Mark Riley

b. 10 July 1961, Manchester, England. Riley started playing in a band when he was aged 15, ‘then I sort of wormed my way into the Fall when I was 16’. He left in 1983 to form the Creepers, with Eddie Fenn (drums), Paul Fletcher (guitar) and Pete Keogh (bass). The last two were later replaced by Mark Tilton (guitar) and Phil Roberts (bass). The records that followed were full of hard-hitting humour and remained as opinionated as those of Riley’s former boss, Mark E. Smith (who apparently wrote the sarcastic ‘Middle Mass’ about Riley). Examples included the anti- Paul Weller rallying cry, ‘Bard Of Woking’. Riley formed In Tape Records with keyboard player Jim Khambatta, who also managed the Creepers. Starved of commercial success, and burdened by his heritage, Riley disbanded the Creepers in 1987 and formed the Lost Soul Crusaders before developing a career in radio. Riley currently broadcasts on BBC Radio One as DJ Mark Radcliffe’s sidekick.