"So damn entertaining that it renews your faith in rock's ability to change lives..truly triumphant." KKKKK 5k Kerrang live review. "There's a genuine sense that these guys could forge something truly wonderfull such is their energy, musical Knowledge and pure intellect" Hot Press "Their debut album is a wondrous collection of lo-fi guitar pop, brimming with simple sing along melodies and clever pop culture references" Daily Telegraph "The Revs are well on their way to being to the noughties what The Kinks and Small Faces were to the 60's, Thin Lizzy were to the 70's and The Police and The Jam were to the 80's - pure power packed pop rock with more hooks than The Edge has conjured up in a decade" Drum Media (Australia) It's worth remembering for those ravenous hype-mongers out there, eager to sell appearance and attitude over ability, that good story telling might make for good story selling, but good music has, and always will centre around good songs. And however much of a dull soundbite that may be, it's one of the reason's why Irish trio The Revs currently shine searchlight-bright over a rock wilderness over-populated with garage-revivalists, nu-metal chancers and knowing scenesters: they like their songs, see. 'Death Of A DJ' is a brilliant example of vibrant songwriting, buoyed by a youthful enthusiasm for the love of music that's all too often missing from today's contenders. So 'Eire Calling' sends a melodious slo-burn skyward with its exploding chorus, while 'Wasteland' gets a fuel injection courtesy of some Muse-style fret-burn wizardry. If this is what we can expect from the forthcoming LP, then summer 2003 looks like a tuneful place to be. Kerrang Single Of The Week "Already stupidly popular in Ireland the REVS look set to hijack British ears..Great !" THE FLY (UK) "Guitars slam in with riffs to die for and drums are pummelled to within an inch of their life". Buzz Mag Sit back and strap up because here come the Revs, a transit load of young lads from Ireland who like to rock. Their debut UK release 'Loaded@ is as catchy as the plague and will have pop kids jumping around like complete and utter nutters. Don't be expecting anything of any great substance but sometimes you just need a pure and simple rock band to kick out some pure and simple rock tunes. Think Greenday, Sum 41, Good Charlotte or even Busted with brains and some songs to back up the haircuts! Shadders Fanzine The Revs are hot property in their native Ireland with four hit singles and a gold album under their belts. They have chosen to introduce themselves to the rest of the world with Loaded, a blast of punk pop that nods towards Weezer territory. B-side 25 years too late is far better than the a-side, declaring "Let's be punks again. We can be cool 25 years too late "with all the energy needed to revive the punk revolution single-handedly. The Revs are fresh, fun and, with their cartoon vibe, don't take themselves too seriously. We can expect record numbers of festival appearances, The Revs t-shirts everywhere we look and lots of happy, bouncing people singing along. Big Issue Wales The Revs make rock music. They're not trying to set the world alight. Consequently, the single Loaded is humble, honest and emphasises the multitude of rock influences that have affected the band's music. The Revs manage to create fury, beauty, angst, humility and a sense of exploration, and neatly slot them into a connective whole. You are left with an overwhelming sense that The Revs make music because the love to make music. Gair Rhydd Ireland has another new band to boast of - The Revs (another to the "The" band family). The trio, Rory Gallagher, John McIntyre and Micky O'Donnell, though still relatively unknown, is already making a name for themselves on Irish soil. Their debut single, 'Loaded' comes packed with another two tracks, which I don't think are B-sides. My guess is you'll be seeing '25 Years Too Late' and 'Satellites' on their upcoming record. 'Loaded' is a nonchalant, stripped-down track, which will hit a chord with the current New Rock Revolution. The other two tracks are completely different - '25 Years' is a song about punks and 'Satellites' sounds like something from Dave Matthews Band. In any case, The Revs seem like they're be in your face real soon. Spark2 Another day, another set of Antipodean garage rock hopefuls. The early evening Barfly audience can hardly believe their luck. Instead of the usual first-on wastrels, churning out a hideous cacophony to a crowd regretting their premature arrival, tonight's early birds have been granted Ireland's next big hope. The Revs are plying their tightly honed and joyous power pop at the wrong end of the bill as a South by South West warm-up and their sing-a-long exuberance is delight. Kerrang Having played to 100,000 screaming Dubliners at the welcome home party of the Irish football team and having traded stages with Muse, Nickelback and the Stereophonics (to name a select few), The Revs are indeed loaded. Loaded with talent and probably loaded with a fair wedge of cash after their Irish exploits (near platinum live debut Sonic Tonics and numerous top ten singles), in short, this limited edition single rocks. Complete with vintage punk rock riffery and a chorus that'll have the kids singing along in their sleep, if this doesn't win over the DJ's and dancing merry heads present at of every rock club in the British Isles, then something is very wrong with our musical climate. As if the weather wasn't bad enough… Verdict No, not a cover of Primal Scream's blessed up classic; but a slice of dirty, fuzzy garage rock from Irish three-piece The Revs. With a guitar riff vaguely reminiscent of Weezer's Hash Pipe, slightly oww!! Vocals and standard lyrics-for-the-disaffected ("Kill me..come on..I wanna belong") this has all the ingredients to settle on MTV2's playlist and NME's pages for a while. Be warned though: it's unbelievably catchy. Carl Brown The Revs in Ireland, pop-punk trio The Revs are already big news. Their debut album Sonic Tonic, recorded live for a mere £500, went Top 5 in its first week, and is about to go platinum. They've played at Witnness and Slane (with Nickelback), picked up an IRMA award, and entrained a public slagging match with pop mogul Louise Walsh. Allof which is pretty impressive, when you consider that the band played their first gig in April 2000. They'd formed in Kilcar, Co. Donegal, a few months previously, having bired themselves playing Irish traditional standards and (yikes!) Celtic rock. We'd been hooring ourselves," admits bassist/singer Rory Gallagher. But with The Revs:"The vibe felt right from the very start. We shared similar interests in music, and were pissed off with the bland pop and singer-songwriter stuff that was around at the time. We wanted to bring back new wave music - you know, Talking Heads, Blondie, The Police, The Vapors, The Ramones. That was our common ground." Having secured a loan, a van and a PA, the band proceeded to tour 'til their ears bled. "We were always in a rush," sys Gallagher. "It's been our main asset, and also our main downfall at times. Maybe we should have held back for a while and done things better. Instead, we grew up in the public eye." He's clearly conscious of his band's reputation as something of a novelty act, a reputation, which owes its origins to their throwaway debut single Wired To The Moon. Stung by the criticism thrown their way, The Revs are now promising that their second album - set for a UK release in the summer - will be a more mature effort. Sys Gallagher: "We made the mistake of allowing people to categorise us with Sum41 and Blink 182, these horrible MTV2 bands. But those bands don't have anything to say, and a lot of our songs do. "Nowadays, people don't like records that are just a bit of a laugh. Everything has to be intense, everything has to be dark, or else you're a throwaway band. We don't consider ourselves a throwaway band - on our new album, every lyric, it used to be, like: 'What rhymes with spoon?'!" The band's image has also been rethought. "We've cut the bleach out of our hair and stopped wearing baggy clothes. So it's like:'Stop looking at us and fucking listen to us'!" So what does Louise Walsh make of all this? "The Revs are nice guys who will get nowhere," says the man who brought us B*witched. But would you really want to take his word for it? Ri-Ra The Revs literally exploded on the stage, and I've got to say, if anyone wants living proof that the three-piece bass/drums/guitar setup is still the most vital, flexible and powerful vehicle for presenting pop with a solid rock edge, these three guys from Ireland are the business. Bass player Rory Gallagher has all the energy, charisma and dynamism to make him as iconic as Paul Weller or Phil Lynott, and the taste and musicianship never to teeter into Stingdom. And it's also very obvious that this is a band, not merely a vehicle for Gallagher, with guitarist John McIntire matching every quirky riff with a flurry of notes that quote the best of the past with a glorious sense of heritage yet enough cheekiness alongside his own inventiveness to take it all to another level, with drummer Micky O'Donnell the perfect timekeeper and equal musicial partner. "Give Me Something To Believe In", with its big crashing choruse is pure Zeppelin, while elsewhere, Gallagher might "quote" the "Day Tripper" riff from The Beatles, or McIntire will counter with something from The Clash, yet it's all fresh and totally Revs. Michael Smith, Drum Media, Australia Having seen the nervous clean-cut young lads from The Revs play last year at the Sando, I was impressed to see scruffy looking Rory Gallagher jump on stage with his bass and proclaim "Lets rock Irish style" with gusto, before launching themselves into their first 3 songs in quick succession. Gallagher and McIntyre (lead guitarist with long arms and legs that he doesn’t seem to know what to do with) have a great connection on stage that creates an enthusiasm that is freely passed on to the crowd. The Revs were so pleased to be up there tonight that they spent most of their set grinning wildly at each other and the audience. Within no time the previously subdued crowd were all tapping their feet and bopping along to the beats. There was even a group of guys moshing up the front. In a venue that is not known in my memory as having the best sound, the engineering was brilliant, with all instruments and both lead and support vocals clear for all. For the punters not familiar with The Revs debut studio album, Suck, the guys threw in some familiar sounds, with the opening notes from Dee-lite's, Groove is in the Heart, and a version of Moby’s, Honey, but they neednt have worried about trying to catch peoples attention, their current single, ‘Death of a DJ’ was a stand out and when all 3 boys got behind the drum kit to perform a very well orchestrated drum solo, now a signature performance at their gigs, the whole audience, even the most cynical up the back, were joining in the cheers. The Revs have a way of getting the crowds going that few bands possess and would do exceptionally well on our summer festival tours. This was by far one of the best gigs I have seen at the Gaelic Club, and judging by the smiles on the faces of the people exiting the venue past me, I’d say I could say the same for many of them too. Faster Louder, Australia Review of Leeds Carling Weekend 2003 - Oh my god. How much do these guys rock? They are so amazing. This was only the second time I had seen them but they are fast becoming one of my favourite bands. They are so happy and full of energy. It’s so obvious they were enjoying themselves. They really deserve to be huge and by this time next year I think they probably will be. They are already massive in Ireland. One of the highlights. Suicidal Trash Manufactured pop is heresy to The Revs who proclaim, "The disco is over, the DJ`s been murdered!" with spikey relish. Guitars slam in with riffs to die for and drums are pummled to within an inch of their life. Pays homage to Stiff Little Fingers, albeit without the lyrical awareness, but when choruses are this good, who cares? Buzz Already stupidly popular in Ireland, the Revs look set to hijack British ears with their meteoric pop rock. And in a manner that will delight regular Fly readers, they begin this assault with a no holds barred character assassination of "cloned" Westlife-alikes. Great. The Fly Already a huge success in Ireland, The Revs second single, "Death of a DJ", is a pounding parody of a disco track, Irish rock style! These guys are set for the big time, even Bono thinks so! The Last Word Specialising in end-of the night at the indie disco-style anthems. The Revs veer between American style melodica and catchy rock numbers. The kind that turn up uninvited in your head and pay little attention to hints that maybe they might like to leave and you've got to get up early in the morning, etc. If you need a place to file them, you might like to try the ´Pop bands that know how to Rock` box for starters. They might be new kids around these parts, but The Revs already have a gold album in Ireland (their home turf), whilst the mantelpiece is steadily filling with shiny statuettes for their efforts. With recent shows in Australia and the annual music industry love-fest in Texas, South By Southwest-not to mention entertaining 100,000 Irish rugby fans in Dublin - the band are now on a mission to conquer Europe, stopping off at Bradford's Pennington's as part of the quest. They're due to release a new album here in the UK in the next few months and their next single is released on 19 May. 'Death Of A DJ' is an infectious call to arms: think something along the lines of Muse momentarily getting confused and thinking that they're T-Rex. The chorus of "The disco is over, the DJ is burning," along with obligatory glam rock "wooh-hoo-hoos" could well cause involuntary spasms that, in the right circumstances, and the right people, can be classed as 'dancing'. In Pennington's, however, it will undoubtedly be classed as 'moshing'. Both are equally relevant responses. We can only recommend attending to see which category you fit into, or at least to hear some of their preposterous lyrics about cellphones. Havley Avron, The Leeds Guide