Cruella de Ville

Cruella De Ville was a band from Northern Ireland that presented a mixture of post punk and goth rock from 1982–1984. Their members consisted of Colum Muinzer (now styling himself Colin Gibson) on vocals, guitar (often bowed), and violin; his twin sister, Philomena Muinzer, known as "Phil" or "Mena", (a Princeton University geology major (1978)} who won awards for her creative writing), on vocals and keyboard, James Clenaghan on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Mike Edgar on drums and backing vocals. They released a number of singles, but their album was never released after Edgar absconded with the recordings. Their best-known song is "Those Two Dreadful Children", which has appeared on The Dr. Demento Show and was included (transferred from a copy of the vinyl single) on a Basement Tapes members-only compilation.

The name of the band is taken from an altered spelling of villain of the same name from the book and movie The Hundred and One Dalmatians.

Their other songs include "Drunken Uncle John", "Hong Kong Swing", "Blues, Blues, Blues", "Gypsy Girl", "I'll Do The Talking", "Oceans", and "Who's At The Door?". "Drunken Uncle John" and "Oceans" have a similar dark comic flavour to that found in "Those Two Dreadful Children"--the latter being an absurdist satire on drug dealing. "Hong Kong Swing" is a send-up of ugly American Naval officers' mangling pan-Asia into a cartoonish red-light concept. There are three versions: the first recorded was the "Manic Mix", with breakdancing cues, which was followed by the regular version. The last, "Hollywood Hong Kong Swing" is a new recording that adds three new introductions: a string soundalike to Alfred Newman's 20th Century Fox Fanfare (with Cinemascope extension), a long guitar solo, and a new verse introducing the song as if being featured in a Hollywood revue. "I'll Do the Talking" is a serious song of sibling devotion. The Muinzers, usually individually, did all the group's songwriting.

In addition to television performances, the group cut a music video for "Gypsy Girl" that UK television was not allowed to show before 10 pm because it depicted a bonfire. A more simple video was made for the song that simply depicts the band performing was used for daytime showings. In this video, Philomena's underwear is shown briefly under her dress in a couple of dance breaks.

Phil and Colum cite their major influences as coming from their father's old record collection, artists like Spike Jones, Danny Kaye, and Pete Seeger. Colin in particular modelled his guitar playing on Brian May of Queen. When EMI signed the band, Queen heard Colum perform "Gypsy Girl" solo, and he reported that May really liked it.

The original demo of "Who's At The Door?" has recently been transferred to digital and cleaned by Colum Muinzer.

A pre-FM copy of a BBC Radio 1 session (possibly broadcast on the Annie Nightingale show in ?1984) has recently been rediscovered, a copy of which has been passed on to Colum and Philomena.