This was recorded at a free festival near Bury, Lancashire also appearing on the bill were Hawkwind, Here and Now and Steve Hillage amongst others. A strange place for The Ruts to perform, but not when they were regulars at the festival, which ran from 1976-79. The band actually formed in a tent at the 1977 event. Can't imagine what the 'hippys' made of The Ruts Punk, Reggae crossover collision, the band certainly enjoyed it. This performance was before they'd released their classic debut In A Rut and almost a year before their '79 chart smash and 'bad boy samplers' favourite; Babylons Burning. This recording captures one of the best of the rest punk bands in an embryonic stage of their short career. Two years later, singer Malcolm Owen 'fucked his brain' and died of a heroin overdose. A wasted talent and a tragic end to a band that had so much more to offer, right from the start they were taking punk in a different direction, as you can hear this on this artifact, click here and enjoy.
Cool stuff!!
ReplyDeleteThanks
Robert
Pulled that one out the bag Wolfie! Nice. You seen the clips on You-tube with Rollins singing with the Ruts from a week or so ago benefit for Paul Fox who has untreatable Lung cancer.
ReplyDeleteBags getting a bit empty John, problems converting old tapes to mp3's,need new software and loads of time, not seen clips yet will make time sometime, some comments about the benefit gig on the clash forum, sounded like a good night,glad yer liked it Robert.
ReplyDeleteAnother cracker. Thank You
ReplyDeleteMalcolm Owen, A wasted talent indeed
Hi from Melbourne, Australia
ReplyDeleteThe Ruts are one of the greatest bands of all time!
Thank you so much for sharing this!!
Big Ern xxx