Artist Spotlight: The Riff
When we started the Swansea Music Hub at the end of the first Swansea Fringe Festival, one of my highlights was watching a band (play Cinema & Co on the Horizons stage) that I’d heard so much about but never seen - The Riff. The hype lived up to my expectation & some.
The Riff have, over the years, become somewhat fundamental to the Swansea Music Scene, and we’re gutted that the boys have decided to call it day, culminating in one final performance at The Bunkhouse this Friday.
There will be a big hole left in the city shaped like the riff.
With that being said, we wanted to commemorate the band with some of the key highlights of their career as a band.
The band are made up of Ben (Vocals / Guitar), Tommy (Drums / Vocals), Chris (Bass) and Sam (Keys) and have paved the way for indie/rock bands in the city, taking influence from bands like The Who, Stone Roses, The Strokes & Stereophonics.
After doing a deep dive on their Facebook page, it looks like the first gigs the boys played were on 3 consecutive Saturdays in three different pubs in October 2012: the Tredegar Arms in Sandfields, The Railway Inn in Landore and The Red Lion in Port Talbot.
The band were main support for The Sherlocks, when they stopped by Swansea to play The Lemon Factory in March 2015 and between their first gigs in 2012 to then, it’s clear to see how hard working the band are, they were gigging so much!
The boys released their first EP ‘Take One’ in 2015, supported Tom Hingley (ex Inspiral Carpets frontman) at The Vault and played their first gig in Sin City, supporting The Marks Cartel in August 2015.
2016 proved to be a big year for the band - again leading to their next landmark gig, the boys were working crazy hard, gigging so much around the city, leading up to a headline show in Cardiff’s Undertone as part of Independent Week in the first week of the year.
Coinciding with a headline show at The Scene in May 2016, their first landmark single ‘Jezebel’ was released and the track captured everything that The Riff are about - powerful, stomping, grooving and a force within the Swansea music scene.
In the summer of 2016, the boys worked at Monnow Valley Studios and then went on to support Trampolene when they played a storming show at The Scene in September 2016. In between, once again, the boys were playing tirelessly most weeks. Then to cap off a year where the band were making waves in South Wales as a whole, the boys headlined Clwb Ifor Bach in December.
In 2017, they kicked the year off with a co-headline show in The Vault alongside The Hangmen (The Zinvandels) and when The Sherlocks came back to play Sin City they once again supported them. Their second single ‘Show Me’ recorded at Monnow Valley was released in April - listen here.
In the summer the boys sold out another hometown headline show in The Pit and then released their third single ‘Weekend Schemes’.
In the lead up to releasing their third single of the year, Nothing Lasts Forever, the boys toured the UK extensively. When we planned our stage with Horizons for their takeover of Cinema & Co for the first Swansea Fringe Festival, it was impossible to ignore the impact that the band had on the city’s music scene, so we made sure that they were on the bill for the Friday night.
The band played a big part in the inception of the Swansea Music Hub - they were incredibly supportive, played our launch at Cinema & Co in December and always provided friendly approachable faces to chat all things music in Swansea.
In 2018, the boys announced a huge headline show in Sin City and packed it out with support from Pastel and Violet Walk. What followed was another very busy year, with gigs in Spain, Radio One’s Biggest Weekend, Liverpool, Bala, Tenby, Llanelli, Nibley Music Festival, Welsh Fest, Pontypridd & beyond. Later in the year the boys did a short run of shows with The Spitfires and announced another headline show at the Bunkhouse to close their year (which sold out).
In their final year as a band, the boys have released their final single Lonely, played a 9 date UK tour, including ANOTHER sold out headline show at The Bunkhouse in May.
And after final appearances at The Swansea Fringe Festival this year and Shiny Vinyl’s Face Value festival in Port Talbot, the boys are calling it a day, and are going out with a bang at The Bunkhouse this Friday. If after reading all this you don’t want to be there, you’re mad. And going off the trend of their last two sold old Bunkhouse shows, you should be quick to get a ticket!!
Big love to The Riff. You’ll be sorely missed by all of us here at The Swansea Music Hub and the whole Swansea music community.
Written by Simon Parton