- Rubella Ballet Planet Punk Album
- Rubella Ballet Planet Punk Costume
- Rubella Ballet Planet Punk Costumes
- Rubella Ballet Planet Punk Roblox Id
Rubella Ballet playing at the Clarendon Club, London, Christmas Eve 1985 | |
Background information | |
---|---|
Origin | London, England |
Genres | Punk rock, anarcho-punk, post-punk, gothic rock |
Years active | 1979–1991, 2000–present |
Labels | Xntrix, Ubiquitous |
Associated acts | Fatal Microbes Poison Girls Omega Tribe |
Members | Sid Truelove Zillah Minx |
Past members | Gem Stone It Annie Anxiety Womble Sean Adam Rachel Minx Steve Cachman Pete Fender Phil Paris Ite |
They come from another planet, baby Rubella Ballet were sired from impeccable anarcho-punk stock. Their initial 1979 lineup featured two of Poison Girls’ singer Vi Subversa’s kids (bassist Gem Stone and guitarist Pete Fender) and their live debut was on a bill inevitably headlined by Crass. Rubella Ballet was formed by drummer Sid Ation (born John Carroll, 18 April 1960, Sutton Coldfield, a former chef and later also the drummer with Flux of Pink Indians), together with former Fatal Microbes Pete Fender (Dan Sansom, guitar), Gem Stone (Gemma Sansom, bass) and It (Quentin North, also bass), with vocalists Annie Anxiety and Womble. Rubella Ballet - Planet Punk. They come from another planet, baby Rubella Ballet were sired from impeccable anarcho-punk stock. Their initial 1979 lineup featured two of Poison Girls’ singer Vi Subversa’s kids (bassist Gem Stone and guitarist Pete Fender) and their live debut was on a bill inevitably headlined by Crass. Minx directed She's a Punk Rocker, a documentary about women in punk rock, which was released in 2010. Planet Punk, Rubella Ballet's first studio album in 24 years, was released in 2014. In 2017, Dark Entries released Ballet Bag as an LP, including both of the band's Peel Sessions. Rubella Ballet formed in 1979 by Sid Ation, Zillah Minx, Pete Fender & sister Gem Stone (of Fatal Microbes) came from the famous Crass gig at Conway Hall where the Crass invited the audience to use their equipment and finish off the evening doing their own thing, so Sid got up on Penny’s drum kit, Zillah grabbed Steve’s mic, Pete & Gem taking the bass and guita.
Rubella Ballet are an English gothicanarcho-punk band formed in 1979, who released several albums before splitting up in 1991. They reformed in 2000.
History[edit]
The band was formed by drummer Sid Ation (born Sid Truelove, 18 April 1960, Sutton Coldfield, a former chef, later also the drummer with Flux of Pink Indians), former Fatal Microbes Pete Fender (Dan Sansom, guitar), Gem Stone (Gemma Sansom, bass) and It (Quentin North, also bass), with vocalists Annie Anxiety and Womble. Annie, Womble and It were involved only initially, left and were replaced by vocalist Zillah Minx (born Zillah Elaine Ashworth, 31 March 1961, Birkenhead).[1] Fender and Stone were the son and daughter of Poison Girls singer Vi Subversa.[1] The band used Poison Girls equipment to jam and write songs and their first performance was when they took to the stage at a Crass/Poison Girls concert.[1] They had originally been called Rubella Babies.[1] The band's first proper gig was a fundraiser for the Theatre Royal in Stratford, which ended in a riot, and the band played frequently, often asking audience members to put them up after gigs.[1]
The new line-up were soon known for wearing brightly coloured dayglo clothes on stage,[2] to differentiate themselves from the anarcho-punk bands who tended to wear black, 'army-surplus' style clothing. Pete Fender left at the end of 1982 and soon afterwards joined Omega Tribe as a full-time member, having been their early mentor and record producer.
The band released one album on cassette tape, entitled Ballet Bag (1981) and a 4 track 7' EP, Ballet Dance (1982), both for Poison Girls' XNTRIX Records, after rejecting the opportunity to put out a record on the Crass label.[1] Adrian Thrills, reviewing the single in the NME stated 'the Ballet have an appealing sharp edge to their claustrophobic punk thrash, a poppy surge and even a discernable funk readjustment...of course, they could always just be taking the piss'.[3] After releasing the 42f single on Jungle Records (with Sean replacing Fender) the band started their own Ubiquitous label. Rubella Ballet toured extensively with Poison Girls and Crass, and recorded two John Peel sessions for BBC Radio.[4] In 1984 they embarked on an ill-fated tour of Italy to promote 42F. The band had only been given single airline tickets and after a week of playing without getting paid, they returned to England by train.[1]
The band's line-up underwent several changes before their next release, 'Money Talks' (1985); Sean and Gem had left, to be replaced by Adam and Rachel Minx (Zillah's younger sister Rachel Irene Jane Ashworth), and Adam himself has replaced by Steve Cachman prior to the recording of the debut album At Last, It's Playtime, the same year, an album that has been described as 'chugging mid-paced stuff, many of the tracks dominated by Zillah's steamroller-flat vox'.[1][5] The line-up stabilized over the next few years, the band recording a second album, If... in 1986. A compilation and a double live album followed, but it would be 1990 before the next studio album, At the End of the Rainbow. The band split up shortly after its release, Sid already playing in the dance band Xenophobia.[1]
In 2000, the band reformed for a performance at the European Gathering festival in Milton Keynes, and have continued on and off since, with the core members Sid and Zillah joined by a varying line-up including original guitarist Fender.[1] A retrospective covering the first half of the band's career, Anarchy in the U.V., including Ballet Bag, Ballet Dance, At Last It's Play Time, the 12-inch version of 'Money Talks', and two previously unreleased tracks, was released in December 2008.[6] A second volume was released in 2010, containing the remaining tracks from the band's back-catalogue.
Discography[edit]
Chart placings shown are from the UK Indie Chart.[7]
Singles[edit]
- Ballet Dance EP (1982), XNTRIX (#6)
- '42f' (1984), Jungle, JUNG12 (12') - (#10)
- 'Money Talks' (1985), Ubiquitous, DayGlo1
- 'Arctic Flowers' (1986), Ubiquitous, DayGlo3 (12')
Albums[edit]
Rubella Ballet Planet Punk Album
- Ballet Bag (1981), XNTRIX (cassette only, with booklet and badge)
- At Last Its Playtime (1985), Ubiquitous, DayGlo2
- IF (1986), Ubiquitous, DayGlo 4
- At The End Of The Rainbow (1990), Brave/One Little Indian BND2LP
- Planet Punk (2014)
Compilations, live albums, remixes[edit]
Rubella Ballet Planet Punk Costume
- Cocktail Mix (1987), Ubiquitous, DayGlo5 (Ballet Bag + Ballet Dance)
- The Ballet's Birthday Box (double LP) (1988), Ubiquitous, DayGlo6 - (two lps with badge, poster, cut-out doll, sticker & booklet)
- Greatest Trips (1990), Brave/One Little Indian BND3CD
- Death Rock Daze (2007), UVP Productions UVP001 (Limited Edition)
- Anarchy in the U.V. (2008), Overground
- Nevermind the Day-Glo. (2010), Overground
- Ballet Bag plus 2 x John Peel Sessions (2017), Dark Entries
Video[edit]
- Freak Box (1984), Ubiquitous - Live concert, 60 min, VHS.
References[edit]
Rubella Ballet Planet Punk Costumes
- ^ abcdefghijGlasper, Ian (2006) The Day the Country Died: A History of Anarcho Punk 1980 - 1984, Cherry Red Books, ISBN978-1-901447-70-5, p. 58-65
- ^Holland, Roger (1985) Rubella Ballet review, Sounds, August 1985, 'This dayglo fashion bit is not at all the sort of thing a fellow wants to encounter on an empty stomach. Rubella Ballet look awful!'
- ^Gimarc, George (2005) Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock 1970-1982, Backbeat Books, ISBN0-87930-848-6, p. 651
- ^Rubella Ballet at the BBC's Keeping it Peel site
- ^Strong, Martin C. (2003) 'Rubella Ballet', in The Great Indie Discography, Canongate, ISBN1-84195-335-0
- ^'Rubella Ballet: Anarchy In The UV', Selby Times, 13 December 2008
- ^Lazell, Barry (1997). Indie Hits 1980-1999. Cherry Red Books. ISBN0-9517206-9-4.
External links[edit]
- Sinclair, Mick (1982) Rubella Ballet feature, Sounds, March 1982
Rubella Ballet Planet Punk Roblox Id
Rubella Ballet were sired from
impeccable anarcho-punk
stock. Their initial 1979 lineup
featured two of Poison
Girls’ singer Vi Subversa’s kids
(bassist Gem Stone and
guitarist Pete Fender) and
their live debut was on a bill
inevitably headlined by Crass.
Their penchant for DayGlo
outfits, however, quickly set
Rubella Ballet apart from the
regular, army-surplus-sporting
anarcho disciples. They also
declined the offer to record for
Crass, forming their own
Ubiquitous imprint after early
releases appeared on Jungle
and the Poison Girls-affiliated
Xntrix imprint. They split in
1991, but have made
sporadic comebacks since
Y2K. Two Overground
compilations, 2008’s Anarchy
In The UV and 2010’s Never
Mind The Day-Glo Here’s
Rubella Ballet, adroitly
gathered up their pre-1990
career, but Planet Punk is
their first all-new LP since
1986’s If.
It’s a bold, relevant
comeback. The contemporary
targets in its telescopic sights
include banks, terrorism and
the NHS, while the state-ofthe-
art, sample-enhanced
sound and Zillah Minx’s
Siouxsie Sioux-esque
invective mix-up potent aural
medicine on the eerie
Pandora’s Box and the full-tilt
All Potential Terrorists.
A few tracks (not least
the metal-tinged Killuminati)
veer towards turgidity, but
it’s virtually all worthwhile.
On Victory For The Victims
– a genuinely impassioned
commentary on the
Hillsborough disaster and
subsequent cover-up – they
set the bar high for the future.