Feature: Bands that time forgot…RIVER CITY PEOPLE

River City People

River City People consisted of two brothers Tim and Paul Speed (guitars and drums respectively)and Dave Snell (bass) who in 1987 were all studying at Liverpool Polytechnic. Vocalist Siobhan Maher had previously worked with Snell in a band called Peep Show and had also achieved some fame as a TV presenter in the mid-eighties. The band’s break came in 1989 when they received funding from the pop programme ‘The Chart Show’ to make a video and were subsequently signed to EMI.

The band’s debut album (producd by Don Gehman who had worked with REM) was perhaps out of its time; had it been released ten years earlier on the heels of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’, it may have fared better.

Although the band’s melodic style owed something to other great stylists (for example U2 and Simple Minds in addition to Mac), they were in the grand tradition of pop-rock mainstream with some killer hooks, riffs and melodies. A cover of ‘California Dreamin’ only served to further their pop credibility and actually achieved a UK Top 20 slot when released as a single.

Sadly, after releasing the “difficult” second album in October 1991 internal bitching about the direction of the band led to an impasse and they were dropped the following year by EMI.

GRTR! scribe Pete Whalley was an early proponent of the band and saw them performing at Liverpool Polytechnic in 1989 and later with Fleetwood Mac on that band’s UK dates in August 1990. This scribe caught up with them at Liverpool Poly when promoting their second album in October 1991, a fantastic gig with a particularly good version of ‘Driver’. Later that same month we also attended an in-store signing at the HMV store in Liverpool when I was surprised to learn that drummer Paul Speed had a big hand in the songwriting.

Maher found short-lived work with ex-Bangles drummer Debbi Peterson under the name of Kindred Spirit whilst the Speed brothers returned to the ‘Pool. They later surfaced in a band appropriately named Speed who released one low key independent album in 1998. Dave Snell went into band management.

Siobhan Maher, married briefly to Snell, subsequently sought her fortune in the States and, newly-married to top Nashville producer Ray Kennedy, released an excellent solo album in March 2002.

EMI planned to release a compilation with bonus (unreleased) material but this only seems to have got to promo stage and was never commercially available.

Recommended albums
Say Something Good (reissued version includes the single, California Dreamin’)
(EMI CDP 7 94838 2)

Worth investigating:
Siobhan Maher-Kennedy The Immigrant Flower (2002)
(Gravity 74321922952)

2020 Vision - Rock. Reviewed. Revisited.

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Power Plays w/c 28 October 2024

THE RASMUS Rest In Pieces (Better Noise Music)
THE PLAGUE What Else Can I Do (FiXT)
STAR CIRCUS Turn The Tide (indie)
DEFENCES Breathe It In (Long Branch Records)

Featured Albums w/c 28 October 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023 (Singer Songwriter)