Romeo Void was an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. The band primarily consisted of saxophonist Benjamin Bossi, vocalist Debora Iyall, guitarist Peter Woods, and bassist Frank Zincavage. The band went through four drummers, starting with Jay Derrah and ending with Aaron Smith. The band released three albums, It’s a Condition, Benefactor and Instincts, along with one EP. They are best known for the songs “Never Say Never” and “A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)”; the latter became a Top 40 pop single. (More from Wikipedia)
The name Romeo Void might not ring a bell, but you more than likely remember the lyric “I might like you better if we slept together” from their 1981 hit “Never Say Never”. However, there is a lot more to this band – and to “Never Say Never” for that matter – than that salacious lyric. Lead singer Debora Iyall (Cowlitz) moved to the Bay Area in order to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. She and two fellow students, Peter Woods and Jay Derrah formed a tongue-in-cheek 1960’s revival band called the Mummers and the Poppers (a takeoff on the name of the Mamas and the Papas). Iyall then began incorporating music into her poetry and performance-art pieces and started working with Frank Zincavage, a bass guitarist who is also a sculptor.
Debora Iyall was also influenced by the punk and post-punk scene that included other Art Institute students like Penelope Houston, front woman for first-wave San Francisco punk band the Avengers (who is now an accomplished folk rock singer) plus members of the Mutants and Pearl Harbor and the Explosions. Romeo Void was formed by Debora Iyall, Frank Zincavage, Peter Woods, and Jay Derrah on Valentine’s Day 1979.
Romeo Void released three albums in all; “Never Say Never” comes from the second album, Benefactor. On their last album, Instincts, the band reached the Top 40 with the single “A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)”; according to Debora Iyall, this song is intended as an answer to Michael Jackson’s mega-hit “Billie Jean”.
(August 2013)
