| In A
Rut / H-Eyes (People Unite 1979)
What a first
single! With little or no advertising and distribution this single sold
over 20,000 copies. Absolutely superb. In later years New Model Army
would cover this song. Ironic B side in the light of Malcolm's later
death from heroin. |
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| Babylon's
Burning / Society (1979)
A classic slice of UK punk with its menacing explosive
riff that ensures their place in the punk all time hall
of fame. A
top ten hit for the band too. Pure heaven! B side continues that punky
stream of consciousness.
Was originally going to be entitled London's
Burning but
as The Clash had already done it Babylons
Burning was
decided on. |
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| Something
That I Said / Give Youth A Chance (1979)
Another stormer.
Normally the set opener when playing live, this was their second top
thirty hit and rightly so. The B side was the start of their forays into
reggae being put down on vinyl and an excellent track it is too. |
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| The
Crack (1979)
Its a classic
from the word go commencing with police
sirens heralding a different version of
Babylons
Burning. Tracks to check out are
SUS,
Backbiter, Out Of
Order and It Was Cold.... In fact the lot
! The one
thing you have to say about The Ruts is that these boys
could play reggae. Not the dire rubbish peddled by The
Members (Offshore
Banking Business) or ATV (Love Lies
Limp) but classic stuff like
'Love In Vain' and
'Jah Wars.'
It took the Clash 3 albums to get to this standard. There's a lot going on on the
album The Crack and the singles and all of it is
accessible. Its punk but its pulling it it another
direction. |
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| Jah
War / I Ain't Sofisticated (1979)
The Ruts in a
nutshell. Perhaps the world wasn't ready for full on reggae and so would
explain why this record didn't chart. Excellent song coupled with their
frantic punk thrash of I
Ain't Sofisticated
- one
of their earliest songs. |
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| Staring
At The Rude Boys / Train In Vain (1980)
Reversing the
reggae and punk sides of Jah
War The Ruts
returned to the top 30 with this little ditty and surely one of their
best in terms of lyrics and song dynamics. B side is good too and an
ominous foretaste of things to come?. |
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| West
One / The Crack (1980)
Posthumous single
and shows off just how good The Ruts were. As a song its astonishing... A classic fusion
of punk underpinned by some great reggae bass and
drumming really creating a sound of their own. There's a definite aura of sadness about it.
This was Mike Monroe's of Hanoi Rocks favourite record. |
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| Grin
& Bear It (1980)
Made up of
sessions, demos and John Peel shows this was the sign off and tidy up
from a band that could have been massive. Drugs can fuck you up. What
would you rather be? Singing in The Ruts or dead from smack? |
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| Stepping
Bondage / Lobotomy / Rich Bitch (Bohemian Records 1983)
Lobotomy &
Rich Bitch
come from that first rehearsal back in '77 at Rotherhite and features
the first line up with Paul Mattock on drums. Stepping
Bondage
is the classic Ruts line up. Raw urgent punk and more suprising because
of the length of time the band had
been together and how good they sound. |
Click
to hear
audio clip of 'Stepping Bondage'
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