I deeply love the Scottish band The Rezillos… who eventually turned into the Revillos… and then back again over the course of 30+ years. Know ye, that they released the first indie punk single in Scotland with “I Can’t Stand My Baby” in 1977. I’ve a small book to write on the Rezillos/Revillos, but today we’re discussing the stray records issued by ex-and-current band members under different names. When the Rezillos broke up to get out of their contract with Sire Records, singers Fay Fife and Eugene Reynolds carried on by swapping the “z” with a “v” and building up a new band and moving to the Dinsdisc label. This left the ex-Revillos:

• Jo Callis
• Simon Templar
• Angel Patterson

… as free agents to do as they wished, so they roped in Troy Tate [future Teardrop Explodes] formed S.H.A.K.E. and released two [technically three] of their own records on the Sire label.

Sire | UK | 10" | 1979 | SIR 4016

Shake UK 10″ EP

1. Culture Shock
2. Glass House
3. Dream On
4. [But] Not Mine

There was a 7″ single pulled from this 10″, amazingly enough!

Sire | UK | 7" | 1979 | SIR 4016

Shake: Culture Shock UK 7″

1. Culture Shock
2. Dream On

I still need both of these for The Collection, but the newly rechristened S.H.A.K.E. resurfaced with another single, 1980’s “Invasion of The Gamma Men!”

Sire | UK | 7" | 1980 | SIR 4035

S.H.A.K.E.: Invasion of the Gamma Men UK 7″

1. Invasion of the Gamma Men
2. Night By Night

This disc is safely ensconced in The Monk’s Record Cell! The following year the trail gets a little muddied. There were no further S.H.A.K.E. records on Sire, but members Jo Callis and drummer Angel Patterson joined Edinburgh’s Boots For Dancing and released two singles while in that group’s lineup.

Pop Aural | UK | 12" | 1981 | POP 002

Boots For Dancing: Boots For Dancing UK 12″

1. Boots For Dancing
2. Parachutes
3. Guitars & Girl Trouble

Pop Aural | UK | 7" | 1981 | POP 006

Boots For Dancing: Boots For Dancing UK 12″

1. The Rain Song
2. Hesitate

The latter of these discs is in the Permanent Collection. To confuse matters further, Callis left BFD [?] and released what is nominally a solo single, but also confusingly credited to the S.H.A.K.E. Project the following 7″ EP in 1981 on the Pop Aural label.

Pop Aural | UK | 7" | 1981 | POP 012

Jo Callis/The S.H.A.K.E. Project: Woah Yeah! UK 7″

1. Woah Yeah!
2. Sinstrale
3. Dodo Boys

This disc is also lovingly nestled in The Monk’s Record Cell. Finally wrapping things up was the movement of S.H.A.K.E.’s Simon Templar, who moved into the void that Callis left in Boots For Dancing, lending his bass to the final Boots single, 1982’s “Ooh Bop Sh’Bam.”

Re-Pop-X | UK | 7" | 1982 | can't find cat. no.

Boots For Dancing: Ooh Bop Sh’Bam UK 7″

That pretty much takes care of the Callis/Templar/Patterson axis. Of course Fife and Reynolds were releasing records on Dindisc as the Rezillos, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t get up to some moonlighting under a different name. After they were dropped from Dindisc, they started their own Superville Records label and issued the second Revillos album and its attendant singles. They also released this Christmas 1981 single under a nom-du-disque as The Mysteroids!

Superville | UK | 7" | 1981 | SV3001

The Mysteroids: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town UK 7″

1. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
2. 1982 Make A Wish

Apparently the band thought it would be “uncool” to release this under their Revillos name, hence the cover of The Mysteroids. This is another record I need to track down, though I have the A/B sides on differing late model Revillo CDs from the last decade. This takes care of a busy two year period that saw Jo Callis go from playing guitar with the Rezillos, to forming S.H.A.K.E., to going solo and his next move, which was joining the down-but-not-out Human League after their fraction into two factions [the latter being Heaven 17 with the addition of Glenn Gregory.]

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