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When that monster Punk Rock reared its head in 1976 even the sleepy towns on the edge of London,
immortalised poignantly by the SEX PISTOLS in 'Satellitte'. Just down the road from me, in a little
known town named Hayes, a band called THE RUTS was about to take shape.
As word of the new craze got around, Malcom Owen, then an often beaten up Mod,
phoned his old friend and guitarist Paul Fox to suggest they form a Punk band together. Little
did either of them know that they were about to embark on something that would make a small
piece of musical history.
Dave Ruffy was drafted in on dums and another old friend, John 'Segs' Jennings, was eventually
sent out to buy a bass guitar. This line up of the band made their debut at High Wycombe Town Hall
supporting Wayne County & The electric Chairs. It was now 1978 and the band were out and about
in West London bullding up a sizable following and playing infamous Punk haunts like the
White Hart in Acton.
From the beginning THE RUTS had a deep hatred of racism: Malcom being a Southall boy had first hand
experience of bogotry. They therefore made contact with Rock Against The Racism, themselves a new
orgnisation trying to halt the rise of the National Front. The R.A.R. gigs took The RUTS out of London
and teamed them up with southfall Reggae band Misty In Roots on a number of occasions.
Misty helped run the People United record label and consequently offered The RUTS a chance to record
a single which they jumped at. The result was "In a Rut", a scorcher of a record which went on to become
a virtual theme tune for them. The flip side was "H-Eyes" a venomous anti-Heroin rabble rouser which
was to prove prophetic as we'll see later. |
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