Ruts DC

Date: 10/04/27 Place: The Crossing Time: 19.00pm

AGMP presents Ruts DC – 50 Years of Ruts Music

In 1977, The Ruts emerged from London with a sound unlike anybody else around them – the raw urgency of punk colliding with reggae, dub and rock, driven by formidable musicianship and a fierce sense of purpose. With Malcolm Owen, Paul Fox, Dave Ruffy and Segs Jennings, The Ruts created a body of music whose power has endured far beyond its original moment.

Their debut album in 1979, The Crack became one of the defining British punk albums of its era: urgent, inventive, politically aware and musically fearless. These songs became part of the fabric of British punk and a sound that refused to stay within punk’s boundaries – In A Rut, Babylon’s Burning (reached no.7 in the charts), Something That I Said, Jah War. Staring At The Rude Boys, West One (Shine On Me).

After losing Malcolm Owen in 1980, the remaining members chose integrity over nostalgia by re-inventing themselves as Ruts DC, eventually losing the legend that was Paul Fox in 2007

But the story does not end there. Ruts DC remain a living, evolving band to this day. But the time has come to celebrate the whole story.

These shows are about taking the music that exploded out of a movement and bringing it onto a stage in 2027 with all its urgency and relevance intact. Music made across five decades — from The Crack and Grin & Bear It, through Animal Now, Rhythm Collision, Music Must Destroy, and Counterculture?

“This ain’t no nostalgia trip, it’s a celebration”

The anniversary shows will embrace the entire history while putting Ruts music where it belongs: at the heart of it all. The songs. The attitude. The energy. The Punk. Performed by the people that were there – Dave Ruffy and Segs Jennings, ably abetted by Ruts DC guitarist of 14 years — Leigh Heggarty.

Honouring the legacy — while doing what Ruts DC have always done: bringing it into the now. Not a reunion. Not a recreation. Not a tribute band.

A celebration of fifty years of music, friendship, resilience and creative evolution — played in the present tense.