       | Fuzzbox Reunion ‘Pink Sunshine’ and ‘International Rescue’ pop queens reunite after 20 year absence! It might have been years before the advent of ‘girl power’, but if you’d switched on your TV set on a Saturday morning or watched ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1989, chances are you’d have been confronted by four girls proving that sisters really were doing it for themselves. It was all carried off with a maverick lipstick sneer, glam pop-punk panache, a glint in the eye and a sense of mischief. To hell with the consequences… This was Fuzzbox – queens of glitterball über-pop, riding high in the charts with their Top 5 album ‘Big Bang!’ and a blindingly colourful barrage of hit singles. It was the summer of ‘Pink Sunshine’, ‘International Rescue’ and ‘Self’. It was a time when Fuzzbox were the fun-filled soundtrack to a generation…  Now, in 2010, singer Vix, guitarist Jo and keyboard player Maggie have regrouped for a second bout of indie pop frolics and outright outrageousness! Fan demand has finally seen a longed for reunion of one of the electric Eighties’ most distinctive and memorable artists, and still the most successful UK all-girl band to date! The time has come to welcome back one of the most important girl groups in British pop history. But before we do that, let’s rewind a full 25 years… …Four bored schoolgirls from Birmingham rush out of class one afternoon bouncing with ideas as big as their hair. They borrow a few instruments and throw some song ideas at each other. Then they blag a gig. Masking their still developing talent with a fuzzbox – a distortion pedal to make everything sound bigger (and hide the odd mistake) – the name We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It is somehow pulled from the ether…  Local indie label Vindaloo Records signed them up at their second gig and released the EP ‘XX Sex/Rules And Regulations’ in 1986. A 25 week residence in the UK indie chart awaited. Such was the girls’ rebellious teenage charm that many wanted to come along for the ride. Tours followed, as did an album, ‘Bostin’ Steve Austin’ (retitled ‘We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It’ upon its US release). Along came radio and TV, some fun-filled promo videos, and ‘Love Is The Slug’, ‘Rules And Regulations’ and ‘What’s The Point’ promptly took the indie charts by storm. Long before the days of manufactured pop stars, the girls were properly famous. Then came the transformation, the band – now sensibly abbreviated to Fuzzbox – signed to WEA and created ‘Big Bang!’, the album that would see them enshrined forever in pop legend. Along came the big hits along with other memorable pop rock killers like ‘Fast Forward Futurama’ and their exotic cover of Yoko Ono’s ‘Walking On Thin Ice’. Global success followed – tours of Europe, the USA, Canada and the Far East. Fuzzbox had the distinction of being on the cover of glossy pop magazine ‘Smash Hits’ and indie bible ‘NME’ at the same time. In short, everyone loved Fuzzbox.  The story halted, all too soon, a few years later – and while things have been relatively quiet on the Fuzzbox front since then, save for the odd reunion and compilation album, the return that fans have been craving is now, finally, about to happen. May 2010 saw a FAB full Fuzzbox tour, their first in 20 years, and the release of "Pop Muzik" on iTunes by Gotham Records. Summer is now here, and the forecast is a brand new 2011 version of Pink Sunshine… Words: Steve Beebee Pictures: Ravi Duprees |
