The Ruts
Encyclopedia
The Ruts were a reggae
-influenced British punk rock
band
, notable for the 1979 Top 10 hit
"Babylon's Burning", and an earlier single
"In a Rut", which was not a hit but was much played and highly regarded by the UK BBC Radio 1
disc jockey
, John Peel
.
, The Ruts were formed on 18 August 1977, the band consisted of Malcolm Owen (vocals), Paul Fox
(guitar
), John "Segs" (sometimes "Seggs") Jennings (bass
) and Dave Ruffy (drums
). As part of the Misty in Roots
People Unite collective
based in Southall
, west London
, the band were active in anti-racist
causes and played a number of benefits for Rock Against Racism
.
Schoolboy friends Fox and Owen shared a mutual interest in music. In the early 1970s they lived together in a commune
on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, where they performed their own musical compositions with Paul Mattocks, who played flute
, guitar and keyboards
. Mattocks later became The Ruts' first drummer.
Post Office telephone engineer Jennings met record shop manager Ruffy in 1976 and became interested in punk
after discussing the latter's Ramones
' T-shirt
. Meanwhile, Owen's interest in punk was piqued when he saw the Sex Pistols
playing live. At the time, Fox was playing with Ruffy in a funk band, Hit and Run, which included sixteen year-old saxophone
player Gary Barnacle
, who later played on several Ruts songs. Hit and Run were a covers band who released one single, a version of Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs' 1965 hit "Wooly Bully
". The Ruts initial history is described in an audio interview with Jennings, conducted by Alan Parker, which appears on the album
Bustin' Out.
On 16 September 1977, The Ruts made their live debut, playing three songs in a break during a set by Mr Softy (another Fox band) at The Target in Hayes, Middlesex
.
Early Ruts songs recorded at Free Range Studio Sessions - also in Hayes - on 1 October 1977 were "Stepping Bondage" (formerly ""Go Go Go"), "Rich Bitch", "Out of Order", "I Ain't Sofisticated" and "Lobotomy" and were Oi!
in style. The group began to evolve and become more musically adventurous, incorporating reggae
and dub elements into their repertoire. Dave Ruffy returned to the drums and a new bassist, 'Segs' Jennings, was recruited. The new Ruts line-up debuted supporting Wayne County and the Electric Chairs at High Wycombe
town hall on 25 January 1978.
The Ruts' first single, "In a Rut" was finally released on People Unite in January 1979, having been recorded
back on 24 April 1978 at the aforementioned Free Range 8-track studios
. It was backed up with anti-heroin tirade "H-Eyes" on the B-side
("You're so young, you take smack for fun/It's gonna screw your head, you're gonna wind up dead"). DJ John Peel
expressed his admiration for the group on air (as can be heard on a retrospective 1978 radio show clip on the In a Rut album) and a session for the BBC swiftly followed the same month. DJ David Jensen
also showcased the band in a further session recorded for the BBC in February 1979. A second Peel session was in May 1979.
In 1979, after a chance meeting with The Damned drummer Rat Scabies
, the band toured the UK as the Damned's support act. A bootleg of their 3 November slot at Strathclyde University includes a rendition of The Damned's "Love Song" as well as a cover version
of the rock and roll
standard "Blue Suede Shoes
". The Damned also played live covers of "In a Rut" during this period as evidenced on the Noise: The Best of The Damned Live album.
In June, their debut single
for Richard Branson
's Virgin Records
, "Babylon's Burning" became a UK Top 10 hit
, reaching number 7 in the UK Singles Chart
, and prompting an appearance on BBC Television
's Top of the Pops
. The second Virgin single, "Something That I Said", followed in August 1979 and garnered a second Top of the Pops spot. The B-side was a reggae track "Give Youth a Chance" (also known as "Blackman's Pinch") originally recorded for the band's John Peel session in May.
Their debut album The Crack
was produced
by Mick Glossop and released in September 1979, reaching number 16 in the UK Albums Chart
. The two singles "Babylon's Burning" and "Something That I Said" were re-recorded for the album.
Taken from The Crack album, the band's third single for Virgin at the end of October 1979 was the dub reggae song "Jah War", about the Metropolitan Police
's Special Patrol Group
's violence in Southall disturbances in April 1979.
On 11 February 1980, the band returned to a BBC studio for their third Peel session, two tracks of which - "Demolition Dancing" and "Secret Soldiers" - later appeared on Virgin's posthumous Grin & Bear It
album.
By this time singer Malcolm Owen was suffering with health problems; a combination of sore throats and a heroin addiction. A UK tour was arranged, the 'Back to Blighty
' tour, but a number of dates had to be cancelled due to Owen's condition. What turned out to be the last Ruts gig with Malcolm took place at Plymouth Polytechnic on 26 February 1980.
On 27 March 1980, The Ruts released their fifth single, "Staring at the Rude Boys", a comment on the rapidly rising Two Tone scene. It was backed by another reggae song "Love In Vein". The single reached the #22 spot on the UK Singles Chart. "Staring At The Rude Boys" was covered by the US hardcore
band Dag Nasty
in 1987, and by the British hardcore punk band, Gallows
, in 2007.
The Ruts backed Laurel Aitken
who was then signed to Secret Affair
's record label, I-Spy Records, on a Peel session for BBC Radio 1, in April 1980, and also backed Aitken on his support tour to Secret Affair. The line-up was Aitken, Fox, Jennings, Ruffy, Owen and Barnacle. The band also played for Aitken on his single, "Rudi Got Married".
With their latest British tour sold out in advance and an American tour lined up, the band were beginning work on their second album in early 1980. Having been forced to cancel a number of UK tour dates, the other three band members fired their frontman over his drug addiction, shortly after completing work on their next single, "West One (Shine on Me)". After negotiations, Owen briefly rejoined the band.
Malcolm Owen was found dead in the bathroom of his parents' house in Hayes, from a heroin overdose
on 14 July 1980 at the age of 26. Prophetically, the track "H-eyes", which was the B-side of their first single "In a Rut", was a song against heroin use, and two other songs, "Dope for Guns" from the album The Crack, plus reggae lament "Love in Vein" ("don't want you in my arms no more") were also anti-drug songs. A year later, The Damned wrote a song, "The Limit Club", about their deceased friend which mentions the "velvet claws" that Fox talked about with reference to Owen's heroin addiction.
On 22 August 1980, the band's sixth and final single was released, "West One (Shine On Me)". Co-produced by the band themselves as they were "starting to get pissed off with the music business" (according to Jennings in an audio interview on "Bustin' Out"), the song featured brass and segued into a dub remix. The B-side was "The Crack", a lighthearted mini-pastiche of their debut album, recorded in a number of musical styles. It peaked at #43 in the UK Singles Chart.
Virgin issued a second album later in 1980, a compilation
of singles, demos and live tracks entitled Grin & Bear It
. The three live tracks - "S.U.S.", "Babylon's Burning" and "Society" had been recorded for Chorus, a French TV show, in January of that year. When this was later reissued on CD, early tracks "Stepping Bondage", "Lobotomy" and "Rich Bitch" were added.
1980 also saw the collaboration of the remaining band members with Kevin Coyne
on one half of his double album, Sanity Stomp
.
The band continued as Ruts D.C. (D.C. standing for the Latin term da capo, meaning "back to the beginning") in a different musical vein. They released two albums, Animal Now (May 1981 on Virgin) and Rhythm Collision (July 1982 on Bohemian Records), the latter in collaboration with Mad Professor
, a renowned dub producer
. Ruts D.C. split in 1983.
In 1987, BBC label Strange Fruit
collected together the group's three Radio One sessions for The Peel Session Album: The Ruts. Live albums soon followed, including BBC Radio One in Concert (Windsong) recorded at London's Paris Theatre
on 7 July 1979, The Ruts Live (Dojo) and Live and Loud! (Link).
Virgin released The Ruts vs. The Skids EP
in 1992 to promote their Three Minute Heroes compilation album. "In a Rut" and "Babylon's Burning" were lined up against The Skids
' "Into the Valley
" and "Working for the Yankee Dollar". Demolition Dancing (1994) was an album of live tracks recorded in 1979, two of which - "Shakin' All Over
" and "In A Rut" - featured members of The Damned. Also in 1994, the German record label Vince Lombardy Highschool Records released Rules which featured sixteen tracks by The Ruts and Ruts D.C., including "Last Exit", a previously unreleased song.
1995 brought Something That I Said - The Best of The Ruts album (re-released in March 2003 and on EMI Gold in 2005).
Ruts: In a Can (2000) was an album of demos from three sessions in the period before they signed to Virgin, released in a metal tin. Fox, Jennings and Ruffy compiled and remastered this release, and also supplied liner notes. The sessions date from 25 April 1978 (8-track Fairdeal Sessions), 20 February 1979 (Underhill Studio) and Mystery Studio Sessions (early 1979).
In 2001, Virgin released Bustin' Out - The Essential Ruts Collection on CD. It included "Denial", a previously unreleased instrumental
track. "Bustin' Out" was rounded out with a twenty minute interview with Jennings. The same year, the 2-disc CD Criminal Minds appeared on Snapper in the UK. The second disc was a reissue of Live and Loud! from 1987. Anagram Records came up with a collection of unreleased tracks and alternate versions for their sixteen track CD, In a Rut in 2002 (reissued 2008). The compilation included a snippet of John Peel praising "In a Rut", and offering to help listeners obtain a copy if it is not available in their local record shop
.
Babylon's Burning Reconstructed (2005) was an album long tribute to the band's most famous song, remixed sixteen different times by Die Toten Hosen
, Don Letts
, Dreadzone
and the Groove Corporation. The wide range of remixes included beatbox, drum and bass
and ambient
reworkings.
Fox came out of semi-retirement to play Ruts songs as Foxy's Ruts with his son, Lawrence, on drums. Foxy's Ruts supported Bad Manners
on their Christmas tour of the UK in December 2006.
Two retrospective live albums appeared in 2006. Get Out of It!! featured eighteen songs including a sexually-themed early number by the band, "Gotta Little Number" (also titled "Stepping Bondage") from a London Marquee
show on 19 July 1979 (these recordings have also surfaced as "Marquee 1979" and "Ruts 1979 - Marquee Club"). Live at Deeply Vale, featured thirteen songs from a July 1978 performance recorded at the free Deeply Vale festival that was held annually near Bury
, Greater Manchester
.
On 16 July 2007 the band reformed for the first time in 27 years, and played a special benefit gig
for Fox, following his diagnosis with lung cancer
. Henry Rollins
stood in for Owen. They were supported by Tom Robinson
, The Damned
, Misty in Roots
, U.K. Subs, Splodge (Splodgenessabounds
), John Otway
; and the Peafish House Band which featured Lee Harris, (The Blockheads
), Tony Barber (Buzzcocks
) and Rowland Rivron
, plus Edward Tudor-Pole
and T. V. Smith
.
Fox died on 21 October of the same year, at the age of 56.
On 25 January 2008, Henry Rollins presented The Gig, a short film
about the 2007 benefit gig at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire. The event, in support of Macmillan Cancer Support
, was accompanied by live performances from Alabama 3
, T. V. Smith, members of The Members
, The Damned's Captain Sensible
and Beki Bondage
.
In June 2008, another compilation, Original Punks, was released by Music Club Deluxe in the UK. The two disc set included demos
, alternate versions and live tracks plus songs recorded by Ruts D.C.
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
-influenced British punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
, notable for the 1979 Top 10 hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
"Babylon's Burning", and an earlier single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"In a Rut", which was not a hit but was much played and highly regarded by the UK BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
, John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
.
Career
After meeting at the Deeply Vale Free FestivalDeeply Vale Festivals
The Deeply Vale Festivals were a unique free festival held in northwest England in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979. It is regarded as the one of significant events that united punk music into the festival scene.-Deeply Vale Free Festival:...
, The Ruts were formed on 18 August 1977, the band consisted of Malcolm Owen (vocals), Paul Fox
Paul Fox (musician)
Paul Fox was a British musician and singer, best known from his work with the UK punk band, The Ruts. The Ruts' style combined punk with dub reggae, a sound that owed much to Fox's guitar skills and earned him respect and admiration...
(guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
), John "Segs" (sometimes "Seggs") Jennings (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
) and Dave Ruffy (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
). As part of the Misty in Roots
Misty in Roots
Misty in Roots began life as a Southall-based British roots reggae band in the early 1970s. Their first album was 1979's Live at the Counter Eurovision, a record full of Biblical Rastafarian songs. It was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, helping to bring roots reggae to a white audience...
People Unite collective
Collective
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project to achieve a common objective...
based in Southall
Southall
Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. It is situated west of Charing Cross. Neighbouring places include Yeading, Hayes, Hanwell, Heston, Hounslow, Greenford and Northolt...
, west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the band were active in anti-racist
Anti-racism
Anti-racism includes beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism. In general, anti-racism is intended to promote an egalitarian society in which people do not face discrimination on the basis of their race, however defined...
causes and played a number of benefits for Rock Against Racism
Rock Against Racism
Rock Against Racism was a campaign set up in the United Kingdom in 1976 as a response to an increase in racial conflict and the growth of white nationalist groups such as the National Front. The campaign involved pop, rock and reggae musicians staging concerts with an anti-racist theme, in order...
.
Schoolboy friends Fox and Owen shared a mutual interest in music. In the early 1970s they lived together in a commune
Commune (intentional community)
A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, where they performed their own musical compositions with Paul Mattocks, who played flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, guitar and keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
. Mattocks later became The Ruts' first drummer.
Post Office telephone engineer Jennings met record shop manager Ruffy in 1976 and became interested in punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
after discussing the latter's Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
' T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
. Meanwhile, Owen's interest in punk was piqued when he saw the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
playing live. At the time, Fox was playing with Ruffy in a funk band, Hit and Run, which included sixteen year-old saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
player Gary Barnacle
Gary Barnacle
Gary Barnacle is a saxophonist/flautist, brass instrument arranger, composer and producer, primarily noted for session work, live work Gary Barnacle (born 1959, Dover, England) is a saxophonist/flautist, brass instrument arranger, composer and producer, primarily noted for session work, live work...
, who later played on several Ruts songs. Hit and Run were a covers band who released one single, a version of Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs' 1965 hit "Wooly Bully
Wooly Bully
"Wooly Bully" is a popular song originally recorded by novelty rock 'n' roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs in 1965. Based on a standard 12-bar blues progression, it was written by the band's leader, Domingo "Sam" Samudio. It was released as a single on the Memphis-based Pen label and...
". The Ruts initial history is described in an audio interview with Jennings, conducted by Alan Parker, which appears on the album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Bustin' Out.
On 16 September 1977, The Ruts made their live debut, playing three songs in a break during a set by Mr Softy (another Fox band) at The Target in Hayes, Middlesex
Hayes, Hillingdon
Hayes is a town in the London Borough of Hillingdon, West London. It is a suburban development situated west of Charing Cross. Hayes was developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries as an industrial locality to which residential districts were later added in order to house factory workers...
.
Early Ruts songs recorded at Free Range Studio Sessions - also in Hayes - on 1 October 1977 were "Stepping Bondage" (formerly ""Go Go Go"), "Rich Bitch", "Out of Order", "I Ain't Sofisticated" and "Lobotomy" and were Oi!
Oi!
Oi! is a working class subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youths ....
in style. The group began to evolve and become more musically adventurous, incorporating reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
and dub elements into their repertoire. Dave Ruffy returned to the drums and a new bassist, 'Segs' Jennings, was recruited. The new Ruts line-up debuted supporting Wayne County and the Electric Chairs at High Wycombe
High Wycombe
High Wycombe , commonly known as Wycombe and formally called Chepping Wycombe or Chipping Wycombe until 1946,is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is west-north-west of Charing Cross in London; this figure is engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town...
town hall on 25 January 1978.
The Ruts' first single, "In a Rut" was finally released on People Unite in January 1979, having been recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
back on 24 April 1978 at the aforementioned Free Range 8-track studios
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
. It was backed up with anti-heroin tirade "H-Eyes" on the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
("You're so young, you take smack for fun/It's gonna screw your head, you're gonna wind up dead"). DJ John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
expressed his admiration for the group on air (as can be heard on a retrospective 1978 radio show clip on the In a Rut album) and a session for the BBC swiftly followed the same month. DJ David Jensen
David Jensen
David "Kid" Jensen , is a Danish Canadian-born, British radio DJ.-Early career:Born in a Danish family residing Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began his career in his home country at the age of sixteen playing jazz and classical music. He then joined Radio Luxembourg at the age of eighteen in...
also showcased the band in a further session recorded for the BBC in February 1979. A second Peel session was in May 1979.
In 1979, after a chance meeting with The Damned drummer Rat Scabies
Rat Scabies
Christopher Millar , better known by his stage name Rat Scabies, is a musician best known for his tenure as the drummer for The Damned....
, the band toured the UK as the Damned's support act. A bootleg of their 3 November slot at Strathclyde University includes a rendition of The Damned's "Love Song" as well as a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
standard "Blue Suede Shoes
Blue Suede Shoes
"Blue Suede Shoes" is a rock and roll standard written and first recorded by Carl Perkins in 1955 and is considered one of the first rockabilly records and incorporated elements of blues, country and pop music of the time...
". The Damned also played live covers of "In a Rut" during this period as evidenced on the Noise: The Best of The Damned Live album.
In June, their debut single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
for Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
's Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, "Babylon's Burning" became a UK Top 10 hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
, reaching number 7 in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, and prompting an appearance on BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
's Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
. The second Virgin single, "Something That I Said", followed in August 1979 and garnered a second Top of the Pops spot. The B-side was a reggae track "Give Youth a Chance" (also known as "Blackman's Pinch") originally recorded for the band's John Peel session in May.
Their debut album The Crack
The Crack
The Crack is The Ruts first album, released in 1979 and containing the UK hit singles: "Babylon's Burning" and "Something That I Said"...
was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Mick Glossop and released in September 1979, reaching number 16 in the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
. The two singles "Babylon's Burning" and "Something That I Said" were re-recorded for the album.
Taken from The Crack album, the band's third single for Virgin at the end of October 1979 was the dub reggae song "Jah War", about the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
's Special Patrol Group
Special Patrol Group
The Special Patrol Group was a unit of Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service, responsible for providing a centrally-based mobile capability for combating serious public disorder and crime that could not be dealt with by local divisions....
's violence in Southall disturbances in April 1979.
On 11 February 1980, the band returned to a BBC studio for their third Peel session, two tracks of which - "Demolition Dancing" and "Secret Soldiers" - later appeared on Virgin's posthumous Grin & Bear It
Grin & Bear It
Grin & Bear It is The Ruts' 1980 second album and features a compilation of singles, B-sides and live performances recorded at London's Marquee Club. The cover artwork was by Oliver Howard....
album.
By this time singer Malcolm Owen was suffering with health problems; a combination of sore throats and a heroin addiction. A UK tour was arranged, the 'Back to Blighty
Blighty
Blighty is a British English slang term for Britain, deriving from the Hindustani word vilāyatī , from Persian vilayet and ultimately from Arabic wilayah, originally meaning something like "province"...
' tour, but a number of dates had to be cancelled due to Owen's condition. What turned out to be the last Ruts gig with Malcolm took place at Plymouth Polytechnic on 26 February 1980.
On 27 March 1980, The Ruts released their fifth single, "Staring at the Rude Boys", a comment on the rapidly rising Two Tone scene. It was backed by another reggae song "Love In Vein". The single reached the #22 spot on the UK Singles Chart. "Staring At The Rude Boys" was covered by the US hardcore
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
band Dag Nasty
Dag Nasty
Dag Nasty was a Washington D.C. punk band formed in 1985 by guitarist Brian Baker of Minor Threat, drummer Colin Sears and bassist Roger Marbury, both of Bloody Mannequin Orchestra, and vocalist Shawn Brown...
in 1987, and by the British hardcore punk band, Gallows
Gallows (band)
Gallows are a hardcore punk band from Watford, England. The band was formed in 2005 after the disbandment of founding member Laurent Barnard's previous band, My Dad Joe. Gallows' debut album, Orchestra of Wolves, was distributed in the United States by Epitaph Records, and they were subsequently...
, in 2007.
The Ruts backed Laurel Aitken
Laurel Aitken
Lorenzo Aitken , better known as Laurel Aitken, was a singer and one of the originators of Jamaican ska music. He is often referred to as the "Godfather of ska".-Career:...
who was then signed to Secret Affair
Secret Affair
Secret Affair were a mod revival band, formed in 1978 and disbanded in 1982. They reformed to perform and record in the 2000s.-Career:In a period of a little over two years, Secret Affair posted five releases in the UK Singles Chart and released three albums...
's record label, I-Spy Records, on a Peel session for BBC Radio 1, in April 1980, and also backed Aitken on his support tour to Secret Affair. The line-up was Aitken, Fox, Jennings, Ruffy, Owen and Barnacle. The band also played for Aitken on his single, "Rudi Got Married".
With their latest British tour sold out in advance and an American tour lined up, the band were beginning work on their second album in early 1980. Having been forced to cancel a number of UK tour dates, the other three band members fired their frontman over his drug addiction, shortly after completing work on their next single, "West One (Shine on Me)". After negotiations, Owen briefly rejoined the band.
Malcolm Owen was found dead in the bathroom of his parents' house in Hayes, from a heroin overdose
Drug overdose
The term drug overdose describes the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities greater than are recommended or generally practiced...
on 14 July 1980 at the age of 26. Prophetically, the track "H-eyes", which was the B-side of their first single "In a Rut", was a song against heroin use, and two other songs, "Dope for Guns" from the album The Crack, plus reggae lament "Love in Vein" ("don't want you in my arms no more") were also anti-drug songs. A year later, The Damned wrote a song, "The Limit Club", about their deceased friend which mentions the "velvet claws" that Fox talked about with reference to Owen's heroin addiction.
On 22 August 1980, the band's sixth and final single was released, "West One (Shine On Me)". Co-produced by the band themselves as they were "starting to get pissed off with the music business" (according to Jennings in an audio interview on "Bustin' Out"), the song featured brass and segued into a dub remix. The B-side was "The Crack", a lighthearted mini-pastiche of their debut album, recorded in a number of musical styles. It peaked at #43 in the UK Singles Chart.
Virgin issued a second album later in 1980, a compilation
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
of singles, demos and live tracks entitled Grin & Bear It
Grin & Bear It
Grin & Bear It is The Ruts' 1980 second album and features a compilation of singles, B-sides and live performances recorded at London's Marquee Club. The cover artwork was by Oliver Howard....
. The three live tracks - "S.U.S.", "Babylon's Burning" and "Society" had been recorded for Chorus, a French TV show, in January of that year. When this was later reissued on CD, early tracks "Stepping Bondage", "Lobotomy" and "Rich Bitch" were added.
1980 also saw the collaboration of the remaining band members with Kevin Coyne
Kevin Coyne
Kevin Coyne was a musician, singer, composer, film-maker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems. The former "anti-star" was born on 27 January 1944 in Derby, UK, and died in his adopted home of Nuremberg, Germany, on 2 December 2004....
on one half of his double album, Sanity Stomp
Sanity Stomp
Sanity Stomp is a double studio LP by the rock artist Kevin Coyne which was released in 1980.Of this album Coyne himself said:-Track listing:# "Fat Man”# “The Monkey Man”# “How Strange”# “Somewhere In My Mind”# “When ”...
.
The band continued as Ruts D.C. (D.C. standing for the Latin term da capo, meaning "back to the beginning") in a different musical vein. They released two albums, Animal Now (May 1981 on Virgin) and Rhythm Collision (July 1982 on Bohemian Records), the latter in collaboration with Mad Professor
Mad Professor
Mad Professor is a dub music producer and engineer known for his original productions and remix work. He is considered one of the leading producers of dub music’s second generation and was instrumental in transitioning dub into the digital age. He is a prolific producer, contributing to or...
, a renowned dub producer
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
. Ruts D.C. split in 1983.
In 1987, BBC label Strange Fruit
Strange Fruit
"Strange Fruit" is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who released her first recording of it in 1939, the year she first sang it. Written by the teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem, it exposed American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had occurred...
collected together the group's three Radio One sessions for The Peel Session Album: The Ruts. Live albums soon followed, including BBC Radio One in Concert (Windsong) recorded at London's Paris Theatre
Paris Theatre
The Paris Theatre was a former cinema located in Lower Regent Street, London, which was converted into a theatre by the BBC for radio broadcasts...
on 7 July 1979, The Ruts Live (Dojo) and Live and Loud! (Link).
Virgin released The Ruts vs. The Skids EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in 1992 to promote their Three Minute Heroes compilation album. "In a Rut" and "Babylon's Burning" were lined up against The Skids
The Skids
Skids were an art-punk/punk rock and new wave band from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, founded in 1977 by Stuart Adamson , William Simpson , Thomas Kellichan and Richard Jobson...
' "Into the Valley
Into the Valley
"Into the Valley" is a 1979 single by Skids, taken off their Scared to Dance album, and is their best known song, appearing on a number of punk rock and Scottish music compilation albums. It reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart for the week ending 24 March 1979...
" and "Working for the Yankee Dollar". Demolition Dancing (1994) was an album of live tracks recorded in 1979, two of which - "Shakin' All Over
Shakin' All Over
"Shakin' All Over" is a rock and roll song originally performed by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. It was written by frontman Johnny Kidd and reached #1 in the United Kingdom in August 1960...
" and "In A Rut" - featured members of The Damned. Also in 1994, the German record label Vince Lombardy Highschool Records released Rules which featured sixteen tracks by The Ruts and Ruts D.C., including "Last Exit", a previously unreleased song.
1995 brought Something That I Said - The Best of The Ruts album (re-released in March 2003 and on EMI Gold in 2005).
Ruts: In a Can (2000) was an album of demos from three sessions in the period before they signed to Virgin, released in a metal tin. Fox, Jennings and Ruffy compiled and remastered this release, and also supplied liner notes. The sessions date from 25 April 1978 (8-track Fairdeal Sessions), 20 February 1979 (Underhill Studio) and Mystery Studio Sessions (early 1979).
In 2001, Virgin released Bustin' Out - The Essential Ruts Collection on CD. It included "Denial", a previously unreleased instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
track. "Bustin' Out" was rounded out with a twenty minute interview with Jennings. The same year, the 2-disc CD Criminal Minds appeared on Snapper in the UK. The second disc was a reissue of Live and Loud! from 1987. Anagram Records came up with a collection of unreleased tracks and alternate versions for their sixteen track CD, In a Rut in 2002 (reissued 2008). The compilation included a snippet of John Peel praising "In a Rut", and offering to help listeners obtain a copy if it is not available in their local record shop
Record shop
A record shop or record store is an outlet that sells recorded music. Although vinyl records and audio cassettes are no longer sold in the majority of music stores, in favour of compact discs and home video recordings products, people in some countries, like the UK, still use the term "record...
.
Babylon's Burning Reconstructed (2005) was an album long tribute to the band's most famous song, remixed sixteen different times by Die Toten Hosen
Die Toten Hosen
Die Toten Hosen is a German punk band from Düsseldorf. They have enjoyed decades-long mass appeal in Germany.The band's name literally means "The Dead Pants" in English, although the phrase "tote Hose" is a German expression meaning "nothing going on" or "boring"...
, Don Letts
Don Letts
Don Letts is a British film director and musician. He is credited as the man who through his DJing at clubs like The Roxy brought together punk and reggae music.-Biography:...
, Dreadzone
Dreadzone
Dreadzone are a British band whose music is an eclectic fusion of dub, reggae, techno, folk and rock. They have so far produced six studio albums and two live albums.-Career:...
and the Groove Corporation. The wide range of remixes included beatbox, drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
and ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
reworkings.
Fox came out of semi-retirement to play Ruts songs as Foxy's Ruts with his son, Lawrence, on drums. Foxy's Ruts supported Bad Manners
Bad Manners
Bad Manners are an English 2 Tone ska band. They quickly became the novelty favourites of the UK pop scene through their bald outsized frontman's on-stage antics, earning early exposure through their Top of The Pops exploits and an appearance in the live film documentary, Dance Craze.They were at...
on their Christmas tour of the UK in December 2006.
Two retrospective live albums appeared in 2006. Get Out of It!! featured eighteen songs including a sexually-themed early number by the band, "Gotta Little Number" (also titled "Stepping Bondage") from a London Marquee
Marquee Club
The Marquee was a music club first located at 165 Oxford Street, London, England when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts.It was also the location of the first ever live performance by The Rolling Stones on 12 July 1962....
show on 19 July 1979 (these recordings have also surfaced as "Marquee 1979" and "Ruts 1979 - Marquee Club"). Live at Deeply Vale, featured thirteen songs from a July 1978 performance recorded at the free Deeply Vale festival that was held annually near Bury
Bury
Bury is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Irwell, east of Bolton, west-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northwest of the city of Manchester...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
.
On 16 July 2007 the band reformed for the first time in 27 years, and played a special benefit gig
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
for Fox, following his diagnosis with lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
. Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins is an American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ....
stood in for Owen. They were supported by Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
, The Damned
The Damned
The Damned are an English gothic punk band formed in London in 1976. They were the first punk rock band from the United Kingdom to release a single , an album , to have a record on the UK music charts, and to tour the United States...
, Misty in Roots
Misty in Roots
Misty in Roots began life as a Southall-based British roots reggae band in the early 1970s. Their first album was 1979's Live at the Counter Eurovision, a record full of Biblical Rastafarian songs. It was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, helping to bring roots reggae to a white audience...
, U.K. Subs, Splodge (Splodgenessabounds
Splodgenessabounds
Splodgenessabounds are an English punk rock band formed in Keston, Bromley, South London. The band is associated with the Oi! and Punk Pathetique genres. Their frontman is Max Splodge.-Career:...
), John Otway
John Otway
John Otway, is an English singer-songwriter, who has built a sizeable cult audience through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating underdog persona.-Biography:...
; and the Peafish House Band which featured Lee Harris, (The Blockheads
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
), Tony Barber (Buzzcocks
Buzzcocks
Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton in 1976, led by singer–songwriter–guitarist Pete Shelley.They are regarded as an important influence on the Manchester music scene, the independent record label movement, punk rock, power pop, pop punk and indie rock. They achieved commercial...
) and Rowland Rivron
Rowland Rivron
Rowland J. Rivron is a British comedian, musician, writer and television presenter.-Early life: Rivron was brought up in Hillingdon, West London and attended Abbotsfield Secondary School...
, plus Edward Tudor-Pole
Edward Tudor-Pole
Edward Tudor-Pole is an English musician, singer , TV presenter and actor.- Musical career :Tudor-Pole formed the band Tenpole Tudor in 1974, and eventually came to prominence after appearing in the film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle as a possible replacement for Johnny Rotten in the Sex Pistols...
and T. V. Smith
T. V. Smith
T. V. Smith is a British punk rock singer-songwriter, who was part of the band The Adverts in the late 1970s...
.
Fox died on 21 October of the same year, at the age of 56.
On 25 January 2008, Henry Rollins presented The Gig, a short film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
about the 2007 benefit gig at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire. The event, in support of Macmillan Cancer Support
Macmillan Cancer Support
Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the largest British charities and provides specialist health care, information and financial support to people affected by cancer....
, was accompanied by live performances from Alabama 3
Alabama 3
Alabama 3 are a British band mixing rock, dance, blues, country, and gospel styles, founded in Brixton, London, in 1995. In the United States, they are known as A3, allegedly to avoid any possible legal conflict with the country music band Alabama...
, T. V. Smith, members of The Members
The Members
The Members are a British punk band that originated in Camberley, England. Their best known recording is "The Sound of the Suburbs" .-Career:...
, The Damned's Captain Sensible
Captain Sensible
Captain Sensible is a singer, songwriter, guitarist who grew up in Croydon, England, and co-founded the punk rock band The Damned in 1976. After leaving the band, he reinvented himself as an alternative pop singer with a rebellious, self-conscious image...
and Beki Bondage
Beki Bondage
Beki Bondage is a musician in the punk band, Vice Squad and was one of its founder members in 1978.She featured on the front cover of a number of influential music tabloids such as Melody Maker, NME, Smash Hits and Sounds.In 1983, she left Vice Squad to form the band Ligotage with Steve Roberts of...
.
In June 2008, another compilation, Original Punks, was released by Music Club Deluxe in the UK. The two disc set included demos
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
, alternate versions and live tracks plus songs recorded by Ruts D.C.
Albums
- The CrackThe CrackThe Crack is The Ruts first album, released in 1979 and containing the UK hit singles: "Babylon's Burning" and "Something That I Said"...
(September 1979: VirginVirgin RecordsVirgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, V 2132) UKUK Albums ChartThe UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
#16 - Grin & Bear ItGrin & Bear ItGrin & Bear It is The Ruts' 1980 second album and features a compilation of singles, B-sides and live performances recorded at London's Marquee Club. The cover artwork was by Oliver Howard....
(part-compilation) (October 1980: Virgin, V 2188) UK #28 - Animal NowAnimal NowAnimal Now is an album by British punk band The Ruts D.C., following a name change from "The Ruts". It was released in 1981 on Virgin Records. The album is notable for having some interesting run-out etchings on the vinyl...
(as Ruts D.C.) (May 1981: Virgin) - Rhythm Collision (as Ruts D.C.) (July 1982: Bohemian)
- BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (Windsong International) split with PenetrationPenetration (band)Penetration is a punk rock band from County Durham, England formed in 1976. They re-formed in 2001 with several new members.Their debut single, "Don’t Dictate", is now acknowledged as a classic punk rock single and their debut album, Moving Targets , is still widely admired-Biography:The lead...
Selective compilation albums and E.P.s
- The Peel SessionsThe Peel Sessions (Ruts album)The Peel Sessions was the 1986 album release of the sessions The Ruts recorded in May 1979 for Radio 1's John Peel Show. Although released as a 12 inch vinyl platter the record was designed to be played at 45 rpm . [tmi.]...
(December 1986: Strange FruitStrange Fruit"Strange Fruit" is a song performed most famously by Billie Holiday, who released her first recording of it in 1939, the year she first sang it. Written by the teacher Abel Meeropol as a poem, it exposed American racism, particularly the lynching of African Americans. Such lynchings had occurred...
) - Peel Sessions – Complete Sessions 1979-1981 (May 1990: Strange Fruit)
- Demolition Dancing (1994: Receiver) - mostly live material, and including two tracks with The Damned: "Shakin' All OverShakin' All Over"Shakin' All Over" is a rock and roll song originally performed by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. It was written by frontman Johnny Kidd and reached #1 in the United Kingdom in August 1960...
" and "In a Rut" - Something That I Said: The Best of the Ruts (March 1995: Virgin)
- Bustin’ Out: The Essential Ruts Collection (June 2001: EMIEMIThe EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
)
Singles
- "In a Rut" / "H-Eyes" (May 1978: Record labelRecord labelIn the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
:People Unite, SJP 795 & RUT 1) - "Babylon's Burning" / "Society" (June 1979: Virgin, VS 271; also released as a 12 inch single) UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#7 - "Something That I Said" / "Give Youth a Chance" (August 1979: Virgin, VS 285) UK #29
- "Jah Wars" / "I Ain't Sofisticated" (November 1979: Virgin, VS 298)
- "Staring At The Rude Boys" / "Love in Vain" (April 1980: Virgin, VS 327) UK #22
- "West One (Shine On Me)" / "The Crack" (August 1980: Virgin, VS 370) UK #43
- "Different View" / "Formula Eyes" (as Ruts D.C.) (February 1981: Virgin, VS 396)
- "Whatever We Do" / "Push Yourself – Make It Work" (as Ruts D.C.) (July 1982: Bohemian, B 02)
- "Weak Heart" / "Militant" / "Accusation" (as Ruts D.C.) (March 1983: Bohemian, B 03)
- "Stepping Bondage" / "Lobotomy" / "Rich Bitch" (as Ruts) (May 1983: Bohemian, B 04)
Audio sample
See also
- List of British punk bands
- List of Peel sessions
- List of performers on Top of the Pops
- Music of the United Kingdom (1970s)Music of the United Kingdom (1970s)Popular music of the United Kingdom in the 1970s built upon the new forms developed of music developed from blues rock towards the end of the 1960s, including folk rock and psychedelic rock...
External links
- The official Ruts Myspace
- The Ruts on www.punk77.co.uk
- The Ruts on Punkmodpop
- Paul Fox obituary, The Times, 27 October 2007