The Next Big Thing

Mr Percival's REZILLO reportage from the front line in Austin, TX.

Part One

The band arrived in the US on Tuesday and fought off the jet lag to do an 8 song mini set tonight (coming on stage at 2.15am!!) at the Tillery Street Theater as part of the "Scottish Invasion Party" to celebrate South by South West.

The set included "Good Sculptures", "25 miles", "Only in your dreams", "Number One Boy", "Can't stand my Baby" and "Destination Venus". Tomorrow....or later today really....they play Elysium with Shonen Knife, New Model Army, The Alarm and Wreckless Eric.

Part Two

"Let's Dance", from the Ramones debut album, provided the introduction to the Rezillos second appearance in Austin. The band were going for it big time tonight and on great form for their only full gig of the trip.Jo was resplendent in a pair of cavalry style trousers (no kilt tonight) with the sound problems of last night mainly overcome.Riley, singer with up and coming Scottish band Aberfeldy, could be spotted up the front singing along to most of the songs. The slow introduction to "Head Kicked in" was droppped in favour of the band just going straight into the song. The set was as follows:
I can't stand my Baby
Flying Saucer Attack
Good Sculptures
Getting me down
Cold Wars
Pressure Cooker
Crash my car
No
Only in your dreams
Number 1 Boy
Bad Guy Reaction
Mystery Action
Head Kicked in
EncoreTop of the Pops
Another good night with the third appearance scheduled for Saturday at 6pm at Cheapo Records.

Part Three

Last night saw what was, sadly, the band's last appearance in Austin to tie in with the South by Southwest music biz convention. Austin is a pretty incredible town. It's the home of the University of Texas and "an island of liberal thinking in the sea of Texas" - as it was described to me by one of the locals!The venue was Cheapo Records, a HUGE new and used record store, in the west of the city. In the corner of the store was an area put aside for bands to give live in store appearances. The backdrop was a mural of cowboys on their horses at sunset, similar to the photo used on the New Order "Regret" single sleeve. Angel sported his newly purchased cowboy hat, very in keeping with the setting, and Jo was back in his kilt after the previous nights cavalry trews. The show attracted a lot of people to the store and was all very informal with requests being welcomed from the band for the 8 song, 25 minute set. The band even shouted out their own requests to the rest of the band - fair enough I suppose!
The set was:
Cold Wars
Only in your dreams - requested by Eugene
Top of the Pops
Good Sculptures - requested by "Jo fae Edinburgh!"
Flying Saucer Attack
Getting me Down - the choice of Angel and Johnny Terminator, aka the purple gang
I can't stand my baby
Destination Venus
Fay was keen to hear "From a Jack to a King", the Elvis song, but it was not to be and Jo signed off the evening with a "We love you Austin!"

All in all 3 really enjoyable shows that I'm sure have resulted in more than a few converts to the Rezillos cause over the last few days!