Ruts DC have announced they will spend 2027 celebrating their 50th anniversary as both The Ruts and Ruts DC, with a series of gigs taking in every aspect of half a century of creativity.
50 Years of Ruts Music – 1977-2027 will take the music that exploded out of the punk movement and bring it onto a stage near you with all its urgency and relevance intact.
The Ruts emerged from West London with a sound unlike anybody else’s. It harnessed the raw energy of punk as well as the rhythms of reggae, dub and rock, driven by formidable musicianship and a fierce sense of purpose.
They released a string of singles which still sound fantastic today: In A Rut. Babylon’s Burning. Something That I Said. Jah War. Staring At The Rude Boys. West One (Shine On Me). There was just one album, The Crack, one of the defining British punk albums of its era.
Sadly, frontman Malcolm Owen died as a result of heroin addiction in 1980, leaving remaining members Paul Fox, Dave Ruffy and Segs Jennings to carry on as Ruts DC.
They split in 1983 after releasing two albums which didn’t chart at the time, but are much more fondly regarded in retrospect, and the band went their separate ways until a 2007 reunion for a benefit gig for Fox, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Sadly he died later the same year, but Segs and Ruffy continued working together, with various guest musicians, including Leigh Heggarty on guitar, and the line-up then solidified as a trio.
In 2016 they released Music Must Destroy, their first punk album in 36 years. It was my favourite release of that year, giving us some idea what a force The Ruts could have become had tragedy not intervened.
A very different album, Counterculture?, followed in 2022, and they have also released three volumes of Electracoustic – acoustic interpretations of songs old and new.
Ruts DC continue to play live, including annual plugged-in and acoustic performances at Rebellion Punk Festival in Blackpool, and they’ve just released a new EP, Bound In Blood (reviewed here).
Now they’re taking the show on the road, at towns and cities around the UK, celebrating 50 years or Ruts/Ruts DC music. They will play music made across five decades – from The Crack and the posthumously-released Grin & Bear It, through Animal Now, Rhythm Collision, Music Must Destroy, and Counterculture?
Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday September 25 from AGMP.co.uk and SEETICKETS.com. See you down the front.
