The Rubettes

The Rubettes
Origin	England
Genres	Pop, glam rock
Years active	1973–present
Labels	Polydor Records, State Records
Website	rubettes.com
Members
The Rubettes featuring Alan Williams Alan Williams John Richardson Mick Clarke Mark Haley The Rubettes featuring Bill Hurd Bill Hurd Alex Bines George Bird Billy Hill Ian Pearce
Past members
Tony Thorpe Pete Arnesen

The Rubettes were an English pop band assembled in 1973 by the songwriting team of Wayne Bickerton, then the head of A&R at Polydor Records, and his co-songwriter, Tony Waddington, after their doo-wop and 1950s American pop-influenced songs had been rejected by a number of existing acts. The band duly emerged at the tail end of the glam rock movement, wearing trademark white suits and cloth caps on stage. Their first release, "Sugar Baby Love" was an instant hit remaining at number one in the United Kingdom for four weeks in May 1974, while reaching number 37 on the U.S. chart that August, and remains their best-known record. Subsequent releases would be less successful, but the band continued to tour on the nostalgia circuit well into the 2000s.

Career

The Rubettes’ first and biggest hit was "Sugar Baby Love" (1974) which was a number one in the United Kingdom, going on to sell around 500,000 copies in the UK and three million copies globally. Two million copies were sold in France alone, an achievement matched by no other British group.^{[citation needed]} With more three songs, "Sugar Baby Love" was recorded for Polydor in October 1973 at Landsdown Studios in Holland Park, London by a group of session musicians featuring the distinctive falsetto lead vocal of Paul Da Vinci (real name: Paul Prewer). Da Vinci would not, however, become a member of the band put together by John Richardson but would pursue solo work. "Sugar Baby Love" was their only UK #1 and sole U.S. Top 40 entry. In November 1974 NME music magazine reported that The Rubettes, The Glitter Band and Mud were among the UK bands who had roles in a new film titled Never Too Young To Rock.

The Rubettes went on to have a number of other hits across Europe during the mid-1970s, such as "Tonight", "Juke Box Jive" and "I Can Do It" sung by Alan Williams, mostly written by the Bickerton–Waddington songwriting team. The Rubettes' success encouraged Bickerton and Waddington to set up State Records, so that ten months after the release of "Sugar Baby Love", the fourth Rubettes single "I Can Do It" was on State (catalogue reference STAT 1).

The band were to abandon glammy nostalgia to enter more serious territory. "Under One Roof" (1976) was a portrayal of a gay man disowned and later murdered by his father; along with Rod Stewart's "The Killing of Georgie", it was one of the few songs that tackled the topic of homophobia. Their most successful self-composed hit was the country rock styled ballad "Baby I Know", which reached number 10 in the UK and Germany in 1977. They played as a quintet from early 1975 and always as a quartet from mid-1976 (Bill Hurd (keyboardist) became an out-of-staff member; during his retirement years, he joined Suzi Quatro's band, touring and playing on a number of worldwide hits, which included the Top 20 hit "She's In Love With You" in 1979, before re-joining the Rubettes in 1982.) After Thorpe's departure in 1979, the group's success began to dwindle.

Bass player Mick Clarke recorded a solo album Games in 1979 for the cult German label Blubber Lips.^{[citation needed]}

The band continued releasing records into the 1980s, then re-grouped in 1983 in order to exploit the German market for 1970s nostalgia.

In 1994, the group's profile was raised by the inclusion of "Sugar Baby Love" in the hit movie Muriel's Wedding. This song was also featured in the 2005 Neil Jordan film Breakfast on Pluto soundtrack, and in a popular Safe Sex commercial.

In 2002, the group hit the headlines once more when, following an acrimonius split and legal action, the Rubettes became the latest in a long line of bands (including the Beach Boys and Spandau Ballet) to end up in the courts in a dispute over ownership of the band's name. The court ruled that both Williams and Hurd could tour as the Rubettes, as long as it was clear which member was fronting the band. Original members John Richardson and Mick Clarke, along with ex-Kinks keyboardist Mark Haley, feature with Alan Williams in his band. Hurd is the only member of his group connected with the original line up, but his drummer, Alex Bines, played with the group beginning with their reunion in 1982.

All was well until 2005 when Williams and Hurd were back in court following an appearance by Hurd's band on the German television station ZDF, with Williams claiming Hurd had breached the terms of the original agreement. On 2 February 2006, a High Court judge found that Hurd and Williams had both been guilty of breaching the 2002 agreement. Costs of the trial were, however, awarded to Williams in view of the severity of Hurd's breaches. Hurd appealed against this decision, but on 3 November 2006 the Appeal Court in London ruled against him, awarding the costs of the appeal to Williams. Hurd has since gone bankrupt.

On 28 March 2008 "Sugar Baby Love" was declared to be the most successful oldie of all time by the German television station RTL.

In May and June 2008, The Rubettes were part of the 'Glitz Blitz & 70s Hitz' tour of the UK alongside Sweet and Showaddywaddy.

In June 2009, Bill Hurd's Rubettes played at the East Kilbride ArtBurst Festival.

Personnel

The original line-up of the band was:-

• Alan Williams (born Alan James Williams, 23 December 1948, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire) - vocals, guitar
• John Richardson (born John George Richardson, 3 May 1948, South Ockendon, Essex) - drums, vocals
• Mick Clarke (born Michael William Clarke, 10 August 1946, Grimsby, Lincolnshire) - bass, vocals
• Tony Thorpe (born Anthony John Thorpe, 20 July 1947, London) - lead guitar, vocals
• Pete Arnesen (born Hans Peter Arnesen, 25 August 1947, Salzburg, Austria) - piano
• Bill Hurd (born William Frederick George Hurd, 11 August 1948, East London) - organ, piano

Of the original Rubettes line-up only Richardson, Williams and Arnesen participated in the recording of "Sugar Baby Love".

Discography

Albums

• Wear It's 'At (1974)
• We Can Do It (1975) - UK #41
• Rubettes (1975)
• Sign Of The Times (1976)
• Baby I Know (1977)
• Some Time In Oldchurch (1978)
• Still Unwinding (1978)
• Riding On A Rainbow (1992)
• Making Love In The Rain (1995)

UK Top 40 Singles

• "Sugar Baby Love" (January 1974) - UK #1; U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #37
• "Tonight" (July 1974) - UK #12
• "Juke Box Jive" (November 1974) - UK #3
• "I Can Do It" (March 1975) - UK #7
• "Foe-Dee-O-Dee" (June 1975) - UK #15
• "Little Darling" (October 1975) - UK #30
• "You're The Reason Why" (April 1976) - UK #28
• "Under One Roof" (August 1976) - UK #40
• "Baby I Know" (January 1977) - UK #10

See also

• List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
• List of 1970s one-hit wonders in the United States
• List of performers on Top of the Pops

External links

• Official website
• Rubettes featuring Alan Williams, John Richardson, Mick Clarke
• The Rubettes featuring Bill Hurd
• The Rubettes discography at Discogs
• The Rubettes biography at the Allmusic website
• John Richardson biography