Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Destination Venus...The Rezillos Story... Show # 183


The Rezillos Formed in Edinburgh, Scottland in 1976. The group was Eugene Reynolds (vocals), Fay Fife (Vocals), Jo Callis and Hi-Fi Harris on guitar, Dr. D.K. Symthe (bass), Angel Patterson (drums), William Mysterious (Saxophone), and Gale Warning on backing vocals. The band is associated with the 70's punk and new wave movement, but were quite different. The bands image was more glam than other punk bands at the time. During the bands early live sets they were known for playing covers such as The Dave Clark Five, The Sweet, Screaming Lord Sutch, and Earl Vince and the Valiants (Fleetwood Mac).


In 1977 the band recorded the single "I Can't Stand My Baby" (backed with "I wanna Be Your Man" a Beatles cover) and released it on Sensible Records. The single generated interest in the band and the band would sign to Sire records, who had the likes of Talking Heads, and Ramones. The unexpected success was a shock to the band, who didn't take what they did that seriously. As more interest generated in the band, they would would lose three members (Symthe, Harris, and Warning). The band would then begin work on their debut album with a new line-up, minus three members and Mysterious on bass. The bands second single was "Flying Saucer Attack" backed with "My Baby Does Good Sculptures", the single didn't do too well. In 1978 the band would have a top 20 UK hit with the song "Top of the Pops", reaching number 16. The bands album would be titled Can't Stand the Rezillos and came out in 1978. Around this time Mysterious left as bassist and was replaced by Simon Templar. The single and album versions of "Top of the Pops are different. Mysterious is on the album version while Templar is on the single version. Overall the album is classic album in the punk and new wave categories. It also contains a variety of 60's covers "Glad All Over" (Dave Clark Five), "I Like It" (Gerry & The Pacemakers).


The band would release one final single "Destination Venus". Reynolds and Fife left the group just after The Rezillos debut album and formed a new group titled The Revillos (the name change was due to contract reasons). The other members formed a band called Shake. The Revillos released Rev Up in 1980 and continued a longer career as The Revillos in the 80's and went through numerous line-up changes. In 1979 a live album was released by the band titled Mission Accomplished... But the Beat Goes On. In 1993, Can't Stand the Rezillos : The (Almost) Complete Rezillos was released. The album was the bands first album remastered with songs from their 1979 live album, but not all of the songs from the live album (all the songs couldn't fit onto one CD). The Rezillos reformed in 1994 and 2001 for some live shows and are currently still playing together.

This week was also the second week of the I Am Collecting Beautiful Things challenge. The challenge is no to play the same two bands twice for 4 weeks.

Play List:

1. Big Audio Dynamite - Harrow Road
2. Public Image Limited - Socialist
3. Professionals - Mods, Skins, Punks
4. Devo - Uncontrollable Urge
5. The Network - Supermodel Robots
6. Ultravox! - Rockwrok
7. Diodes - Terminal Rock
8. The Action - TV's on the Blink
9. Bureaucrats - She's an American
10. Crash 80s - Thrills
11. Magazine - Because You're Frightened (BBC Session)
12. Pointed Sticks - Real Thing
13. Stranglers - Sweden (All Quiet on the Eastern Front)
14. XTC - This is Pop
15. Elvis Costello & the Attractions - (I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea
16. The Government - Fire Escape
17. Talking Heads - The Big Country
18. The Police - Bring On the Night
19. Gang of Four - At Home He's a Tourist
20. Rezillos - I Can't Stand My Baby
21. Ride Theory - Great White Shark
22. Misfits - Hybrid Moments
23. The Damned - Your Eyes
24. Motorhead - Love Me Like A Reptile
25. Metallica - Free Speech for the Dumb

Rezillos Videos:

Top of The Pops (On Top of the Pops)
Destination Venus (On Top of the Pops)
My Baby Does Good Sculptures (Live on Old Grey Whistle Test)

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