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.
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