Left to right: Gem, Sid and Zillah. |
In 1980, the band released their first batch of material in a cassette titled "Ballet Bag" with some additional guitar work from Andy Smith. The band had decided to work on the release by themselves, so they spent days creating, writing, printing and putting together the lyric booklets, badges and tapes into individual bags. In the end, nearly five thousand copies were sold. It was released on Poison Girls' Xntrix label.
Slightly later, Sid was recruited by Flux of Pink Indians on drums to play in their "Neu Smell" E.P in 1981. Due to Crass's drummer Penny Rimbaud telling Sid that he should do more drum rolls, Rubella Ballet refused their single that was being offered to them on Crass Records. However, the main reason why they didn't want to release a single with Crass was because they did not want to be told how to sound and didn't want to have the same black and white sleeve that all the other bands were getting. They wanted to do everything the way they wanted to, with a color sleeve.
Rubella Ballet's first single "Ballet Dance" was was recorded and released in 1982 on the Xntrix label. It shot into the Indie top ten and led to two John Peel Sessions on July 6th, 1982, and February 8th, 1983. In 1982, however, Pete Fender left Rubella Ballet to focus on Omega Tribe and was replaced by Mark Adams from the Chaos Bros. Mark was featured in the second John Peel Session. By 1985, Gem was not in the band anymore and had been replaced by Adam and Zillah's younger sister Rachel 'Rachel Minx' Irene Jane Ashworth, and their 'Money Talks' 12" was released that year on the Ubiquitous label. Later but also during that same year, Adam was replaced by Steve Cachman, and their debut L.P. 'At Last It's Playtime' was released, once again on Ubiquitous.
However, the constant line up changes were beginning to exacerbate the band's progress. Each time they acquired new guitarists and bassists, they had to teach them their sets, but their recruits would either become to drunk to play them live or leave the band before they could even become a part of it which frustrated Sid and Zillah.
Drummer Sid. |
Guitarist Pete Fender on the right. |
9.12.82 Warehouse Liverpool, photo by Jenny Plaits. |
Here is a live video of Rubella Ballet back from the early eighties.
The following lyrics will be posted from the 'Ballet Bag' lyric booklet.
"Belfast"
"A Dream Of Honey"
"Slant And Slide"
"Newz"
"T"(Emotional Blackmail)
"Krak Trak"
Soon to come Downloads:
(Rubella Ballet have had retrospective C.D's out fairly recently, so only a small portion of their material will be uploaded)
Unreleased demo(possibly their first demo) 19XX
http://www.box.net/shared/ruld4f5pmpq214y1bm4c
Ballet Bag 1980 Xntrix
http://www.box.net/shared/msfqevnm762ugimxk555
Ballet Dance 1982 Xntrix
http://www.box.net/shared/64rsqm3so2sr3lb5d16n
http://www.box.net/shared/ruld4f5pmpq214y1bm4c
Ballet Bag 1980 Xntrix
http://www.box.net/shared/msfqevnm762ugimxk555
Ballet Dance 1982 Xntrix
http://www.box.net/shared/64rsqm3so2sr3lb5d16n
i look forward to hearing the demo.
ReplyDeletei love your site with all the information pictures! such wonder and color
Looks like the video is from 1984. Gem is still with the band but guitarist Tony (from Lack of Knowledge and later Buzzcocks) is playing too. The band still play and I believe are confrmed for the 2012 Rebellion concerts. A gig with The Mob in 2011 was awesome and brought back so many wonderful memories from the 80s, also Tony was playing with them again. The revolving door for guitarists was very sad for the band who were the finest of their day. Viva Rubella!
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