Bringing it back home is important to Fay Fife.
The legendary Rezillos frontwoman has been busy lately working on the second album for her other band – with the Kingdom right in the thick of it.
“We’re just under halfway through recording a new album for The Countess Of Fife,” she tells me.
“We’re recording at least some of that in Fife. I don’t know why, it still draws me back.”
The insurgent country outfit released a new EP today but The Rezillos are far from being forgotten – and play Beat Generator in Dundee tonight.
Originally formed in Edinburgh way back in 1976, the Top Of The Pops and Destination Venus hit-makers are nearing the conclusion of their Mission Accomplished…But The Beat Goes On 45th anniversary tour, which celebrates their 1979 live album of the same name.
“We started touring in January,” says Fay, who was born in Dunfermline in 1954.
“We were in Spain first, and then a bit of Ireland, before we started over here.
“Anniversaries are important to our audience, but my initial reaction was I didn’t want to tour Mission Accomplished because I wasn’t that keen on the songs.
“However, we started rehearsing some that we haven’t done for a long, long time, and the current line-up really brought things to life and I started enjoying it. It’s gone down well and a lot of people have been coming along.
“I think The Rezillos are such a good live band that it’s still alive for people – including me, fortunately,” she quips.
Who else was in the Rezillos?
Formed almost half a century ago, it’s still Fay – real name Sheilagh Hynd – and co-vocalist Alan Forbes, aka Eugene Reynolds, at the band’s core, although the cast around them has seen changes.
After Rezillos split in late 1978 – months before Mission Accomplished came out – the pair forged on until 1985 as the similarly monikered Revillos, with Fay later turning her hand to acting before retraining as a psychologist.
Most of the original members, including Human League guitarist Jo Callis, eventually reunited in 2001, but Rezillos’ comeback album Zero didn’t appear until 2015.
While the art-popsters are still popular live, new work has remained thin on the ground – but that could be about to change.
“I would rather we were doing a lot more recording because I am interested in making new music,” Fay declares.
“However, The Rezillos actually have a lot of new songs now and are in the process of recording a new album. The band goes very, very slow over these things, but it will come out.
“The process started about two years ago and there’s more than enough material for an album. There’s a few more songs coming so the final choice of what goes on it we’ve yet to settle on.
“As far as I’m concerned, The Rezillos have to do at least one more album. Maybe there’s more, but there must be at least one.”
‘Soft spot’ for rock ‘n’ roll Dundee
Known for her outrageous earrings, Fay tells me she’s been enjoying performing Revillos classics Where’s The Boy For Me and Motorbike Beat during a miscellaneous section at gigs halfway through the live album’s track list.
“Apart from that I was quite surprised how much I’m enjoying doing Thunderbirds Are Go from Mission Accomplished,” she adds.
“I’d kind of thought I didn’t enjoy that at the time, but now we’re doing it really well, it’s given a new life to it.”
Rezillos’ current line-up also features guitarist Phil Thompson, Fife-born bassist Chris Agnew and drummer Willy Molleson, and Fay’s confident they can emulate the band’s memorable last visit to Dundee in late 2019 tonight.
“I remember doing a gig at the same venue near Christmas and I think I must have been wearing something daft that had a slightly Christmassy flavour to it,” she recalls.
“I probably had a plastic spoon on my ear and in my hair, something like that, and it just ended up being a really fun thing.
“I’ve got a very soft spot for Dundee – you get what you see on the biscuit tin, as it were. And I think the audiences are like that as well – they like rock’n’roll.”
The Rezillos play Beat Generator on Friday March 28 2025.Â
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