{"id":7273,"date":"2025-09-30T11:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T10:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7273"},"modified":"2025-10-05T07:48:30","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T06:48:30","slug":"shindig-168-the-revillos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=7273","title":{"rendered":"Shindig! #168 &#8211; The Revillos"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><strong>If any band to emerge from new-wave lived out Neil Young\u2019s quote about the ditch being a rougher ride but populated by more interesting people, it\u2019s THE REVILLOS. <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Emerging in 1979 from the ashes of The Rezillos, they may have retained the same \u201960s fascination and all but one letter of the name, but this was no straightforward continuation.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Vocalists Fay Fife and Eugene Reynolds would spend the coming years leading the band off the path to rock \u2019n\u2019 roll stardom The Rezillos seemed destined for. In doing so, they released some of the most colourful, underrated music of the period and built a dedicated, \u201cout-there\u201d fanbase.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><strong>SHAUN HAND meets Fife and finds a committed artist behind the kitsch and retro influences. \u201cIf I were to say what\u2019s my favourite out of The Rezillos and Revillos? <\/strong><em><b>Definitely<\/b><\/em><strong> Revillos. I\u2019m very fond of some of those songs. I felt much more at the centre of that\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Revillos Where&#039;s The Boy For Me, Motorbike Beat Live Something Else\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iSawJzJbYXU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The new group officially launched in September \u201979 with \u2018Where\u2019s The Boy For Me?\u2019 and a brief UK tour (which, despite the band\u2019s initial desire to only gig on Fridays and Saturdays, began on a Monday). Punters rocking up to gigs expecting The Rezillos Mk 2, or to at least hear the hits, were in for a shock. The absence not just of old material \u2014 \u201cNot a conscious decision,\u201d shrugs Fife. \u201cAgain, it just never occurred to me.\u201d \u2014 but also of Jo Callis\u2019s Les Paul and Marshall stack had made room for a very different sound to emerge: one still plugged in to the jittery, DIY energy of punk but which leant much further into Fife\u2019s love of \u201960s girl-groups and hers and Reynolds\u2019 passion for \u201960s music and Gerry Anderson TV shows. \u201cBubblegum music from outer space; Johnny &amp; The Hurricanes go psychedelic; Glitter Rock meets The Shangri-La\u2019s,\u201d as Reynolds would tell <em>Fightback <\/em>fanzine in \u201981.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Although an early draft of the song had been rehearsed by The Rezillos, \u2018Where\u2019s The Boy For Me?\u2019 was perfect aural proof of this fresh direction. To record it, Fife and Reynolds had deliberately returned to Barclay Towers, the Edinburgh tenement flat where they\u2019d recorded \u2018I Can\u2019t Stand My Baby\u2019 \u2014 dissatisfaction with the methods and costs involved in recording \u2018Destination Venus\u2019 at Richard Branson\u2019s Manor Studios had been another factor in the split. From its jabbed keyboard intro to its backing harmonies and ironic lyrics, \u2018Where\u2019s The Boy For Me?\u2019 makes little attempt to obscure its influences whilst simultaneously following its own quirky vision (it also remains Fife\u2019s favourite Revillos single). B-side \u2018The Fiend\u2019, meanwhile, is a fantastically demented, sub-two-minute number that sounds like the kind of obscure \u201960s garage single collectors fork out hundreds for.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Like the music, the single\u2019s brightly-coloured sleeve and day-glo video also offered a bold stylistic contrast to most of their other retro-inspired contemporaries, be it the black &amp; white check of 2-Tone or, to quote Paul Weller, the \u201csea of grey parkas\u201d flocking to Jam and mod revival gigs. However, one adjective you should never attribute to The Revillos\u2019 music or image \u2014 as I found out \u2014 is the f-word: fun. Fife is immediately indignant: \u201cPeople have said of music I\u2019ve been involved with, \u2018It just looked like you were having fun.\u2019 Nothing could be further from the truth; I never did the music to have <em>fun<\/em>.\u201d She spits the word out as if it were cold porridge. \u201cWe were an art school band; we were arty people. We were influenced by Pop Art, Expressionism, all sorts of things. Pop Art would look at trivial things and then comment on the triviality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That approach informed their second single, the rollicking \u2018Motorbike Beat\u2019. \u201cEugene and I really liked how loads of my favourite music got all het up about things like motorbikes, cars and kissing,\u201d Fife notes. \u201cA lot of girl-group music seems to be obsessed with things that would otherwise seem trivial. I like things like that; I\u2019m interested in the icons in pop culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The Revillos played \u2018Motorbike Beat\u2019 live on their TV debut, for an episode of <em>Something Els<\/em><i>e<\/i>, which aired two days before Christmas \u201979. Billed alongside fellow Scottish new-wavers The Skids, the contrast between the two bands is telling: while The Skids put in an assured performance, gesturing towards the epic landscapes guitarist Stuart Adamson would traverse with Big Country, The Revillos tear through their two songs with a thrilling, near-frantic energy. Yet they are clearly equally well-drilled: Fife knows where the cameras are every bit as much as Richard Jobson, the band are all in their stage gear, and the singers all have their go-go moves choreographed. It\u2019s as if they\u2019re in their own world, and they\u2019re determined to make the most of every opportunity they get to live inside it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like the creation of another, imagined world. You are right about that,\u201d Fife agrees, allowing me to dig myself out of a fun-shaped hole. To this end, with Fife no longer having the time to make and design her own stage clothes as she once had (\u201cDIY has limits,\u201d as she observes), the band worked with designers in Edinburgh and later further afield to achieve their unique look: \u201cI\u2019ve never been interested in clothes or fashion, but I was interested in wearing odd outfits, you might say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.qobuz.com\/album\/ho4nisaynamva?zone=GB-en\" width=\"378\" height=\"390\">Your browser does not support iframes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Take out a 60-day trial with <a href=\"https:\/\/try.qobuz.com\/shindig\/\">Qobuz<\/a>\u00a0today only through Shindig! to enjoy their vast catalogue, our monthly bespoke playlists, and this very album.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>To read the full article you can order <\/em>Shindig!\u00a0<em>#168 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverbackpublishing.rocks\/product\/shindig_168\/\">here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7273&#038;t=Shindig%21%20%23168%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Revillos&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7273&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F09%2FRez.png&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=Shindig%21%20%23168%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Revillos\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7273&#038;text=New%20post%20on%20our%20site\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Shindig%21%20%23168%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Revillos&#038;body=New%20post%20on%20our%20site:%20https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F7273\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If any band to emerge from new-wave lived out Neil Young\u2019s quote about the ditch being a rougher ride but populated by more interesting people, it\u2019s THE REVILLOS. Emerging in 1979 from the ashes of The Rezillos, they may have retained the same \u201960s fascination and all but one letter of the name, but this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1009,7,1172],"tags":[1216],"class_list":["post-7273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-music-videos","category-qobuz","tag-revillos","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7273"}],"version-history":[{"count":-2,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}