Rubella Ballet
Encyclopedia
Rubella Ballet are a punk rock
band formed in autumn, 1979, who released several albums before splitting up in 1991. They reformed in 2000.
Pete Fender (Dan Sansom, guitar), Gem Stone (Gemma Sansom, bass) and It (Quentin North, also bass), with vocalists Annie Anxiety
and Womble, and drummer Sid Ation (born Sid Truelove, 18 April 1960, Sutton Coldfield
, a former chef, later also the drummer with Flux of Pink Indians
). Annie, Womble and It were involved only initially, left and were replaced by vocalist Zillah Minx (born Zillah Elaine Ashworth, 31 March 1961, Birkenhead
). Fender and Stone were the son and daughter of Poison Girls
singer Vi Subversa
. 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. They had originally been called Rubella Babies. 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.
The new line-up were soon known for wearing brightly coloured dayglo clothes on stage, 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. 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". 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. 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.
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". 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.
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. 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. A second volume was released in 2010, containing the remaining tracks from the band's back-catalogue.
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band formed in autumn, 1979, who released several albums before splitting up in 1991. They reformed in 2000.
History
The band was formed by former Fatal MicrobesFatal Microbes
Fatal Microbes were a UK punk group that existed in the late 1970s. Honey Bane was the lead singer. Other band members were Gem Stone on drums, Pete Fender on guitar, and Scotty Boy Barker who was briefly replaced as bassist by It .In 1979, Small Wonder and XNTRIX Records co-released a split...
Pete Fender (Dan Sansom, guitar), Gem Stone (Gemma Sansom, bass) and It (Quentin North, also bass), with vocalists Annie Anxiety
Little Annie
Little Annie Bandez is an American singer, songwriter, painter, and stage actor...
and Womble, and drummer Sid Ation (born Sid Truelove, 18 April 1960, Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a suburb of Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England. Sutton is located about from central Birmingham but has borders with Erdington and Kingstanding. Sutton is in the northeast of Birmingham, with a population of 105,000 recorded in the 2001 census...
, a former chef, later also the drummer with Flux of Pink Indians
Flux Of Pink Indians
Flux of Pink Indians were an English anarcho-punk/post punk band, that originated from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England.-Biography:...
). Annie, Womble and It were involved only initially, left and were replaced by vocalist Zillah Minx (born Zillah Elaine Ashworth, 31 March 1961, Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
). Fender and Stone were the son and daughter of Poison Girls
Poison Girls
The Poison Girls were an English anarcho-punk band. The female singer/guitarist, Vi Subversa, was a middle-aged mother of two at the band's inception, and wrote songs that explored sexuality and gender roles, usually from an anarchist perspective...
singer Vi Subversa
Vi Subversa
-Early life:Vi Subversa real name Frances Sokolov Sansom was the singer and guitarist of UK anarcho-punk band Poison Girls....
. 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
Crass
Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
/Poison Girls concert. They had originally been called Rubella Babies. The band's first proper gig was a fundraiser for the Theatre Royal in Stratford
Stratford, London
Stratford is a place in the London Borough of Newham, England. It is located east northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an agrarian settlement in the ancient parish of West Ham, which transformed into an industrial suburb...
, which ended in a riot, and the band played frequently, often asking audience members to put them up after gigs.
The new line-up were soon known for wearing brightly coloured dayglo clothes on stage, to differentiate themselves from the anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk is punk rock that promotes anarchism. The term anarcho-punk is sometimes applied exclusively to bands that were part of the original anarcho-punk movement in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
bands who tended to wear black, 'army-surplus' style clothing. Pete Fender left at the end of 1982 and soon afterwards joined Omega Tribe
Omega Tribe
Omega Tribe was an English anarcho-punk band, formed in Barnet in 1981. Their first EP, Angry Songs, was produced by Penny Rimbaud and Pete Fender for Crass Records in 1982....
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. Adrian Thrills, reviewing the single in the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
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". 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
Poison Girls
The Poison Girls were an English anarcho-punk band. The female singer/guitarist, Vi Subversa, was a middle-aged mother of two at the band's inception, and wrote songs that explored sexuality and gender roles, usually from an anarchist perspective...
and Crass
Crass
Crass are an English punk rock band that was formed in 1977, which promoted anarchism as a political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement. Crass popularised the seminal anarcho-punk movement of the punk subculture, and advocated direct action, animal rights, and environmentalism...
, and recorded two John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
sessions for BBC Radio. In 1984 they embarked on an ill-fated tour of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
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.
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". 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.
In 2000, the band reformed for a performance at the European Gathering festival in Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of 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. 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. A second volume was released in 2010, containing the remaining tracks from the band's back-catalogue.
Singles
- Ballet Dance EP (1982), XNTRIX (#6)
- "42f" (1984), Jungle, JUNG12 (12") - (#10)
- "Money Talks" (1985), Ubiquitous, DayGlo1
- "Arctic Flowers" (1986), Ubiquitous, DayGlo3 (12")
Albums
- 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
Compilations, live albums, remixes
- 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) Rubella Ballet's tracks mixed by Sidation
- Anarchy in the U.V. (2008), Overground/Voiceprint
- Nevermind the Day-Glo. (2010), Overground
External links
- Official website
- Sinclair, Mick (1982) Rubella Ballet feature, SoundsSounds (magazine)Sounds was a long-term British music paper, published weekly from 10 October 1970 – 6 April 1991. It was produced by Spotlight Publications , which was set up by Jack Hutton and Peter Wilkinson, who left "Melody Maker" to start their own company...
, March 1982