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Quiet Riot

Back in the mid-70s the primo heavy metal band in Los Angeles was Quiet Riot.

Van Halen were pretty popular too, but could boast nothing like the long lines of kids that would show up in the middle of the afternoon to wait outside clubs to see Quiet Riot, back when the band featured ace guitarist Randy Rhoads, who left the group in late 1978 to play with Ozzy Osbourne and died in an aeroplane accident in 1982.

But Van Halen were the ones who got signed and Quiet Riot had to wait five years to get a record deal.

After toiling in relative obscurity, Quiet Riot hit the jackpot when they released their third album, Metal Health, in March 1983.

When it knocked The Police’s Synchronicity from the top of the US charts – thereby achieving a chart position not even the mighty likes of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath had – it ushered in the mainstream explosion of heavy metal, which would dominate the airwaves for the rest of the 80s.

From the Hannibal Lecter-esque album sleeve art to its rowdy cover of Slade‘s Cum On Feel The Noize (a US Top 5 hit), Metal Health provided a rallying cry for the struggling bands on the Sunset Strip and a bawdy exhortation to girls around the world to rock their boys . . .