RIOT: Rare Footage Of Original Lineup Posted Online

March 21, 2007

A promotional short film featuring the original RIOT lineup — Guy Speranza (vocals),Mark Reale (guitar),Jimmi Iommi (bass),Peter Bitelli (drums) and L.A. Kouvaris (guitar) — that was made for the band's foreign record labels has been posted online at YouTube. The two-part clip includes a a montage of "Rock City", where RIOT mixed live footage with band slides and other "strange stuff," as well as footage of the group performing "Overdrive" from the classic 1977 release "Rock City". Watch it online: Part #1, Part#2.

Speranza died on November 8, 2003 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 47 years old. Often regarded as the best RIOT vocalist, he sang on the group's first three full-length albums — "Rock City" (1977),"Narita" (1979) and "Fire Down Under" (1981) — before being replaced by Rhett Forrester (Forrester himself left in the mid-'80s to pursue a solo career, only to be murdered on January 22, 1994 in Atlanta). He eventually moved to Florida, where he worked as an exterminator before being diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.

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