THE RUTS "THE CRACK" 1979 VIRGIN US RARE 1st PRESS STILL SEALED OOP UK PUNK/DUB

$

59

THREE YEARS AGO I LOST ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS TO CANCER, HE WAS A COOL MUSICIAN A DRUMMER BY TRADE, ORIGINALLY FROM SEATTLE, BUT RELOCATED TO L.A. IN 1985, HE AMASSED A VERY LARGE MUSIC COLLECTION, AND HAD KILLER TASTE FOR ROCK & ROLL, SADLY I AM SELLING OFF A LOT OF HIS COLLECTION ON BEHALF OF HIS WIDOW TO HELP PAY OFF DEBTS INCLUDING BILLS, TAXES AND STORAGE UNIT FEES. I AM NOT TAKING ANYTHING FOR THIS SERVICE, DOING IT FOR MY FRIEND (MISS YOU DAVE!). THIS ITEM IS FROM HIS COLLECTION.

THE PHOTO'S MAY BE A LITTLE BLURRY, HAVE A LITTLE GLARE, SOME REFLECTIONS OR IN SOME CASES YOU MAY SEE SPECKS OF DUST. BUT THE PHOTO'S ARE OF THE ACTUAL ITEM YOU ARE BIDDING ON. I DO COMBINE SHIPPING. BUT I DO NOT ACCEPT “BEST OFFERS”, THE MONIES GO TO MY FRIENDS WIDOW.

THESE ARE VISUALLY & PLAY GRADED.

ARTISTS: THE RUTS

TITLE: “THE CRACK”

TRACK LISTING: SEE BELOW & PHOTOS

A1

Babylon's Burning

2:34

A2

S. U. S.

3:48

A3

Something That I Said

3:52

A4

You're Just A ...

2:54

A5

It Was Cold

6:49

B1

Savage Circle

3:05

B2

Jah War

6:54

B3

Society

1:53

B4

Criminal Mind

1:35

B5

Back Biter

3:02

B6

Out Of Order

1:58

B7

Dope For Guns

2:11

Credits

• Backing Vocals – Dave Ruffy*, Paul Fox (7), Mannah* (tracks: A2, B4), Segs

• Bass – Segs

• Drums – Dave Ruffy*

• Engineer – Mick Glossop

• Guitar – Paul Fox (7)

• Mixed By – Mick Glossop

• Organ – Paul Fox (7)

• Percussion – Dave Ruffy*

• Piano – Segs (tracks: B2)

• Producer – Mick Glossop, The Ruts

• Saxophone – Gary Barnacle

• Synthesizer – Mick Glossop (tracks: A5)

• Trumpet – Luke Tunney

• Vocals – Malcolm Owen

Notes

Recorded at the Town House.

?+© 1979 Virgin Records.
Printed in USA
Distributed by JEM Records, Inc.

The front cover of the LP shows caricatures of many well known personalities from the 1970s. The 4 Ruts sit on a lounge in the centre of the painting - other identifiable characters include Jimmy Pursey (at 4 o'clock) Astronomer Patrick Moore (at 8 o'clock) John Peel (with a girl on his lap, at 9 o'clock), Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (at 11 o'clock), Keith Richards (at 1 o'clock), Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible (at 2 o'clock) and Jimi Hendrix (at 3 o'clock) 

LABEL: VIRGIN INTERNATIONAL RECORDS

CAT. VI 2132

YEAR: 1979

RECORD CONDITION: THE RECORD IS STILL SEALED IN ORIGINAL SHRINK WRAP.

SLEEVE CONDITION: THE JACKET IS STILL SEALED, SMALL DRILL HOLE (SEE PHOTO).

MORE INFO: THIS RECORD IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT.

MORE INFO ON THE ARTISTS/RELEASE:

The Ruts / Ruts DC are an English reggae-influenced punk rock band, notable for the 1979 UK Top 10 hit "Babylon's Burning", and an earlier single "In a Rut", which was not a hit but was highly regarded and regularly played by BBC Radio 1 disc jockey John Peel.

Career

Formation and early days

The Ruts were formed on 18 August 1977 and played their first gig at the Target pub in Northolt, Middlesex. The band consisted of singer Malcolm Owen (Born 12 December 1953) guitarist Paul Fox, (Born 1951) bass player John "Segs" Jennings (Born 1956) and drummer Dave Ruffy(Born 1952) who moved from bass to drums after original drummer Paul Mattocks left, and were active in anti-racist causes as part of the Misty in Roots People Unite collective based in Southall, West London, playing several benefits for Rock Against Racism. Although the band were often described as coming from Southall, Owen was from Hayes, Fox moved from Kilburn to Hayes in the 1960s, whilst Ruffy and Segs were based in South London. Ruffy had been born in York, but spent his formative years in the East End of London, whilst Segs was raised in Southend, having been born in the East End.

Schoolboy friends Fox and Owen shared a mutual interest in music, having met at Hayes Manor School. In the early 1970s they lived together in a commune on the Isle of Anglesey off the coast of North Wales, where they formed a rock band called Aslan with Paul Mattock, who played flute, guitar and keyboards and later became The Ruts' first drummer.

Post Office telephone engineer Jennings met record shop manager Ruffy in 1976 and became interested in punk after discussing the latter's Ramones' T-shirt. Meanwhile, Owen's interest in punk was piqued when he saw the Sex Pistols playing live. At the time, Fox was playing with Ruffy in a funk band, Hit and Run, which included J.D. Nicholas who went on to join The Commodores in the U.S and sixteen-year-old saxophone player Gary Barnacle, who later played on several Ruts songs. Hit and Run were a covers band who released one single, a version of Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs' 1965 hit "Wooly Bully". The Ruts' initial history is described in an audio interview with Jennings, conducted by Alan Parker, which appears on the album Bustin' Out.

On 16 September 1977, The Ruts made their live debut, playing three songs during a break in a set by Mr Softy (another Fox band) at The Target in Northolt, Middlesex. Owen's wife Roxina Stone was so surprised by his aggressive persona that she had to check that this was Malcolm on stage.

1970s

Early Ruts songs recorded at The Former Orange studios in London's Covent Garden on 1 October 1977 were "Stepping Bondage", "Rich Bitch", "Out of Order", "I Ain't Sofisticated" and "Lobotomy". The group began to evolve and become more musically adventurous, incorporating reggae and dub elements into their repertoire. Dave Ruffy returned to the drums and a new bassist, 'Segs' Jennings, was recruited. The new Ruts line-up debuted supporting Wayne County and the Electric Chairs at High Wycombe town hall on 25 January 1978.

The Ruts' first single, "In a Rut" was finally released on People Unite in January 1979, having been recorded back on 24 April 1978 at the 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"). DJ John Peel expressed his admiration for the group on air (as can be heard on a retrospective 1978 radio show clip on the In a Can album) and a session for the BBC swiftly followed the same month. DJ David Jensen also showcased the band in a further session recorded for the BBC in February 1979. A second Peel session was in May 1979.

In 1979, after a chance meeting with The Damned drummer Rat Scabies, the band toured the UK as the Damned's support act.A bootleg of their 3 November slot at Strathclyde University includes a rendition of The Damned's "Love Song" as well as a cover version of the rock and roll standard "Blue Suede Shoes". The Damned also played live covers of "In a Rut" during this period as evidenced on the Noise: The Best of The Damned Live album.

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. Edited from the album, the band's third single for Virgin at the end of October 1979 was the roots reggae track "Jah War", about the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group's violence in Southall disturbances in April 1979.However, the BBC refused to play it, labelling the song as “too political”.

The Crack is The Ruts first album, released in 1979 and containing the UK hit singles: "Babylon's Burning" (Number seven on the UK chart in June 1979) and "Something That I Said" (No. 29 in September 1979).[4] The white-reggae "Jah War", which was written in the aftermath of the Southall unrest and the over-use of force by the Metropolitan Police Service's Special Patrol Group in 1979, was also released as a single but didn't make the UK chart.

The cover picture by artist John H. Howard shows the members of the group (from left to right: Malcolm Owen, Paul Fox, Dave Ruffy and Segs - who is perusing a copy of Exchange & Mart) seated on a large sofa, around them are some of their contemporaries such as Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible of The Damned (top right corner), Jimmy Pursey of Sham 69 (bottom right), while Peter Cook and Dudley Moore are standing behind Malcolm, John Peel appears to be doing something to a schoolgirl (in uniform) with a bar of chocolate on the left hand side, Jimi Hendrix looks on from the right, the wives and girlfriends of the band members appear in various poses, as does the band's roadie Mannah (seen from the back) who assisted in writing the song "S.U.S" which deals with the vagrancy act, widely used by London's Metropolitan Police Service in the late 1970s. The astronomer Patrick Moore looks on somewhat disapprovingly from the left. The album sleeve contains a dedication to Jimmy O'Neal, one of the organizers of the Deeply Vale Free Festival, where the band had their beginnings.

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