Tonight for all the youngsters, now let’s have a big hand for TARA REZ AND THE DUEL!

By Samantha Janette

Tara Rez has been through good times and bad times. The truth is she knows how tough it can get. She’s one of the few people like that who you’ll encounter who’s soft hearted and doesn’t try to do bad shit on other people. She enjoys her success and the last 20 years have been very positive and rewarding for Tara and her Band,The Duel.

I think everybody agrees Tara Rez is England’s Number 1 Punk Diva at this time.. Punk Rock didn’t go away or die out two years after The big 1977-1978 onslaught. Tara is very active in work for The Homeless and The Mentally Ill. Tara and The Duel have gigged tirelessly for these causes.

They’ve made brief visits to The USA and they are making inroads to big popularity over here. More and more people are beginning to hear of them. Tara’s childhood was a bit rough. She was born in Iran. She came to England with her family when she was 7 years old. They were very poor. She took some shit because she was an Iranian in English Schools.

Now, let’s understand that she’s no pussy even though she’s a cordial person and there is something naturally benevolent about her. When she was in her teens she listened to The Ramones, PIL and Souixie Souix, put Manic Panic on her hair and a friend gave her a leather jacket.

Tara Rez grew up in Camden Town which is part of Greater London. Presently she lives in The Resort Town of Brighton and she DJs a Fantastic Punk Rock Show on Radio Reverb. Com 97.2FM DAB (Sunday & Monday 8pm & Wednesday

11pm in The UK) which is simulcast on Xstream Radio.Net in The USA(weekdays at 6 pm PST).Com.

But it’s alright now, in fact it’s a gas. Ray Davies approached her and said hello to Tara in a London Bar. I don’t know anybody else who could add that to their resume. There has been a change or two in The Duel’s lineup in the past year(?)

Tara Rez and The Dual consist of: Tara Rez-Lead Singer,Paul Laventhol-Guitars,Chris Mcdougall-Bass,Ed Sonsine-Guitar,Seb Frey-Drums. Tara Rez and Andy Thierum are the Band’s main songwriters.

You can tell from The songs Tara has read a lot of really heavy literature and in her songs she engages both in The usual sex and love Roll and Roll songs and also offbeat life and death fantasies like Sky Saxon,Roky Erickson,Patti Smith,Jim Morrison,Grace Slick,Elvis Costello,Iggy Pop,Lou Reed,Allen Ginsburg(!). Tara describes herself as having attended “Rock and Roll High School”. There are many performers in this business who are “personalities” and “celebrities”. Ms.Rez is for real! Something got ahold of Tara when she was very young and Angela Bowie has called her “Punk Rock’s Answer To Patsy Cline”

The Duel’s new album is out now in Pink Vinyl Limited Edition at Theduelstore.bigcartel.com. Tara and The Dual have a driving,kickass sound that would easily remind you of The MC5,The Stooges,The Ramones,The Dead Boys with Janis Ian singing lead.

Musically they are definitely kick ass,full tilt Punk Rock!

Tara Rez and The Duel formed in 2001. Tara and The Duel can play hardcore Punk mean enough to make the entire production staffs and all The VJs at MTV and VH1 hide in the restroom for hours. Anyhow,Tara and her Band are on hiatus because of The Pandemic.

They haven’t been touring full time for about a year. They are getting back to it,they’re killers onstage. It doesn’t hurt that Tara has an uncanny resemblance to Marianne Faithfull and this would almost make you think She was Marianne’s younger sister In full Punk Costume.

Maybe by some parapsychological mechanism Brian Epstein or Larry Page could return from The dead. Brian Epstein,Larry Page,Joe Meek,Kit Lambert,Kenny Pitt,Simon Napier-Bell,Robert Stigwood,Tony StrattonSmith could use The same Beat Group Policy they used to make sure they sold enough Tara Rez Posters so every 14 year old guy in town had one tacked up on his bedroom wall.

This Cockney Woman can really sing Rock and Roll! So if you don’t want to spend the money on CD albums and if you don’t have time for lengthy song menus because of your train hopping schedule then at least give the “Black Snake Prophecy” EP by Tara Rez and The Duel a listen. It’s great. They are wicked when Live on stage! Tara and her band are exactly what’s needed to put Lip Synching and Drum Machines out of business! Karaoke.Tara Rez is easygoing and she treats fans well.Tara’s Punk Rock Radio Show has lots of “call-in” stuff. She will always definitely talk politics and she’s very straightforward with her ideas and opinions.

I still think it was a mistake for TOP 40 Radio circa’ 1979-1980 to pass on developing a format featuring a mixture of garage rock,the Yardbirds,The Pretty Things,Them,The Creation,The MC5,The Flamin’ Groovies and the newer Punk Rock which at that time was The Ramones,Blondie,Elvis Costello,Generation X,The Adverts,The Dictators,Jayne County,The Sex Pistols,The Cramps,Devo,Patti Smith,The New York Dolls,The Clash,Richard Hell,The Damned. Ian Dury,Souixie and The Banshees, Robert Gordon and Link Wray,Rachel Sweet,Eddie and The Hot Rods,Television,The Jam,Talking Heads,The Pretenders,Iggy Pop,The Dead Boys,Poly Styrene,PIL,The Fleshtones,Venus and The Razorblades,The Records,The Stranglers,The Vibrators,Poly Styrene,The Buzzcocks,Robert Gordon,Link Wray,Sham 69,X-Ray Spex,The Cramps,Devo. plus more back in 1977.

I say so because while all of the bigshot progressive counterculture heavy superstar groups and singers being played on The FM stations can easily deliver the goods and you get a lot for your money, I suppose,I think, that by 1972 the music of the counterculture and the related MOR playlist drivel which was introduced by Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,The Fillmores,Isle of Wight and Woodstock had become barefaced monotonous. It all had more than enough publicity, profit, notoriety, airplay, attention. Do you really care if you ever hear another new Elton John or The Eagles hit record or how about Michael Bolton? Van Halen? Debbie Boone. I mean, C’mon. It’s the monotony in The Programming!! And if you don’t mind I’m good and bored with all of Eric Clapton’s AM hits that he’s come up with since 1971.

And I like Cream but NOT all the time. Clapton played lead guitar on a handful of singles by the Yardbirds and John Mayall ‘circa 1963-1964. These singles sound different than 90% of the rest of his stuff. There’s a strange story that some old friends of the Clap tell. In 1963-1964 Clapton wore his nails long and trimmed.

He filed them long and pointy for fingerpicked lead guitar. It’s a high pitched sound. You can hear it on “Five Live Yardbirds”. So Clapton was getting more and more worried that he’d twang his hands out of joint. He worried he could possibly have dishpan hands. The next time he was at the beauty parlor Madge reassured him that he was soaking in Palmolive.

It’s that repetitiverepititious overplay of aproximately 5060 or more specific songs going back to like 1972. It’s true we now have the variety of SIRIUSXM and internet radio links and podcasts nowadays. A few Rock and Roll DJs have experimented with this kind of punk rock programming I’m talking about. Rodney Bingenheimer and this guy in Cleveland. Community Radio in St.Louis features Beatle Bob Matonis with a mixture of Garage,Punk,British Invasion and R&B. For those of us who grew up in The TOP 40 era(I went to bed with KXOK in St.Louis under my pillow,circa’ 1964-1970)and it’d be grand to hear someone just like Tara at number 1 on the charts. “I Live Off You” “Dying Sun” “I’m On To You”,etc.

Tara Rez and The Dual have done 9 killer compact discs since 2001. I interviewed Tara in 2018. I’ve written two articles about Tara Rez and The Duel and they both got printed. One of the articles was actually some liner notes for a Radio Reverb site. I interviewed Tara once almost 5 years ago but it was done by emailing postings and transcriptions back and forth. She was real nice about The whole thing but I was left with The feeling like I’d done something ridiculous in doing things this way. The interview went over pretty good,fortunately. There is a lack of prepaid advertising, promo stuff for Punk Rock

The people who pay out all those preparations and renumerations are stockholders,record companies,radio stations,promotional guys and record company execs and guys who probably think Punk Rock is trivial. Why hasn’t Punk Rock and groups like Tara Rez and the Dual made it really super big? Like “Meet The Beatles” and “The Rolling Stones-England’s Latest Hitmakers” kinda big? There was Punk Rock going back to “Louie Louie” and “Gloria”. And of course,Lester Bangs or Dave Marsh coined the phrase “Punk Rock” in 1970 or 1971. The term has several implications like a kind of greaser and hood meaning. A lesser known 45rpm orientation to music listening and record collecting.

A tough and determined attitude that you and your garage band can do as good as the big shots. Even better than the big shots. And too,don’t dismiss the “punk” or seemingly flimsy and insubstantial. We all know how the Sex Pistols did a handful of killer hit singles in 1976 and 1977.

The records rate with “Open My Eyes” “I Can See For Miles” and “Jumpin’Jack Flash”. I think Punk,while it has definitely survived,has had some skeet shooting shots fired at it because The Sex Pistols said “Anachy In The UK” and “God Save The Queen”.

I was in The British Isles and France for 3 weeks in 1998. Specifically,England is a democracy. The Monarchy have a minute bit of influence and they support causes here and there and give out awards and medals,salute and smile at RAF airplane formation shows and Veterans holidays.

They aren’t bad folks I guess. A majority of British subjects like them because they represent the fact that 2000 years later Britain is still very prosperous and powerful. Americans were pissed off at King George for a while in the 1700s yet in my time people have always been very,very respectful of The Monarchy.

They don’t really run the UK as they would’ve many years ago. In England The Monarchy is never criticized at least in the mainstream media and out in the general public. Look.what the Sex Pistols did took a lot of damn straight balls and I think there were plenty of 15 year old kids in The UK who identified with their songs. Great stuff!

Tara and The Dual have been on hiatus since last year. They did some TV stuff in The UK. Tara had Covid briefly this summer. They will be doing a few gigs coming up soon!

I don’t know who else but Tara has got “new friends by the carload” except the late Cub Koda did.

Tara Rez is a street person with like 500 random friends all over London and on Facebook. More than that! She is in a relationship so be respectful. In my first attempts to contact her I was surprised at how down to earth she is. She’s been doing this since 2001 and actually since she was 13 years old.

Tara Rez and The Dual have been garnering more and more attention for their CDs and their performances for quite some time now. I think she deserves the kind of mainstream fame that came Patti Smith’s way with “Because The Night” “So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star” “Castles In The Sand” “People Have The Power” “Set Me Free” and “Frederick”.

As the Ramones said “We Want The Airwaves”. MTV and VH1 are enormously popular. They are bland and repetitive. They make only the skinniest allowances for new talent. Stylistically and structurally they hype “Rock Music”and NOT “Rock and Roll”. I can’t stand the Fraternity and Beach Party clowns in the MTV/VH1 Reality programming.

I own at least 300 DVDs and VHS tapes.(I lost count years ago) I have up to 15 or 20 items on one cassette or DVD. Since 1986 I’ve been collecting video and I can’t help but wonder how “Turn That Damn Thing Down”-Video Network would go over(?)-”Kick Out The Jams Mother Fuckers”!

Samantha Janette

Videos on You Tube

1.”Fight On” youtube.com/watch?v=036wbVKokRY

2.”Shadow of Dreams” youtube.com/watch?v=_RY15Fh6Lek

3.”Dying Sun” youtube.com/watch?v=mJQMs-aMKlU

4.”Tara Rez on The Early UK Punk Scene youtube.com/watch?v=5-gaPorPxBB

5.”TARA REZ LIVE FOR PUNK’S SAKE” youtube.com/watch?v=6YJJEBODISY