Photo: Alison Clarke / Cliqmo Photography

About TRZ

Tara Rez is a singer, songwriter, poet, and humanitarian. She grew up in London and rose to prominence as the lead singer of The Duel. Tara and her group are definately Punk Rock. I say so because some people thought Punk died out after 2 or 3 years in the seventies. Tara is the kind of girl who comes over to your house because the whole neighborhood knows you now have one of those above the ground swimming pools which the whole family gets together and assembles the pool. She’s in blue jean cuttoffs and a jerzee all the way to her knees. She’s got a plastic bag with a pint of whiskey and some marlboros in it,which she tucks away under some weeds and bushes before she swims so no moms and dads lurking around can see it. I had a platonic lover who was something like her for years,I’m not looking for someone else. I’m only pointing out that Tara Rez is OK!

And her music is full tilt punk rock! A few of Tara and The Duel’s musical influences include The Ramones,Blondie,The Dead Boys,The Dictators,Patti Smith,The MC5,The Stooges,Jayne County,The New York Dolls,Eddie & The Hot Rods,The Clash,The Sex Pistols. You can also hear the influence of people like Steppenwolf and Joan Jett in their music. Slightly like the midwest in 1969. The Duel’s music is very driving like Otis Redding,Genya Ravan,Mitch Ryder. A cool thing is it’s got “freakouts” like on Eric Burden & The New Animals 1966 “When I Was Young” single and Janis Ian,too. Their lyrics are a mixture of Patti Smith,The Fugs and psychotronic tension.

Tara is also a very popular disc jockey on Brighton’s Reverb Radio.com. Remember she’s a disc jockey not a progressive announcer. Just google for Radio Reverb.com and you’ll have to look through a short menu listings of stuff,but she’s there. You can listen online. She’s on all night with a show starting at 8:00 PM every Wednesday. Tara Rez is a punk beauty and her clothes and stuff are the coolest. She’s a genuine diva of a rock and roll singer, The Duel consists of Tara Rez-Lead singer,Andy Dyke-Bass,Ed Scottie-Guitar,Simon Edwards-Drums. The group got together in 2001. Tara and Andy Thierum are very close. They first met in 2001 and a half an hour later they sat down together for hours and they wrote songs. Tara and Andy are the group’s main songwriters.

Onstage The Duel are pure kick ass pulse acceleration and I think punks in the good old USA would like to see them in concert over here. Tara describes herself as having attended “Rock and Roll High School” something like in the movie featuring The Ramones. I talked to her on Facebook for just a very breif bit of a “back and forth” and Tara is very sincere,not at all sarcastic and stuckup. That’s always a relief. I’ve dealt with bigshots who acted like your attention pissed them off. There are plenty of youtube clips and video items on Tara and The Duel in Facebook. Ed sometimes plays these feedback overlays that would remind you of Eliot Michael or Jet Terror on Jayne County’s albums and singles or possibly on the Electric Prunes or The Blues Project with bar chords that remind you of Ron Asheton or James Williamson of The Stooges. So anyway,Tara, Andy,Andy, Ed,Simon can really pick!

If Tara Rez and The Duel ain’t enough to make you forget about MTV/VH1 then I don’t know what. I think they deserve to be rock stars and in the past year or therabouts Tara has actually become one of my female heroes. Like I said in Punk Globe earlier this year,when you’re a sissy you often have female heroes So let’s hope Their next single is smash hit and it makes number one in the same top 10 including close freinds from Knightsbridge The Flamin’ Groovies,The Chesterfield Kings,The B-52s

Of course,there is that undefined yet perpetual struggle I’ve talked about in some of my articles. At the above ground pool I mentioned earlier,Mrs.Drysdale is looking out at Tara and everybody else from a next door brick house with central air conditioning, two car garage and picture windows. She opens her side kitchen window and pleads “will you youngsters please reduce the volume on your transistor radio?” So……..these struggles are perpetual,there are no clearcut winners or losers. We do score touchdowns a’plenty. It all continues anyway and I’m sure Tara Rez and the Duel will always be willing and able to fight the good fight.

There are some unusual touches to the group. Right now they are very popular in The UK and Europe. They’ve played many gigs for the homeless,the mentally ill and AIDS.Onstage they are loud and exciting. In the studio they are incredibly creative and they use a wide variety of chord progressions and tempos. Right now Tara Rez and The Duel are off the road for a few weeks yet it’s a solid fact they deliver the goods in Live appearances.The Duel have released a number of outstanding singles and albums since they first got together in 2001 and they’ve got 9 albums you can download and listen to on Soundcloud: