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British reggae influenced punk rock band

The Ruts (later known as Ruts DC) are an English reggae influenced punk rock band, notable for the 1979 UK top 10 hit single "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. The band's newfound success was cut short by the death of lead singer Malcolm Owen from a heroin overdose in 1980. Despite this the band continued under a different musical style as Ruts D. C. until 1983 when they disbanded, the band later reformed in 2007.

The Ruts were formed on 18 August 1977. The band consisted of singer Malcolm Owen (vocals), Paul Fox (guitar), John "Segs" Jennings (bass) and Dave Ruffy (drums). On 16 September 1977, the band made their live debut, playing three songs during a break in a set by Mr Softy (another Fox band) at The Target, a pub in Northolt, Middlesex. Ruffy moved from bass to drums after original drummer Paul Mattocks left, and the band was 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. 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 Pharaohs' 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.

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. The second Virgin single, "Something That I Said", followed in August 1979 and garnered a second Top of the Pops spot. 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. On 22 August 1980, the band's sixth and final single was released, "West One (Shine on Me)". Co produced by the band themselves as they were "starting to get pissed off with the music business" (according to Jennings in an audio interview on "Bustin' Out"), the song featured brass and segued into a dub remix. The B side was "The Crack", a lighthearted mini pastiche of their debut album, recorded in a number of musical styles. It peaked at No. 43 in the UK Singles Chart. The band refused an invitation to perform on ‘Top of the Pops’, as the BBC had insisted that Jennings or Fox mime Owen's vocal part, which the band found distasteful. Virgin issued a second album later in 1980, a compilation of singles, demos and live tracks entitled Grin & Bear It. The three live tracks – "S. U. S.", "Babylon's Burning" and "Society" had been recorded for Chorus, a French TV show, in January of that year. When this was later reissued on CD, early tracks "Stepping Bondage", "Lobotomy" and "Rich Bitch" were added. 1980 also saw the collaboration of the remaining band members with Kevin Coyne on one half of his double album, Sanity Stomp. In 1981 they performed as the backing band of French singer Valérie Lagrange on her album Chez Moi. The band continued as Ruts D. C. (D. C. standing for the Italian term da capo, meaning "back to the beginning") in a different musical vein. On 25 January 2008, Henry Rollins presented The Gig, a short film about the 2007 benefit gig at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire. The event, in support of Macmillan Cancer Support, was accompanied by live performances from Alabama 3, T. V. Smith, members of the Members, the Damned's Captain Sensible and Beki Bondage. In June 2008, another compilation, Original Punks, was released by Music Club Deluxe in the UK. The two disc set included demos, alternate versions and live tracks plus songs recorded by Ruts D. C.

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 Professor" 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, Lancashire, alongside Rancid, Buzzcocks, Goldblade, Social Distortion, Public Image Ltd and a reformed Anti Pasti amongst others.

Year Title UK 1979 "In a Rut" ― "Babylon's Burning" 7 "Something That I Said" 29 "Jah War" ― 1980 "Staring at the Rude Boys" 22 "West One (Shine on Me)" 43 1981 "Different View" (as Ruts D. C.) ― "Dangerous Minds" (as Ruts D. C.) ― 1982 "Whatever We Do" (as Ruts D. C.) ― 1983 "Weak Heart" (as Ruts D. C.) ― "Stepping Bondage" ― 2016 "Music Must Destroy" (with Henry Rollins; as Ruts D. C.) ― "Psychic Attack" (as Ruts D. C.) ― 2020 "War on Crime" (as Ruts D. C.) ― "—" denotes releases that did not chart.