The Rezillos are a punk and new wave band formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1976. Although emerging at the same time as other bands in the punk rock movement, the Rezillos did not share the nihilism or social commentary of their contemporaries. Instead, the band took a more light-hearted approach in their songs; at the time, they preferred to describe themselves as "a new wave beat group". Their songs are heavily influenced by 1950s rock and roll, 1960s English beat music and garage rock, early 1970s glam rock, with recurring lyrical themes of science fiction and B movies; their influences mirrored those of US bands the Cramps and the B-52s, who were starting out at the same time. The Rezillos' biggest hit in their home country was the UK Top 20 single "Top of the Pops" in 1978, but they are best known outside the UK for their cover version of "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight", which was featured on the soundtrack to Jackass: The Movie in 2002. Since the Rezillos recorded it, the song has been covered by other punk bands, including Youth Brigade and Murphy's Law.

Released in July 1978, the Rezillos' first studio album Can't Stand the Rezillos is considered a classic album of the first wave of British punk, but the group split up four months after its release, following internal arguments about their future direction. After the Rezillos split, the band's guitarist and principal songwriter, Jo Callis, briefly joined a couple of unsuccessful Edinburgh post-punk groups before being invited to join The Human League. He went on to co-write some of The Human League's best known songs during their most successful period, including their biggest worldwide hit, "Don't You Want Me". The Rezillos' vocalists, Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife, formed the Revillos, a group with an ever-changing line-up that continued where the Rezillos left off. The Revillos split up in 1985, briefly reforming in 1994 for a tour of Japan, and again in 1996 for a UK tour. In 2001 the Rezillos reformed after being invited to play at Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations, and have continued to play live ever since, as well as releasing new singles occasionally.

History

The Rezillos (1976–1978)

The group started life at Edinburgh College of Art, where most of the Rezillos' original line-up were studying. During 1975 art students Jo Callis and Alan Forbes had been in a college group named The Knutsford Dominators, a party band playing 1950s and 1960s rock and roll cover versions: Forbes was originally one of the group's two drummers. The Knutsford Dominators were short-lived, but Callis and Forbes wanted to carry on making music in a similar vein. The pair recruited local bass player Dave Smythe and fellow student Mark Sinclair Harris, who was studying architecture at the college, The band name was adapted from the name of a club called "Revilos" that appeared in the first issue of the DC Comics publication The Shadow in November 1973. At the start, Callis, Forbes and Harris shared vocal duties, but as all of them found it difficult to play an instrument and sing at the same time, Forbes switched to vocals full-time and was replaced on drums by Alasdair Paterson, another Edinburgh College of Art architecture student. By August 1976 the band had recruited saxophonist Alastair Donaldson, a friend of Paterson who was an architecture student from neighbouring Heriot-Watt University taking some of his classes at the college, and who had previously played with Edinburgh folk rock band Silly Wizard. Forbes had also introduced two fashion design students named Sheilagh Hynd and Gail Jamieson (aka Gayle Warning) to the group as backing singers.

Each member took on stage names for the new band: Forbes had re-christened himself Eugene Reynolds after the name of somebody he met during his summer job, Callis and Jamieson used the punning names of Luke Warm and Gail Warning. Bass player William Mysterious left the Rezillos, frustrated at the lack of activity, and the band brought in Simon Templar (real name Simon Bloomfield) to replace him. They did, however, reunite to play the last scheduled date of the aborted tour at the Glasgow Apollo on 23 December 1978, as a farewell concert. The show featured guest spots by former members William Mysterious on saxophone and Gail Warning on backing vocals. The concert was recorded and released in April 1979 as the live album Mission Accomplished ... But the Beat Goes On. After briefly playing in Edinburgh post-punk band Boots for Dancing, Callis was invited to join The Human League by their manager Bob Last, just as The Human League were embarking on their most successful period of their career (Last had also been the Rezillos' manager). Callis left The Human League in 1985 (although he continued to write songs for them) and rejoined Paterson and some of his former Boots for Dancing bandmates in a new band called S.W.A.L.K., but the band split after releasing just one six-track mini-album.

Sire agreed to release Reynolds and Fife from their contract, providing that the pair did not use the name "The Rezillos". Joining up with former bandmate Hi-Fi Harris and Reynolds' brother Rocky Rhythm (real name Nicky Forbes) on drums, they renamed themselves the Revillos, and continued to make music in a similar style to their former band. The line-up was the same as on the Can't Stand the Rezillos album except for Johnny Terminator (real name Johnny Brady) replacing Mysterious on bass. The success of the Hogmanay concert led to concerts in Europe, the US, South America and Japan, often to younger crowds introduced to the band by the use of their track "Somebody's Gonna Get their Head Kicked in Tonight" in Jackass: The Movie. The Rezillos had only ever played two gigs outside the UK previously, one in France and one at CBGB during the recording of the album in New York.

In 2008 Johnny Terminator retired from the band and was replaced by Chris Agnew. The Rezillos performed Can't Stand the Rezillos in its entirety on their 2008 UK tour, and in January 2009 a new download only single, "No 1 Boy", was released on the band's website. In 2010, original founding member Jo Callis left the band and was replaced on guitar by Jim Brady (brother of former bassist Johnny Brady), formerly of Nanobots and techno-grunge duo Barky!Barky.

In November 2011 the band were presented with the Sir Reo Stakis Foundation Legend Award at Scotland's Tartan Clef awards, and in December 2011 released a single, "Out Of This World". Unlike "No 1 Boy" the new single was produced in CD and 7" vinyl formats as well as digital download, although delivery of the vinyl was delayed when the pressing plant in the Czech Republic burnt down just a week before the scheduled release date. The single was followed by a December UK tour.

In November 2012, the Rezillos undertook their first full tour of North America.

In November 2018 Jim Brady announced that he was leaving the band; He had been suffering from chronic lung disease.

Post-Rezillos/Revillos careers

  • Eugene Reynolds (Alan Forbes) has a successful business selling Indian motorcycles. As a child he had been fascinated with the motorcycle brand ever since seeing them being ridden on the US airbase near his home in East Anglia, and later set up an import business that helped pay for his studies in Edinburgh. After the Revillos split up he registered the name of the Indian brand in the UK and created a new version of the Indian 4 motorcycle. He also briefly formed a post-Revillos band named Planet Pop.
  • Fay Fife (Sheilagh Hynd) took a post-graduate acting course at Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and appeared in Taggart and The Bill. She later retrained as a clinical psychologist at the University of Edinburgh. In 2016, she formed a new alt-country band named The Countess of Fife. This new band began a crowdfunding project for the recording of their debut album in late 2020.
  • Alasdair "Angel" Paterson completed his architecture degree in Brighton. While on an exchange visit to Bremen he met a German woman whom he later married, moving to Hilgermissen and setting up an architect practice.
  • Simon Bloomfield (Simon Templar) has since worked with Swedish singer and actor Thomaz and pursued a career in sociology.
  • Nicky Forbes (Rocky Rhythm) maintains the official Revillos website and wrote an account of his time in the Revillos, The Rhythm Method, published as a book in 2008. The book launch was promoted by a one-off performance by the surviving key members of the Revillos rhythm section—Rocky Rhythm, Vince Santini and Max Atom—at the 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street, London on 10 June 2008, with Eugene Reynolds making a guest appearance on vocals. Forbes plays in punk band The Pork Dukes (under the name Bonk), as well as self-described "glammabilly" (a mixture of glam rock and rockabilly) band The Roadholders.
  • Jon McLoughlin (Kid Krupa) formed a funk rock band called 2 Tribes, and was a member of Scottish band Del Amitri between 1996 and 1997, playing guitar on their 1997 album Some Other Sucker's Parade. He died in March 2005, aged 41, from complications with diabetes.
  • Dennis Schiavon (Vince Santini) joined The Pork Dukes alongside Forbes in 2008, as well as playing and working for music charities in Hereford.
  • Trevor Sewell (Max Atom) became a lecturer at Northumbria University as well as playing in his own blues band, The Trevor Sewell Band, Trevor Sewell is a Multi Award-winning artist having twice won The Hollywood Music In Media Awards in the category 'Best Blues' 2011 and 2013 and twice won The Artists In Music Awards [Los Angeles] in the category 'Best Blues Artist' in 2013 and 2014. He continues to release music. At the time of writing his latest offering is the album 'Independence’ - released on 21 November 2013.
  • Johnny Brady (Johnny Terminator) plays in the band Johnny 7.

Membership timeline

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bar:White text:"Jane_White"

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Discography

The Rezillos

Albums

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|-

!Year

!Title

!Peak<br />UK chart<br />position

|-

| 1978

| align=left |Can't Stand the Rezillos

  • Released: 21 July 1978
  • Label: Sire Records
  • Format: LP, cassette

| style="text-align:center;"|16

|-

| 1979

| align=left |Mission Accomplished&nbsp;... But the Beat Goes On

  • Released: 13 April 1979
  • Label: Sire Records
  • Format: LP, cassette

| style="text-align:center;"|30

|-

| 1993

| align=left |Can't Stand The Rezillos: The (Almost) Complete Rezillos

  • Released: 1993
  • Label: Sire Records
  • Format: LP, cassette, CD

| style="text-align:center;"|-

|-

| 2015

| align=left |Zero

  • Released: 10 March 2015
  • Label: Metropolis Records
  • Format: LP

| style="text-align:center;"|-

|}

  • Can't Stand the Rezillos was reissued in an expanded form on CD on 23 March 1993 as Can't Stand the Rezillos: The (Almost) Complete Rezillos, consisting of the original album, the single "Destination Venus" and its B-side, and the whole of Mission Accomplished&nbsp;... But the Beat Goes On with the exception of its final track.

Singles

{|class="wikitable"

|-

!Year

!Single

!Peak<br />UK chart<br />position

  • Revillos.co.uk - the Revillos
  • The Rezillos on www.punk77.co.uk
  • davidsmythe.org David Symthe's personal story of how it started