A to Z of N. Ireland Punk Bands

RUDI

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Rudi, the first of the Belfast punk bands, and for many people the best of them all, were formed late 1975 by schoolmates Brian Young, Ronnie Matthews, Graham ‘Grimmy’ Marshall, Leigh Carson and Drew Brown, all from the same area of East Belfast. All were big glam rock fans and it was after Brain, Grimmy and Leigh attended a T. Rex gig on the Isle of Man in July 75 and got to meet Marc Bolan that they decided to form a band. Brian Young “Marc Bolan gave me a T. Rex Music book with all the chords in and I decided then and there to learn the guitar soon as I got home to follow in his footsteps. I once plucked out all my eyebrows with pliers in a bargain basement tribute to the thin white duke without realizing that my brows would swell up so I looked like a mutant Rondo Hatton!”

Armed with a couple of second-hand guitars and other equipment that was begged, borrowed or stolen, they began rehearsing mostly glam rock songs like ‘Hot Love’ and ‘Rebel Rebel’ as well as old rock ‘n’ roll standards like ‘Johnny B Goode’ and ‘Pills’. The band’s name RUDI was taken from a 1973 single ‘Oh Oh Rudi’ by proto punks The Jook. Leigh liked heavy metal and was soon dumped, as the band played their first gigs at local parties, discos and youth clubs. Drew lost interest and left so ‘Grimmy’ moved from bass to drums. Another close friend, Johnny Stewart, took over bass duties. To distinguish themselves from all the denim clad rock bands and besuited showbands who still dominated the local gig circuit, Rudi took to the stage in customised boiler suits which ‘Grimmy’ had nicked from work, disguising their musical shortcomings with the help of a flashy lightshow a couple of their pals had cobbled together.

A severe lack of suitable venues meant that Rudi had to organise their own gigs. Now just about able to bluff their way into bars, they set about booking hotels such as the equally notorious Girton Lodge and Glenmachan for 'private parties’, which they would play at. Invitations were printed and handed out to their mates and Rudi would pack out these dumps with crowds of a couple of hundred underage drinkers and tear through marathon 2 hour sets of bootboy glam and revved up rockers.

Groundbreaking Belfast gigs by Wilko era Dr Feelgood and later Eddie & The Hot Rods influenced the band heavily and covers of ‘Roxette’,'96 Tears' and 'Gloria/Satisfaction' were added to their repertoire. However, it was the release of The Ramones first LP that marked the real turning point for the band. ‘Blitzkreig Bop’ and ‘Let’s Dance’ quickly joined their set and as punk began to emerge in the UK Rudi found themselves in at the very start and for a very long time they were the only active punk band in Belfast.

By the latter part of '76 the "punk explosion" on the UK mainland had started to make real headway across the Irish Sea bringing with it all the new fashions. Zipped t-shirts, wraparound sunglasses and short spiky hair were the order of the day. Still unable to see any UK punk bands, as they were all too scared to play here, local punks flocked to see Rudi. Barred from the Girton Lodge due to increased crowd trouble the Glenmachan became their regular venue.

The DJ there would play a couple of the new punk singles including the Sex Pistols -'Anarchy In The UK ' which he always took off before the UDA/IRA verse, so as not to 'offend' some of those present! Around this time Johnny Thunders fanatic Brian was also involved in setting up a New York Dolls fan club with a certain Steven Morrissey from Stretford, Manchester (later better known as Morrissey of The Smiths fame!).

By 1977 punk had really begun to take a hold. Rudi continued to put on their own gigs as the established venues wouldn't touch them and they were the first band to play The Strathearn Hotel in Holywood and punk haven The Trident in Bangor. Brian Young “All the local venues thought we were underage troublemakers and wouldn’t book us” Uncomfortable playing songs like 'Anarchy' and 'Pretty Vacant’, Rudi decided to have a bash at writing their own material becoming the first local punk band to do so. (Fill Your Balls With)'Alcohol' became the bands 1st self-penned number Brain Young again “Our first lyrics were exactly what you’d imagine a bunch of fucked up 16 year olds to come up with, but we got better fast”. Other bands such as The Outcasts and Stiff Little Fingers began to appear on the scene and punk bashing started to become a popular sport with the local ‘spides’. The release of the Sex Pistols -'God Save The Queen' 45 caused all sorts of problems for N. Irish punks as local loyalists took great offence to the lyrics and deemed all punks to be anti-monarchy and therefore anti-loyalist! On October llth 1977 Rudi played again at the Strathearn Hotel Brian Young “ Rumour had it that the Holywood UDA were coming down en masse to 'kill the punks’. Thankfully they didn't show up”

October 20th saw The Clash arrive in Belfast, the first visit to the province by a major UK punk band. Punks converged on the city centre from all over the country, but at the last minute, the gig in the Ulster Hall was cancelled. Tensions began to rise and the punks blocked off Bedford Street. Police in riot gear arrived and all hell broke loose. Rudi immortalised the events in the song 'Cops’, which included the infamous chant 'SS RUC' in the chorus. Understandably, this quickly became the bands most popular song and the Belfast punk anthem! (The band dropped the song some years later as it was about a specific event – that had long passed by then - and they didn’t want it to be taken out of context)

In November 1977 Melody Maker ran the first piece on the punk scene in Ireland and Rudi were mentioned as being 'particularly recommended'. At the end of October 77 Stewarty decided to quit the band. Gordy Blair (ex-Highway Star) was recruited after answering an ad in Rocky Mungos record shop for a ‘Young, pretty, bass guitarist – no hippies!’ Gordy played his first gig with the band at The Trident in Bangor on November 17th. The band line-up now was Gordy (bass)/Brian Young (guitar & vocals)/Ronnie Matthews (guitar & vocals) and Graham Marshall (drums). By now they were writing more and more of their own material. January 12th 1978 saw them finally allowed to play at The Pound in Belfast along with The Outcasts. This was the legendary gig that alerted Terri Hooley to Belfast punk (Although Brian insists that the band never did play a cover of The Who's 'My Generation’ however he recalls that it was the very first time they ever played ‘Big Time’ live!) With the help of Alternative Ulster fanzine and fellow Mancunian Morrissey, The Buzzcocks had gotten to hear of Rudi and offered them the support slot on their forthcoming visit to Belfast on January 26th. Unfortunately, The Buzzcocks van broke down somewhere in Wales, and as it was too late to cancel the gig Rudi played for free to everyone who turned up. This was many people’s first chance to see a real live punk band in action! February 2nd also saw both Rudi and Stiff Little Fingers play support to The Adverts at Queens University. Sadly the arrogant English headliners refused to allow the local bands any soundcheck while they went off to watch themselves on TOTP! So much for punk solidarity!

Meanwhile Alternative Ulster had approached the band to record two songs for a flexi-disc to be given away with the magazine. Terri Hooley was approached for advice and when it was discovered that it was nearly as cheap to do a proper vinyl 7" RUDI went into Templepatrick Studios on February 7th and recorded 'Big Time/ Number One' in a couple of hours. This would become the very first ever release on the Good Vibrations label!

Punk was now really taking off in the province and gigs came thick and fast for Rudi with the band playing new venues like the Art College and the Windsor and further a field at Spuds and Kelly’s on the North Coast. In April the band also played with English reggae outfit the Cimarons at Queens Speakeasy and Coleraine University – where they were banned for life for being ‘more trouble than the Stranglers’!

April also saw the release of ‘Big Time'/ 'Number 1' which proved to be a real watershed for the local scene. The single received rave reviews both in fanzines and the established music press and sold like hot cakes! Rudi were even invited to do an interview about the record on the local radio station Downtown Radio that was so banal they wrote a song 'Radio On' about it! Things were really starting to happen now, and when the Harp Bar opened its doors to punk Rudi were one of the first bands to play there, debuting on 26th May.

On June 14th Rudi headlined the first large scale local punk gig The 'Battle of the Bands' at Queens, and shortly after on July 8th the band recorded 'Overcome By Fumes' for the 'Battle Of The Bands' EP on the Good Vibes label. Also lined up for the EP were The Outcasts, The Idiots and The Undertones (who were later replaced by Spider). Brian Young recalls “Davy 'Wiz' who produced the song, lost the bands original mix and so decided to remix it himself and ballsed it up!”. Unfortunately, Rudi didn't find this out until after the single was released! A second Good Vibes single ‘Time To Be Proud’/’Alcohol’ was planned but fell through at the last minute.

Rudi decided it was time to hit London and the bright lights and after a farewell gig at the Harp Bar with Protex and Empire, they set off on August 9th in an old transit van packed to the roof with their gear, Brian’s sweetheart Liz and Alternative Ulster scribe Gavin Martin! Finances dictated that the band had to siphon petrol from parked cars all through Scotland and England until they reached their destination! Once in London they contacted Bernie Rhodes who promised them rehearsal space and the support slot on The Clash’s upcoming Irish tour. (This fell through when he was sacked!) They also called Malcolm McClaren and played 'Overcome By Fumes' for him, and he too promised to get them rehearsal space, though he was busy at the time with the 'Swindle’ movie. Meantime, the band had to sleep in their van and drive to the nearest public toilets in the mornings to have a wash! Luckily, the boys bumped into Dennis Forbes of Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems, who were squatting in a flat in Edgely Road, Clapham, and so Rudi moved into a flat nearby. They got their first break on September 5th, supporting The Doomed (The Damned’s reform gig with Lemmy on bass!) at the Electric Ballroom after the Snivelling Shits pulled out. On September 9th they supported Stiff Little Fingers at the same venue! Through runaway pal Mr Puke, they became good mates with The Raped, who helped them get many gigs alongside such bands as The Nips, Bitch and Muvver’s Pride. They started to travel further a field, playing Peterborough with The Raped and The Dole, and Manchester with Skrewdriver!

Things were looking good until the SPG moved in to clear the 'Punks' out of Clapham. Ronnie and Grimmy were arrested for a spurious driving offence and jailed for a week before being ordered to return to N. Ireland - or else face a 6-month jail sentence! So Rudi packed their bags and returned home in December shortly after the 'Battle Of The Bands ' EP had been released, just missing ‘single of the week’ status in Sounds. However their London trip had proved important. Away from home the band had been able to put together a whole new set and their song writing had come on in leaps and bounds. Despite broken promises they had made a lot of new friends across the water that would prove invaluable later on and finally they had ditched the dodgy boilersuits at last!

Rudi made it back home for two Xmas dates supported by their buddies The Raped at the Pound and the Harp – which the NME claimed was the biggest crowd in the Harp Bar ever!

1979 started with the band being filmed for the 'Shellshock Rock ‘movie at the Glenmachan. Brian Young “Gordy was pissed out of his head and had to be held up during filming. RUDI were also billed for 210 broken glasses and banned from playing there again due to the antics of our over exuberant fans!” On February 1st they recorded 4 songs (including 'I-Spy') for a new EP on Good Vibes. Soon after they played at the ‘Dark Space’ weekend in Dublin (a 24 hour festival which also included the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Protex, The Idiots, U2 and the Virgin Prunes) and went down so well on the first day that they were asked to play again on the second – where they were raved about by visiting DJ John Peel and joined onstage by Good Vibes supremo Terri Hooley for an unforgettable rendition of ‘Laugh at Me’ during which he took out his glass eye and waved it at the audience!

Around this time, Polydor Records wanted to sign Rudi and release 'I-Spy' as a single. But as the deal involved Rudi getting rid of their drummer, Grimmy, whom the record company thought was a 'madman'. Polydor were told where to stick their deal! Polydor then signed Protex and The Xdreamysts instead.
From April 9th - April 21st Rudi went on the road with The Good Vibrations Irish Tour, which was the first large scale tour by the new NI bands. Organised mainly by Tearjerkers drummer Nigel Hamilton, Rudi were joined on tour by The Outcasts and The Tearjerkers and the success of the tour showed that punk had spread throughout Ireland at last! Rudi also secured a residency at the Pound Club in Belfast. On June 30th 1979, both Rudi and The Outcasts played live sets at the premiere showing of the film ‘Shellshock Rock’ at UCC Downtown Kampus in Cork. The 'I-Spy' EP was released to unanimous acclaim at the end of July, followed by the Belfast premiere of Shellshock Rock at the Harp Bar, with Rudi again playing live. At the end of August, Cherry red records asked if they could include 'Big Time’ on their 'Labels Unlimited’ compilation album. Rudi agreed, and in the process, signed away the publishing for the song without realising it!

Gordy Blair was becoming increasingly unreliable and was sacked in September. Reverting to a three piece with Ronnie switching to bass, Rudi played their first gig as a trio on October 6th at Omagh Town Hall with Shellshock Rock, along with The Ruefrex and Terri & The Terrors. On October 17th Rudi recorded 6 tracks for a session on Davy Simms - Makin' Tracks programme on Downtown Radio which proved that they’d made the right decision – as a three piece they were more focussed and hard hitting and Brian and Ronnie were coming up with great new songs at an alarming rate! The same month Rudi were unexpectedly shown performing 'Big Time’ from Shellshock Rock on Nationwide, a hugely popular national TV show and Good Vibrations then re-issued 'Big Time’ with a shitty new sleeve to cash in on the publicity! November saw the release of Terri Hooley’s solo single 'Laugh At Me' on Fresh Records, which topped the indie charts to everyone’s surprise. Rudi provided the backing on one side – though some band members were too pissed to remember recording it! More importantly, Rudi were approached to perform a couple of songs on the forthcoming Belfast edition of the BBC's new youth programme ‘Something Else’. To capitalise on the free publicity, it was decided to rush release a new single by the band to coincide with the broadcast and on December 26th, Rudi went into Downtown Radio and recorded ‘The Pressures On’ and ‘Who? You!’. Rudi then saw out the year with a packed headline gig at the Harp Bar on New Years Eve!

On January 19th 1980, the Belfast edition of Something Else, featuring both Rudi and The Undertones, was screened by the BBC. Unfortunately 'The Pressures On' ’45 never appeared and a major shot at a hit record was thrown away. Understandably gutted, the bands were pissed off with Terri and their days with Good Vibes were numbered. (The 7" was never released – though a semi bootleg edition did appear from Germany in 2001).

Cherry Red finally released their ‘Label’s Unlimited’ compilation album in January and 'Big Time' was used as the opening track gaining repeated airplay from Mike Read on Radio One, after he’d been hipped to the band by Downtown Radio’s Davy Simms, a tireless champion of local music. In a poll among top New Wave figures from the UK and Ireland, 'Big Time' emerged as the favourite single of 1978 and’79! And Rudi hadn’t even voted in the poll!

February 22nd saw Rudi play London for the first time in 15 months, when they headlined at Action Space. Things went so well they were asked to come back in March! At the beginning of March they were even filmed live performing 'The Pressures On' for Good Evening Ulster, a local TV news and entertainments programme hosted by Gloria Hunniford – returning to London on March 16th to play at The Venue as part of the Sense Of Ireland festival. Now a firm supporter of the band, Mike Read booked the band for their first Radio One session and Target Records of Darlington, who were showing an interest in signing them, lined up a short tour of England’s N.E. On April 24th,a punk festival featuring N. Irish bands including RUDI, took place in the Ulster Hall. This was the first time only local punk bands played this huge venue and it was packed out. (Andy Cairns of Therapy? later said in the Melody Maker that the best gig he’d ever seen was ‘Rudi at the Ulster Hall’ – Therapy? later played ‘Big Time’ at an RTE awards show, recording it in the USA for future release!)

April also saw Rudi finally split from Good Vibes, due to the fiasco surrounding 'The Pressure's On’. At the end of the month the band went back to England and recorded four tracks for the Mike Read Show on 28th April. Mike interviewed the band on air while they were in the studio and Brian Young still reckons that these are the best recordings that Rudi ever made. After the session they travelled to Darlington to embark on their 'N.E. Tour’, arranged by Target Records. Although the 'tour' ultimately consisted of one gig only, at Darlington Arts Centre where Rudi were supported by Inner City Unit and Major Accident. The Arts Centre was packed to capacity and Rudi went down a storm giving a big morale boost to the band. While there, Rudi agreed to do an EP to launch the new ‘Target Records’ label. The four songs recorded at the BBC were to be used -'The Pressures On’, 'Without You' ‘Time To Be Proud’ and ‘Yummy Yummy Yummy' - which was to be the title track. Sadly this deal fell through when the label failed to get off the ground.

Now without a record label, the band concentrated on writing new songs and the rest of the year was fairly quiet. Nevertheless, Rudi continued to play locally – one highlight being their appearance at the International Punk Festival in the Ulster Hall on August 16th alongside such bands as The Saints(Australia), The Stimulators (USA) & The Shapes(England).

1981 started slowly for the band who just kept plugging away. But finally things look a major turn for the better! Unknown to anyone outside their closest circle, Rudi had been approached by one Pete Waterman (!) eventually signing a publishing deal with Leeds Music. Pete had checked out the band on Mike Read’s recommendation and had visited Belfast several times to watch the band rehearse in an old lock up garage! Pete had lined up a deal with German based Ariola records for the band and had discussed re recording ‘ I-Spy’ to issue it as title track on an EP entitled ‘From Belfast With Love’. However, long-time Rudi supporter Tony Fletcher of Jamming! Fanzine was in the process of setting up the Jamming! Record label with the help and financial backing of Paul Weller, and he was looking for a band with an established track record to launch it! Rudi opted to sign with Jamming! Things moved quickly and on July 30th they went into Polydor Studios in London to record a new single. As Jamming! Records was run on a shoestring budget, Paul Weller arranged for Rudi to be sneaked in under a false name on the pretext of recording demos for Polydor! Recording costs nil!! Paul also brought along Pete Wilson (who was producing The Jam at the time), to co produce the single. Weller was never credited on the single in case Polydor found out about the freebie recording!! Tony and Paul got their pals to help with the sleeve too. Brian Young “Paul Weller was the only punk star who actually put his money where his mouth was and followed up on the promises he made. Almost all of the other punk cogniscenti we encountered were nothing but egotistical, spoilt, big headed, drug addled, sexist, hypocritical, bandwagon jumping, sell-out record company whores and wanna be rock stars]. After finishing recording, the band headed off to Highgate Cemetery where Andy Rosen took the sleeve photos. Robin Richards (who did all the famous 5th Column punk t shirts) came up with the sleeve design.

The 7" single - 'When I Was Dead' c/w 'Bewerewolf!' & ‘The Pressures On' was rush released 4 weeks later on August 28th, and sold over 2,000 copies in the first 3 days – the fastest selling Rudi 45 yet! A string of dates at home and in England followed as Rudi travelled to London to record a session for The John Peel Show in September and to Dublin in November to do the same for the Dave Fanning Show on RTE.

Meanwhile, anxious to distance themselves from the tuneless, moronic, thrashy identipunk of The Exploited and their ilk Rudi were experimenting by adding keyboards to their new material – helped by Paul Martin who had played for Pretty Boy Floyd & The Gems. After a Kid Jensen session recorded for BBC Radio One on December 6th Paul would later be asked to join the band. On December 14th, still playing as a three piece, Rudi supported The Jam at the Hammersmith Palais and went down so well that they clinched the hotly contested support slot for The Jam’s upcoming tour in 1982!

On February 6th Rudi recorded 'Crimson /14 Steps’ at Konk Studios, owned by The Kinks, in London, as their next Jamming! release. The single was issued three weeks later, coinciding with a visit to Belfast by Radio One during which the band were interviewed on air and their Jensen session repeated twice! The single hurtled up the indie charts! US based ‘Poshboy Records’ remixed the song for inclusion on their ‘Rodney On the ROQ 3’ LP and tried to sign the band – but were turned down by Rudi as they had printed a picture of The Questions instead of Rudi in the issue of Flipside that came with initial copies of the LP!

The ‘Trans Global Unity Express Tour’ kicked off in front of a capacity crowd at the gigantic Bingley Hall in Birmingham on March 20th and RUDI managed the difficult task of winning over The Jam’s partisan audience, even picking up encores every night! The tour ended for Rudi with a triumphant gig in the Queens Hall, Leeds, on April 1st in front of a crowd of over 7000 – the biggest crowd they’d ever played to – on the same day that Sounds magazine made 'Crimson' their 'single of the week'. The Jam crew were particularly impressed by Rudi and John Weller (Paul’s Dad and Manager) used his contacts to line up their first ever large scale UK headline tour which took place in April / May 1982 and cemented the band’s growing reputation still further. Rudi made sure as many guest slots as possible on this nationwide jaunt went to their old pals Victim, still Manchester based, but now with one Mike Joyce on drums.

As both tours had gone so well and Rudi records on the shoestring ‘Jamming!’ label were outselling everything on the major label funded Respond imprint, Paul and John Weller decided to really push the next Rudi release with radio and press pluggers, a proper poster campaign and a full media blitz. 'Love Is Electric' was chosen as the A side, a top producer was lined up and studio time was booked at the prestigious Abbey Road studios! It looked like a ‘hit’ single was finally on the cards! There was even talk that Rudi could be supporting The Jam on their forthcoming tour of the USA – and dates at a large outdoor venue in Belfast were also being planned. But then disaster struck! On the eve of what was to be the band’s big breakthrough, news came out of the blue that The Jam had decided to split up. This also spelt the immediate end of Jamming! Records. Rudi were devastated, and they also decided to call it a day while they were still ahead of the game at the end of 1982. Brian Young “Considering that all we knew about the music business was what we’d learned from watching ‘Stardust’ and ‘That’ll Be The Day’, we went a lot further than anyone coulda imagined”.

Brian, Ronnie and Grimmy later formed Station Superheaven! a punk/funk outfit who folded in late 84 after Brian quit. Ronnie and Grimmy had both had enough of the music business but Brian put together a one off Bolan tribute/fanzine in 1985, dusting off his guitar to guest at a couple of local T.Rex tribute gigs the same year.

In 1987, Brian formed The Tigersharks, a band described pretty accurately by Hot press as ‘Johnny Thunders fronting The Stray Cats’, who later became The Roughnecks in May ’91 after being joined by Paul Kelly (ex- Lids/Rhythm Method) on drums. After they split, Brian formed quiffed up, tattooed, hard rockin’, rockabilly renegades The Sabrejets, with whom he continues to gig and record to this very day.