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RUTS and RUTS DC music interview with Segs and Dave Ruffy
Ruts DC supported the Damned on their recent UK tour, they were amazing both nights I saw them.
In December 2008 John "Segs" Jennings and Dave Ruffy returned to Ariwa Studios as Ruts D.C to record some new tracks with Neil Mad Proffesor Fraser. The project, entitled Rhythm Collision Vol. 2, was mixed in Brighton by Mike "Prince Fatty" Pelanconi and was finally released in 2013.
The band enlisted Leigh Heggarty on guitar, Seamus Beaghan on Hammond organ, and Molara on additional vocals and percussion, and completed some British dates supporting Alabama 3 in November and December 2011. The band also played the Rebellion Festival in August 2012, at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool alongside Rancid, Buzzcocks, Goldblade, Social Distortion, Public Image Ltd among others
History
The Ruts' first single, "In a Rut" was 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")
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.
By 1980 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
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 front man 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
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.Paul Fox benefit
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.
Paul Fox died on 21 October of the same year, at the age of 56.
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