I’ve had these two live shows knocking about for a while now, so I thought, its about time I posted ‘em. Lets take a trip back to the late 70’s and early 80’s, Punk had grown into a whole new beast and the country was being run by a beast called Thatcher. Both the starz of today’s post GENERATION X and THE RUTS had been there in 77 and had developed into two great bands who were from opposite ends of the punk spectrum. Gen X with their poppy, glam, punk escapism and The Ruts with their gritty punky reggae style social realism. Gen X are captured here some time in 1980 at Hatfield Polytechnic, playing a great set of their classics, including a cover of The New York Dolls Jet Boy. The Ruts were recorded a year earlier in 1979 at Strathclyde University, playing a set of their classics, plus a cover of The Damned's Love Song. The Ruts set is slightly marred to my ears by a puerile sing along by Malcom Owen about wanting his mum to suck his dick?! Must have been the heroin talking. Sadly the drugs took their toll on Malcom who is no longer with us, a genuine wasted talent. Even sadder to my ears is the effects the drugs had on Billy Idol, who last year, or was it the year before? released an atrocious Christmas Album, where on the cover he looks like some punk Perry Como and sounded even worse. Anyway enough of that, cos this is what yer really after; some Ruts and some Generation X, so what yer waiting for all you KING ROCKERS AND RUDE BOYS!
3 comments:
Some pop punk is ok, but I never liked Gen X. Some reggae is ok, but the Ruts were absolutely amazing darlings.
Long time no hear pogel, hope yer keepimg well. Yeah Gen X were a bit like that with a lot of people, great tunes, but no real social comment, The Ruts on the other hand...To me both are worthy bands for a variety of reasons.
Thanks for these Live shows.Any live Ruts is a treat, that is for sure. The Generation x sounds good, though I have a problem with Billy Idol's singing. It is hard for me to forget some of his awful solo stuff.
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