This is a blast from the past – I first heard Rags ‘N Riches back in Sydney in the late eighties and like so many of the bands in that Hard Rock scene its hard to track down those records any more so releases like this are essential not just to fill in the gaps and rekindle the memories for those that were there, but to also show those too young how good the scene actually was back in the day.
Scott Ginn put Rags together from members of his solo band who produced the ‘One Man Army’ album back in 1986 and in the Sydney scene of the late 80’s / early 90s they had a great following.
Musically Rags were a cross between 80’s Hard Rock and the popular Hair Metal of the time and they pulled it off better than anyone else in Australia. Sadly like their overseas counterparts they missed the boat as Grunge loomed – with only a single to their name ‘Dance baby Dance’ they were left with this unreleased debut album, (recorded by 1993). In the musical climate of the day the record never saw release and the band soon folded.
In 2015 Ginn started to digitally remaster the album and here it is, all those songs you used to rock to finally seeing the light of day. The best part of course is that they still stand up, they are good solid songs that you can’t help feel could easily have made a mark had they been from the West Coast of America rather than the East Coast of Australia.
Check out tracks like the opener ‘Delerium/Money Can’t Change Your Mind’ the single ‘Dance Baby Dance’ or the live favourite ‘Hotline’ and tell me it’s not as good as most of what the L.A. scene was producing. Dig deeper and you’ll find the quality stands up impressively well.
So if you were there or you love the Hair Metal era and are curious to see how good the Aussie scene was these are pretty much essential buys.
With physical CDs only $10 and digital downloads $5. Head over to https://mazz-xt.bandcamp.com/ for more information.
