Rezillos

The Rezillos came roaring out of Edinburgh in 1976 with the same energy as the rest of the punk class, but none of the gloom. No nihilism, no sermons about society: they called themselves a new wave beat group, dressed their songs in '50s rock and roll, '60s beat and garage, and glam-era flash, and filled them with science fiction and B-movie schlock. It's the same trash-culture raid the Cramps and the B-52s were making across the Atlantic at the very same moment.

Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife traded vocals up front, and guitarist Jo Callis wrote most of the songs. Can't Stand the Rezillos, their first album, came out in July 1978, and it's a gleeful sugar rush: "I Can't Stand My Baby" is a blast of bubblegum sneer, and the album has since come to be counted among the classics of the first wave of British punk. They also cut "Top of the Pops", their biggest hit at home, and a cover of "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" that later landed on the Jackass: The Movie soundtrack.

Four months after the album came out, they split over where to go next. Callis ended up in the Human League, co-writing "Don't You Want Me", while Reynolds and Fife carried on as the Revillos. The Rezillos reformed in 2001 for Edinburgh's Hogmanay and have kept playing ever since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.