Rezillos noizes
Early days of The Rezillos.
Their landmark album "Can't Stand the Rezillos" reached the top 10 in the UK album chart.
The Rezillos ripped into the rock scene through a shared love of Sixties Garage Rock, the Spectoresque Girl Group voice of The Shangri Las injected with their inimitable molten attitude and created their
unique left-field brand of punk rock and roll. The speed at which they gathered a following took the band by surprise.
The Rezillos off-kilter three minute sparkling pop gems and a unique visual style was steeped in a culture of bad boys, bad girls, bad movies and great rock and roll. Their independent debut single, “I Can’t Stand My Baby”
shot them to underground fame initially via airings on John Peel’s radio show. Their follow up classic singles “My Baby Does Good Sculptures”, “Top of the Pops” and “Destination Venus” signalled critically acclaimed
milestones for the band. The Rezillos recorded their landmark album “Can't Stand the Rezillos” in New York’s fabled Power Station studio, immersed themselves in the local music scene and dropped in during downtime to
play a gig at CBGB’s, the hub of Punk Rock music. The album reached the top 10 in the UK album chart and is lauded as punk classic.
The Rezillos gave two legendary performances on “The Old Grey Whistle Test” and did the same on the music showcase programme “Top of the Pops” where in keeping with band’s ironic take on pop culture, they played
their hit single of the same name satirising the show. The Rezillos single hit the Top Twenty and their album charted alongside. The same year they released a live album; “Mission Accomplished... But the Beat Goes On”.
The band had a meteoric rise, made a seminal album and stamped their unique identity on an unsuspecting public. Much to their fan’s anguish The Rezillos had hit
the too much too soon button and abruptly ceased.
Experiments & Collaborations.
After the implosion of The Rezillos, Fay and Eugene went on form the The Revillos, an offshoot of The Rezillos with an arty sixties pop sound, producing some unique recordings alongside innovative early pop videos. They released a studio album “Rev up” and toured extensively from the late 70’s through the 80’sand played to a cult following in the UK, USA and Europe. Angel Paterson and Jo Callis formed the short lived “Shake” before Jo joined the Human League. After The Revillos briefly reformed in 1994 Fay, Eugene and Jo started to write some material together. This laid the foundations for a future rebirth of The Rezillos.
The Rezillos - now.
Line up:
Fay Fife: Vocals, Theremin
Eugene Reynolds: Vocals
Phil Thompson: Lead guitar, Backing Vocals
Chris Agnew: Bass
Angel Paterson: Drums
Interest continued to expand. The Rezillos music appeared on various "History of New Wave" compilations with the band enjoying a growing status on US underground and college radio stations and
rock fanzines and CD re-releases of their material. The subsequent buzz via the emerging internet in the mid 1990s re-energised matters and the band reformed on Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) 2002 with
a spur-of-the moment gig in Edinburgh, Scotland playing to 150,000 revellers who had gathered in the capital city for the New year celebrations. In March 2003, the long-awaited cult-movie, Jackass: The Movie
was finally released in the UK. The Rezillos classic foot stomper "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" featured on the soundtrack, introducing the band to a new audience.
Since reforming the band have released several independent singles. Having made it into the 21st century that they sang about so often in the 20th. It's fitting that their rebirth should warp them into the present and still finding themselves in step both musically and conceptually.
And so today.
Zero (studio album released March 09 on Metropolis records.)
In March 2015 The Rezillos release their long awaited album ‘Zero’. The album was developed and recorded over an 18 month period. In slight contrast to their first album all songs on the album are self penned originals. The
album continues the band’s tradition and draws from the unholy howl of rock and roll laced with searing vocal. Zero may sound somehow familiar while pushing the parameters. With dark guitar grunge and layers of melodic
quirkism The Rezillos reference flips of the same coin; an otherworldly, dark to light, doom and boom, don’t give a damn sound.
Flying Saucer Attack 2018
The Rezillos have released via Cherry Red Records a compilation featuring their albums
"Can’t Stand The Rezillos" and the live "Mission Accomplished" in its
entirety and rare material from 1977 - 1979. This release includes B sides and alternate versions for the first time on CD. Louder Than War: "The Rezillos made invigorating,
imaginative Pop Music. This is a great compilation"
Fay Fife:
"Basically the creativity is coming from where we are now as people, but it’s still crossed with our interests in different aspects of pop culture. Everything we do references key points, at least from my perspective—I would be hard pressed to get through a recording session without mentioning the Shangri-Las or Dusty Springfield."
Eugene Reynolds:
"When you play in a band, if you play in it all the time, it can become your job. In our case it isn’t. We do it because we love it. We’ve got a chance to have a second coming because we didn’t do anything for so long. We haven’t worn
out our enthusiasm or our lust for life. I think, for me, it’s been that we never finished what we were doing in the first place."
Fay Fife:
"You can look forward to another album. I’m very determined about that. In saying that, though, we’ve got a lot on for this year. I can’t put it on a schedule because this year (2015) looks really crazy, but I can tell you one thing: It’s gonna come a lot quicker than this past album!"