A to Z of N. Ireland Punk Bands

CRUELLA DE VILLE

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Cruella De Ville formed in 1982, with a line-up of Colm Muinzer - (lead guitar, vocals), his twin sister Philomena Muinzer - (lead vocals, keyboards), James Clenaghan - (bass, vocals), Mike Edgar - (drums). Mike had previously played with The Peasants. Colm and Philomena had been born in Illinois of Irish mother and American father. The family moved to Belfast when the children were young.
The same year, they recorded two songs at Homestead Studios and these were released on Good Vibrations Records (Got 16) as a double A side 7", complete with foldout picture sleeve. The tracks featured were Drunken Uncle John c/w Those Two Dreadful Children. Bizarrely, Cruella De Ville still hadn't played a live gig at this stage!

Michael Clifford became their manager and he secured a one-off lease deal for the 1st single via Polydor so it was reissued in a different picture sleeve with lyric insert. Sales from this reissue enabled the band to record two more songs, and ‘I’ll Do The Talking’ was released as a single, again Good Vibrations Records.
This attracted the attention of John Bagnall at EMI and he signed them up on St Patrick’s Day 1983. The band went on to release three singles on EMI over the next couple of years. However, their album was never released after Edgar allegedly absconded with the recordings! Their other EMI singles were "Gypsy Girl", “I’ll Do The Talking” and "Hong Kong Swing”.
The band had many TV performances; on shows such as The Tube and RTE’s ‘Anything Goes’. They performed radio sessions too and they even cut two promotional videos for their first EMI release, the "Gypsy Girl" single. However, television companies in the UK refused to show their initial video before 10 pm because it depicted a bonfire! This was because of an aniti-fire campaign at the time connected to Halloween fires and fireworks. So, a more conventional video of the band performing the song was used for daytime showings. The band made their live debut at the world famous gentlemen's club, Stringfellows, in Covent Garden, London.
Cruella De Ville parted company with EMI in 1985 but they re-released I'll Do The Talking on their own label. The single topped the Irish charts reportedly selling over 20,000 copies.
Although Cruella De Ville were never a Punk band, they were more post punk/goth, the fact remains that they did probably outsell everyone else on the Good Vibes label put together!
Philomena has written a book (Memories of the Irish – Israeli War) and a play (Together Against Him), which was awarded a bursary by The Arts Council of Great Britain) under the name Phil O'Brien (O'Brien is the Munizers' mother's maiden name) and has served as dramaturge for the Royal National Theatre. She is married to Colin Bennett. Mike Edgar works for the BBC in Belfast. James Clenaghan runs a video studo in central London and plays acoustic bass and banjo in a London-based five piece traditional Irish band called Beyond The Pale.