The Deeply Vale Festivals were a unique rock festival held in northwest England in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979. Chris Hewitt was one of the main organisers of the event and went to produce many other festivals and concerts and start a record company Ozit Morpheus Records.. Starting with an audience of 300 camping for two days in 1976, the festival grew by 1978 and 1979 to 20,000 people watching bands and camping for six days. The Home Office-sponsored body that reported on many pop festivals from the mid 1970's- Festival Welfare Services- said in a report on the 1978 that Deeply Vale Festival "was actually better organised than the large Bob Dylan concert at Blackbushe the same summer". It was the biggest free festival in England ending its annual run after four years in 1979.(from wikipedia.org)
this performance from The Ruts is from the '78 festival when the band were still a relatively unknown quantity outside london.the band may seem a little rough and ready here at times but there is no denying the energy that simply oozes from this disk.babylons burning and jah wars are two tracks here that will simply melt your speakers!this is a fantastic document of one of the best live punk bands and this disk should be in everyones collection.anyhoo with that in mind put this disk on,crank the volume way up,pogo and enjoy the marvellous musical stylings of south londons finest 'the ruts'.and then leave a comment.thanks!
