Rubella Ballet

Left to right: Gem, Sid and Zillah.

     Even more colorful than Hagar The Womb, Rubella Ballet was another creative band that wanted to get away from the black 'uniforms' several other bands were wearing while shouting out that lyrics weren't always about the bomb or wars. Formed in 1979, after several random practices(live ones) and vocalists including Annie Anxiety, the band ultimately came to a steady line up consisting of Zillah Minx on vocals, and three of The Fatal Microbes' ex-members. Sid played drums, Gem played bass and Pete Fender played guitar. Due to their connections with Crass, and Gem and Pete being Poison Girls' vocalist/guitarist Vi Subversa's children, the band found themselves fortunate enough to find places to play at without difficulty, a label to release music with and equipment. The band first appeared live during a Crass/Poison Girls concert at the Conway Hall in Redo Lion Square, London, but played their first 'real' gig at a fundraiser, opening for Poison Girls at the Theatre Royal in Stratford.

     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.

     Next, In 1986, their 'If' L.P. and 'Artic Flowers' single were released on the Ubiquitous label. Afterwards, 1986 saw the release of their 'Cocktail Mix' album(Ubiquitous) and in 1988, the 'Birthday Box' double-L.P.(a live L.P.) was released. By 1990, the band released their last album titled 'At The End Of The Rainbow' on Brave records.

Guitarist Pete Fender on the right.

     Unfortunately, Rubella Ballet split in 1991 after their last gig at the Camden Palace. Zillah and Sid decided that they had had enough, seeing as though another guitarist and bassist had left the band, and went to play in a dance band they had already formed prior to the split named Xenophobia.

9.12.82 Warehouse Liverpool, photo by Jenny Plaits.

     Fortunately, Rubella Ballet reformed in 2000 to play at the European punk festival in Milton Keynes, and decided to stay active, and have been to this day. The new line-up they decided to come back with was Sid on drums, Zillah Minx on vocals, Pete Fender on guitar, Phil from P.A.I.N. on guitar and his girlfriend Paris Ite on bass. Zillah Minx has recently released the first of two movies titled 'She's A Punk Rocker'(this started out as a short University project she did), which talks about women in the punk scene.

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

Hagar The Womb

Left to right:Guitarist Janet, Drummer Chris from Cold War, vocalist Ruth and second guitarist Paul who was also from Cold War.

     Hagar the Womb were a female fronted, rather colorful and refreshing band, who wanted to have a little more fun than just shouting out the same gloomy political message that so many other bands were doing. After being ignored and laughed at by the men who ran the Wapping Anarchy Centre for trying to speak their minds and contributing ideas, several of the women decided to start a band so they could be taken more seriously. In London during 1980, Ruth, Karen, Amden and Nicola Corcoran all decided to become the vocalists, Janet Nassim became the guitarist and Stepth Cohen played the bass, while Andy Martin from The Apostles helped them by giving them a place to practice in and a drummer named Scarecrow. 

     Even though nobody in the band besides Scarecrow knew how to play anything, they were offered their first gig at the Centre, but the band claims that the people who were setting it up only did it because they didn't think they would be ready since they were to have it a week after forming.

4.4.84, Bierkeller Leeds, photo by Jenny Plaits.

      Still, the band pulled it together, came up with a name that had no meaning, and played a somewhat chaotic gig supporting The Mob and Zounds featuring early versions of "Dressed to Kill" and "Puff the Magic Dragon".

Guitarist Janet Nassim.

     Despite the gig being poorly played due to the lack of musical experience, the band received plenty of positive support, so they decided to continue with the project. Next, J.F.B.(Jon from Bromley) was recruited on second guitar, while Scarecrow was replaced behind the drum set by Chris 'Elephant Face' Knowles from the band Cold War.

This picture come from the Kill Your Pet Puppy blog. It may have come from the band themselves.

     Several of their vocalists left soon after, leaving just Ruth and Karen. After several gigs, people began to take notice of the band, their lyrics, which were much more personal instead of always about war and bombs, and their clothes, which were more colorful and not black like what several "Crass clone" bands were doing. Instead of being anti-everything, the band were anti-labeling and tried to be wild.

Chris, their drummer from Cold War standing left to bassist Mitch Flacko. Guitarist Janet on the bottom right.

     Soon enough, Crass's "Feeding of The 5000" got into their hands and gave them it's influence. The band also had connections with the Kill Your Pet Puppy collective, since one of their members was living at their house after being kicked out of her own home for dyeing her hair red. After recording their first demo, the track 'For The Ferryman' was pulled by Conflict to appear on their label Mortarhate's 'Who? What? Why? When? Where' compilation. 

Bassist Steph.

     However, their bassist Steph left soon after, and was replaced on bass by Mitch Flacko who came from other bands such as The Crux, The Snork Maidens and Flack. Soon enough, J.F.B. was replaced on second guitar by Paul Harding, also from Cold War, and gigs were luckily easy for the band to play, since they lived near clubs such as the 100 Club, Marquee, Fulham Greyhound and the Moonlight Club.

     In 1984, Hagar The Womb released their first E.P. titled "Word of The Womb" on Conflict's Mortarhate label. It was engineered by Pete Fender from Rubella Ballet/Omega Tribe at Heart and Souls Studios, Walthamstow. The band got the opportunity to release that E.P. because they had been playing several gigs before it with Conlict. It hit the Indies chart and went up to number six with the track "Dressed to Kill" becoming the favorite, and also appearing in Sean Mcghee's "Anti-Society" compilation, but with the guitar solos heavily quieted down. The band continued by playing several more gigs to promote it.

     Slightly after the release of the E.P. and recruiting a third vocalist by the name of Elaine Reubens, John Peel invited the band to come down and record a Peel session, but due to complications with their lyrical content and struggles to find a drum set, the band ended up sounding kind of rough and not how they really were. Afterwards, the band had a fallout with Mortarhate due to trust issues, and decided to go to Abstract Records to release their next E.P. in 1985 titled 'Funnery In A Nunnery'. 

     Unfortunately, their bassist Mitch left the band before a gig they had with The 3 Johns at Dingwalls in Camden, and was replaced by Paul 'Veg' Venables. Sometime during 1987 the band came to a halt with no explanation or dramatic end. Paul and Vedge went on to play with We Are Going To Eat You and Melt, while Mitch became a roadie for The Mekons and is now a tour manager.

     2011 has become a good year for Hagar The Womb. A retrospective record has just been released titled 'A Brighter Shade Of Black' on Mississippi Records.

Six Minute War eventually evolved into the band Fallout(both bands were highly underrated and have posts in this blog about them .

     Hagar the Womb has recently reformed with original members.

Janet on the right.

"Dressed To Kill"

Saturday Nights coming and I've just got to Prepare.
Have a bath and spend two hours washing my hair
'cos you know I've got to have my face just right. Right!
So all the boys will only fall for me tonight~ Tonight!

oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo

Gotta try my best, best, best,
to stand out from there rest, rest, rest,.

To make sure that he, he, he, 

will only fancy me, me, me.

In my sequinwed boob top I'll really stand out on the floor.
Make sure the boys will come crawling back begging for more.
With a flashing smile and tons and tons of cheap perfume. Perfume!
They'll soon realize I'm the best piece in the room. Room!

oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo

Gotta try my best, best, best,
to stand out from there rest, rest, rest,.

To make sure that he, he, he, 

will only fancy me, me, me.

I don't care if I trip or catch a chill
'cos in my flimsy clothes I wanna look dressed to kill.
Make myself out to be really, really, really hot stuff. Stuff!
Tease the boys make sure they never get enough. Enough!

With every single boy in the room I will flirt.
I don't care if I'm used or treated like dirt.
I don't even care if they call me a tart. Tart!
cos I know they reall meant to say sweetheart. Heart!

(Come with me!)

Come with me!

oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo

Gotta try my best, best, best,
to stand out from there rest, rest, rest,.

To make sure that he, he, he, 

will only fancy me, me, me.

Fancy me.

Fancy me.

Me!

More lyrics coming if I can manage to get my insert back from a friend of mine.

Soon to come Downloads:

(They have recently had a well deserved retrospective record released, so there wont be much to download)

Word Of The Womb 1984 Mortarhate
http://www.box.net/shared/xjhvgnfekagjz37piymx