RIALTO formed as a six-piece in 1997 with the sole intention of making their place on this planet a necessary one. Naming themselves after the erstwhile picture-house chain, in those days they had two drummers and people banded words like "cinematic"and "filmic"around them . Even cleverer people compared them to Scott Walker, Phil Spector, John Barry or Brian Wilson but "you know... like pop”. They wrote songs about dysfunctional and obsessional love - the realm of the outsider - and when they released their eponymous debut album in 1998 there was predictable acclaim. "Rialto"had huge ideals, even bigger choruses and three actual Top 40 singles. One of them "Monday Morning:5.19"must go down as one of the great angst-love songs of all time (along with "I’m Not In Love"and "Missing You"- don't laugh, peasant) although "Untouchable"runs it a close second. The latter’s lament "I’ll soak my skin in alcohol/Until I feel untouchable"is enough to make anyone feel invincible just for a moment. And it did.
RIALTO and "Rialto"had a chequered history around this time. The band were dropped by A Major Corp just before the release of their debut album, then signed to An Independent Label for its release, only to be dropped afterwards because The Same Independent Label was swallowed up by The Same Major Corp. This might sound like the plot of a film, except, of course, it isn't, it's merely the tale of ultimate triumph over adversity. People seem to think Rialto are all about melancholia but there’s a huge strength evident in every song they write. Their history may be essential viewing and their songs essential listening but like Pulp before them, you could throw the fucking book at them and they’d only read it, shrug and write a better one.
RIALTO sold a quarter of a million copies of their debut album worldwide and have spent the last year writing and recording. In the last year they’ve also streamlined down to a fourpiece that includes Louis Eliot (vocals, guitar), Jonny Bull (guitar, keyboards, production), Julian Taylor (bass) and Pete Cuthbert (drums) and feature a more electronic sound that this new formation probably suggests. Last year (2000) they released a six track mini album called"Girl On A Train" (through www.gimmemusic.com) which saw Rialto still chasing the white dream in the middle of a blue-eyed London night but, if anything, the world had become a whole lot clearer. The lead, title track was a case in point, showing how much Rialto had changed: this was New Order territory where Rialto just grabbed all they could and never even asked your name. "Girl On A Train"received rapturous praise, the New Musical Express calling it "the kind of bittersweet, perfectly formed, sophisticated electro-pop you wish the Pet Shop Boys or the Human League would make nowadays”, the Melody Maker finding it "a gorgeous album of sweeping, electronic grandeur, a record to stare out the window to and forget where you are"whilst Q piped up "as heart-stoppingly uplifting as Pulp... more power to their immaculate elbows."They were only being churlish cos Rialto were now better than ever.
June 2001 sees Rialto releasing "Night On Earth"a glorious, twelve track paean to this starry-eyed world we live in. Produced by Jonny Bull, it provides a series of snapshots into the madness and complicity of city dwelling: unlike a night on the tiles, mind you, this time you
come out feeling elated. Kick-off track "London Crawling"is possibly Rialto’s finest hour, a narcotic night-time 3am drive through the capital’s streets set to a drum’n’bass soundtrack whilst
Louis entones "Sunday morning/And I don’t wanna go/Back to my single bed/To be lying alone/Out of my head”. If this doesn’t send tingles up your spine, well, when did you break

your back? Next up is "Anything Could Happen"(set to be the first single off the LP) which breathes with bitter-sweet confidence and opens with the line "They tried to kill us off"before reassuring us that this is "nowhere near the final curtain."This is a killer, a sweeping, string-filled, heart-swelling Cinemascope dream of a song and you just know they were "born to shine/”And thrill like supernova"but at least they have the good grace to tell us anyway. After this "Anyone Out There"is real-life alienation disguised as space oddity when we know we’re really "standing in a crowded room"and not contemplating some inter-planetary fantasy.
"Catherine’s Wheel"jumpstarts a quintet of songs which appear to have tragic undertones. The first of these features some beautific imagery: if the lines "And when she turns/ oh how she sparkles and burns/I’m bound by her spell/I’m tied to her carousel"don’t make you weak, then "My fate is sealed/upon Catherine’s Wheel"ought to. After this fairground attraction, the extraordinary "Idiot Twin"is surely good enough to grace any great record released this year. This portrays Louis trying to shake off his "stupid siamese"who’s "part of me, but one day I’ll kill him"and "when he dies, I’m gonna be king”. What really sets this song apart though are the inspirational early Ultravox/Tubeway Army keyboards provided by Jonny Bull. "Shatterproof”, which follows, sounds like Bowie fronting New Order with Rialto concocting a shatterproof world where if "we don’t run the race/we can never lose,"and where we know the truth and it doesn’t matter what they say. Indeed, he sings "You and me should stick together/We were built to last forever,"and you have to agree really. "Brilliant Fake"takes the Bowie vibe further and could actually be off "Lodger"or the Bowie-produced "Blah Blah Blah"and "Three Ring Circus"which completes the circle is actually impenetrable: Louis, mid-ponder on the nature of freakery, gets to watch from a safety net as his girlfriend makes out with a clown. He’s probably thinking by now - who writes this stuff and how can I get back at him?
"Drive"signals a return to "normality"and seems perfectly straightforward until you realise we’re still in Rialtoworld and that "Get in the car and drive"could just as easily be about a relationship in terminal decline as a request for a lovely jaunt up the English motorway system. The sinister "Let’s find a place/Where we can stay/Forever"sums it all up really. Penultimate track "Deep Space"ups the ante and is a colossal, other-worldly anthem in which Louis screams (but no-one can hear him?) "I built myself a capsule/I’ve drifted days and nights/I look into the darkness/There’s a vacuum in my life"and you really do expect David Bowie to turn up and yell "I’m floating in a most p-p-peculiar way”. He doesn’t though and the album closes with the acoustic, dream-like "Underneath A Distant Moon"which could almost be an epitaph or an ode to a world we’ve left behind -"This is where I’m getting off/But I’m happy here". It may be a wonderful life but "from this life we’ll be delivered soon/Underneath a distant moon."
Rialto have been through the treadmill in recent years but it’s testament to their faith that they’ve come up with something as special as "Night On Earth"- a perfectly-weighted, conceptual masterpiece that captures Rialto at the height of their creative prowess. It also manages to capture something most bands take a lifetime trying to get their hands on.... your hearts. Forget your small-town, small-time wranglings, nothing’s gonna stop them now.RIALTO release "Night On Earth"on July 2nd 2001 on Eagle Records. A single entitled "Anything Could Happen"will be released on June 18th.

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