The Rezillos and The Mekons Newcastle City Hall 30th November 1978
The Rezillos had appeared at the City Hall the year before as support to the Ramones. This time they returned as headliners, riding on the success of their “Top of the Pops” single. The Rezillos were a wonderful quirky punk / new wave act from Edinburgh who took a much more light-hearted approach to their music than many other bands of the time. They were fronted by vocalist Fay Fife, who seemed to me to be a cross between Lulu, Twiggy, Sandie Shaw and Mary Quant; fellow singer Eugene Reynolds, who was a very cool cross between James Dean and Steve Zodiac, and guitarist Jo Callis, who went on to join the Human League. Their influences came through very clearly as 60s pop, rock n roll, and B movie sci-fi. The Rezillos split shortly after this tour, to re-emerge with a new line-up as The Revillos. “Top of the Pops” was their biggest hit, but their earlier singles “Can’t Stand my Baby” and “(My baby does) Good Sculptures” were also both good clean fun, as were their covers of Fleetwood Mac’s “Somebody’s Gonna Get their Head Kicked in Tonight”, The Dave Clark Five’s “Glad All Over” and Gerry and the Pacemakers’ “I Like It”. The album “Can’t Stand the Rezillos” is generally recognised as a classic of its genre and era. The Mekons were a punk band formed by a group of Leeds University students ; quite left wing and noisy as I recall. They continue to this day, and are now based in Chicago. A fun night for all super sci-fi pop hipsters.
PS The Rezillos have recently reformed and are gigging again.
28 Mar
Vintagerock's Weblog. 
Posted by Mitch on March 28, 2014 at 9:25 am
I was at this show. The Undertones supported The Rezillo’s on several dates on their 1978 tour but they did not play at Newcastle City Hall. The Mekons were great though.
The Rezillo’s set list at this concert was –
Thunderbirds Are Go, Mystery Action, Somebodys Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite, Getting Me Down, Cold Wars, Bad Guy Reaction, Teenbeat, Flying Saucer Attack, 2000 AD, No, Culture Shock, Good Sculptures, Top Of The Pops, Destination Venus.
Encores: I Need You, I Can’t Stand My Baby, Land Of A Thousand Dances, Glad All Over, Ballroom Blitz, Don’t You Just Know It.
Posted by vintagerock on March 28, 2014 at 9:27 am
Aha you know I wondered if the Undertones played. The adverts I found said they did…my memory really is getting worse 🙂 thanks Will update Peter
Posted by stoney on July 10, 2014 at 7:33 pm
I saw the Rezzilos at the rock garden Middlesbrough, I can remember seeing Fay putting her make up on in the car outside, good memories of a great era.
Stoney
Posted by vintagerock on July 10, 2014 at 7:39 pm
Hi I loved the Rezillos and was probably at the sane gig. Happy days Peter
Posted by Ted on June 24, 2017 at 2:27 am
The Undertones were supposed to play, but had to appear on TOTP’s as teenage kicks had entered the charts (Rezillos and Undertones both being on Sire at the time) hence the support slot for the tour. I was at both the City Hall (supporting the Ramones and farewell tour) and Rock Garden gig and they told me that they got chased after the RG gig by locals out to ‘get the punks’. I remember the RG not being very friendly if you weren’t local
Posted by vintagerock on June 24, 2017 at 1:46 pm
Happy days Ted Yes the Rock Garden was a scary place, but I had some great nights there and some great gigs. Where did the years go?