The Revillos!

Created almost immediately after the breakup of the brilliant but short-lived Scottish punk band the Rezillos, the Revillos essentially picked up where the earlier band left off, with a similar fusion of punk speed and agility, the sweet tunefulness of '60s pop and girl group sounds, and a loving embrace of kitschy junk culture in various forms. The Revillos did up the ante on the earlier group's passion for vintage science fiction (the cheesier the better), but otherwise, 1980's Rev Up and 1982's Attack! sounded much like the second and third studio albums the Rezillos never got to make. The group split in 1985, but reunited many times for tours and 2003's Jungle of Eyes album. The Rezillos played their final show in December 1978, and the Revillos were formed in March 1979 by the original group's vocalists, Eugene Reynolds (born Alan Forbes) and Fay Fife (born Sheilagh Hynde). Sire Records agreed to release the Rezillos from their contract under the condition Reynolds and Fife didn't use the band's name, which led to the token change in billing. Guitarist Hi Fi Harris, drummer Rocky Rhythm (who was also Reynolds' brother), and three backing singers -- Jane White, Jane Brown, and Tricia Bryce -- completed the group's new lineup. Within months, the latter trio had been replaced by singers Babs and Cherie Revette. The Revillos made their debut with the 1979 single "Where's the Boy for Me"; while it recalled the best of the previous band, it failed to emulate their success. Internal friction undermined the unit's genuine potential -- guitarists, bass players, and singers were replaced with regularity as core members Reynolds, Fife, and Rhythm pursued their vision. Their first album, 1980's Rev Up, successfully captured the Revillos' pumped-up mixture of girl group, beat, and science fiction, but Dindisc Records (who distributed the Snatzo Recordi label, a custom imprint established for the band by Dindisc's parent label, Virgin Records) was unhappy with the sales figures, and the label soon cut ties with the band. Undeterred, the group inaugurated their own label, Superville Records, for their second long-player, 1982's Attack! However, the album was soon withdrawn when the label's financiers sent the LP out in incomplete form. (An authorized version would appear on CD in 2002.) They embarked on two grueling tours of the U.S. and Canada, which they financed themselves, but an anticipated record deal failed to materialize. The strain of touring, the frequent lineup changes, and the breakup of Reynolds and Fife's personal relationship all took a toll on the Revillos, and the band called it a day in 1985. The Revillos continued to have a strong fan base in Japan, and in 1994, they reunited for a Japanese tour. Live & On Fire in Japan documented a Tokyo date from the road trip and was released in 1995. Reynolds and Fife would periodically re-form the band for live dates, resulting in another live album, Totally Alive, while 1999's Wireless Recordings was drawn from BBC radio sessions, and two collections of singles and rarities appeared, From the Freezer and Attack of the Giant Revillos. In 2003, Reynolds and Fife returned to the studio to cut a third Revillos album, Jungle of Eyes, though they were the only original members to appear on the set. Reynolds and Fife revived the Rezillos in 2015 with guitarist and songwriter Jo Callis for an international tour and a new album, Zero. 2019 saw the release of Live from the Orient, a remixed and expanded version of the Live & On Fire in Japan recordings, as well as a reissue of From the Freezer, and yet another rarities set, Compendium of Weird, all from the British label Damaged Goods. Keeping the reissue train chugging along, Cherry Red issued a six-disc collection in April 2020; titled Stratoplay: The Box Set, the release gathered all the band's official studio recordings, two live sets from the '90s, and audience recordings of two early-'80s shows.
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