As I was previously saying, Harlow Square is a very convenient gig
location for me, these days, and on this occasion, also proved to be an ideal
place for an interview. I had previously interviewed The Revillos, some twenty
years ago, but The Rezillos themselves are a different entity. Since their
reformation in 2003, it has been quite a long wait for new material (new songs
were being played live, but no new releases were forthcoming) until the recent ‘Out
of This World’ single declared that the band were back and on top form,
updating their original sound with a high energy slice of spikey pop. Fans were
left drooling for more and, although another wait ensued, a brand new album has
been completed and is ready for release even as I type… What’s more, hearing
the songs live, they sound like a true credit to the Rezillo’s legacy. It may
have taken them 35 years to produce a second studio album, but it looks like
it’s gonna be worth the wait !
Arranging an interview proved to be surprisingly easy, so I head over to Harlow late in the afternoon and get to watch several of the new songs being played through in the soundcheck. Once done, I accompany Eugene and Fay back to their dressing room and we get straight into the interview.
Firstly, I wondered if any of band members had been in other bands before The Rezillos ?
Eugene ; Yeah, but they weren’t professional groups. Not that The Rezillos started out as a professional group, but we became very professional very quickly… within one or two days ! The other bands I’d been involved with were really just mucking around. I was in a rock’n’roll band for a bit, just playing covers, the Knutsford Dominators, but we only did a few gigs… it was a kinda proto-Rezillos in some ways.
Fay : I wasn’t involved with them, but there was still something about that set-up. There was certainly an idea about the type of band they wanted to be, sorta crude, raw rock’n’roll. But The Rezillos was the first band I’d ever been in… although I was also briefly in another band simultaneously, but I don’t want to talk about that !
Eugene ; We all met-up at Art College… she met me in the bar when I was smashing panes of glass over my head, trying to impress people !
Fay : You were trying to impress me !
Eugene : Well, yeah, but it worked, didn’t it ?
Fay : Yeah, but only because I’d never seen anybody smash a pane of glass over their head before… Have you ever seen that, Jim ?
Jim ; Aye, all the time !
Eugene : Well, he is from Glasgow…
Fay : That’s how we met. It was funny because we started talking about music, and I was really obsessed with music, always have been. He started talking about this band called The Rezillos and how good they were, so I said they were the crappest band imaginable. Of course, they didn’t actually exist at that point. But I kept insisting, only David Bowie, The Shirelles and Roxy Music were any good. But that was how I ended up playing with them.
Was there any specific concept of what you wanted the band to be from the outset, or did that just develop when you started playing ?
Eugene : We had the name before we had the group. I think that’s quite often the case. We invented the name and said, that’s it, but none of us knew what we were going to do. We did want to do something that would provoke people in a way, and part of it was to start-out playing songs that, at that time, were only ten or fifteen years old. That was completely out of the picture back then, you know, rock’n’roll songs, or Connie Francis songs, but with attitude. They were zipped-up and zapped-up, and revved up a bit. Fortunately, people just took to it immediately. It was just the right time to do something like that, and of course, a lot of punk rock had its’ roots in that period of music… or, at least, the more thinking-peoples’ punk rock, rather than the later, second-hand ‘let’s make a punk rock band’ stuff. The stuff I liked came more from the older rock’n’roll. At the same time we were starting out, we started to hear about bands like The Damned and the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and realised that we were part of it. We weren’t doing it as a conscious effort to be ‘punk rock’, we were just doing our own thing but we still kinda fit the bill. And luckily for us, as we weren’t trying to copy anything, we remained quite individual. But that’s the thing, if you consider the best punk groups from that period, say the Pistols, The Damned, Buzzcocks, the Stranglers, they all had their own individual sound and that’s why none of it sounds dated even now. It seems that people think we fall more into that category, which is good for us. It was only when all the copyists came along and you had these waves of bands that you just knew what they were going to sound like. Effectively, they were little more than punk rock tribute bands…
Arranging an interview proved to be surprisingly easy, so I head over to Harlow late in the afternoon and get to watch several of the new songs being played through in the soundcheck. Once done, I accompany Eugene and Fay back to their dressing room and we get straight into the interview.
Firstly, I wondered if any of band members had been in other bands before The Rezillos ?
Eugene ; Yeah, but they weren’t professional groups. Not that The Rezillos started out as a professional group, but we became very professional very quickly… within one or two days ! The other bands I’d been involved with were really just mucking around. I was in a rock’n’roll band for a bit, just playing covers, the Knutsford Dominators, but we only did a few gigs… it was a kinda proto-Rezillos in some ways.
Fay : I wasn’t involved with them, but there was still something about that set-up. There was certainly an idea about the type of band they wanted to be, sorta crude, raw rock’n’roll. But The Rezillos was the first band I’d ever been in… although I was also briefly in another band simultaneously, but I don’t want to talk about that !
Eugene ; We all met-up at Art College… she met me in the bar when I was smashing panes of glass over my head, trying to impress people !
Fay : You were trying to impress me !
Eugene : Well, yeah, but it worked, didn’t it ?
Fay : Yeah, but only because I’d never seen anybody smash a pane of glass over their head before… Have you ever seen that, Jim ?
Jim ; Aye, all the time !
Eugene : Well, he is from Glasgow…
Fay : That’s how we met. It was funny because we started talking about music, and I was really obsessed with music, always have been. He started talking about this band called The Rezillos and how good they were, so I said they were the crappest band imaginable. Of course, they didn’t actually exist at that point. But I kept insisting, only David Bowie, The Shirelles and Roxy Music were any good. But that was how I ended up playing with them.
Was there any specific concept of what you wanted the band to be from the outset, or did that just develop when you started playing ?
Eugene : We had the name before we had the group. I think that’s quite often the case. We invented the name and said, that’s it, but none of us knew what we were going to do. We did want to do something that would provoke people in a way, and part of it was to start-out playing songs that, at that time, were only ten or fifteen years old. That was completely out of the picture back then, you know, rock’n’roll songs, or Connie Francis songs, but with attitude. They were zipped-up and zapped-up, and revved up a bit. Fortunately, people just took to it immediately. It was just the right time to do something like that, and of course, a lot of punk rock had its’ roots in that period of music… or, at least, the more thinking-peoples’ punk rock, rather than the later, second-hand ‘let’s make a punk rock band’ stuff. The stuff I liked came more from the older rock’n’roll. At the same time we were starting out, we started to hear about bands like The Damned and the Sex Pistols and The Clash, and realised that we were part of it. We weren’t doing it as a conscious effort to be ‘punk rock’, we were just doing our own thing but we still kinda fit the bill. And luckily for us, as we weren’t trying to copy anything, we remained quite individual. But that’s the thing, if you consider the best punk groups from that period, say the Pistols, The Damned, Buzzcocks, the Stranglers, they all had their own individual sound and that’s why none of it sounds dated even now. It seems that people think we fall more into that category, which is good for us. It was only when all the copyists came along and you had these waves of bands that you just knew what they were going to sound like. Effectively, they were little more than punk rock tribute bands…
You mentioned the cover versions you used to
play early on… you certainly had an inspired choice of covers… particularly
‘Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight’, which has really taken-on
a life of its’ own…
Fay : Yeah, I think a lot of people have assumed it’s one of our own songs…
Eugene : But then they find out that’s it was originally a song by… gasp ! … Fleetwood Mac ! A lot of people have difficulty believing that ! But I think, if you’re going to do a cover, you either have the choice of just playing a straight cover and being a tribute band, or you take the essence of the song and completely turn it on its’ head. It’s a bit like Bryan Ferry when he did ‘Let’s Stick Together’. He made it his own song. Whether he made it the way that I would prefer is not quite the case, but that’s what you should do. Take a song and make it your own, don’t just try to make a copy of something that someone else has done. That would just be like having a fake Picasso on your wall. I mean, it’s absolutely gobsmacking when we go to play at some clubs and we see that we’re the only real band playing there that month, all the others are just tribute bands. Maybe that’s just because there’s a shortage of the real thing ?
At the same time that The Rezillos were starting out in Edinburgh, as well as the punk scene starting up in London there was the simultaneous scene in New York. Did you take any inspiration from that at all ?
Fay : Well, I always felt there was a slightly American thing going on in what we were doing, because of what we were interested in, the aesthetics and Art. So, in a broader sense, yeah. Also, when we went over there, there was stuff going on and there were people there we could relate to. The Cramps were just starting up so we met them, and it was a really vibey time. I didn’t hear any of the records before we went there, but it was more like the atmosphere of the music… there was some sorta similarity.
Eugene : I tend to feel more comfortable around American groups than I do around British groups, now you come to mention it. When we’ve been in the States, I just like the kinda camaraderie that you encounter, rather than what you feel from a lot of British bands. There seems to be a lot of detachment over here…
Also, American bands tend to be less shy about trying to put together their own visual style or performance…
Eugene : Yeah, if you look at bands like Devo, The Dickies, Blondie, even the Ramones… it’s almost like packaging in a way, although I don’t mean that as a bad thing in their cases. But what they were doing went beyond the logo, as it were.
You also seemed to have a sorta fascination with Sci-fi and B-movie culture…
Fay : People think we’ve got a fascination with it, but not really. I love movies beyond belief, I’m a bit of a fanatic, although I’m still more interested in music than film But I really love movies and B-movies are just a part of the whole thing.
Eugene : I used to enjoy watching B-movies back in the Seventies, but I don’t think I’m really bothered about them now.
If I ever watch one nowadays, I end up thinking, what the fuck did I ever see in that ? You just move on, don’t you ?
Fay : It’s funny that people think things like that about us, but I think it was probably more to do with us soaking up things to do with stupid culture, I guess…
You all adopted stage names for the band, was there any particular reason for that ?
Eugene : You mean, like Johnny Rotten or Sid Vicious ?
Fay : Not everyone had a stage name… but I think Eugene was going to be ‘Eugene Creame’ for a wee bit !
Eugene : Well, Cliff Richard had a stage name, Ringo Starr… so many people have used stage names, it wasn’t a big deal.
Fay : The only reason I got mine was Ali Paterson used to make a joke out of my accent, and when I said I was ‘from Fife’, he said it sounded like I was saying I was ‘Fay Fife’, so it ended up going down as that on the first record and that was it. I think I was going to be called ‘Candi’ at first…
Eugene : I also wanted to be called ‘Eugene Wolverine’, but the others didn’t like that…
You already said you had really good response when you first played around Edinburgh. Did that sorta reaction continue when you started playing further afield ?
Eugene : Well, some people were like, ‘that’s not what punk’s meant to be’, but most people just liked it. When we played at the Nashville, several of the Sex Pistols used to come along to the shows. At that point, the punk thing was like a big family. Loads of people knew each other, and there was some vying to get bigger than the other bands, but generally it was quite friendly.
How did you end up realising your first single on Sensible Records ?
Fay : I can’t really remember. There were people going around that were drawn into the energy of what was going on and they were interested in putting out records. You know, people just wanted to get involved.
Eugene : There was a guy called Lenny who decided he wanted to do a record label. He wanted to be our manager and put the record out… actually, after we went to New York, we’d met the Cramps and they’d given us a copy of the ‘’Human Fly’ single, so we took it back to Lenny, but he refused to put it out ! The Cramps gave us a mastertape and the artwork and everything, but he just didn’t get it. I told him he’d made a mistake… as far as Sensible Records go, that wasn’t very sensible…
Fay : There was just a sorta energy brewing. Bruce Findlay had also started Zoom records, even though he wasn’t involved with us. But, you know, there was a lot of different people who just wanted to do things.
Fay : Yeah, I think a lot of people have assumed it’s one of our own songs…
Eugene : But then they find out that’s it was originally a song by… gasp ! … Fleetwood Mac ! A lot of people have difficulty believing that ! But I think, if you’re going to do a cover, you either have the choice of just playing a straight cover and being a tribute band, or you take the essence of the song and completely turn it on its’ head. It’s a bit like Bryan Ferry when he did ‘Let’s Stick Together’. He made it his own song. Whether he made it the way that I would prefer is not quite the case, but that’s what you should do. Take a song and make it your own, don’t just try to make a copy of something that someone else has done. That would just be like having a fake Picasso on your wall. I mean, it’s absolutely gobsmacking when we go to play at some clubs and we see that we’re the only real band playing there that month, all the others are just tribute bands. Maybe that’s just because there’s a shortage of the real thing ?
At the same time that The Rezillos were starting out in Edinburgh, as well as the punk scene starting up in London there was the simultaneous scene in New York. Did you take any inspiration from that at all ?
Fay : Well, I always felt there was a slightly American thing going on in what we were doing, because of what we were interested in, the aesthetics and Art. So, in a broader sense, yeah. Also, when we went over there, there was stuff going on and there were people there we could relate to. The Cramps were just starting up so we met them, and it was a really vibey time. I didn’t hear any of the records before we went there, but it was more like the atmosphere of the music… there was some sorta similarity.
Eugene : I tend to feel more comfortable around American groups than I do around British groups, now you come to mention it. When we’ve been in the States, I just like the kinda camaraderie that you encounter, rather than what you feel from a lot of British bands. There seems to be a lot of detachment over here…
Also, American bands tend to be less shy about trying to put together their own visual style or performance…
Eugene : Yeah, if you look at bands like Devo, The Dickies, Blondie, even the Ramones… it’s almost like packaging in a way, although I don’t mean that as a bad thing in their cases. But what they were doing went beyond the logo, as it were.
You also seemed to have a sorta fascination with Sci-fi and B-movie culture…
Fay : People think we’ve got a fascination with it, but not really. I love movies beyond belief, I’m a bit of a fanatic, although I’m still more interested in music than film But I really love movies and B-movies are just a part of the whole thing.
Eugene : I used to enjoy watching B-movies back in the Seventies, but I don’t think I’m really bothered about them now.
If I ever watch one nowadays, I end up thinking, what the fuck did I ever see in that ? You just move on, don’t you ?
Fay : It’s funny that people think things like that about us, but I think it was probably more to do with us soaking up things to do with stupid culture, I guess…
You all adopted stage names for the band, was there any particular reason for that ?
Eugene : You mean, like Johnny Rotten or Sid Vicious ?
Fay : Not everyone had a stage name… but I think Eugene was going to be ‘Eugene Creame’ for a wee bit !
Eugene : Well, Cliff Richard had a stage name, Ringo Starr… so many people have used stage names, it wasn’t a big deal.
Fay : The only reason I got mine was Ali Paterson used to make a joke out of my accent, and when I said I was ‘from Fife’, he said it sounded like I was saying I was ‘Fay Fife’, so it ended up going down as that on the first record and that was it. I think I was going to be called ‘Candi’ at first…
Eugene : I also wanted to be called ‘Eugene Wolverine’, but the others didn’t like that…
You already said you had really good response when you first played around Edinburgh. Did that sorta reaction continue when you started playing further afield ?
Eugene : Well, some people were like, ‘that’s not what punk’s meant to be’, but most people just liked it. When we played at the Nashville, several of the Sex Pistols used to come along to the shows. At that point, the punk thing was like a big family. Loads of people knew each other, and there was some vying to get bigger than the other bands, but generally it was quite friendly.
How did you end up realising your first single on Sensible Records ?
Fay : I can’t really remember. There were people going around that were drawn into the energy of what was going on and they were interested in putting out records. You know, people just wanted to get involved.
Eugene : There was a guy called Lenny who decided he wanted to do a record label. He wanted to be our manager and put the record out… actually, after we went to New York, we’d met the Cramps and they’d given us a copy of the ‘’Human Fly’ single, so we took it back to Lenny, but he refused to put it out ! The Cramps gave us a mastertape and the artwork and everything, but he just didn’t get it. I told him he’d made a mistake… as far as Sensible Records go, that wasn’t very sensible…
Fay : There was just a sorta energy brewing. Bruce Findlay had also started Zoom records, even though he wasn’t involved with us. But, you know, there was a lot of different people who just wanted to do things.
How did you get signed to Sire Records ?
Eugene : They heard about us somehow. We didn’t have a record deal, we just released the one single with Sensible, but clearly it was doing pretty well, ,because Phonogram and Decca were both interested in us… we actually went to Decca Records office and, honestly, it was as if they hadn’t changed the curtains or the cigarette smoke since the Sixties ! But then, all of a sudden, we heard from Sire Records and they said they wanted to sign us. They already had The Ramones and Talking Heads, so we said, Yeah ! They, in turn, signed a deal with Warner Brothers, so we were then on an international label. I think we were the first British band signed to Sire…
And they arranged for you to go to New York to record your first album…
Fay ; Yeah, that was amazing !
Eugene : We nearly called the album ‘Look ! Skyscrapers !’ because that was the first thing we said when we came out of the airport. It was awe-inspiring.
Fay ; Of course, New York was much more dirty and grungey back then.
You’ve always had very distinct artwork, both in the original days and since you’ve reformed. How did that develop ?
Eugene : It doesn’t always happen, but we generally discuss and work out what we’re going to have as artwork. There’s been a few times when we haven’t done and what we’ve ended up with has not been what we wanted. But generally, we never wanted our record sleeves to look like anyone else’s. Bearing in mind that we came from an Art College background, we realised that we could either decide, let’s do an album sleeve in this style, meaning that someone else had already done it, or you could come up with your own concept and you think, what about this ? In the case of our first album, the design came from a piece of plastic that we found in a shop in Canal Street, when we went to New York. We picked up this stuff and Angel covered his drum kit in it, and part of that became the front of our album sleeve. It was just something that jumped out at you.
Who was it who did all the drawings for the first album and early singles /
Eugene ; That was a friend of ours called Iain McIntosh who I knew from Art College. He also came up with the bands’ logo, which is still very distinct. It’s very-much one of a kind.
Considering the success you were having at the time, it came as a big surprise when the band split-up soon after the albums’ release… What led to that happening ?
Eugene : Because people were stupid ! We were all young and daft, and we didn’t realise what we had until we chucked it away. I don’t know, we can’t say what would’ve happened, we could’ve gone on to massive success and then died of drug overdoses, or died in fast car accidents. Or crashing your gyrocoptor into electric pylons, who knows ?
There was a general feeling around that time, that no-one expected it to last much longer than six months…
Fay : That was a feeling around that time, because it was so intense, it was almost as if the self-destruct thing was written into it. I know that’s a bit stupid, in a way, and if we’d managed to get past the self-destruct thing I’m sure it would’ve been a bit better.
Eugene : But we were all anti-establishment and anti-business, so I suppose part of us thought, well, fuck the record company, we’re going to break-up anyway. I mean, I still reiterate that I never wanted the group to split-up, but in hindsight, you can see that it was really stupid to do that.
After The Rezillos split, some of the other guys formed the short-lived band Shake, while you went on to form The Revillos. Was there ever any intention, or perhaps pressure from the record company, for you to carry on as The Rezillos, with a new line-up ?
Eugene : Actually, we wanted to carry-on using the name, but it was the record company who obstructed that together with some of the other former band members. So we couldn’t carry-on with it. We already had a new record deal waiting with Virgin records and they wanted us to sign us as The Rezillos, but we had to tell them we couldn’t do that and we had to compromise with the new name. As it turned out, though, we decided that we didn’t want to carry on doing any of the old songs and we just wanted to play our new stuff, because we felt we really had to prove ourselves in our own way.
Had there been any talk of The Revillos staying with Sire ?
Fay : I think that was out of the window, wasn’t it ?
Eugene : I think Sire’s impression was that we were just the singers, and they looked at Jo Callis as the songwriter. Maybe we should’ve tried to hook-up with another songwriter or maybe some American musicians… Looking back at it now, maybe there are other aspects that we should have considered, but it was a very damaging thing when we broke up. It did our heads-in ! In fact, we recently realised that The Revillos was almost a therapy for us, because we got to do the things that the other guys wouldn’t let us do in The Rezillos. But it was odd… we still had Rezillos fans from the past who would stick with what we were doing, and there were new Revillos fans who came along who just liked what we were doing and didn’t really like The Rezillos.
Fay : I think the Revillos music was quite different in a lot of ways, although if we played it now with this band, I don’t think they’d sound all that different. But there were certainly some key difference.
Eugene : When we played the Revillos reunion gigs in London, back in 1996, that was the only time, apart from once when we went to Japan, that the Revillos included Rezillos’ songs. And actually, Jo Callis came along to that show and it was afterwards that he said, well, perhaps it would be nice to get the band back together again ? I guess he got itchy fingers and itchy feet when he was watching what we were doing. That’s what kinda pushed the buttons… but I think if we played Revillos songs now, it would sound more like The Rezillos playing Revillos songs. There would be that slight coloration, it would never sound quite like the same band. Some things would be the same, but I do think The Rezillos right now sound better than they ever have.
Eugene : They heard about us somehow. We didn’t have a record deal, we just released the one single with Sensible, but clearly it was doing pretty well, ,because Phonogram and Decca were both interested in us… we actually went to Decca Records office and, honestly, it was as if they hadn’t changed the curtains or the cigarette smoke since the Sixties ! But then, all of a sudden, we heard from Sire Records and they said they wanted to sign us. They already had The Ramones and Talking Heads, so we said, Yeah ! They, in turn, signed a deal with Warner Brothers, so we were then on an international label. I think we were the first British band signed to Sire…
And they arranged for you to go to New York to record your first album…
Fay ; Yeah, that was amazing !
Eugene : We nearly called the album ‘Look ! Skyscrapers !’ because that was the first thing we said when we came out of the airport. It was awe-inspiring.
Fay ; Of course, New York was much more dirty and grungey back then.
You’ve always had very distinct artwork, both in the original days and since you’ve reformed. How did that develop ?
Eugene : It doesn’t always happen, but we generally discuss and work out what we’re going to have as artwork. There’s been a few times when we haven’t done and what we’ve ended up with has not been what we wanted. But generally, we never wanted our record sleeves to look like anyone else’s. Bearing in mind that we came from an Art College background, we realised that we could either decide, let’s do an album sleeve in this style, meaning that someone else had already done it, or you could come up with your own concept and you think, what about this ? In the case of our first album, the design came from a piece of plastic that we found in a shop in Canal Street, when we went to New York. We picked up this stuff and Angel covered his drum kit in it, and part of that became the front of our album sleeve. It was just something that jumped out at you.
Who was it who did all the drawings for the first album and early singles /
Eugene ; That was a friend of ours called Iain McIntosh who I knew from Art College. He also came up with the bands’ logo, which is still very distinct. It’s very-much one of a kind.
Considering the success you were having at the time, it came as a big surprise when the band split-up soon after the albums’ release… What led to that happening ?
Eugene : Because people were stupid ! We were all young and daft, and we didn’t realise what we had until we chucked it away. I don’t know, we can’t say what would’ve happened, we could’ve gone on to massive success and then died of drug overdoses, or died in fast car accidents. Or crashing your gyrocoptor into electric pylons, who knows ?
There was a general feeling around that time, that no-one expected it to last much longer than six months…
Fay : That was a feeling around that time, because it was so intense, it was almost as if the self-destruct thing was written into it. I know that’s a bit stupid, in a way, and if we’d managed to get past the self-destruct thing I’m sure it would’ve been a bit better.
Eugene : But we were all anti-establishment and anti-business, so I suppose part of us thought, well, fuck the record company, we’re going to break-up anyway. I mean, I still reiterate that I never wanted the group to split-up, but in hindsight, you can see that it was really stupid to do that.
After The Rezillos split, some of the other guys formed the short-lived band Shake, while you went on to form The Revillos. Was there ever any intention, or perhaps pressure from the record company, for you to carry on as The Rezillos, with a new line-up ?
Eugene : Actually, we wanted to carry-on using the name, but it was the record company who obstructed that together with some of the other former band members. So we couldn’t carry-on with it. We already had a new record deal waiting with Virgin records and they wanted us to sign us as The Rezillos, but we had to tell them we couldn’t do that and we had to compromise with the new name. As it turned out, though, we decided that we didn’t want to carry on doing any of the old songs and we just wanted to play our new stuff, because we felt we really had to prove ourselves in our own way.
Had there been any talk of The Revillos staying with Sire ?
Fay : I think that was out of the window, wasn’t it ?
Eugene : I think Sire’s impression was that we were just the singers, and they looked at Jo Callis as the songwriter. Maybe we should’ve tried to hook-up with another songwriter or maybe some American musicians… Looking back at it now, maybe there are other aspects that we should have considered, but it was a very damaging thing when we broke up. It did our heads-in ! In fact, we recently realised that The Revillos was almost a therapy for us, because we got to do the things that the other guys wouldn’t let us do in The Rezillos. But it was odd… we still had Rezillos fans from the past who would stick with what we were doing, and there were new Revillos fans who came along who just liked what we were doing and didn’t really like The Rezillos.
Fay : I think the Revillos music was quite different in a lot of ways, although if we played it now with this band, I don’t think they’d sound all that different. But there were certainly some key difference.
Eugene : When we played the Revillos reunion gigs in London, back in 1996, that was the only time, apart from once when we went to Japan, that the Revillos included Rezillos’ songs. And actually, Jo Callis came along to that show and it was afterwards that he said, well, perhaps it would be nice to get the band back together again ? I guess he got itchy fingers and itchy feet when he was watching what we were doing. That’s what kinda pushed the buttons… but I think if we played Revillos songs now, it would sound more like The Rezillos playing Revillos songs. There would be that slight coloration, it would never sound quite like the same band. Some things would be the same, but I do think The Rezillos right now sound better than they ever have.
Of course, the gap between The Rezillos
ending and The Revillos coming together must have meant that you lost some
momentum…
Eugene : Yeah, we were pretty much held in limbo for about a year, still in a record contract with a company who didn’t want to do anything with us. That certainly lost a bit of momentum. I suppose if we had come back and still called ourselves The Rezillos, although it would’ve been just me and Fay, a lot of people would’ve still gone along with it. There was definitely a point where we would’ve done that, early on. If the record company hadn’t put up legal obstructions, we probably would have.
Fay : But I think it also had to do with the culture. It had changed by then, the intensity of the punk era had passed. There had been such an energy in it, which had propelled everything along. But things changed after that, and it became a different thing.
Eugene : I would say that, although we were part of what happened in punk rock, we were also different, and I think that maybe we could’ve formed the next bridge. I think we might have been able to take our version of punk rock to a much broader, pop-based audience. I mean, we broke-up at the start of a 40-date, sold-out tour. We were poised to take the transition from punk rock to a broader, pop-sensibility, much like the Buzzcocks did. That’s why it’s going to be very satisfying for us to have a new album finally come out, which will be the next logical step, from our point of view, from our first studio album. I would hope that people realise that we do take what we’re doing seriously. There are some groups out there, from a similar time as us, who are just doing it as a job, but it’s never been like that for us, we’re doing it because we love it. We’ve never wanted to just rest on our laurels, we’ve always wanted to expand our audience and put out new music.’
The second Revillos album, ‘Attack’, came out very briefly in 1982 and was then withdrawn, remaining something of a collectors’ item ever since. What exactly happened with that release ?
Eugene : We’d been looking for a record deal and this label offered, so we started recording an album for them. Then one day, unknown to us, they went into the studio and mixed-down the tracks we’d recorded, which weren’t even finished, and put it out as a record.
Fay : I think that, around that period, The Revillos had stopped focusing on recording and just become a live band. We were doing so well just playing live, so we focused on that. It was a shame because I don’t think we realised how important the records actually were.
Eugene : The record label basically bootlegged a bunch of tapes that we were still working on and put it out. But we ended up getting the master tapes back from them, and they were eventually re- released as the ‘Attack of the Giant Revillos’ CD, with different mixes.
Fay : I think there’s been times with both the Rezillos and the Revillos where we’ve been drawn almost too much into just playing live. We’ve always been a great live band, and we’ve always enjoyed playing live, so it’s easy just to fall into that.
There was also another album, called ‘Yes Sir’, which came out a few years later in Japan… was that supposed to be an official release ?
Fay : I’m not sure about this, but I think that was just a bootleg. In fact, I think the source of the bootlegs may have been the same people we’d had some other dealings with… But that’s all I really know about that. In the long run, it’s just small beer, really.
The last single The Revillos released during this era was ‘Midnight’, which seemed to have a very different production to your previous releases. Was there pressure on you to have a more commercial sound at that time ?
Fay : Yeah, I think we were getting some pressure from the record label. We liked to try different things anyway, but by that point we were getting pressured and I think we’d lost our own direction a little bit. I think ‘Midnight’ fitted in with the side of our music that came from the Shangri-La’s, but it was just produced in a way that I didn’t really like, you know, that sorta early-Eighties production style.
Eugene : Yeah, we were pretty much held in limbo for about a year, still in a record contract with a company who didn’t want to do anything with us. That certainly lost a bit of momentum. I suppose if we had come back and still called ourselves The Rezillos, although it would’ve been just me and Fay, a lot of people would’ve still gone along with it. There was definitely a point where we would’ve done that, early on. If the record company hadn’t put up legal obstructions, we probably would have.
Fay : But I think it also had to do with the culture. It had changed by then, the intensity of the punk era had passed. There had been such an energy in it, which had propelled everything along. But things changed after that, and it became a different thing.
Eugene : I would say that, although we were part of what happened in punk rock, we were also different, and I think that maybe we could’ve formed the next bridge. I think we might have been able to take our version of punk rock to a much broader, pop-based audience. I mean, we broke-up at the start of a 40-date, sold-out tour. We were poised to take the transition from punk rock to a broader, pop-sensibility, much like the Buzzcocks did. That’s why it’s going to be very satisfying for us to have a new album finally come out, which will be the next logical step, from our point of view, from our first studio album. I would hope that people realise that we do take what we’re doing seriously. There are some groups out there, from a similar time as us, who are just doing it as a job, but it’s never been like that for us, we’re doing it because we love it. We’ve never wanted to just rest on our laurels, we’ve always wanted to expand our audience and put out new music.’
The second Revillos album, ‘Attack’, came out very briefly in 1982 and was then withdrawn, remaining something of a collectors’ item ever since. What exactly happened with that release ?
Eugene : We’d been looking for a record deal and this label offered, so we started recording an album for them. Then one day, unknown to us, they went into the studio and mixed-down the tracks we’d recorded, which weren’t even finished, and put it out as a record.
Fay : I think that, around that period, The Revillos had stopped focusing on recording and just become a live band. We were doing so well just playing live, so we focused on that. It was a shame because I don’t think we realised how important the records actually were.
Eugene : The record label basically bootlegged a bunch of tapes that we were still working on and put it out. But we ended up getting the master tapes back from them, and they were eventually re- released as the ‘Attack of the Giant Revillos’ CD, with different mixes.
Fay : I think there’s been times with both the Rezillos and the Revillos where we’ve been drawn almost too much into just playing live. We’ve always been a great live band, and we’ve always enjoyed playing live, so it’s easy just to fall into that.
There was also another album, called ‘Yes Sir’, which came out a few years later in Japan… was that supposed to be an official release ?
Fay : I’m not sure about this, but I think that was just a bootleg. In fact, I think the source of the bootlegs may have been the same people we’d had some other dealings with… But that’s all I really know about that. In the long run, it’s just small beer, really.
The last single The Revillos released during this era was ‘Midnight’, which seemed to have a very different production to your previous releases. Was there pressure on you to have a more commercial sound at that time ?
Fay : Yeah, I think we were getting some pressure from the record label. We liked to try different things anyway, but by that point we were getting pressured and I think we’d lost our own direction a little bit. I think ‘Midnight’ fitted in with the side of our music that came from the Shangri-La’s, but it was just produced in a way that I didn’t really like, you know, that sorta early-Eighties production style.
You said you thought the band had lost its’
direction a bit by then… is that what led to the end of the band ?
Fay : Yeah, that could’ve been a bit of it. I think a lot of bands who’d come out of the punk era were having difficulties by then, trying to figure out how to carry on. I remember I felt like I didn’t really have a place in music at that time… in fact, I didn’t do music at all for years after The Revillos. I went and did other things and I just felt, like, that’s over with. No-one’s interested in me or our music anymore, and I’m not interested in it, either. I just felt like, that was what I’d done in that period of my life, and now I wanted to do something different. So I went on to try other things, I tried acting for a while, but I didn’t really like that, and after a while, it seemed that music started drawing us back in. So I started to dabble a bit in music, although not in a very serious way. It probably seemed quite a long time, back then, but it really wasn’t that long, and it seemed that people started getting interested in us doing something again. At first, people seemed more interested in The Revillos, particularly in Japan, so we all sorta agreed to do something again. It seemed like quite a big deal to get back together again, because we’ve all got a lot of other interests and we also do other things, but my commitment to The Rezillos and The Revillos music has always been there. Maybe it went into a sorta fallow period for a few years, but it’s now come back in full force. I sorta find it interesting that although I decided back then that I didn’t want to play music anymore, it eventually came back to plague me, just like it was a birthright and I had to do it. It wasn’t even up to me whether I should do it or not !
Eugene : I think too many people can get precious about things, just because they want to preserve you as some little memory, but to us, it’s not about sticking pictures in an album. It’s about what we’re doing now, and moving on.
You mentioned about The Revillos reforming, first in 1994 for some dates in Japan, and then in 1996 for some UK shows. How did that actually come about ?
Fay : It was prompted by all the interest we were getting from Japan, and that seemed like quite a big thing, so we went over there and played in 1994. Then a little while later, we decided to do the two nights at the Bottom Line in London.
Certainly, the gigs in London went down really well, and everyone expected you to continue in some form after that… why didn’t you do anything else ?
Fay : Well,it was very interesting… I think one of the problems was that, although we got back together and there seemed to be a lot of interest in the band, some of the people involved just didn’t want to do anything new. Me and Eugene did, and I think there was a lot of potential, but some of the other people in the band didn’t seem to want anything to change at all. They wanted everything to stay the same, so it became quite difficult to get things moving.
Eugene : There was also a bit of a weird thing because my brother, Nicky, played drums in the Revillos, and he was instrumental in getting those London gigs together. But when I saw the press release that he wrote for it, he’d said that this was going to be our one and only reunion and that we would never be doing it again ! I just said to him, I don’t remember discussing that ? How come you decided on your own that this was going to be the first and only reunion shows that The Revillos were ever going to do ? That wasn’t his prerogative, but he just said, well, I’m not going to do it anymore… But then it turned out that Jo Callis came to those shows, and afterwards we started to get together to write some new Rezillos songs, even though we didn’t actually reform as a band for another five years…
Fay : I think the problem with The Revillos at that time was that Nicky just wanted things to stay as they’d been and that was it. I thought that was quite a self-destructive way of looking at things. But our interests were in being creative, even though we’re singers rather than instrumentalists. We’ve always wanted to keep the thing moving. So things just didn’t happen for The Revillos, even though the reunions had been great. And then The Rezillos started to tentatively come together again.
I think that’s always the dilemma that bands have when they decide to reform, should they start to write and record new music or just stick to what they’re already known for ? From the audience’s point of view, it’s often great to see a band who you never got to see originally, but if they just carry on playing the same set again and again, it can become less enticing…
Fay : I think that’s right, and I think with us, when we first started playing again, there was some kind of novelty to it and we were getting pretty big audiences, but then it started to go down a bit. Since then, we’ve sorta hit a plateau and it’s stayed the same. Obviously, we play in front of bigger audiences when we play at festivals, but in general, we’ve always maintained a healthy audience.
Eugene : And in some places, it’s actually climbing.
Fay : I think we’ve actually gone past that stage where people wanted to see us just to tick-off the list, as it were, and people are now wanting to come and see us just because we’re a great live, rock’n’roll band. And on top of that, we are doing some new things, which I’ve wanted to do for a long time, even though there was some resistance from some people. I think this is actually going to generate more interest, and it’ll give us more things to talk about. There’s going to be twelve songs on the new album, and all of them except one are originals, so we’re really glad that we did it.
Fay : Yeah, that could’ve been a bit of it. I think a lot of bands who’d come out of the punk era were having difficulties by then, trying to figure out how to carry on. I remember I felt like I didn’t really have a place in music at that time… in fact, I didn’t do music at all for years after The Revillos. I went and did other things and I just felt, like, that’s over with. No-one’s interested in me or our music anymore, and I’m not interested in it, either. I just felt like, that was what I’d done in that period of my life, and now I wanted to do something different. So I went on to try other things, I tried acting for a while, but I didn’t really like that, and after a while, it seemed that music started drawing us back in. So I started to dabble a bit in music, although not in a very serious way. It probably seemed quite a long time, back then, but it really wasn’t that long, and it seemed that people started getting interested in us doing something again. At first, people seemed more interested in The Revillos, particularly in Japan, so we all sorta agreed to do something again. It seemed like quite a big deal to get back together again, because we’ve all got a lot of other interests and we also do other things, but my commitment to The Rezillos and The Revillos music has always been there. Maybe it went into a sorta fallow period for a few years, but it’s now come back in full force. I sorta find it interesting that although I decided back then that I didn’t want to play music anymore, it eventually came back to plague me, just like it was a birthright and I had to do it. It wasn’t even up to me whether I should do it or not !
Eugene : I think too many people can get precious about things, just because they want to preserve you as some little memory, but to us, it’s not about sticking pictures in an album. It’s about what we’re doing now, and moving on.
You mentioned about The Revillos reforming, first in 1994 for some dates in Japan, and then in 1996 for some UK shows. How did that actually come about ?
Fay : It was prompted by all the interest we were getting from Japan, and that seemed like quite a big thing, so we went over there and played in 1994. Then a little while later, we decided to do the two nights at the Bottom Line in London.
Certainly, the gigs in London went down really well, and everyone expected you to continue in some form after that… why didn’t you do anything else ?
Fay : Well,it was very interesting… I think one of the problems was that, although we got back together and there seemed to be a lot of interest in the band, some of the people involved just didn’t want to do anything new. Me and Eugene did, and I think there was a lot of potential, but some of the other people in the band didn’t seem to want anything to change at all. They wanted everything to stay the same, so it became quite difficult to get things moving.
Eugene : There was also a bit of a weird thing because my brother, Nicky, played drums in the Revillos, and he was instrumental in getting those London gigs together. But when I saw the press release that he wrote for it, he’d said that this was going to be our one and only reunion and that we would never be doing it again ! I just said to him, I don’t remember discussing that ? How come you decided on your own that this was going to be the first and only reunion shows that The Revillos were ever going to do ? That wasn’t his prerogative, but he just said, well, I’m not going to do it anymore… But then it turned out that Jo Callis came to those shows, and afterwards we started to get together to write some new Rezillos songs, even though we didn’t actually reform as a band for another five years…
Fay : I think the problem with The Revillos at that time was that Nicky just wanted things to stay as they’d been and that was it. I thought that was quite a self-destructive way of looking at things. But our interests were in being creative, even though we’re singers rather than instrumentalists. We’ve always wanted to keep the thing moving. So things just didn’t happen for The Revillos, even though the reunions had been great. And then The Rezillos started to tentatively come together again.
I think that’s always the dilemma that bands have when they decide to reform, should they start to write and record new music or just stick to what they’re already known for ? From the audience’s point of view, it’s often great to see a band who you never got to see originally, but if they just carry on playing the same set again and again, it can become less enticing…
Fay : I think that’s right, and I think with us, when we first started playing again, there was some kind of novelty to it and we were getting pretty big audiences, but then it started to go down a bit. Since then, we’ve sorta hit a plateau and it’s stayed the same. Obviously, we play in front of bigger audiences when we play at festivals, but in general, we’ve always maintained a healthy audience.
Eugene : And in some places, it’s actually climbing.
Fay : I think we’ve actually gone past that stage where people wanted to see us just to tick-off the list, as it were, and people are now wanting to come and see us just because we’re a great live, rock’n’roll band. And on top of that, we are doing some new things, which I’ve wanted to do for a long time, even though there was some resistance from some people. I think this is actually going to generate more interest, and it’ll give us more things to talk about. There’s going to be twelve songs on the new album, and all of them except one are originals, so we’re really glad that we did it.
Of course, the other side of this is, if
you’re recording new material after a 30 year gap, how do you maintain the
legacy of the original band whilst still being true to yourselves, now ?
That’s why I was impressed with the ‘Out of This World’ single – it was recognisably The Rezillos whilst still being a step forward…
Eugene : It’s interesting to hear you say that because that’s what we hope for, although it’s difficult for us to really know. I mean, we have our own experiences, we have our own memories, we are basically the same physical frames, and the brains are there to tie it all together. So we have to work out, how are we going to release a second studio album 35 years after the first one. It isn’t unheard-of, but you have to relate the people you are now with the people you were, back then. Firstly, we have our voices, and secondly, we have our attitude, which although they may be more adult now, still relate to what we did before. The worst thing we could do would be to just come back, call ourselves the Rezillos because we know people will still pay to see it, and then go onstage in Val Doonigan cardigans ! Here’s my pipe and my new acoustic numbers ! But it couldn’t be that, because there’s still a part of us that’s never grown up and we’re still into that thing. When you listen to the new songs, I think they’re very much The Rezillos, but with more gravitas, because were more grown-up, more experienced and we know more. So it’s something of a learning curve. People in the audience will know the stuff they’ve already heard and while we don’t want to over-saturate then with new material, we are living, breathing people doing this for creative reasons, and that’s why there has to be new songs. And we’ve found in recent experience that people really like them and think they really fit in well with our older songs, which is a great compliment.
Fay : One thing you have to realise is that, ‘Can’t Stand The Rezillos’ was released in the middle of a huge, cultural movement, so it drew from that power and was characterised by it. That was an incredible time and I don’t think there’s been another movement as powerful as that since rock’n’roll was born. But we don’t have that now and we’re not part of a movement, so it’s a different thing. What it is now is people who were part of a classic band who are still creative and still have something to say, and who still want to do new things. That’s why I think this new album is worthwhile… because it’s not part of any cultural movement, it’s a different thing. It’s stands outside of that, even though it’s connected as well.
Eugene : Absolutely ! That’s why we still do it, because we believe in standing on our own two feet. We don’t need to be supported by some new bandwagon. And I think that’s why the Rezillos reputation has lasted so well. When Punk was happening, I used to get confused as to what we were part of. People would say we were a punk rock group, but where were we in the middle of it all ? It was all part of a big zeitgeist thing that was going on and it was exciting, but sometimes it also felt like we were being swept along in a big flood.
Fay : There was good and bad to that. It was really exciting and fantastic, and that was one of the reasons why we achieved the success that we did, but the other part of being swept along by it is that sometimes, it was difficult to maintain your own identity.
Eugene : People look back at certain musical epochs and it gets re-evaluated to the relevance of today. Some times, good stuff gets forgotten while other things that weren’t so well considered at the time can rise up. But I do feel that the way people consider The Rezillos has actually risen up and maybe people appreciate us more now than they did at the time, when there was so much other stuff vying for attention.
Fay : I think people realise that there’s an integrity to what we’re doing now, and that we’re doing this because we want to do it. None of us have to do this for money, but we have to do it from our own urges to do it.
That’s why I was impressed with the ‘Out of This World’ single – it was recognisably The Rezillos whilst still being a step forward…
Eugene : It’s interesting to hear you say that because that’s what we hope for, although it’s difficult for us to really know. I mean, we have our own experiences, we have our own memories, we are basically the same physical frames, and the brains are there to tie it all together. So we have to work out, how are we going to release a second studio album 35 years after the first one. It isn’t unheard-of, but you have to relate the people you are now with the people you were, back then. Firstly, we have our voices, and secondly, we have our attitude, which although they may be more adult now, still relate to what we did before. The worst thing we could do would be to just come back, call ourselves the Rezillos because we know people will still pay to see it, and then go onstage in Val Doonigan cardigans ! Here’s my pipe and my new acoustic numbers ! But it couldn’t be that, because there’s still a part of us that’s never grown up and we’re still into that thing. When you listen to the new songs, I think they’re very much The Rezillos, but with more gravitas, because were more grown-up, more experienced and we know more. So it’s something of a learning curve. People in the audience will know the stuff they’ve already heard and while we don’t want to over-saturate then with new material, we are living, breathing people doing this for creative reasons, and that’s why there has to be new songs. And we’ve found in recent experience that people really like them and think they really fit in well with our older songs, which is a great compliment.
Fay : One thing you have to realise is that, ‘Can’t Stand The Rezillos’ was released in the middle of a huge, cultural movement, so it drew from that power and was characterised by it. That was an incredible time and I don’t think there’s been another movement as powerful as that since rock’n’roll was born. But we don’t have that now and we’re not part of a movement, so it’s a different thing. What it is now is people who were part of a classic band who are still creative and still have something to say, and who still want to do new things. That’s why I think this new album is worthwhile… because it’s not part of any cultural movement, it’s a different thing. It’s stands outside of that, even though it’s connected as well.
Eugene : Absolutely ! That’s why we still do it, because we believe in standing on our own two feet. We don’t need to be supported by some new bandwagon. And I think that’s why the Rezillos reputation has lasted so well. When Punk was happening, I used to get confused as to what we were part of. People would say we were a punk rock group, but where were we in the middle of it all ? It was all part of a big zeitgeist thing that was going on and it was exciting, but sometimes it also felt like we were being swept along in a big flood.
Fay : There was good and bad to that. It was really exciting and fantastic, and that was one of the reasons why we achieved the success that we did, but the other part of being swept along by it is that sometimes, it was difficult to maintain your own identity.
Eugene : People look back at certain musical epochs and it gets re-evaluated to the relevance of today. Some times, good stuff gets forgotten while other things that weren’t so well considered at the time can rise up. But I do feel that the way people consider The Rezillos has actually risen up and maybe people appreciate us more now than they did at the time, when there was so much other stuff vying for attention.
Fay : I think people realise that there’s an integrity to what we’re doing now, and that we’re doing this because we want to do it. None of us have to do this for money, but we have to do it from our own urges to do it.
Although you’d been playing live together
again for a while, Jo Callis eventually left the band again back in 2010. Why
did he decide to not to continue ?
Eugene : I think he was getting fed-up… Jo had always said he didn’t want the band to rest on its’ laurels, but then, that’s exactly what he did. That was still fun, while it lasted, but then he wanted to go somewhere else, so good luck to him. But to me, it’s actually taken the shackles off the band to some extent, and allowed us to finally record the next album. If he was still in the band, I think it still wouldn’t have happened.
Fay : And I really do think that the band has never been better than it is at the moment. Jim, our guitarist, is absolutely great and we’re really happy with it now.
Eugene : We still have three original members, and really, there were only four continuous members in the band. William Mysterious was in and out of the group, there was another bass player before him, who played on ‘Can’t Stand My Baby’, but it was always the same four, core people. Jo is out of it now, but I think it’s fine that we still have three of the original core members. Jim and Chris, our current bass player, are both fantastic and I think we’re a really strong unit. I don’t think we’ve ever been happier as a group.
Was any of the material on the new album written while Jo was still involved ?
Eugene : ‘Out of This World’ was co-written, as was ‘Number One Boy’ and ‘Yesterday’, but that’s it. At the end of this album, I don’t think there’ll be anything else written with Jo. I think he had a problem song-writing together with us. He did say, once, that he considered himself the songwriter in the group. And maybe he was, originally, but this time around, he didn’t like having to write songs together with me and Fay. Maybe that’s what slowed it down in the end. But we work really well with Jim, so we’re all writing songs again.
So, to finish up, what are the plans for the new album… According to your website, it was originally planned to be released to coincide with this tour…
Eugene : Oops, we’d better update that ! The thing is, we got this new record deal all of a sudden. They’re called Metropolis Records and they’re based in Los Angeles. The album is called ‘Volt’ and they intend to release it in August… at least, that’s the working title, unless we change our minds again. So, the idea is that we’re going to tour in America again, in September, to coincide with that, and then we’ll be playing more shows over here in October and Novemeber. We’re also going to have another new single called ‘Take Me To The Groovy Room’, which will come out around the same time.
And so, we came to the end. I was really grateful for such a lengthy, in depth interview, and really enjoyed being part of it. But with the evening drawing-on and the band having to get themselves ready to play, I took my leave to check out the support band. Los Pepes proved to be a lot of fun, mixing Sixties garage with Ramones style punky-pop to deliver a short sharp set of very cool tunes. In many ways, an ideal warm-up for a band like The Rezillos.
The headline set begins with an exhilarating version of recent single ‘Out of this World’, immediately setting their intent on delivering some great new tracks as well as the classics. ‘Flying Saucer Attack’ and ‘Cold Wars’ follow on, amongst other familiar tracks, before there’s a whole slew of new songs, including ‘Animal’ and ‘Take Me to The Groovy Room’. I’m not just saying this, but the new material really does stand up shoulder-to-shoulder with the old songs, full of energy and great melodies, taking it all one step further while keeping it confidently within the realm of the bands’ legacy. I don’t know what the new studio recordings are going to sound like, but if the live performances are anything to go by, this new album is going to be something special ! The set progresses at a hectic pace, eventually coming to an end with excellent versions of ‘Top of the Pops’, ‘My Baby Does Good Sculptures’, an unexpected cover of ‘River Deep Mountain High’ and a superb ‘Can’t Stand My Baby’. This had easily been the best time I’d seen the band since their reunion and I’d have to agree with their comments earlier on – this may really be the best line-up they’ve ever had ! Sadly, no encore ensues, despite plenty of cheering, and I think that may be down to the venues’ curfew, but the band had already made their mark for the night. Can’t Stand the Rezillos ? Nah, Can’t Wait for the new album !
Eugene : I think he was getting fed-up… Jo had always said he didn’t want the band to rest on its’ laurels, but then, that’s exactly what he did. That was still fun, while it lasted, but then he wanted to go somewhere else, so good luck to him. But to me, it’s actually taken the shackles off the band to some extent, and allowed us to finally record the next album. If he was still in the band, I think it still wouldn’t have happened.
Fay : And I really do think that the band has never been better than it is at the moment. Jim, our guitarist, is absolutely great and we’re really happy with it now.
Eugene : We still have three original members, and really, there were only four continuous members in the band. William Mysterious was in and out of the group, there was another bass player before him, who played on ‘Can’t Stand My Baby’, but it was always the same four, core people. Jo is out of it now, but I think it’s fine that we still have three of the original core members. Jim and Chris, our current bass player, are both fantastic and I think we’re a really strong unit. I don’t think we’ve ever been happier as a group.
Was any of the material on the new album written while Jo was still involved ?
Eugene : ‘Out of This World’ was co-written, as was ‘Number One Boy’ and ‘Yesterday’, but that’s it. At the end of this album, I don’t think there’ll be anything else written with Jo. I think he had a problem song-writing together with us. He did say, once, that he considered himself the songwriter in the group. And maybe he was, originally, but this time around, he didn’t like having to write songs together with me and Fay. Maybe that’s what slowed it down in the end. But we work really well with Jim, so we’re all writing songs again.
So, to finish up, what are the plans for the new album… According to your website, it was originally planned to be released to coincide with this tour…
Eugene : Oops, we’d better update that ! The thing is, we got this new record deal all of a sudden. They’re called Metropolis Records and they’re based in Los Angeles. The album is called ‘Volt’ and they intend to release it in August… at least, that’s the working title, unless we change our minds again. So, the idea is that we’re going to tour in America again, in September, to coincide with that, and then we’ll be playing more shows over here in October and Novemeber. We’re also going to have another new single called ‘Take Me To The Groovy Room’, which will come out around the same time.
And so, we came to the end. I was really grateful for such a lengthy, in depth interview, and really enjoyed being part of it. But with the evening drawing-on and the band having to get themselves ready to play, I took my leave to check out the support band. Los Pepes proved to be a lot of fun, mixing Sixties garage with Ramones style punky-pop to deliver a short sharp set of very cool tunes. In many ways, an ideal warm-up for a band like The Rezillos.
The headline set begins with an exhilarating version of recent single ‘Out of this World’, immediately setting their intent on delivering some great new tracks as well as the classics. ‘Flying Saucer Attack’ and ‘Cold Wars’ follow on, amongst other familiar tracks, before there’s a whole slew of new songs, including ‘Animal’ and ‘Take Me to The Groovy Room’. I’m not just saying this, but the new material really does stand up shoulder-to-shoulder with the old songs, full of energy and great melodies, taking it all one step further while keeping it confidently within the realm of the bands’ legacy. I don’t know what the new studio recordings are going to sound like, but if the live performances are anything to go by, this new album is going to be something special ! The set progresses at a hectic pace, eventually coming to an end with excellent versions of ‘Top of the Pops’, ‘My Baby Does Good Sculptures’, an unexpected cover of ‘River Deep Mountain High’ and a superb ‘Can’t Stand My Baby’. This had easily been the best time I’d seen the band since their reunion and I’d have to agree with their comments earlier on – this may really be the best line-up they’ve ever had ! Sadly, no encore ensues, despite plenty of cheering, and I think that may be down to the venues’ curfew, but the band had already made their mark for the night. Can’t Stand the Rezillos ? Nah, Can’t Wait for the new album !