuited corporate A&R men at our door, clutching many leafed legally indecipherable contracts, offering money, sex and cocaine in return for our signature and lives.

VICTORY GARDEN's second release soon put paid to all that nonsense. LUGHNASA, a collaboration in collision between ubernoisenik ANSUZ LÚNASA and PHILM RIOT led to the messianic soundmeld of 'PSYCHEDELIC PEST CONTROL' being unleashed on a less than ready public.

But only as an edition of 20. And only on 8-track cartridge.

Next up came VG04. London based writer KIRK LAKE entered a recording studio in November 1998 and recorded '(THE SUM OF THE PARTS) IS GREATER THAN THE WHOLE', which he then cu...oh, look, I won't give it away, send an unused 1st class stamp to the VG address and you'll find out yerslef. Surprise is the 215 element was an early motto of ours.

VG03 appeared Feb 99. SOUTHALL RIOT-'IT's SCIENCE vs THE WORLD !'. As with VG01 this was a 7" vinyl EP edition of 500 or so, and again seemed to go down well with the sort of people who dig that kinda thing, including DOMINIC EARWORM, proprietor of seminal EARWORM records, who decided to invest the money he'd saved for a four week fact finding mission in IBIZA in a summer of SRIOT output instead. This is how it came out:

Two songs, 'HOW FLIES SURVIVE THE RAIN' and 'FIREWORKS FOR THE EARWORM', on the 2 CD compilation 'TELLTALE SIGNS OF EARWORM'. One song, 'WARP IN MY DREAMS', on a split 7" with the band GEORGE. One side of a split LP, RIOTside titled 'THE DAY OF APOLLO STEVE', with MAGNETIC NORTH POLE. Catalogue number-wise, these are WORM43, WORM44, and WORMSS6 respectively.

While all this was happening, almost while our backs were turned, ANSUZ LUNASA snuck out VG05, 'AQUEOUS HUMOUR', an edition of 80 tectonically shifted CDs. These have possibly all sold out, but have you ever tried talking to ANSUZ? We try believe me, but every now and again analogies with heads and brickwalls are the only descriptive term usable-phone for availablity, as it says here.

'QUALITY GOODS EP' became VG06 when in Nov 99, SRIOT finally got it back from the clutches of our (ex) pressing plant. This is widely considered the best yet, though this is an opinion put forward by someone with a vested interest in shifting the last 63 copies. This release folowed hot on the heels of the RIOT's first ever live show, first on the bill on an EARWORM night in London, a line-up that also included THE MINDERS, TANK, and MA CHERIE FOR PAINTING. Boy, did we have fun!!

VG07? A t-shirt. VG logo underlined by VG07. Simple, effective and a mere £6 including P&P from VG.

Swiftly on, VG08. This is going to be a KIRK LAKE talking book thang. We have bits of this; it's like KIRK is sending us a bit at a time like some early 70's art terrorist who's expecting a £50,000,000 ransom for some priceless Monet that was heisted for a swish Parisian gallery and is now languishing in a Swiss cellar attracting the attention of a whole host of unseemly underworld gangster types - something like that. We had hoped to see it last November. It includes people like FUXA, SONIC BOOM, SUPER J LOUNGE, JAMIE OWEN, ANSUZ LÚNASA and the like. Maybe by the time you read this it'll be there waitning, like a shiny new penny in a motorway lay-by.

However, the latest, most current VICTORY GARDEN RELEASE is indisputably our most historic yet. For, by the GRACE and DILLIGENCE of the VICTORY GARDEN team, we can bring YOU, the mighty consumer, the chance in partaking in one of the most epochal events to shake terra firma musicana since someone strung some cheesewire accross and old floorboard, plucked it, and thought "Hey, This needs echo!".

VG09='SUNHEAD'

Clippings from the eclipse August 99 30 minutes 3 seconds RIOT/LUNASA more sound per pound than gravity can evoke in the twenty toppermost layers of Jupiter's stratosphere yeah-IO/LUNA the smallest things make the biggest difference, the inference is interference.

Originally escaped as the last 8-track cartridge release of the 20th century, comin' your way VSOON as CDEP. Stay tuned, if yer radio's up to it (VHF ONLY).

23/2/00