Romeo Void - Benefactor

 This one was kind of on a whim because of a comment my buddy Fernando had made on a Voetsek post I had done a while back.   On another site there had been comments about how the singer of Voetsek had problems with her weight and was not stereo typically beautiful (fat and ugly).  Fernando had said,  "What I did some days ago instead, when seeing this post, was checking the pic and then thinking of Romeo Void, because the gorgeous Voetsek singer reminded me of that old wave interesting band (old wave? haha).  And then I went for Romeo Void stuff and re-discovered a band I hadn’t listened to for ages."  In fact, in that review of Voetsek the main focus was on her appearance and not her ability to sing.  Anyway, long story short, I decided to take Fernando's lead and check out Romeo Void as I did remember the singer from the video for Never Say Never which is the only tune I was familiar with.  That tune went way back to the early 80's for me when New Wave was a sin in my circle and you could have rocks thrown at you for listening to it, so you did it in secret. There actually weren't that many tunes in that genre that did anything for me back then but that one did, at least I still remember it.  I did my usual and started with Wikipedia who had this to say, which wasn't much, but I'm a creature of habit sometimes and seem to always check there first (not that they are the ultimate authority but definitely a good start).  I then went to see if I could find anything of their music on the web and found their second album Benefactor.  While looking around in general I came across some stuff from an awesome blog I've been familiar with for a long time Kill Your Pet Puppy.  Great place to go if your interested in, even though he's not limited to, late 70's and early 80's English stuff.  Incredible site, just wish he would separate his tracks and label the MP3s. That can be fixed and actually if you get anything out of this post, check out the history represented in his blog. Anyway Romeo Void was mentioned in one of his posts as being influenced by a band called the Bush Tetras.  Check out what he has to say there and then give one of their tunes a listen. Bush Tetras-Too Many Creeps Now that tune definitely is similar guitar wise to Never Say Never, Romeo Void's big hit and actually I kind of liked it better.  Speaking of that tune, I found out when reading that the version on Benefactor was not as good as the version on a 12" single they had, so I made it my mission to find that version.  I couldn't find that on any blogs until I came upon Systems Of Romance.  Really good reading there and they mention the difference between the two versions but I couldn't download the tune. I went and found it elsewhere for you to check.

Never Say Never (12" version) The rest of the album really didn't do anything for me although Chinatown was kind of cool.  So all that for an album most will probably not listen to or care about, but if you're curious,

Never Say Never Wrap It Up Flashflood Undercover Kept Ventilation Chinatown Orange Shake The Hands Of Time S.O.S.