Rubella Ballet

BALLET NEWS
Rubella Ballet have already started recording a brand new album due for release in the summer and the band are going to also re-release their whole back catalogue on CD with world wide distribution all that along with a whole new range of merch which will be all available on line at their MYSPACE site (above), in record shops and at merch stalls at gigs. There�s even newz of a �BEST OF� album being released really soon, check back for newz updates....

Zillah appears in a new book The Lost Women of Rock Music: Female Musicians of the Punk Era. A full review appeared in the Guardian newspaper on August 8th 2007 where Rubella Ballet were mentioned...
The Guardian August 8th 2007

"London anarcho-punks Rubella Ballet formed in the late 1970s. They had a similar outlook to X-ray Spex and despite various line-up shuffles, the band is still going strong. Zillah Minx has been singing with the band since the late 70s and says that in 1975 she was "a sort of hippy glam-rock East End teenage girl with long blonde hair and no makeup. I used to get a lot of men harassing me and whistling at me - I was only 14."

A year later, Zillah was a fully fledged punk, complete with home-made clothes and gold safety pin in her ear. "The harassment stopped, which was brilliant. Instead I got abuse, but I preferred that to the sexual advances men in the street would make."

As well as continuing to perform at benefits for a wide range of causes, Minx has just finished making a documentary, She's A Punk Rocker UK. This includes interviews with many key figures in the scene, including Gaye Black, bass player with the Adverts, who gave up making music 17 years ago when her band broke up and became a manager in a social services department. "It's taken me 10 years with no funding," Minx says of her film. "I wanted to make a documentary about real punks - to explore what it's like to be a punk and why women became punks."

You can read the full review here...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2143652,00.html

The Lost Women of Rock Music: Female Musicians of the Punk Era is published by Ashgate, for a whopping �55. We advise the aid of local shoplifers.

Zillah and Sid have just returned from a promotional tour of the US as guests on the Conflict/Anima Mundi tour of the US. They were promoting the Film 'Shes A Punk Rocker' as well as booking dates for a forthcoming Rubella Ballet tour. Original guitarist Pete Fender has rejoined the band along woth Sean Mowle and Sue Slapper. They hope to be hitting the road in the UK, US and Europe sometime during 2007/2008.
Theres a great video of 'Twister' here plus other assorted videos of Rubella Ballet in action.
Zillah and Sid are looking for a lead, rhythm and bass guitarist. You will however have to be better than Sid the drummer who has been in the band for 25 years and has nearly learnt all the songs now and has a fat sound.�..So we are looking for musicians willing to tour and spend some time writing and recording some new material for the new album for punk prosperity��.Due to bad guitarist timing the band couldn�t get to the Drop Dead Festival in New York in September but have been recently talking to promoters on the East & West coast of America not to mention Europe, Far east and beyond��.If you are interested, please contact the band��If you are a promoter and want to book the band, leave them a message��ON THEIR MYSPACE page Thanx!

BOOK RELEASE
Ian Glasper's long awaited punk book
'The Day The Country Died' which covers the UK's Anarcho protest wing of the early 80's punk scene features Rubella Ballet amongst an array of others. OUT NOW!

STATEMENT FROM SID,
DRUMMER OF RUBELLA BALLET 12/12/07
I REGRET TO INFORM THE POSTPONMENT OF RUBELLA BALLET�S FORTHCOMING U.S.A.TOUR DATES. I HAVE JUST BEEN GIVEN SOME DEVASTATING NEWZ FROM MY HOSPITAL THAT DUE TO MY BLOOD CONDITION (LEUKAEMIA) I HAVE BEEN BATTLING WITH FOR SOME TIME I HAVE BEEN ADVISED BY MY SPECIALIST NOT TO FLY ANY LONG HAUL FLIGHTS AS I MAY CONTRACT DEEP VEIN THROMBOSIS WHICH WITH MY CONDITION MAY CAUSE MY BLOOD TO CLOT MUCH QUICKER THAN NORMAL AND LEAD TO A POSSIBLE STROKE OR FATAL HEART ATTACK. SO IT IS WITH DEEP REGRET I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PERFORM ON THE TOUR OF CALIFORNIA RUBELLA BALLET HAS BOOKED FOR DECEMBER 2007 / JANUARY 2008.
I WOULD LIKE TO CLEARLY STATE THAT THIS IS MERELY A POSTPONEMENT AND NOT A CANCELLATION OF RUBELLA BALLET�S LONG AWAITED RETURN TO U.S.A. I FEEL THIS IS THE ONLY SAFE WAY FOR ME TO REGAIN MY HEALTH TO IT�S FULLEST AND PLAN ON RESHEDULING FOR A HEADLINING TOUR OF EAST & WEST COAST OF USA WITH SPECIAL GUESTS FROM UK AND USA ON THE BILL. THE BAND WILL POST NEW DATES AS SOON AS I GET THE ALL CLEAR FROM THE HOSPITAL THAT IT WOULD BE SAFE TO FLY AGAIN, WHICH WITH TRAINING AND A RAW VEGAN REGIEM SHOULD ONLY BE A COUPLE OF MONTHS.
�I WILL NEVER EVER LET THIS DISEASE
BEAT ME, THAT�S MY JOB�
SID�ATION
(RUBELLA BALLET/FLUX OF PINK INDIANS)
WITH LOVE SID 8 ION Rubella Ballet XXXXXX 12/12/2007

SITE NEWS
Latest Updates:
INTERVIEWS: DROP DEAD MARCH 2008 (July 2008)
REVIEWS: Brixton Jamm Review ADDED (September 23rd 2007)
New Banner added alongside a few backdrops more in progress. A new sister site will be added soon as this one is full and wie need more expansion. OH YEAH NEARLY FORGOT WE ARE ONE YEAR OLD THIS MONTH!
VARIOUS PAGES - Updating the layout (May 2007)
REVIEWS: 'At Rainbows End' CD 1990 (January 3rd)
INTERVIEWS: FEMZINE #2 1984 (December 28th)
REVIEWS: New 1988 gig dates & record news (Dec. 2nd)
INTERVIEWS: MRR #54 Nov. 1987 (November 25th)
REVIEWS: RECORDS/GIGS 1987 (November 20th)
INTERVIEWS: Unknown ZINE (Mid 80's) (Nov. 15th)
REVIEWS: 'IF' ALBUM 1986 (November 10th)
INTERVIEWS: SOUNDS 1985 (November 5th)
IMAGES: LIVE GALLERY 1983 (November 1st)
REVIEWS: 1985 RECORDS & GIG NEWS (October 27th)
INTERVIEWS: SOUNDS 1984 (October 22nd)
REVIEWS: 1984 RECORDS/GIGS (October 18th)
IMAGES: 1983 BAND SHOT ADDED (October 18th)
INTERVIEWS: PUNK LIVES & NME 1983 (October 10th)
REVIEWS: 1983 GIGS (October 6th)
INTERVIEWS: SOUNDS & ZIG ZAG (September 25th)
Official site launch Late September 24th 2006!
IMAGES: BAND & PROMO & LIVE (September 20th)
INTERVIEWS: TOXIC GRAFITTY (August 2006)

When I can get some cash together Ive been offered a chance to go down to London and collate all Rubella Ballets archive material and use it on this site. Sort of the Holy Grail in Dayglo for Ballet fans so watch this space!

ABOUT THIS SITE
When I searched the web for an official Rubella Ballet site I drew a mighty big BLANK!
So I think it was about time we had some colour and a dash of panache in tribute to the band, their music and how they became and still are a fluorescent force in the dark UK Anarcho punk scene of the early 80's and beyond. Because Rubella Ballet continue to create deep dayglo splashes throughout the 90's and are still dabbling in technicolor 8 years into the 21st century.
This site features relevant reviews, interviews and Pix from the dusty Don't Care and Rubella Ballet archives plus other credited sources covering all things Rubella Ballet. Most of which have never been featured on the web since they were first published over 28 years ago. However there is more than enough room for contribtions of any size or scale so if its loud and bright or even black and white and you have it. Please send it in to the address below.
All contributions get a full credit.
Special thanx goes out to Zillah And Sid who give permission for me to tell their story, all be it from a fans perspective and reviews of the time. They also gimme access to some of their history. They are, in case you are wondering still creating a dayglo scene via film and music so watch this space for the continuing story of Rubella Ballet or better still visit their myspace page on the links section for up to date news on their noise and film.

Cheers to: Martin (NZ ) for review, Macky (Swansea) for gig pix and Mike Clarke for flyer donations
& Mish Bondage (Sado-Nation) for the Femzine interview.
In the meantime sunglasses are advised to be worn within a ten mile radius of this PC screen!

[email protected]

FILM NEWS
The World Premier of Zillah's film about Women In Punk 'She's A Punk Rocker' was unveiled at the 15th Raindance Film Festival held at Cineworld Piccadilly, London on October 3rd 2007.
The film / documentary directed by Zillah Minx and Sid and iwill be scheduled for world distribution hopefully very soon, so if you have a cinema and want to be added to the tour, leave a message on their myspace page. Or visit the SHE'S A PUNK ROCKER Myspace site for movie trails and more information.

RUBELLA BALLET TOUR DATES
Confirmed dates so far are:
7 Aug 2008 20:00 - REBELLION FESTIVAL BLACKPOOL BLACKPOOL

6 Sep 2008 19:00 - SID DRUMS FOR X-RAY SPEX Roundhouse London.

13 Dec 2008 18:00 - SUBHUMANS/FLUX OF PINK INDIANS/RUBELLA BALLET/RESTARTS London, London