Photo by Stefano Paolillo


ABOUT

Romeo Void was formed in the spring of 1979. Drawing inspiration from the local underground music scene, the band’s founding members were San Francisco Art Institute students Debora Iyall (lead vocalist, lyricist) and Frank Zincavage (bass guitar), alongside local musicians Peter Woods (guitar) and Jay Derrah (drums). They soon added saxophonist Benjamin Bossi. According to Iyall, the name Romeo Void referred to “a lack of romance.”

“There were all of these young people hungry for new sounds,” Iyall recalls of the period. “Punk rock had recently broken through and the rulebook was being rewritten by bands as diverse as X-Ray Spex, Television, and Suicide. In San Francisco, we all started buying 45’s again, a format I had abandoned a decade earlier. Our goal was to make art. The thought of becoming rock stars was not on our radar.”

Romeo Void came to national prominence in 1982 when the fledgling MTV Network picked up on the band’s “Never Say Never” video and put it in heavy rotation. Two years later, the group’s biggest chart hit, “A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing),” from the album Instincts, reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The group released three studio albums during its existence: It’s a Condition (415 Records, 1981), Benefactor (Columbia/415, 1982), and Instincts (Columbia/415, 1984). The group’s core membership remained Iyall, Zincavage, Woods, and Bossi. The group went through a succession of drummers, including Derrah, John “Stench” Haines, Larry Carter, and Aaron Smith.

MEDIA BREAKS

The Hustle Podcast (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2023)
Rock & Roll Channel on Talk Shop Live (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2023)
East Bay Reporter (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2023)
“Three Chord Monte” on WFMU (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2023)
”The C86 Show” podcast / UK (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2023)
“Cereal at Midnight” podcast (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2023)
“What Difference Does It Make?” podcast (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2023)
Baxie’s Musical Podcast (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2023)
Tinnitist / Canada (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2023)
“The C86 Show” podcast / UK (Interview with Frank Zincavage - 2023)
Everyone Loves Guitar (Interview with Peter Woods - 2023)
Songfacts.com (Retrospective feature on Romeo Void)
Billboard Magazine (Live from Mabuhay Gardens review)
The Vinyl District (Live from Mabuhay Gardens review)
Paste Magazine (Live from Mabuhay Gardens review)
The Second Disc (Live from Mabuhay Gardens review)
Rock & Roll Globe (Live from Mabuhay Gardens review)
The Midlands Rocks / UK (Live from Mabuhay Gardens review)
Tinnitist / Canada (Live from Mabuhay Gardens review)
MichaelMackie.com (Interview with Debora Iyall - 2022)
San Francisco Chronicle (Benjamin Bossi obit - 2022)
Popmatters (Retrospective feature - 2022)

VIDEOS