Rubella Ballet formed in 1979 by Sidation (Flux of Pink Indians), Zillah Minx, Pete Fender & Gem Stone (Fatal Microbes) at the Crass gig at Conway Hall where Crass invited the audience to use their equipment and finish off the evening doing their own thing as they wanted and left the crowd in charge, so Sid being 6" 9 inches tall and at the front of the stage climed up with Zillah and jumped on Penny's drum kit, Zillah grabbing Steve's mic, Pete & Gem jumping staight up and taking the bass and guitar, plugged in and started playing. Sounding like rather organised chaos this was the start of a very colourful part of what was and is the British anarcho punk scene. Sid was also drumming for Flux of Pink Indians as he lived near the band with Pete Fender and Gem Stone (Fatal Microbes), son and daughter of Vi Subversa who lived with the rest of Poison Girls at Burghley House in Epping (before the M25 ploughed through it) Sid went on to drum on the single Tube Disaster that Flux released on Crass records as well as composing the music for the b-side 'Sick Butchers' and 'Background to malfunction' at Dial House in the studio Crass rehearsed in. Flux did many gigs with Rubella Ballet and Sid ended up playing for both bands every night. Sid left after about a year touring with Flux to play full time for Rubella Ballet.
The band are well known for their tribal power, haunting lyrics, psychedelic stage show and the use of nothing more than a UV lights, strobes and a bit of smoke to illuminate the band, the music has the same innovative psychedelic qualities fusing punk, tribal, dance and absolute weirdness into a myriad of music styles. Zillah Minx is synonymous for the shock value of wearing ultraviolet hand painted day-glo clothes along with their multi coloured day-glo hair do's through the east end of London's, dark, violent, poor, ghettoized, shithole, (a direct result of Thatcher's Government) everywhere they went not everyone smiled and laughed, some people started hurling abuse or wanting to beat them up or even threaten to kill them for being so different.
Zillah Minx original punk in 1975 created and designed her own day-glo clothes that has been copied by bands and clothes designers throughout the world. In 2012 Louise Gray who has a new range of clothing and make -up in Londons Top Shop in the west end and Louise told Zillah how she has influenced her greatly.
Rubella Ballet are very happy to announce the release of a their full back catalogue through Overground Records on two CD's with a full colour 12 page booklet with rare pics of the band as well as the story of the bands 30 year career.
The first release 'ANARCHY IN THE U.V.' is now available on Overground Records includes two unreleased tracks, their debut cassette tape Ballet Bag (1982) , the 4 track 7" EP Ballet Dance (1982), their debut album At Last Its Play Time (1985) and the 12" version of Money Talks (1985) all digitally remastered and packed in a 12-page booklet designed by Sid and Zillah.
The second release 'NEVER MIND THE DAY-GLO' is also now available on CD from Amazon.com and all good record shops, for digital downloads go to iTunes, Reverb Nation, E-Music, Amazon MP3, and all other reputable downlod sites on the web. The second CD contains the singles 42f, Arctic Flowers and albums 'IF' & 'At the end of the Rainbow'
Rubella Ballet's Limited Edition Skull design T.Shirts are now sold out but New Skull t.shirts are going being printed soon.
So watch this space, New skull design t.shirts coming soon and the release of the long awaited 90 min DVD of the best bits of Rubella Ballet including the video's of 42f, Twister, Money Talks as well as un-seen footage of the band.
Check out the the new Cowboy Hero video on this site, made as a tribute to the film WestworldAlso don't forget to watch the remastered, remixed video of Money Talks on You Tube's UVPTV. Soon to be on DVD to be available with the best of Rubella Ballet's remastered videos & unseen live footage. coming soon.
