REVILLOS – live from the orient (CD, LP Vinyl)
Remastered, remixed version of the Vinyl Japan live album from the early '90s. Includes bonus tracks! The tale of the tape by Rocky Rhythm The Revillos had lain dormant since 1985, but nine years on, we were asked to reform especially for a Japanese tour. Eugene and Fay handled the vocals, my dear friend Kid Krupa returned on guitar and of course I played the drums. Vince Santini was unavailable owing to acting commitments, so bassist Mekon was drafted in. Cherie Revette lived now in New York and all erstwhile Revettes were otherwise indisposed, so fresh Revettes Frankie and Polly joined our team. We arrived in Tokyo in May 1994 for a series of dates, plus a trip to play the capital of the south island, Fukuoka. All gigs were filmed and the Tokyo performances were captured on an 8-track machine. Do the maths: eight tracksof analogue tape to record a drum kit comprising four drums, three cymbals and hi-hats, plus the two lead vocals, two backing vocals, keyboard, guitar, bass and sax. And don't forget stereo ambient mics for the crowd response... We could have done with another 10 tracks or so, but at least the moment had been encapsulated. Back in London, Kid Krupa and I mixed the tracks at a studio in Shepherd's Bush, but technical difficulties and other reasons meant these original mixes were shelved. Eugene remixed the tracks in Edinburgh, but the assignment still proved problematic. Finally coming out some two years later in 1996, the resultant album - on the Vinyl Japan label - missed off six songs. Most of the original, unreleased mixes became lost. And there the story would have ended, except... In the ensuing period, Krupa became a very talented producer, eventually embracing a Pro Tools digital studio. In late-2004, he discovered the tapes of all our original mixes, which had been mislaid for 10 years. Each track was separate, the audio had 'drop-outs' and bits missing, and they needed assembling back into the correct set-list order. Krupa borrowed my archive of Japanese footage plus audience cassettes, out-takes, and assorted live monitor mixes. Using our rediscovered original mixes as the core, he planned to rebuild the Tokyo show - pulling the missing elements from these disparate video and audio sources - using digital technology that was simply not available to us back in 1994. I promised Krupa I'd oversee the release when he'd finished the audio. Sadly, Krupa passed away a few months later, early in 2005. Checking the work on his computer, I found no trace of the Japanese recordings on the hard disk, nor the original masters to which he had alluded. Years went by before I felt up to sifting through the many back-up CDs of Krupa's production and recording output. Eventually I loaded some unmarked data onto the computer and there they were our original mixes transferred to digital! Krupa was keen to see this project through, but his work on compiling the material was still very much unfinished. It was rough, but all there: all the songs, all the original audience response, and even the inter-song banter - some of which Eugene and Fay had spoken in Japanese. But it had not been segued back into order. Much reconstruction work and EQ-ing was still needed. Fulfilling my commitment, I have personally overseen this restoration. These tapes deserve to be aired, preserving as they do Krupa's final tour with The Revillos. Rocky Rhythm, London 2019 *Damaged Goods
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