Holly Beth Vincent (born Holly Beth Cernuto in 1956) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.

In her youth Vincent sang and played drums and guitar in several bands and took part in the Los Angeles punk scene. In 1978, she formed Holly and the Italians and moved to London, England, where the band was welcomed by the British press and gained a recording contract with Virgin Records on the strength of the single "Tell That Girl to Shut Up". Holly and the Italians' debut album The Right to Be Italian had a troubled and long production and was a commercial failure, which led to the band's dissolution at the end of 1981, after a US tour supporting the Clash and the Ramones.

Vincent recorded under her name the album Holly and the Italians in the UK and was then deported to the US by the British authorities. She went to live in New York City, where she was a member of The Waitresses for a short time and played in other local groups. In 1990, she moved to Los Angeles and two years later recorded the album America with a new band that she had formed called The Oblivious. The album Vowel Movement followed in 1994, as a collaboration with Concrete Blonde singer Johnette Napolitano.

Vincent continues to write and record and recently has released albums mainly in digital format, including two collections of tech house music.

Career

Beginnings

Vincent was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1956 to Bob and June Vincent. Her mother was of Swedish and French background and her father, Italian; both of them had been big band singers during the 1940s. At 18, she went to live for a year and half in London, England with Chris Wood and his wife Jeannette; there she auditioned as drummer and met many British musicians, including Mark Knopfler, with whom she started a romantic relationship. Her musical and political preferences placed her within the nascent LA punk scene, gravitating around The Masque club.

Holly and the Italians

In 1978, Vincent formed in Los Angeles the band Holly and the Italians with drummer Steve Young (a.k.a. Steve Dalton), The new band moved to London in early 1979 and Vincent went to live with Knopfler.

Through Oval Records, Holly and the Italians released in December 1979 the single "Tell That Girl to Shut Up", which was a minor hit in the UK and stirred the interest of the British music press. The song was cited by the magazine Mojo as one of the Top 20 Killer New Wave Tracks from the US.

Holly and the Italians went on tour in the UK with the Clash and opened with ska band the Selecter for the American new wave band Blondie at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 22 January 1980, where they were noticed by renowned photographer Lynn Goldsmith.

At the beginning of 1980, Holly and the Italians moved to the US and started recording their debut album, The Right to Be Italian, at Electric Lady Studios in New York City with '60s girl-group producer Shadow Morton. Internal struggles exploded within the group during the recordings and drummer Steve Young quit the band, replaced by Mike Osborn. with the album peaking only at No. 177 on the US Billboard 200 chart. The Right to Be Italian was re-evaluated in modern times and considered a pop punk masterpiece. It appears at No. 40 in the article "60 Great Albums You've Probably Never Heard" by Jody Rosen from the November 18, 2013, issue of New York Magazine.

Holly and the Italians went on tour in the US and in August 1980 played the major Heatwave festival near Toronto. The band notably toured with the Selecter, opened for the Clash during their Sandinista! tour pre-Bonds shows in New York City and appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test TV show on May 12. After a few more dates in the US in summer 1981, Holly and the Italians were reduced to Vincent and Sidgwick Vincent broke up with him by phone while Dire Straits were on tour. Knopfler's lyrics for Dire Straits song "Romeo and Juliet" are about their failed romance. The B-side features the song "One More Dance", the last appearance to date of Holly of the Italians on vinyl.

In London, she also worked on a second release to fulfill the two-album deal contract with Virgin Records. The chaos surrounding the release of The Right to Be Italian, its bad critical reception and her breakup with Knopfler were experiences that affected Vincent and her writing greatly. When she went to the US for the album's mixing at Mediasound Studios in New York City a short time later, the British authorities labelled her as an undesirable alien for her reckless behavior during her stay in the country, making her return impossible. Virgin Records did not renew her contract and she remained in New York City, where she tried to set up a new version of the Italians.

In 1984, she was invited by Chris Butler to front the post-punk band The Waitresses after the departure of lead singer Patty Donahue; she became a member for a few weeks before the return of Donahue. In that period, she sang in a combo called the Wild Things with Anthony Thistlethwaite (The Waterboys) and Mick Taylor (The Rolling Stones), which released the song "Siberian Mines". She was also in a band with her brother Nick called Bikey that played only one show. The album was released in September 1993 on Daemon Records and received good reviews. The Oblivious were chosen as support band for Concrete Blonde's final tour, thanks to Vincent's acquaintance with Concrete Blonde vocalist Johnette Napolitano from the late 70s, when both worked as waitresses at the same Mongolian restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California.

Before Concrete Blonde's disbandment, Vincent and Napolitano teamed up for an album entitled Vowel Movement in early 1994;

Recent activities

With the help of her brother Nick, Vincent produced a collection of demos and unreleased songs titled Demos Federico spanning from 1979 to 1998. The double CD was released in 2003 by Wounded Bird Records. The albums Minnesota-California (2009) and Bad Day Beautiful (2012) were distributed in a similar way.

Starting in 2010, Vincent created autonomously techno and tech house music under the pseudonym Yllohas. and Paperdoll Technologies of 2014.

From 2013 to 2016 Vincent managed her own Bandcamp website, selling her new albums and part of her back catalog in digital format.

She has been voice artist in national commercials for Nike, Nintendo, Pepsi and Squirt.

Equipment

Vincent uses a Squier Stratocaster guitar with a hot rail or a humbucker pickup for extra power.

  • Dead Beat (1994) – "Sometimes"
  • The Boys Club (1997) – "Jesus" (as Vowel Movement)

TV music credits

  • Rich Girls (2003)