Posts Tagged ‘The Revillos’

The Revillos

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

Listen: Scuba Scuba / The Revillos
Scuba

Here’s the deal. I love The Revillos. And I love The Rezillos. Basically, same band. If memory serves me well, they changed their name, well one letter of it, to get out of an old record deal, and into a new one. I didn’t bother to Wikipedia this detail, so maybe I’m dreaming. But I don’t think so.

A few years back, The Rezillos came to New York, probably the entire USA, I’m actually not sure. All I know is, there was no way I was about to miss that one.

You know, these things can be wicked bad when a band is so far along from their heyday. Not the case here.

Wow! They were just tremendous live. Almost as though not a day had past since…whenever it was they last played as a current act.

Very bizarre that a whole band, a decade or more on, look exactly the same, plus play faster and tighter than ever. If a one sentence review was needed, there you have it. Plus no new songs to drag and scrape the audience through either, just the hits.

After the show, I wormed my way into the dressing room. What a great bunch of folks, so appreciative, so kind, so lovely.

I could have written about any 45 they’d released. All great. All musts.

I had one jukebox tab, and chose ‘Scuba Scuba’ for Fay to sign. Luckily, she remembered the B side.

Above: Jukebox Tab signed by Fay Fife

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

Listen: She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man / Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages ScreamingLordMonster.mp3

I finally got around to reading the Screaming Lord Sutch feature in the June issue of MOJO. Try to do the same, maybe it’s even online. A few priceless pictures and so many stunning details, I really don’t know where to start. He was everything I already knew and way more as well. Some of the live show descriptions and antics, well we now know where Alice Cooper got more than one idea. Don’t blame him for lifting a few, they’re just too good to waste. Okay, here’s a tiny bit: “cherry food dye, cold scrambled eggs with a few masticated inches of seaside rock and it’ll look like you’re spitting out teeth”.

No question about it, his recordings were made very inexpensively, several produced by Joe Meek, complete with dreadful sound effects – and I mean that in a good way. As the ’70′s arrived, more than one act paid respects. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, The Damned and The Revillos even covered and released as their A side as well, ‘She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man’. You’d think the song was written just for them listening to the original above.

Listen: Dracula’s Daughter / Screaming Lord Sutch ScreamingLordDracula'sDaughter.mp3

So many soon to be name musicians passed through the ranks of being Savages in the ’61 – ’63 period, prior to their own later successes. The list, also in the article, is long and fairly jaw dropping. Jimmy Page plays lead on ‘She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man’, and Jeff Beck on ‘Dracula’s Daughter’. Even then, in ’64, his style was recognizable and it’s easy to see how much he moulded The Yardbirds’ sound from one listen.

The usually precise MOJO does flub one detail. ‘Dracula’s Daughter’ was not his last for Decca, it was his first for Oriole after being dropped by Decca. While I’m at it, the above Cameo Parkway 7″ is the only US release from his period with The Savages.

Shonen Knife

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

ShonenKnife, Shonen Knife

Listen: Twist Barbie / Shonen Knife ShonenTwistBarbie.mp3

I saw them first on 120 Minutes, that buried after midnight on Sundays MTV show, where they played all the left of center stuff. Their pictures were fantastic, remember all the colors and outfits? The video was a riot. Soon after, they came to NY – they had supported The Ramones in Japan and Joe was raving about them – we couldn’t get there fast enough. What a blast – a Japanese Revillos. We hung backstage later. They just gawked in awe of Joe and I fell I love three times in under 15 minutes, while we both ate more than our share of the red velvet cake the promoter had gifted the band.

‘Twist Barbie’ is absolutely one of the best singles ever. Still sounds brand new.