Vamp – The Rich Don’t Rock (1989)
When I recently found Vamp’s debut CD, The Rich Don’t Rock, I had to buy it. I could only vaguely remember this hair metal act from the late 80’s. I use to own this on cassette ages ago, but I couldn’t recall anything about the music. Judging from the CD cover, I was pretty sure that the music on this disc was going to be pure cheese. My incessant need to find the rarest rock on the planet wasn’t going to stop me from picking this up.
Oddly enough, this band is far better than I expected them to be. Vamp is not a Sunset Strip, Van Halen wanna be. They are a German hard rock act whose musical roots seem to stem deeper than the rock coming out of Los Angeles in the 80’s. Ricolf Cross dishes out some wicked six string work on this CD. I am extremely impressed with his playing. Where is this guy now?
Singer Tom Bellini’s voice takes a little bit to get used to, but it grows on you. He kind of reminds me of a higher pitched Kevin DuBrow. Drummer Dicki Fliszar gets some moments to shine too. He has a pretty cool drum solo in the tune “All Nite”. I thought that was unusual, and cool all at the same time.
The best songs on this CD are “Like I Want” (my personal favorite), “Rich Don’t Rock”, “All Nite” and “Stand By Me”.
Very little information is available on the guys in Vamp. The Rich Don’t Rock is their only CD. Drummer 
Dicki Fliszar went on to play drums in the band SKIN. The rest of the gents in the band are at large in the musical world. If you know what these guys are up to today, let us know.
Is The Rich Don’t Rock worth picking up? If you can find it, absolutely. This CD has been out of print for a long time and is very hard to find. There are a bunch of quality rockers on this disc, and I am definitely getting a kick out of them. I am glad I rediscovered this band in 2009. Everyone needs a little Vamp before Halloween right?!
You can listen to the song, “Heartbreak, Heartache” and “Renegade” at the band’s myspace page.
Rating: 
Out of 10
Track Listing:
1.Heartbreak, Heartache
2. Like I Want
3. Rich Don’t Rock
4. Love Games
5. Renegade
6. All Nite
7. Lonely Nights
8. Stand by Me
9. Bleeding
10. Talk Is Cheap
11. Shout
12. Why
Vamp is:
Tom Bellini – vocals
Ricolf Cross – guitar
Oliver Scholz – bass
Dicki Fliszar – drums
Bruce Kulick - BK3
Keel - Streets of Rock N Roll
Stryper - Murder By Pride
This band is a sad example for the way the musicindustry works. Way back in 1986 I was at a party in Bonn, when Tom and Oli came back from Munich after signing the deal with Atlantic Records. Everybody thought that they`ll make it big now. The band played several tours, supporting bands like White Lion and the Bullet Boys in Europe and England. They started recording their only album in Holland. that`s where the tragedy started. They went through different producers and after each production the sound of the album was worse. The record company didn`t give them any finacial support for touring. So they managed to do that on their own, but they didn`t have an album to promote. In 1989 they finaly managed to get Tony Platt as their producer. He did a great job, as you can hear on the album. When the “Rich Don`t Rock” got to the shops, they needed promotion. At that time there was a German TV show called “Hard`n Heavy” where they performed the song “The Rich Don`t Rock”( I still have that show on videotape)After that they got the chance to play a tour with Bonfire and Vengeance. Unfortunately the album didn`t sell that many copies as Atlantic thought it should. So finaly they got dropped by the company. Atlantic Records left them to pay of a debt of roundabout 250000$ for the production of the album. Around 1990 drummer Dickie got an offer by no other than Bruce Dickinson to join him on his first solo world tour. After that tour he stayed in London/Engl. and joined a band called Skin. Since a few years he`s living in Venice/California and still working as a professional drummer. Oli the bassplayer went back to university. Ricolf tried to form a band called “Vamp II” around 1991, but that didn`t last too long. After that he became a sound engineer. He`s running his own studio named “Perle vom Rhein” together with his wife in Andernach/Germany. Tom went back to the States. Since he left the US Army in the mid-80`s he didn`t have a visa to stay in Germany.
Since that time I made my own experiences with the recordbusiness, too, and all I can say is: It stinks!!
Vamp was a fine band and they made it as close to the top as they could, but that`s long ago and time only remembers the ones who made it, not the ones who failed. That all happened more than 20 years ago and only the people who were involved anyhow will remember and I`m glad that I`m one of them, cuz things are different today and these days will never come back.
Cheers to you all!!
Great band, indeed. Dicki seems to be the only one who stayed in the music business, Oliver went on to take a PhD in economics, Ricolf went back to fixing cars and Tom, for all I know, is a physiotherapist in the States.
Still great music!
Hard to understand, that these guys couldn`t make their way!!
Very depressiing!
Bernd