A message from Segs … “Greetings all. We decided to make our first ever 10-inch EP! 4 tracks,3 songs 2 dubs.”
The mighty Ruts DC have not been idle since the release of their last studio album ‘Counterculture?’ back in 2022. With their creative juices flowing freely, they cut two further volumes of their acclaimed ‘ElectrAcoustiC’ series, with volume two arriving in 2023 and volume three in 2024. Now the band are set to return again with a brand new four-song EP, ‘Bound In Blood’, the title track first appearing in acoustic form on the aforementioned ‘ElectrAcoustiC Volume 3‘, followed by another brand new song ‘Wear The Crown’. There are no A and B side preferences, leaving the listener or DJ to decide according to their mood and/or choice.
As they move towards The Ruts 50th anniversary tour in 2027, the solid Ruts DC trio of Segs Jennings (bass & lead vocals), Dave Ruffy (drums and backing vocals) and Leigh Heggarty (guitar and backing vocals) are joined on this release by ‘Rhythm Collision‘ collaborator Mitt Gamon on harmonica and Boz Boorer on extra guitars to make this a very special one-off release. Segs says the band are “Keeping it real with an EP that is close to our hearts. One song about Forgiveness, one about Equality and one about Autonomy – it’s a must have.”
Punktuation! Editor Ruth sat down with Segs for a catch-up, to talk about the songs on new EP ‘Bound In Blood’:
Ruth: 50 years and the band have just come up with the idea to release your first EP?
Segs: Yes, well, I don’t know why, but we never did it at the time! And then someone pointed out, yeah, I was always saying about doing an EP or a single, which is easier now we’ve been independent for quite a while, about 12 years. You don’t make so much money on an EP – if you make an LP, you go, okay, we can sell it for that much money, and it costs this much money. But we like to make our records quality, as you know, so we spend the money, and we like to make the cover a quality piece of art. It’s not really about making money, it’s about breaking even, but it’s probably sold about 100,000 by now! (jokingly) It’s been popular.
Ruth: I’m guessing that back in the late 70s when the band first took off, you were basically just being mega creative and coming up with as many songs as possible?
Segs: Yeah, like many bands, we just wrote the songs, went out on the road, and then recorded the first album. ‘The Crack’ was done in 3 weeks from start to finish, mixing and everything! That doesn’t mean every day, but a period in your diary of 3 weeks. I think we recorded about two or three a day, and that was with Mick Glossop, who was really pedantic at that time about recording it correctly!
Ruth: Yeah, great work ethic! So, onto the actual choice of songs on the album. Obviously ‘Bound in Blood’ is one that you’ve been playing for a while, and people really do love it, so it’s fantastic to include that.
Segs: ‘Bound In Blood’ came about when we were doing the acoustic shows. I’d bought this Guild acoustic bass guitar from Gumtree. I’d been thinking about it because of doing the Dead Men Walking stuff. When I got home, I wrote the bass line and then I just started singing, and that was the beginning of it. I’d never done that before! So, I thought, oh, let’s do this new one on ‘ElectrAcoustic Vol. 3’. Henry Rollins had said, “Hey, you should really maybe approach new songs after doing the acoustic album first?” Well, we didn’t manage to do that, but we did manage to include one new song, so that was that. And it went down really well! I mean, I thought it was kind of throwaway in a way, you know, as these songs are. And then Ruffy said, “I think that’s the best song you’ve written”, and nobody’s going, “what?”, because it’s kind of strange..
Ruth: And it came from the heart as well.
Segs: It came from the heart.
Ruth: Yeah, I do know what it’s about.
Segs: I’m glad you do! (laughs) But anyway, then everybody liked it, including the band. And it’s developed.. as you know, we’re very brave and we debuted it at Rebellion in 2024. But we are quite brave. I don’t know how, but we are.
Ruth: You keep pushing the boundaries and that’s important.
Segs: I wouldn’t say that’s brave. I think it’s just pushing the boundaries like fools! (laughs) We always like some possibility of something being able to go wrong. (grins) So, yeah, then as the song developed, Leigh was getting involved, and then Ruffy, so it became an electric version. And someone said we should record it. Of course, people love to say that! Then I had the Crown song (‘Wear The Crown’), which nearly went on ‘Counterculture?’, did you know that?
Ruth: Oh, so that’s been kicking around for some time then?
Segs: Yes, quite a while! I think even before then, I can’t remember. I think even it was part of another song that we just got rid of, even back to ‘Music Must Destroy’, but I never really finished the lyrics. I wanted the “wear the crown” thing, and then what actually happened was; I was doing a club night with Tara on the day Prince Charles was crowned King – the toothless monarch! (we both laugh) As it was his coronation day, we called the club night ‘Wear the Crown’, and I said, “I’ll finish the song.” I’d read what a coronation is really about – it’s pledging allegiance to the royal family. So, I just went, “Fuck that!” (laughs) I only pledge allegiance to autonomy. So, I sat in the back room at the club and wrote the lyrics; “The wise, the wicked and the money men, been running things since I don’t know when” “A prince, a pauper, and a perfect sin” – which is about Lady Di’s very complex death – “Ain’t it time we pulled out the firing pin?” When we were looking to make an EP, we thought maybe we’d add that one, although we’d never played it live! But we had the original recording of it, and then we just put more guitars on it and finished the lyrics.
Segs: Then we’ve got ‘Born Innocent’ (Mitt’s Immortal Mix) on there, which is a tribute to the great Mitt Gamon.
Ruth: That’s something that you’d promised we would hear eventually and now finally we can!
Segs: We could keep putting things out, downloads and that. But as you know, we’re always really busy and we’ve got more than enough stuff going out! I wanted to get this off the ground. The original idea for the EP was two tracks and two dubs – that’s kind of Ruts-y. But then we put ‘Born Innocent‘ on it because we had it, and I listened to it and I thought, that’s really good – so I tarted it up a bit. Mitt actually heard the remix just before he died, and he said, “That’s a bit of all right, isn’t it?” He loved it and he was gone shortly after. So it’s fitting, in tune with everything that’s going on.
Ruth: The cover is very striking!
Segs: It’s interesting because it was painted by Rupert Howard, the son of John Howard who did the artwork for The Ruts first album ‘The Crack’. His brother Ollie did ‘Grin And Bear It’, and his sister Rachel did ’Rhythm Collision’. Rupert also created the cover of our 1981 single ‘Different View’. Sadly, he suddenly got ill and died a couple of years ago, but that ‘Bound In Blood’ painting’s in my house, the actual painting, because Ruffy bought it off him as a kind of support, years ago – I think in ‘81. Ruffy eventually told me, “I’ve had this for a while, but it don’t fit in”. He likes art – we all do, if we can afford it. So, I had it in my house, and I was thinking, I’ve got to get the cover for ‘Bound In Blood’ and I want it to be really good – and I looked up, and there it was. There’s the figure, male or female, not quite sure, androgynous, bound with these metal straps, and I went, “Wow, that’s it!!”. I sent it to my friend Matt, who tidied it up after I took some photos of it – he kept going, “oh, could you take it again without a shadow on it?” so it was very DIY, and it came out. It’s a beautiful piece of artwork Matt put together and it’s a fitting tribute to Rupert. So, without being all RIP all over the place, it’s just keeping it real, isn’t it, really?
Ruth: It’s nice that the whole concept of the EP and everything in it is a tribute to good friends who you’ve lost, as well as great music.
Segs: Back in the day, we were just creating, and then everything was going off, record companies wanted to sign you… Whether you got ripped off or not, they were nonetheless there to support you with artwork. With some of the artwork, like on ‘Something That I Said’, we didn’t even see it before it came out, because we were on tour, working! These days, there isn’t any of that, but you’re not going to get into the charts. We’re not going to get in a chance. We not going to sell thousands because people don’t sell that many records anymore. So, you might as well make it a decent piece of art, right? If we break even, that’s great. You have to sell about 500.
Ruth: Well, in my opinion, you have definitely made a great piece of art with the whole EP!
Segs: Oh, that’s good. It’s nice having Eastfield playing here tonight – he came up to me and said, “I can’t get that song ‘Bound In Blood’ out of my head”. They’re a great band, hearts in the right place, and I said, “You don’t know how much that means”, because, whether you’re an established artist of 50 years, or anybody else, you never really know if a new song is really fitting for the band?
Ruth: ‘Bound In Blood’ fits, because it is very much written from the heart and from your own experience.
Segs: I always think that the real difference between Punk and Rock is the lyrics, really. Some of our songs could be like Deep Purple, but they’re not singing about the same things at all. There’s no wizards, no women. (we both laugh). Anyway, Bless them. I do like Deep Purple!
Ruth: Great, thank you so much Segs!
‘Bound In Blood’ is out on September 11th via Sosumi recordings on cd and 10” vinyl – order yours from HERE
Catch Ruts DC live in Sweden and the UK this Autumn:
Sept 22 Göteborg, Sweden
Sept 24 Upsala, Sweden
Sept 25 Stockholm, Sweden
Sept 26 Nörrkoping, Sweden
Nov 14 Morcombe Festival, UK
Nov 20 Southampton 1865, UK
Nov 21 Brighton Chalk, UK
Nov 22 London Electric Ballroom, UK
- Bound In Blood
- Born Innocent (Mitt’s Immortal Mix)
- Wear The Crown
- Dub The Crown
Follow Ruts DC on Their Socials:
Need more Punk In Your Life?
Live review: Hot Flushes/High Voltage gig – fun and fundraising for The Menopause Charity!
Eastfield, The Duel, Cherry & Peesh, Marie and the Meltdownz, and Dinosaur Skull do MoonPunx proud at their end-of-season show at Camden’s Fiddler’s Elbow, raising
Album review: Stabbitha & The Knifey Wifeys sharpen up with brand new release!
What a tantalizing name for a band! Stabbitha & The Knifey Wifeys have just released a brand-new album, ‘Disgust’, and my attention was well and
Live review: Chelsea / Desperate Measures / Rage DC at Facebar, Reading 28/08/26
Tonight, the indomitable Mannie of Shake Some Acton heads west to bring together local, national and international Punk bands to entertain us; Rage DC, Desperate
Shake Some Acton gig #172, London Hope & Anchor, 2nd Sept 2026
Putting on small-scale gigs mid-week can be a somewhat daunting task, but Shake Some Acton seem to have it down to a fine art. Ok,
Album review: Slaughter and the Dogs are on ‘White Heat’ in this long-awaited return!
Guitarist Mick Rossi and his cohort of punk rock veterans have a new album coming out, ‘White Heat’, the first under the Slaughter and the
EP review: BE N!CE reveal ‘It’s Getting Harder’
London four-piece BE N!CE return with ‘It’s Getting Harder’, a six-track, fan-funded and independently released second EP. BE N!CE sound like a band finding strength
Usually found jumping around down the front at gigs, I also relish taking photos and videos, singing, speaking with fellow music fans, and asking musicians the questions nobody else does. Writing about my favourite bands and connecting with people who love music too keeps me more-or-less sane! I’ve worked for over 25 years at a video production company, mainly filming live music events, therefore I have an additional backstage perspective on the scene.
Did you know that we are 100% DIY? We run our own game. No one dictates to us, and no one drives what we can or cannot put on our pages – and this is how we plan to continue!
