The first Rezillos gigs in 21 months were both terrific. Was all the travelling worth it? Definitely! The action started on Friday morning with me picking up the 4 US fans who had journeyed over for the dates (Kitty, Tony & Justin from NYC and Andrew from Chicago) from the 3 different flights they were coming in on at Heathrow. What could have been a disaster from a co-ordination viewpoint actually clicked - much though I hate them, what would we do without mobile phones at times like that?! So by 12.30 we were on the road heading up the M1 to Newcastle.
A journey that should have taken 6 hours max ended up taking over 8 due to heavy traffic and some pretty crap driving conditions. The lights of Newcastle were therefore a very welcome sight as we eventually drove over the Tyne bridges and into Jesmond where the gig was to take place in Archer's, a local music pub. The gig had deliberately been kept low key with billings of "Mystery Action" on Rezillos.com for several weeks and "Insangel" on the local promoter's poster with a 1977 vintage Rezillos live photo for artwork. Clearly the locals had figured it all out though, word had spread and 200 tickets had already been sold for the 150 capacity venue a few days before the gig - oh boy!
I'll not spoil the surprise for the people seeing them in Scotland soon by saying too much about the evenings set but, suffice to say, the 5 very strong new songs plus the cover of Edwin Starr's "25 miles" went down very well as did the appearance of the Pretty Thing's "Rosalyn" in a Rezillos set for the first time since 1977!
The Newcastle gig did suffer from a poor pa, a very over sold venue and, by their own admittance a slightly under rehearsed band but it was still a terrific night and I don't think anyone there will have been disappointed. I met a local guy called Steve who told me he'd been waiting 26 years for the gig!
So the next morning it was up and out to head back to London for the show at the LA2/Mean Fiddler/whatever they call the venue now. Fortunately the journey was straight forward, with even time to sample the delights of the "Selectadisc" record store in Nottingham on the way!
The gig wasn't quite sold out but, on a Saturday night ("there's sure gonna be a fight"....we'll come on to that later!) that also saw the Undertones headlining at the much smaller Garage venue in Highbury just a few miles away, it was a very decent turn out and the venue must have been at least 80% full to capacity. The audience was surprisingly wild by London standards with much crowd surfing and at least 4 or 5 stage invaders, including one guy who Eugene rode like a horse during "Destination Venus" and another who Eugene used as a "demonstration prop" to punctuate the second encore of "Head Kicked in Tonight" - ouch! A wild, wild night! The set was also changed around quite a bit from Newcastle and saw the welcome reappearance of "No". The rough edges of the previous show had been smoothed out at soundcheck and the band were on top form.
Anyone going to Sheffield tonight or the Scottish dates in 2 weeks time should prepare themselves for a real treat! Be sure to take some of your christmas pressie cash with you too as there's a very nice line in t-shirts and other stuff on Willy's merch stall.
So what does the future hold? A recent Radio Clyde session and interview with Billy Sloan should be broadcast very soon and 2005 will see the release of this session together with the bands 2 John Peel sessions from 1977 and 1978 on the Damaged Goods label under the billing of "Rezillos Radio Times". Next year will also see a return visit to the US for another tour following on from the successes of the bands 2002 trip.
Anyone who's a fan of high energy live shows in a rocky/poppy/punk style will still love the Rezillos!
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Just to close off on the "Rezillos Wild UK Weekend" here's what Kitty from The Kowalskis had to say about last nights gig in Sheffield:
"We got to Sheffield with about 15 minutes to spare, and we brought our
friends Scotty and Jenni Ramone in tow....the show was not sold out but
there were plenty of people there.
We were told up front that they would play a shortened set due to a curfew,
and not play "Somebody's gonna get their head kicked in tonight".
They opened with "Glad all over" and then played "Good Sculptures". Jo Callis
said afterwards that he needed more stage lighting as he could not see what
he was playing. They could not add more lighting, so one audience
member suggested "Set Fire To Things"!! The band joked about this and it
became a recurring theme during the set.
They played "Flying Saucer Attack", "Gettin Me Down" and "25 Miles". Faye joked that they were to going to Set fire to things, but to cool them down and then they played Cold Wars, followed by the new song "Yesterday's Tormentor".
Jo was wearing his kilt again, and at a couple of points during the
show, Faye lifted it to reveal his bum!
They also played "No", which they did not play in Newcastle, and the single
version of "Top of the Pops". They finished off the set with "Mystery
Action", "Bad Guy Reaction" and "Can't Stand my Baby".
The crowd was cheering and going nuts when they left the stage, so they
came back. They asked the crowd to be utterly silent, as they said
they were going to play a quiet song. Someone in the crowd jokingly sang
a line from the Human League's "Don't You Want Me". The band then
ripped into "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In...". They followed
that up with a new song, "Only in Your Dreams" & then left the stage
once again.
The crowd's cheers got them back out again for an opus version of
"Destination Venus". In the breakdown, Faye took Jo's guitar and started to
play it. Jo climbed up on top of the Platform with the PA. Eugene
climbed up on the platform on the other side of the stage. Faye was
wailing on the guitar. Jo was trying to get it back, and Faye playfully
tagged him with the headstock and then ran away. Jo finally got it
back and they finished up the song with the outro. One fan jumped on
stage and tried to steal Eugene's glasses - he was not too pleased about
that!
After the show we bought posters and talked to Eugene. We asked if the
band could sign them, and when he tried getting us backstage, this
massive bouncer would not let us back, so Eugene took the posters back for
us. The goons kicked everyone out shortly afterward.
Anyway, great show! Band really got into it at the end, and it was great to see them go off and get loose!
kitty
http://www.fotolog.net/kittykowalski
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