Richard Lloyd: The Radiant Monkey

Richard Lloyd, 1977 at the Whisky A Go Go - I didn't know it at the time, but I had the measles when I snapped that! I woke up a couple days later covered in spots.

Back then, aside from their blistering performances as a band, and as stand-out individual musicians, one couldn't get a sense of what any of the members of Television were capable of.

They were aloof, staring at the ceiling, their feet, their instruments, or gazing into space. Musically, no one could compare. When both Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd started making solo records, you realized that the difference in their styles and approaches to music is what gave the band both its friction and it unique style that blended the disparate styles of two distinct and stellar guitar players into a magical music combination.

Richard Lloyd is a rock n roller, a ferocious defender of the riff and one of its best practitioners. You could hear it back in punk rock days when Television covered classic rock songs like the Rolling Stones' Satisfaction. Richard also released a great single covering the Stones Connection.

Richard Lloyd has just released a NEW solo album - Radiant Monkey - on Parasol.

The music combines the best of what makes Richard Lloyd the kind of musician he his - chunky rock n roll riffs that invoke your best rock n roll memories - many of which Richard was responsible for creating over the years... pure rock n roll lyrics of silliness, astute outsider observations, wishes, hopes and dreams as well as the rock n roll swagger that fits right alongside the guitars. If you click on the record cover image - which is an illustration by the one and only John Holmstrom -he's MR PUNK MAGAZINE to you!- click on the record cover image and you will be transported to where you can buy it now!

But if all this isn't enough, completists can rejoice in the fact that Parasol has re-issued Richard's Field of Fire album in a deluxe double CD with bonus tracks and extensive liner notes. A very under-rated album at the time of its release, Field of Fire resonates like a glowing ember 22 years after its original release.