RUTS DC - Live'n'Direct.

This post comes courtesy of a couple of mates of mine. Jon got it from Pete and Jon loaned it to me. It was a CD full of Ruts odds’n’sods. I think the rehearsal ones on it are the same that have appeared on various blogs and torrents so I wont bother with them, instead get yer ears round these 5 live tracks from Ruts DC recorded, I think at Hammersmith Odeon on 21st Oct 1980 when the band supported The Skids, three months after the death of lead singer Malcolm Owen. Dunno if they’ve been released before, if they have I aint come across them, so here you go. 4 of the 5 tracks are old Ruts numbers: Love In Vain, West One, Society and Babylon’s Burning the other one was Ruts DC’s first single, Different View. The vocals lack the aggression and abrasiveness of Malcolm’s, but still a great listen. It would have been and was, a hard job for the band to top their debut The Crack, they gave it their best shot with 1981’s Animal Now, which is good but…..check it out for yourselves at the rather fine Mondo-De Muebles blog. Guitarist Paul Fox sadly died a couple of years ago. Both his and Malcolm’s legacy…well, The Ruts were one of the best and every music lover should have a copy of The Crack, can’t say much more than that.