Riot was formed in 1975 in New York City, after Mark Reale and Pete Bitelli recruited Phil Feit and Guy Speranza. They got together and recorded a four-track demo, which they hoped was going to be part of a compilation of new rock bands.
They decided to take their demos to Billy Arnell and Steve Loeb, who owned Greene Street Recording Studio and the independent record label, Fire Sign Records. They ended up signing Riot, and they released “Rock City”.
The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement was just starting to emerge into the mainstream, and Neal Kaye brought attention to Riot in Britain.
This resulted in their British fans buying imported copies of “Rock City”. Shortly after this, their second album, “Narita” was released, and they went on tour with Sammy Hagar and they were the opening act.
Despite the high prospects of their record deal with Capitol who offered them a worldwide deal, once they finished touring with Sammy Hagar, Capitol dropped Riot. Arnell and Loeb spent the remaining money from the Capitol Records advance they were given to bring “Narita” to as many radio stations as possible, and this allowed Riot to gain a radio profile to the point that Capitol picked up their option for another Riot album to be created.
This decision led to the release of Riot's masterpiece, "Fire Down Under". Despite Capitol's high hopes for Riot, they considered “Fire Down Under” to be commercially unacceptable. This left Riot in a contractual limbo. Capitol wouldn’t release Riot from their contract. A campaign was then created by Arnell and Loeb along with the Riot fans, and they picketed EMI Records, especially in the U.K. This resulted in Elektra Records reaching an agreement with Capitol to release “Fire Down Under”, which then soared to the Billboard Top 100 chart.
Eventually, Guy Speranza stepped down from the role of vocalist, and Rhett Forrester stepped up. With Rhett, the next two Riot albums were released, 1982's “Restless Breed” and 1983's “Born In America”.
The reason that Riot disintegrated was due to the fact that Quiet Riot was a #1 selling act, and fans couldn’t tell the difference. Fans assumed that it was the same Riot but they changed their name. Things like this astound me because their album art was different from Quiet Riot. The band looked different than Quiet Riot. The music they made was different than Quiet Riot.
Many people know 1980s era Quiet Riot, but they were around in the late 1970s and Randy Rhoads was their guitarist before he worked with Ozzy Osbourne. It's ridiculous that someone would mix up two bands that are completely different over a word in the name of the band.
Riot faced numerous obstacles, and it never stopped them from moving forward.
Eventually, Riot was reformed, and they released another metal masterpiece that goes by the name of “Thundersteel”. They released many albums after this including The Privilege Of Power, Riot In Japan - Live!!, Nightbreaker, The Brethren Of The Long House,Inishmore, Shine On, Sons Of Society, Through The Storm, Army Of One and Immortal Soul.
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