’90s cinematic guitar pop band Rialto are back after calling it a day more than 20 years ago.

The group, who emerged from the ashes of glam rockers, Kinky Machine, scored three Top 40 hits between 1997 and 1998 – the dramatic and paranoia-fuelled epic, Monday Morning 5.19, Untouchable and Dream Another Dream.

Late last year, Rialto, fronted by singer-songwriter, Louis Eliot, who has often been drawn to writing about the darker side of life and the seedy glamour of night-time London, played a comeback show at the Shiiine On Weekender indie festival in Minehead, and this month they’re appearing at The Lexington, London (January 26).

Say It With Garage Flowers met Eliot, who after Rialto split in 2002 went solo and then launched a Cornwall-based folk outfit called Louis Eliot & The Embers, in an East London pub – it was a Wednesday night 16:10 – to talk about the return of Rialto, the possibilities of a new album and vinyl reissues from the band, and why, after a health scare, he’s decided to swap rural life in Cornwall for a return to the UK’s capital city.

“I was chasing wildly after my youth, so I had a bit of a life change – I ended up living back in London,” he tells us. “It’s a cliché, but life isn’t a rehearsal – this is the moment and you’ve got to grab it.”

Q&A 

So, how does it feel to be back in Rialto and playing again?

Louis Eliot: The response has been amazing.

How was the comeback show?

LE: It couldn’t have gone better – in rehearsals I felt we were good… I didn’t want to go up and do something shoddy – it felt really good and a lot of people were singing along. It was just as you’d hope it might be – it was good fun and the crowd were very friendly.

Maybe we should’ve done one warm-up gig, but just one warm-up gig isn’t going to make you sound like you’ve done 50 gigs… We rehearsed a healthy amount.

Did you enjoy playing the old songs again?

LE: I really did. It’s been nice playing them and thinking that they still stand up.

Did it bring back memories of having written some of them?

LE: I think it did… I can remember writing some of the songs, like Summer’s Over and London Crawling.

I wrote London Crawling when the record company got me a cottage in Wales – it was the only way I could focus on writing. This was pre-mobile – I’d have no telephone and just a pen and paper. In London, I’d have little ideas – I’d make notes and come up with titles.

 

Can you remember writing Monday Morning 5:19, which is, arguably, your most well-known song?

LE: Yeah – I was stuck for an idea for a song. My girlfriend at the time said: ‘Why don’t you write a song about an answering machine?’ It seems funny now, as they’re obsolete…

Was the song based on real-life, or did you exaggerate the themes?

LE: A bit of both. A lot of the time with songs they’re based on some truths, but you’ve got to turn them into stories.

So, what prompted the reunion? Did you get a great offer from the organisers of the Shiiine On Weekender?

LE: It was an offer we couldn’t refuse, but we did refuse a few times… There have been one or two promoters who have been in touch over the past few years, asking if we’d be interested in doing it.

A lot of your ‘90s contemporaries had already reformed, including Sleeper and The Boo Radleys, but you resisted the urge to do it sooner?

LE: I think so – it’s taken a while to reassess what we did. You’ve got to feel like your heart’s in it.

So, why now?

LE: It just felt like it might be fun and there was interest, and then I started writing some songs as well.

You played two new songs at the comeback show –  Put You On Hold and No One Leaves This Discotheque Alive. Did you purposely write some new songs for the reunion?

LE: No – I was just writing… I didn’t set out to write Rialto songs, but I thought the songs weren’t Louis Eliot & The Embers songs or a solo thing. I felt like I was picking up on themes I’d explored in Rialto and musically I was approaching things in the same way I had in Rialto.

That’s interesting. With your solo material and the songs you did with The Embers, you wrote a lot of folky, pastoral songs about country life – you were living in Cornwall at the time – and the subjects you covered in your music moved away from the themes of Rialto songs, like the seedy glamour of nocturnal London, drugs and stalkers… You’ve now moved back to London, so is that why your new music has changed and you’ve gone back to the themes and sounds you explored in Rialto?

LE: I think so – all that stuff I was doing in Cornwall was a reflection of the life I was living. I had kids and it was rural.

‘I got very ill – it was a close call. I was lying in a hospital in Spain and thinking ‘if I get through this’ – I wasn’t sure I was going to survive – ‘I’m going to have a different life’

When I was a kid, I liked the way The Clash used to mythologise their environment – I think I was doing that a little bit with The Embers. The physical space you’re in can be quite important to your songwriting.

I got very ill – it was a close call, but I’m fine now. I was lying in a hospital in Spain and thinking ‘if I get through this’ – I wasn’t sure I was going to survive – ‘I’m going to have a different life’. I was chasing wildly after my youth, so I had a bit of a life change – I ended up living back in London.

I think that perhaps the song title, No One Leaves This Discotheque Alive, sums up some of the things I was thinking. Part of it was that I wanted to be out there amongst it again, in the city.

‘I was chasing wildly after my youth, so I had a bit of a life change – I ended up living back in London’

It’s a cliché, but life isn’t a rehearsal – this is the moment and you’ve got to grab it. That song also reflects on going out at night and looking to be fulfilled in various ways – going home with somebody or getting high, or whatever it is.

So, you’ve written more new songs too…Would you like to make another Rialto album?

LE: I don’t see why not – the new songs went down really well at the show. They reflect on the night-time city stuff.

That’s what always attracted me to Rialto – the nocturnal imagery in your lyrics and the cinematic sound that was inspired by film composers like John Barry and Ennio Morricone. You wrote about the seedy underbelly of London and the darker side of life. Take When We’re Together, for example – not many people write songs about stalkers these days…

LE: (Laughs): No – and they certainly wouldn’t be putting themselves in the role of the stalker, like I did in that song.

You like to write about the darker side of life in the city…

LE: I’m drawn to it.

You’ve gone from the embers of the bonfire back to the sodium glow…

LE: Yeah – exactly. As I was writing the new songs and I thought ‘this is a Rialto record’, I started to do some recording, but I wasn’t working them up with a band – I was doing them at home with a tiny keyboard and a laptop, which had a parallel with the Rialto stuff.

Kinky Machine and The Embers, in their different ways, were both live bands – I’d write the songs, take them to the band and we’d arrange them, whereas Rialto and the new stuff was done in a studio way, but it was very simple.

When we started Rialto, we were given a bit of recording equipment – it was basic by today’s standards… I think it was an 8-track and we had a little reel-to-reel in Jonny’s [Bull – guitarist] flat, a sampler, a bass and a guitar…

‘The new stuff doesn’t sound like Rialto-by-numbers, but it has elements that you’ll recognise, as well as some other influences that I didn’t tap into at the time, like disco’

In Kinky Machine, we felt we were shackled by a creative straitjacket, so, [with Rialto] we allowed ourselves to get a bit broader with the production and we could tap into those things you’ve mentioned, like Barry and Morricone.

The new stuff doesn’t sound like Rialto-by-numbers, but it has elements that you’ll recognise, as well as some other influences that I didn’t tap into at the time, like disco.

Rialto went more electronic and ’80s pop on the second album, Night On Earth…

LE: Yeah – that’s true.

‘We had a lot of luck and a bit of bad luck… Looking back at it, it’s like a comedy’

Didn’t you support Duran Duran?

LE: Yeah – we did a whole UK arena tour with them. We got to hang out with them a fair bit – it was funny. Simon Le Bon was really likeable – he was a loveable buffoon – and I liked his enthusiasm for what he was doing. He was loving his life.

Did they let you go on their yacht?

LE: They didn’t bring the yacht…

Rialto had a lot of record label troubles – you were dropped by East West before your debut album came out – which didn’t help your career. Would you have liked to have been more successful?

LE: Probably, but I didn’t dwell on it for too long. I wasn’t going to allow myself to get bitter about it. We had a lot of luck and a bit of bad luck… Looking back at it, it’s like a comedy.

Have you ever thought about writing a book?

LE: It’s been suggested a couple of times.

Why did Rialto split up?

LE: It petered out  – I went to America and did some demos, and Jonny was doing something else…

The two Rialto albums – the self-titled debut and the follow-up, Night On Earth, haven’t been reissued. Wouldn’t it be nice to have them out on vinyl? Were they available on vinyl when they were released?

LE: There was a small vinyl run of the first album. I’d like to have them reissued on vinyl – I’ve had a couple of people approach me about that.

It’s great to have Rialto back and I’m looking forward to seeing you play live again. Is it OK to play a song about being a stalker in 2024?

LE: Let’s give it a go.

Rialto play The Lexington on January 26: the gig is sold out. You can join the ticket waiting list here.

For more information on Rialto, visit their website or check out their Instagram account. 

The band’s self-titled debut album is on Spotify: