Artist:Romeo Void
Song:Never Say Never
Album:Warm, In Your Coat
The New Wave band Romeo Void had success in the early 80s with songs like Never Say Never. They had potential but they split up in 1985 after recording three albums. Romeo Void was from San Francisco. Lead singer Debora Iyall was from Fresno. She would travel to San Francisco occasionally to watch her favorite singer Patti Smith perform. Debora was inspired by a fortune cookie to pursue an art career at the San Francisco Art Institute. She went to a local club to watch punk bands. She even formed a parody band. She met bassist Frank Zincavage at school and they decided to form a band with guitarist Peter Woods and drummer Jay Darrah who were in Debora's parody band. The name Romeo Void referred to a lack of romance in her life. They started as a Punk band though it became clear that Punk was becoming New Wave. They started playing clubs and added saxophonist Benjamin Bossi who was really a jazz musician. After Darrah was replaced by John "Stench" Hanes, Romeo Void released the 1981 album It's a Condition on the local Punk label 415. They toured to support it and Larry Carter replaced Hanes. There was interest in Romeo Void from unexpected places like The Cars leader Ric Ocasek. And that led to 415 signing a distribution deal with Columbia. And they put pressure on Romeo Void to be more commercial. I guess Columbia thought they could be like Blondie. The album was produced by recording engineer Ian Taylor. But Ocasek was brought in to produce the lead single Never Say Never. The single did well in dance clubs. But it was not the big hit single that Columbia wanted. The song was even featured in the 1984 film Reckless starring Aiden Quinn and Daryl Hannah. It didn't help. For the 1984 album Instincts, Romeo Void rebelled against Columbia and made a less commercial album with their old producer David Kahne. But when the album was more successful and the single A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing) reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100, that upset Columbia and they pulled all promotional support while Romeo Void was on tour. That led to the band split. There wasn't much point in continuing if Columbia was going pull that kind of nonsense. Debora released the 1986 album Strange Language on Columbia. And then they dropped her because she wouldn't lose weight. This comp CD was released in 1992. Debora became an art teacher and that's what she does today. She did release a couple of albums in 2009 and 2012 with former Pearl Harbor and the Explosions guitarist Peter Dunne on her own label. She now lives in New Mexico with her husband. Here's the video for Never Say Never by Romeo Void.
No comments:
Post a Comment