The Rezillos: Top of the Pops (1978)

Well we talked A Lot about the Rezillos earlier (see here) and now now let us give to you something else unavailable since the vinyl era. Speaking of vinyl, The rip of this 1978 single comes from Gary Ching's great lost blog, Always Searching For Music. As the back cover sleeve below indicates the A-side is a different, earlier version of "Top of the Pops" and the B-side, "20,000 Rezillos Under the Sea", is a charming little ditty that rips off any number of old instrumentals and seems to foreshadow the rise of the Revillos*.


Even More Rezillos here!




Speaking of great lost blogs, Punk Friction has a few old Rezillos singles (with Longy's trademark slanted photos) right HERE. And while were doling out links, don't miss founding bass player David Smythe's Rezillos memories HERE.

*P.S. We shall be speaking much more about The Revillos next week (after a short visit from some old and new friends)



Your comments have decisively proved your love for all things Rezillos - please keep it up so MRML can continue to draw deeper from the well of obscurity.

Speaking of those oh-so-encouraging comments, that is the place wherein you will find the Top of the Pops 7" link.


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The Rezillos: I Can't Stand My Baby 7" (1977)

Clearly my obsession with bands from 1976-1981 is an unkillable mania. At the age of sixteen my brain must have been nothing but wet cement. Every punk album I dug out my local record stores by The Clash, The Dickies, The Jam, The Sex Pistols, The Rezillos, Ramones, Buzzcocks, The Skids, The Stranglers, Generation X seems to have vandalized my psyche forevermore. Yes I was listening to lots of hardcore (D.O.A. Descendants, SNFU) and new wave (Devo, The Police, Elvis Costello) glam rock (David Bowie, The Sweet, Mott the Hoople - and Queen - yes all Canadian adolescents of this time did listen to "Bohemian Rhapsody" while in transit, it was not just a figment of Mike Meyers demented imagination) but surely The Rezillos stomped both their novelty-sized clown shoes right into the most pliable spot in my teenage brain, right besides the Ramones' Converse hi-top imprint.



It's kinda like The Rezillos decided to out-do the Ramones on multiple fronts. Not only did they layer in more early-sixties pop influences (Motown, the Joe Meek sound) and steal even more from seventies glam-pop (not only the giant hooks but also the outrageous visual overkill of the genre) but they also decided to take lyrical cues from almost every B-movie genre known to man (not just from horror and war films). Maybe, just maybe, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. was right when he said Can't Stand the Rezillos was "the best album Sire ever put out."



Here's the band's first 7" put out on Sensible Records in June of 1977. While a very different version of "I Can't Stand My Baby" made it onto the album, neither this take, or the whip-buzzin' version of The Beatles "I Wanna Be Your Man" on the flip-side, have ever been re-issued in the digital age.



If you love The Rezillos and want MRML to draw deeper from the well of obscurity, then you need only leave an encouraging comment behind.

Speaking of those oh-so-encouraging comments, that is the place wherein you will find the I Can't Stand My Baby 7" link.

Update: Scroll down the comments for proper link or just go to the next post's comments


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The Rezillos: Cold Wars (1979)

Well we talked A Lot about the Rezillos earlier (see here) and now now let us give to you the 1979 Cold Wars 7" which contains a live version of "Flying Saucer Attack" and a smashing live version of "Twist & Shout" neither of which have never seen re-release. (Y'know who ever compiled that "(Almost) Complete Rezillos CD really needs a sharp history lesson up the arse.)

Even More Rezillos here!



If you love The Rezillos and want MRML to draw deeper from the well of obscurity, then you need only leave an encouraging comment behind.

Speaking of those oh-so-encouraging comments, that is the place wherein you will find the Cold Wars 7" link.


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V.A. Scottish Kultchur (1979)

An obscure '79 compilation that features rarities by true Scotsmen(and women!) like The Rezillos (more HERE!) Boots for Dancing (more HERE), Future Waterboy Mike Scott's Another Pretty Face (see here) and The Cheetas (see here).



The comp jerks from pub-rock, to post-punk, to power-pop to mod to synth-pop to make sure it gives good report of the Scottish musical Kulthcur of its time.


Rezilos fans need to note that these otherwise-unavailable takes of "Getting Me Down" and "Good Sculptures are from a VERY early version of the band and have a way more more pub-rock feel.


A1 Rezillos – Can't Stand My Baby
A2 Another Pretty Face – All The Boys Love Carrie
A3 Boots For Dancing – Ooh Bob Sahbam
A4 A.P.B. – Shoot You Down
A5 Cheetahs – Radio Active
A6 Rezillos – Getting Me Down
A7 Raj Academy – Brighten Your Shoes To Dance
A8 Synthetic Dreams – U+500
A9 Electric Personalities – Hot Spot
B1 Boots For Dancing – Shadows In Stone
B2 Rezillos – Good Sculptures
B3 Squibs – Parades
B4 Brills – Gang Of One
B5 Itai Itai – Neon Dreams And Science Fiction
B6 Synthetic Dreams – Voices
B7 Neon Barbs – Break Your Chains
B8 Itai Itai – Kultchur


So what do you make of this take on Scottish Kultchur? Let us know in the COMMENTS (which is also where you will find the link to the album).

Rezillos: Flying Saucer Attack (1977)

Well we talked A Lot about the Rezillos earlier (see here) and now now let us give to you the the original, as yet not officially digitized,"Flying Saucer Attack" b/w "(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures" 7".



Both songs were cut on the cheap in 1977 a year before the band re-recorded them with legendary big money producers Bob Clearmountain (for more on The Clearmountain Pause go here) and Tony Bonigiovi (brother of the man known as Jon Bon Jovi!).

Even More Rezillos here!



Your comments prove you DO love The Rezillos - please keep it up so MRML can draw deeper from the well of obscurity.

Speaking of those oh-so-encouraging comments, that is the place wherein you will find the Flying Saucer Attack 7" link.




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Rezillos: Get Hip (1977)

Well we talked A Lot about the Rezillos earlier (see here) and now now let us give to you a bootleg of the band live in Paisley, Scotland in October of 1977.

Even More Rezillos here!



Your comments have decisively proved your love for all thinga Rezillos - please keep it up so MRML can continue to draw deeper from the well of obscurity.

Speaking of those oh-so-encouraging comments, that is the place wherein you will find the Get Hip link.


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The Revillos: Wireless Recordings

We all know how in pop music strength of personality can outshine sheer talent. This was the lesson Jo Callis must've taken from The Rezillos (more HERE). After all, when Callis departed he took the best players with him to form Shake, a band that really didn't do anything of the sort (More Shake HERE). It was only when he draped his talents over the flamboyant Phillip Oakley (and his two back-up fashion plates) in the Human League (more HERE). that he got to step onto the world stage.



But what of the fashion-renegades, what of Fay Fife and Eugene Reynolds? Well they designed a new band, using old Rezillos Hi-Fi Harris on guitar and William Mysterious on bass alongside Rocky Rhythm on drums and Kid Krupa as the boy guitar whiz (plus two Revettes on backing vocals!). And as for the music, the band hardly suffered as Fife and Reynolds unveiled a killer line of retro-modern songs, though this design team did have a tendency of borrowing accessories from many early sixties figures (Phil Spector, Joe Meek plus numerous one-hit wonders) and never returning them.



So what we have here is a way-out-of-print collection ($600.00 on Amazon!) of sixteen BBC recording from as far back as 198o and stretching to 1996. Since the band were studio obsessives, you can bet that each of these versions are substantially different as the band takes advantage of the new environment.


So what do you think of the switch from The ReZillos to The ReVillos? Let us know in the comments.

Speaking of comments, that is the section where the link for Wireless Recordings (1980-1996) resides.

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Shake: Culture Shock 10" (1979)

The Rezillos split in half in 1978. Fay Fife, Eugene Reynolds and original Rezillo, Hi-Fi Harris, formed the similarly-retro-fitted band The Revillos (who had to change their name for contractual reasons) while Jo Callis brought along Simon Templar and Angel Patterson to his new band, Shake. Shake, like all Callis' projects were a pop band, but without a strong personality to bring it all home. Unsurprisingly, as Callis was both bands' chief song-writer, Shake sound a lot like The Rezillos - who even played the song "Culture Shock" at their farewell show in 1978 - but with less exuberance and less theatricality.


Leave us a comment on what you make of the post-Rezillos work of Jo Callis and Shake.

Speaking of comments, that's the section where you'll find the Culture Shock 10" link.

The Rezillos: Peel Sessions (1977-1978) + Link fix!

Well we talked A Lot about the Rezillos earlier (see here) and now now let us give to you the band's two Peel Sessions!



30/12/1977
* (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures
* No
* Fight Amongst Yourselves
* Top Of The Pops

08/06/1978
* Cold Wars (Have Cooled Me Down)
* Destination Venus
* Somebody's Gonna Get Their Heads Kicked In Tonight
* I Can't Stand My Baby (Sould Version)

If you love The Rezillos and want MRML to draw deeper from the well of obscurity, then you need only leave an encouraging comment behind.

Speaking of those oh-so-encouraging comments, that is the place wherein you will find the Peel Sessions Link AND the I Can't Stand My Baby 7" link.


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The Rezillos: Out of This World 7" (2011)

Catchy, boppy and just a little bit spooky - The Rezillos (more HERE) revival rolls on!!





Stream the single at Just Add Music, buy at Amazon or Itunes.

William Mysterious: Security of Noise 7'' (1982)

 (all scans and rips by Roberto!)

William Mysterious (a.k.a. Alastair Donaldson) who played with Scottish folk band Silly Wizard before becoming the bassist (and sax player) for both The Rezillos and The Revillos has died (obituary). His role in The Rezillos and The Revillos was no mystery; he had to keep the flighty zaniness of Fay Fife and Eugene Reynolds grounded. And oh did he lash their day-glo flights-of-fancy like "(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures" right to the earth so they could bounce around in front of our ears.





This obscure 1982 single on Mysterious' own Mezzanine Records, featuring a backing assist by Fay Fife and The Revettes, is Mysterious' sole solo release.





Feel free to share your thoughts on the work of Mr. Mysterious in the COMMENTS section.  


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The Rezillos: Cold Wars (Live, 1979)

Back when I was on my first Rezillos tear (see HERE) , Ian P. forwarded me this version of the Cold Wars 7" wherein each track (including the A-side) are from the band's final gig at The Glasgow Apollo on December 23rd 1978!

A           Cold Wars        
B1         Flying Saucer Attack        
B2         Twist And Shout

PLEASE LEAVE US A COMMENT ON ALL THIS REZILLO-IAN GOODNESS (speaking of those oh-so-encouraging comments, that is the place wherein you will find the [live] Cold Wars 7" link.)

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