“ “The most important thing lacking today is the ability to play what’s hanging round your neck. The Pistols started the vibe which was great coz it proved you could get to the crowds without coming on like some super guitarist. But then it degenerated and you got bands just getting up and playing anything as long as it was loud and fast”
“What we try to do is link both areas so you get this high energy and musical ability”. [‘Gino’ Williams]
Which is what they’ve got. As a band they are enignatic on stage. Mark Hollis, lead vocals ειnd rhythm axe, stands, legs askance, ready to blow a lot of “name” bands off the boards. To an extent this kid is personified Rock and Roll.” Unpublished ReAction review by potentially the first ever Hollis superfan, Geoff Baker, writing for the Express and Echo, Exeter, 1978
“[Punk was] the most important musical thing that has ever happened in my lifetime. There was so much emphasis on enthusiasm and energy – as opposed to ability. To me, the possibility of being in a band was so remote, but that whole movement opened it up.” Mark Hollis talking to Hayley Bartlett in Record Collector, 1998.
Tracks by The ReAction behave like YouTube whack-a-mole – one minute they are there, the next, gone. You have to be quick to catch ‘em. I believe that the version of I Keep on Telling You linked below is a Hollis demo version, re-recorded after the band split. It’s not a completely different song from the version the band demoed for their pipe-dream of an album. But it is definitely different. The ReAction play it with guitars upfront, aggressive and a bit weird. They were a punk band after all. But it’s Mark Hollis, innit, so the punk is informed by American psyche garage bands like The Electric Prunes rather than fellow Londoners Steve Jones and Joe Strummer.
The re-recorded I Keep on Telling you is a tad more cheery, you might even say poppy – are those handclaps? I do love a song with handclaps. The outro is extended…I keep on telling you, repeated ad infinitum , because he keeps on telling you, right? It’s such a Hollis phrase – I swear I’ve read about him spitting it at interviewers in the 80s.
And then there’s that very familiar opening line. Spooky.
I Keep On Telling You (Mark Hollis Demo Version)https://youtu.be/b1SzES5XSg0?si=goiyQG3b3cVxSFMP