"Careless Talk Costs Lives" - Issue 3
Live review of 9th May performance at "Fun City" by Timothy Mark Chipping

"Riviera F follow the rules. Like all the best groups they were imagined rather than formed. Their first song has already started without them. Etienne (French) saunters on and makes a gesture toward miming his keyboard part. His suit looks to have been the victim of a jealous lover's scissors. It is a sawn-off suit. His British counterpart Logan resembles the Seventies idea of 21st Century man. Russian Alexa barely sings. Effortless and cold as war; she is hoping to be paid just for being there. Kairo (Dutch) makes her own clothes with a staple gun instead of stitches. She is unattainably beautiful... Riviera F are not too aloof to write hits: "Dance Alone" belongs on a John Hughes soundtrack, its DX7 solo underscoring the part where Molly Ringwald cries. "Lya Taboo" is accompanied by a routine recalling Adam West's Batusi, but performed by the Red Army. Synchronisation is everything. When Riviera F deliver their Nick Rhodes produced demo there's no reason it won't be embraced by the same kids woken out of a pop stupor by tATu. Pop is crying out for a group who know what they're doing. Riviera F know exactly what they're doing."