Ruby Blue were a UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 folk rock

Folk rock

Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...

/pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 band of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Fronted by Rebecca Pidgeon

Rebecca Pidgeon

Rebecca Pidgeon is a British actress and singer-songwriter. She has maintained a recording career while also acting on stage and in feature films. She is married to the American writer and director David Mamet.-Early life:...

, they released a total of four albums, beginning with Glances Askances in 1987 and Down From Above in 1990. The original members of the band were Rebecca and Roger Fife. Erika Spotswood and Anthony Coote

Anthony Coote

Anthony Coote is an English musician who has worked with a number of groups/individuals.He was recruited to Ruby Blue in 1988 following an advertisement in the Melody Maker magazine and was present on their best known album recording "Down from Above"...

 later joined for the album Down From Above.

Rebecca Pidgeon left the band in late 1990 to move to the USA to be with her partner the playwright David Mamet

David Mamet

David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...

 and they subsequently married. She later went on to have a solo singing and acting career, and to date has released four albums of songs. The album Broken Water, a compilation of pre-Down From Above material, was released after the breakup by Red Flame Records.

Between Glances Askances and Down From Above the band released a flexidisc 'Easy' on the Fatea label, in conjunction Fatea magazine as a thank you for the support the magazine provided during their early career.

Two of the original members, Erika (now called Erika Woods), and Roger, kept the name and released a fourth album, Almost Naked, but it was very unsuccessful, and no further recordings were released. Erika, like Rebecca an alumnus of RADA

Rada

Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....

, moved to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 and married Tony Philips, the producer of Down from Above, and has had a minor career as an actress. Roger went on to become a successful producer/engineer/mixer and has worked with a variety of artists including Cyndi Lauper, Antony and the Johnsons

Antony and the Johnsons

Antony and the Johnsons is a music group presenting the work of Antony Hegarty and his collaborators.-Career:British experimental musician David Tibet of Current 93 heard a demo and offered to release Antony's music through his Durtro label. The debut album, Antony and the Johnsons, was released...

, Tricky

Tricky

Tricky is an English musician and actor. As a producer and a musician, he is noted for a dark, rich and layered sound and a whispering sprechgesang lyrical style. Culturally, Tricky encourages an intertwining of societies, particularly in his musical fusion of rock and hip hop, high art and pop...

, and The Infadels.

Always difficult to categorise, their style was mainly pop with strong folk influences, with occasional forays into jazz (Betty's Last Letter, Too Many Suitcases, Meaning of Life). Some songs have a slightly Scottish theme (Meaning of Life, Not Alone), drawing on Rebecca and Roger's time in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

.

A Ruby Blue Remasters album came out in 2011. It featured songs selected from the time Rebecca and Roger worked together, up and until Rebecca left the band.

Background and Early History

In autumn 1986, Roger (then in Edinburgh) sent a home-recorded cassette of some demos he and Rebecca had made at his home to Red Flame Records in London, which was a small indie

Independent record label

An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...

 record company owned by Dave Kitson. At that time the duo called themselves R'n'R. Kitson arranged to meet them, and agreed to fund the album which became Glances Askances. After this first album was released three further singles were released by Red Flame; Because, Bloomsbury Blue and Stand Together (which received widespread radio play and entered the top 30 UK Indie charts).

Anthony was recruited to the band via an advertisement placed in Melody Maker

Melody Maker

Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...

 magazine. Erika Spotswood, a college friend of Rebecca, was added to sing harmony vocals.

Singles

Ruby Blue released the following singles. Some tracks were not released on any of their albums (Positive Love Song, Say Goodbye, The Traveller, Sally Free and Easy and The Raven).

• Give us our flag back b/w The quiet mind; June 1987 (7").
• So unlike me b/w Life and Times of the Twentieth Century; September 1987 (7" and 12").
• Because b/w The Ruby Blue; April 1988 (7" and 12"; 12" also has extended mix of The Ruby Blue).
• Bloomsbury Blue b/w Save Me; November 1988 (7" and 12"; 12" also has Childs Song).
• Stand Together b/w Easy; February 1989 (7" and 12"; 12" also has Too Many Suitcases).
• The Quiet Mind (for Joe) b/w Positive Love Song; April 1990 (7", 12" and CD single; 12" and CDs also have Say Goodbye (live)).
• Primitive Man b/w The Traveller; June 1990 (7", 12", CDs; 12" and CDs also have Betty's Last Letter and an extended mix of Primitive Man).
• Can It Be b/w Something's Gone Wrong; September 1990 (7", 12", CDs; 12" and CDs also have Sally Free and Easy and The Raven).

After the split, Ruby Blue released two further singles:

• I Feel Good Now b/w Get Your Life Back; June 1991 (7", 12", CDs; 12" also has Am I Turning Into You? and CDs also has Too Far and Smile Slow).
• Done My Thinking b/w Magnificent Truth and Almost Naked; June 1993 (CDs).

Glances Askances

Glances Askances was the first album, released on Red Flame Records in October 1987 on LP, and re-released in January 1991 on CD. It features Rebecca and Roger. It has a raw and slightly tinny sound, in keeping with its low production budget (the whole album was recorded for £3000). It contains the following tracks:

• Give Us Our Flag Back
• The Quiet Mind
• Just Relax
• So Unlike Me
• Walking Home
• The Meaning of Life
• Wintry Day
• Sitting in a Cafe
• Bless You

Down From Above

Down from Above was their best-known album, released in August 1990 after signing a deal with Fontana

Fontana Records

Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....

. The production quality was markedly improved. Several of the tracks are reworkings of earlier material (especially The Quiet Mind). The track list is:

• Primitive Man
• The Quiet Mind (for Joe)
• Take Your Money
• Can It Be?
• Away from Here
• Pavan
• Stand Together
• Betty's Last Letter
• Bloomsbury Blue
• Midnight Road
• Not Alone
• Song of the Mermaid
• Something's Gone Wrong
• Epitaph

David Mamet wrote the lyrics for Primitive Man and Epitaph, and provided backing vocals on Pavan. Another (very different) rendition of Primitive Man appears on Rebecca's solo album The New York Girls' Club; the only Ruby Blue song to feature in her solo material.

Epitaph refers to the Marchioness disaster

Marchioness disaster

The Marchioness disaster occurred on the River Thames in London in the early hours of 20 August 1989. The pleasure boat Marchioness sank after being run down by the dredger Bowbelle, near Cannon Street Railway Bridge. There were 131 people on the Marchioness. Some were members of the crew, some...

 of 20 August 1989, where 51 people lost their lives in a collision between a pleasure boat and a dredger in the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

http://www.marchioness-bowbelle.org.uk/. Roger Fife and Erika Spotswood were attendees at the Marchioness party and were amongst the lucky survivors. Their witness statements can be viewed on the above link. A drama-documentary about the Marchioness disaster in which both Roger and Erica were portrayed was dropped by ITV in August 2007 after relatives of the deceased described it as "distressing and insensitive". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6964532.stm

Broken Water

Broken Water, released in February 1992, is a compilation of original Red Flame material recorded in late 1987 and early 1989, and therefore featuring only Rebecca and Roger. Most of the songs were recorded as demos and were never intended for release.

• Easy
• Stand Together
• Away From Here
• Life and Times of the Twentieth Century
• Somebody Say Something
• Because
• Shining Snow
• Save Me
• Child's Song
• The Ruby Blue
• Too Many Suitcases
• Bloomsbury Blue
• Betty
• Stuart

Paradise

Paradise was the title of a limited-release cassette (possibly fan-club only) released by Ruby Blue in January 1992. It contained the following tracks:

• Bless You
• Strength of Mind
• Paradise
• Elvis
• Should Know Better
• I Feel Good Now
• Beyond Us
• Too Far
• High 'n' Low

Almost Naked

Their final album, Almost Naked, was released on Red Flame in April 1993. The track list is:

• Recreate Your Kiss
• Your Way
• High For a While
• Goddess
• You'll Find Out
• I Still Love You
• Done My Thinking
• Strength of Mind
• Magnificent Truth
• Almost Naked

External links

• Ruby Blue: http://rubyblue.get-ctrl.com
• 26music: http://26music.net
• Fan site: http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/amphitheatre/3834/rbindex.html&date=2009-10-25+22:30:12
• Erika's IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0819489/
• Anthony Coote: http://www.anthonycoote.co.uk/index.htm
• german fan site: http://www.rebecca-pidgeon-portal.de/ruby-blue.php