Garbage Days Revisited #98: The Revillos - "Rev Up!" (1980)

"Give it a kick and I drive it away/Ride through the night and I sleep in the day" - The Revillos - Motorbike Beat

As is probably obvious from the name, the Revillos were basically the Rezillos under a different name. For those unaware, the Rezillos were one of the best of the early pop-punk bands and one of the first Scottish punk bands to break through. But they very much weren't simple three-chord merchants, trading in bouncy rhythms, futuristic sci-fi imagery and were a big dollop of technicolour '50s style dreaming in the middle of the "less is more" image that a lot of the bands of that era employed. Their sole album, Can't Stand The Rezillos is rightly regarded as a '77 punk classic and I really recommend tracking it down if you're somehow unaware of it.

 When the Rezillos fell apart in late 1978 with the departure of guitarist and chief songwriter Jo Callis (who would eventually end up in the Human League), the remaining members of the group - joint frontpeople Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife plus guitarist Hi-Fi Harris and bassist William Mysterious, would hook up with Reynolds' brother Rocky Rhythm (formerly of grossout comedy punks the Pork Dukes) and end up leaving their old label Sire to join EMI which necessitated a minor name change for legal reasons.

The group would put out a few singles which showed that they were very much sticking to what had served them well in their previous incarnation albeit with the love of sci-fi '50s kitsch cranked up even further - Where's The Boy For Me? sounded like the Ronettes and the Ramones jamming together and Motorbike Beat was an absolute blast. Despite some line-up instability with Harris and Mysterious making way for Kid Krupa and Vince Santini, the band were on a roll of good material and Rev Up! was kind of the apotheosis of everything that was good about them. 

I dunno why it is but the Revillos always seem to get regarded as a bit of a footnote to the Rezillos which seems a bit unfair to me - maybe because they were a bit less punky and more poppy? If so then it's a bit of a crap reason if you ask me - to these ears, Rev Up! is every bit the equal of Can't Stand The Rezillos, it just takes a bit more of a power-pop approach to the songs. Certainly, Reynolds and Fife's love of classic '50s rock 'n' roll is evident here on the likes of Scuba Boy Bop, Rock-a-Boom and Jukebox Sound while Fife's gentle torch songs Bobby Come Back To Me and On The Beach tap into the classic Ronettes/Crystals early '60s girl group sound to good effect. The surprisingly well-handled covers of Cool Jerk, Hungry For Love, Yeah Yeah and Hippy Hippy Sheik are a bit of a giveaway as to their influences as well.

Overall though, the key thing is that this album is FUN! Even twenty odd years after first hearing it (thanks to noughties punk label Captain Oi! giving it a much-welcomed reissue) it still makes me smile - proper sci-fi pop-punk day-glo carefreeness.The Revillos would actually end up carving out a pretty decent career for themselves but they would leave EMI after just the one album - Rev Up! spawned a couple of minor hit singles but didn't produce anything that hit the charts the same way as the Rezillos' Top Of The Pops had a couple of years earlier.

The group would continue on for another half decade but they just seemed to have absolutely lousy luck for the latter part of their existence. They followed up Rev Up! with an equally as good second/third (delete depending on whether you're counting Can't Stand The Rezillos here) album Attack! but it got deleted within a couple of weeks of being released as their label went to the wall. Showing the band going in an even poppier direction, it manages to transcend some slightly rough production (thankfully sorted out when it was finally given a proper full and remastered release by Captain Oi! in the early noughties) to be another brilliant neon flash of top sci-fi pop-punk fun. Hip City (You Were Meant For Me) is a pure garage-rock-goes-pop gem while the likes of Graveyard Groove, Sputnik Kiss and Bitten By A Love Bug are fine stuff too.

The group would press on for another three or four years afterwards but despite the odd single, further albums were not forthcoming and they would eventually call it a day in 1986. Captain Oi managed to sling together a collection of the group's later recordings under the name Jungle of Eyes but this was only available for about five minutes and surprisingly wasn't included in the recent Revillos box set on Cherry Red. A shame as there were some good tunes on there, especially Bitten By A Love Bug and Man Attack.

These days Eugene and Faye are back with a reformed Rezillos (who've put out one album since reuniting, the sadly slightly disappointing Zero) while Rocky is back with the Pork Dukes along with Vince. Of the other Revillos, latter day guitarist Max Atom is now a well respected blues musician, Hi-Fi Harris is now an architect while Kid Krupa and William Mysterious are both sadly no longer with us. Rather brilliantly, Eugene also now runs his own business importing and making Indian style motorbikes!

Although the Rezillos' sole album is still rightly regarded as a pop-punk classic, it kind of annoys me that Rev Up! and Attack don't get quite the same amount of love (similar to how everyone always seems to laud Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material and all but ignore the three equally as good efforts that came after it). Sure, they may not be quite as straight-up punk but those added layers of sugary pop suited the sound down to the ground and, I'd say, actually improved it slightly. Go seek 'em out and listen - it'll be just the burst of sunshine you need for these dismal January days...