Gig review: The Rezillos, Liquid Room, Edinburgh

JUST like reindeer, repeats and refunds on Boxing Day, the Rezillos have come to signify the seasonal experience for many in their home city of Edinburgh.

The Rezillos

Liquid Room, Edinburgh

****

Every year just before Christmas the sci-fi styled garage punk survivors make a live appearance here, and at no point do they ever appear to have outstayed their welcome.

Much of this is down to the fact the middle-aged group still seem to have boundless natural energy as performers, particularly in the case of frontwoman Fay Fife. Possessed of a certain warmth and likeability, despite a mascara-defined thousand yard stare of the kind you’d find on a war vet, she commanded the stage and our attention with a strong, assertive voice and an outfit which demanded we notice her, including a green rubber mini-dress, black lace shoulder pads and a huge circular earring. Co-vocalist Eugene Reynolds stood slightly off to one side, yet he was also distinctive in what can only be described as a leather-heavy look reminiscent of The Cure’s Robert Smith gone Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Despite Reynolds’ assurances at the start of the encore that the band were going to keep playing as many songs as they could fit in before 10pm, the additions to the set added up to one track – their admittedly electrifying cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonite – and the whole thing was over at quarter-to, with just a little under an hour’s music being played. Yet, excepting the unbegrudgingly extended career of this fine band, punk wasn’t meant to go on and on, with the set already having seen those roaring guitars and Fife’s definitive snarl let loose on such deserved and raucous favourites as Destination Venus, Top of the Pops and I Can’t Stand My Baby.