Babylon's Burning hinted at greatness for The Ruts. Then tragedy struck.

The one British post-punk band you never heard of that you really need to hear

In researching and writing about British music from the early ‘70s to the early ‘80s for this blog and my upcoming book (both conveniently titled A Rebellious Noise), I continue to stumble upon great music and bands I had not been exposed to at the time. And I was paying attention to what was coming out of the U.K. back then!

I knew about Elvis Costello. I knew about the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam, Graham Parker, Nick Lowe, Joe Jackson, the Police and the other British artists who were getting airplay in the Boston area and touring the U.S. (or, more likely, just the East and West coasts). However, there were so many others I didn’t know about when pub rock, punk, and new wave were happening.

One of those is The Ruts. Formed in London in August 1977, the band featured a singer (Malcolm Owen) with intense, expressive eyes and a gruff, powerful voice, a versatile and dynamic guitarist (Paul Fox), and a rhythm section (bassist John "Segs" Jennings and drummer Dave Ruffy) that could bang out blistering punk rock one minute and then slip into a slow reggae groove the next. On stage, the band was a tight, exciting act, as you’ll see in the video below from Top Of the Pops (TOTP), a hugely influential weekly British television show featuring only artists with singles currently in the U.K. charts.

Released on May 24, 1979, Babylon’s Burning entered the U.K. singles chart at No. 61 on June 16. It jumped to No. 37 a week later, earning The Ruts an appearance on the TOTP episode that aired on June 21, 1979. The song peaked at No. 7 in mid-July, the highest-charting single in the band’s brief career. Sadly, Malcolm Owen would die a year later of a heroin overdose at age 26 in a bathtub in his parents’ home.

I hope that tragic note won’t dissuade you from listening to Babylon’s Burning, because it’s outstanding. The song was inspired by the Southall Riots in April 1979, which began as a peaceful demonstration against the far-right National Front political party before devolving into violence that led to the death by police of a female school teacher and anti-racist campaigner. As Wow Vinyl writes:

The simple lyric concerns the collapse of the corrupt, white-dominated capitalism due to social and racial tensions that have erupted into street violence, looting and riots.

The music grabs you by the throat and never lets up. Everything about the song captures not only the smouldering hatred and anger spilling out onto the streets but also the unadulterated fear that accompanies anarchism. It is "with anxiety" that "Babylon's burning." The vocal by Malcolm Owen, which surely must rank as the best-ever punk vocal, is uncompromising and threatening.

That description of Babylon’s Burning absolutely nails it. Of the dozens of songs I’ve discovered in my research for this blog and my book, Babylon’s Burning by far is my favorite. (And there are some more great songs by The Ruts that I’ll be writing about.) Check out Babylon’s Burning below. I promise you’ll be glad you did.