Re: The Riff and Riff Raff, offhand I think Rich "Kid" Biondi was the drummer, but I need to pull out my file of old, pre-Nordlie Alligator punk-scene stories and check the Riff article they ran in '84. Man, the Riff were totally despised by the real punk bands -- if you ever get your hands on old issues of "Destroy" magazine there's tons of stuff ragging on them. They were a spiritual forerunner of today's slick corporate "alternative" bands. Their earlier incarnation, Riff Raff, was actually a pretty decent band -- they did a lot of covers like Police, Blondie, Elvis Costello, etc. with a good two-guitar attack and real tightness. When second guitarist Kim Burdick left they started to get slicker.

Don't forget Gordon on guitar, I thought the second bassist was named Rich (after they threw out the dorky-looking guy), and the little guy on the drums whose name I will think of after another beer. Oh yeah, I think it was Rob. Kim was cool, she was later kicked out (I think) only to turn up as an Irritation later. She had a nice Marshall setup that we all would have killed for.

The Riff (or Riff Raff) was indeed despised by all true punks as a bunch of weenies. But they did have their crew of diehard fratboy fans and popularized the inane greeting of "tippies," a kinda sorta handshake which basically defined you as a lamo if a real punk saw you doing it. There also was their number one fan, "Scootch," who incarnated everything punks hated about new wave all in one neat, easily spat upon package. Riff Raff were, however, briefly the kings of Friday Night Live, at least until the Irritations came along. They did do a nice version of surrender and a passable version of "Walking on the Moon."

As much as I didn't really like The Riff I respected them immensely. When they covered a song it was beyond perfect with Gordon getting all the right sounds exactly. They did a battle of the bands show at the big room at great southern with the Vulgar Boatman and the Irritations (who also did a great job on covers). On that night they were almost bigger than life and there originals weren't bad at all.

Actually, you may want to update your records (like the musician to band link). "Kidd" was actually Rob Shaouy the drummer. The bass player for RiffRaff was originally a guy name Jim(but I think he went by the name of Fritz) and then was replaced when the band became The Riff by Steve, another close associate of the band. Jeff Haskell used to be biz manager for the band in those days.

Is this band still playing. How do you contact them?

To Don Cook: No the Riff ended a long time ago, in the 80's. General comments: Although they had far too many whitehat fans, these guys were a very solid band. Plus some of their covers were inspired, the one I remember in particular was of Sparks' "Happy Hunting Ground," which was absolutely perfect. I'll admit that when playing with the band I was in at the time, when we used to cover "Anarchy in the UK" I did used to change the lyric (from "it's all according, to what you want") to "It's all according to Margie and Gordon" (Margie being Gordon Jahnig's girlfriend at the time) in reference to their semi-royal status with certain frat types. But from what little I knew of them they were actually OK guys, once when I saw them at Friday Night Live and I got there very early, they invited me over to a house party a few doors down, which was pretty considerate since none of them knew me from Adam. BK