(Blues) Ruthless Blues - 2 albums - Ruthless Blues (1989), Sure Enough! (1992), MP3, 320 kbps

Band History
This section contains a detailed history of the band. A tabulated list of the various line-ups that have existed over the years is also available!
The early years of Ruthless Blues (i.e. pre 1984) are somewhat shrouded in mystery but, as far as it has been possible to determine, it appears that Ruthless was originally formed some time during 1979 from the remnants of a jazz-funk / r'n'b outfit called Telemacque.
Following the demise of Telemacque, and after years of working in other people’s bands, John Knightsbridge ("JK"), decided to put together his own blues/rock outfit to "have a bit of fun" and help keep the blues alive on the West London music scene.
JK (lead guitar and vocals) recruited Paul McCallum (who had also been in Telemacque and with whom JK occasionally worked at Paul's PA hire company), on bass guitar and vocals; and Jim McCarty on drums (with whom JK had previously worked in other bands including Illusion),
Completing the original line-up were Jeremy Truelove (an aspiring actor) on harmonica, and Dave Blake on rhythm guitar and vocals. Jeremy had previously worked with JK and Paul in the Dana Gillespie Band whilst Dave was apparently an ex-pat American helicopter co-pilot who never quite made it back to the USA after Vietnam. He was also the editor of a magazine called "Musicians Only" but quite how he fitted into the picture with Ruthless Blues has been lost in the annals of time. And so it was that Ruthless Blues was born. (Incidentally, as a point of interest to Ruthless fans, it was Paul who came up with the name Ruthless Blues and Dave, a useful graphic artist, who drew the original version of the band's logo, although it has seen a few changes over the years).
The inaugral Ruthless gig was apaprently at a club called "Christopher's" in Eton (which soon moved to Wokingham and became the almost legendary "Angie's") closely followed by others at the Red Lion, Brentford (now a McDonald's!) and the Dublin Castle, in Camden (still a live music venue).
The original line up played a few more odd gigs mostly around west London and Surrey but it wasn’t too long before Jeremy Truelove decided to leave the band to concentrate on his acting career.
At around the same time, Dave Blake also decided to leave the band to pursue his other great love in life, sailing. Dave was last seen heading for the Greek Islands aboard a yacht and nothing was seen or heard of him for years - until he contacted this website in January 2004 to say he is alive and well, living in France and fronting his own band. Isn't the Internet amazing...
To fill the gap left by the departure of Jeremy and Dave, Johnny Mars (harmonica and vocals) was seconded to front the band, as and when he was available. Despite fronting Ruthless Blues on a fairly regular basis during 1983/4, John was never officially a full member of the band – more a regular dep!. This was because he also had his own band and a record deal at the time and wasn’t therefore able to commit himself full time to Ruthless Blues.
The range of gigs had spread a little by this time and as well as their West London regulars, the band starting to appear in other parts of London - notably a Sunday night residency at "Steptoe's" in Stoke Newington run by an affable chap called Graham Taylor (no relation to the football manager of the same name). Ruthless Blues' connection with Graham was to continue successfully for several years at several venues around north-east London.
By the Spring of 1984, Jim McCarty had found the pace of some of the Ruthless Blues set rather more frenetic than was to his liking and had decided to leave. His place on drums was duly taken by Tony Fernandez with whom JK had previously worked in The Roy Hill Band.
Johnny Mars continued to front Ruthless Blues until mid-1985, by which time his involvement with his own band had grown to the point where he was no longer available to play with Ruthless Blues on a regular basis. (Incidentally, Johnny Mars’s web site biography doesn't mention his involvement with Ruthless Blues during this period at all – cheers John!).
During this period John’s place had been taken by either Stevie Smith on harmonica and vocals, or John "Irish" Earle on saxophone and vocals – pretty much depending on who was available at the time.
This situation continued for several months during 1985 until, on one occasion both Stevie and Irish happened to be available and they both came along to the same gig. The combination of Stevie and Irish worked superbly even without any proper rehearsals. So well in fact that it was immediately agreed that Ruthless Blues would continue as a five piece. The resulting line up of Knightsbridge; Smith; Earle; and Fernandez was to remain together for the next eleven years with only a couple of changes of bass player occurring along the the way to interfere with the continuity.
By this time (1985), the band had built up a strong fan base in London and the Home Counties and was coming under increasing pressure from those fans for some "product"!. And so it came to pass that, towards the end of 1985 in a fondly-remembered hot and sweaty little club called "Angie’s" in Wokingham, Berkshire, Ruthless Blues recorded their first album, "Live At Angie’s".
Things were looking good. Ruthless Blues had built up several well-supported weekly and monthly residences as well as a number of other regular, if less frequent, gigs. There was an enthusiastic and ever growing following of fans and the cassettes were selling like the proverbial hot cakes. But Paul’s PA business was getting busier and busier and he was finding it harder and harder to find the time to appear with the band, let alone rehearse any new material. Paul eventually left the band in 1987 and was replaced by Martyn Taylor.
Martyn, who sometimes worked with Paul and JK at the PA hire company, and had also occasionally acted as the Ruthless roadie (!), had been playing bass in a number of punk bands and, not surprisingly, his style was somewhat more aggressive than his predecessor's!
Martyn's impact on Ruthless Blues was immediately evident. The band's live shows took on much more forceful feel to them. They even started rehearsing on a fairly regular basis, and as a result, new numbers, both covers and self-penned originals, started to appear in the set.
Another self-financed album "Ruthless!" was recorded live at Kingston Polytechnic in 1987 (featuring some impressive additional brass arrangements courtesy of Graham Parker’s Rumour Brass - of which Irish was a part, of course); and the range of band merchandise grew to include T-shirts in a whole rainbow array of different colours, badges and other goodies, including at one point a limited number of unisex "G-strings" (which sold surprisingly quickly!).
On the strength of the "Ruthless!" Album, the band secured a recording contract with President Records and 1989 saw the release of the band’s eponymous first studio album ("Ruthless Blues").
In 1991, Martyn decided to give up playing bass and leave Ruthless Blues to pursue other musical interests (see his biog for details). His place was taken by Peter Rees. Unfortunately, no sooner had Peter joined the band than he suffered a slipped disc. He soldiered on valiantly for a couple of weeks but things came to a head after he had endured a memorably agonising (in more ways than one!) short northern tour of the UK during which he had to be helped on and off stage and had to play every gig sitting down.
Unfortunately, this happened to coincide with one of the busiest periods the band had ever known. The band was regularly working five or six nights a week and there were more mini tours in the diary. It became obvious that neither Peter nor the band could continue like this. So, it was reluctantly decided that it would be in everyone’s best interests for Peter to leave the band and take a rest, and another bass player be found for Ruthless Blues.
The search didn’t take long and, thanks once again to his connections through the infamous Sunday night jam sessions at the Half Moon, Herne Hill (South London), Stevie managed to persuade Andy Herbert to join the band.
Andy instantly fitted in well with everyone and stayed in the line up for the next five years until reluctantly having to leave in May 1996 to concentrate on finishing off an Open University degree course that he was taking. During Andy’s stay with the band the second studio album, "Sure Enough!", was recorded and released on President Records (1993).
Andy's replacement was Peter Stroud, yet another top notch player. Peter had been friends with the band for many years and had occasionally covered for Andy’s absences when needed. So he was able to step straight into the band without too many problems or rehearsals. Peter’s first gigs as a permanent official member of the band were during a ten day stint on the Isle of Man in June 1996 which coincided with the TT races and included some memorable gigs where Ruthless Blues were on the same bill as a rather interesting and raunchy bunch of strippers!! But that’s enough of that!
From the outset, the strength of Ruthless Blues has always been the superb musicianship within the band. Unfortunately, the band’s strength in depth was also its biggest weakness - particularly during the late eighties and nineties. Throughout this period there were constant demands for members of the band (particularly Irish and Tony and, to a lesser extent, Peter Stroud and Andy) to tour and/or record with other more well-known acts (see the individuals' biogs for more information). So, whilst the structure of the band remained essentially the same, there was never any guarantee that the same line-up would be available from one week to the next.
Although undoubtedly frustrating for fans of the band members who were unavailable, it wasn’t entirely all bad news, because the standard of dep’s that Ruthless could call upon was of a similar high standard and this made for some very interesting guest appearances at times. A quick check through the list of dep's who have helped out Ruthless Blues at times makes interesting reading in itself. But the lack of continuity of the line up undeniably held back the band’s progress at what was probably their peak.
The five piece line up featuring JK; Stevie; Tony; Irish and Peter Stroud continued until the end of 1997 or so until "Irish" decided that, for personal reasons, it was time for him to return to his native Dublin. Anyone who had seen Ruthless Blues featuring "Irish" would understand that he was not only an amazing sax player but a fine vocalist and a unique character too. It simply wasn’t possible to find another saxophonist to replace him. Other possibilities were considered including the addition of keyboards, and a couple of names were even put in the frame. But in the end, for various reasons, the band decided to continue as a four piece.
Ruthless Blues continued with this line up until 1999 - the band’s very own "annus horribilis" – when it was hit by three major body blows which almost brought about its demise!
Firstly, in February, Ruthless were hit by a proverbial bombshell when founder member John Knightsbridge suddenly announced that he had decided to quit to pursue other interests. John’s unique attacking, fiery style of playing had been an integral and important part of the overall sound of Ruthless Blues from it's very inception and the vacuum that he would leave behind would be an enormous one to fill.
For a while, there was talk that the band would simply implode and cease to exist. But (fortunately as it transpired) there were still some dates in the band’s diary that needed to be honoured. (It is worth noting at this point that, in its twenty three plus year life to date, Ruthless Blues only ever once had to cancel a gig at short notice!). Using his trusty filofax again, Stevie managed to pull in an assortment of people at short notice to fill the lead guitar slot for the outstanding gigs.
Helping out on some of those dates was none other than the band's old mate Martyn Taylor, who had given up playing bass and turned to lead guitar after leaving Ruthless in 1991. Martyn subsequently became JK's permanent replacement. The overall sound and feel of the band changed a bit but Ruthless lived again!
But no sooner was that problem sorted out than another arose. Peter Stroud had been recruited into Peter Green’s Splinter Group and now found himself touring and recording extensively and unable to continue with Ruthless Blues for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, another previous band member, Andy Herbert, was available at the time and keen to rejoin the band. So, after a three year absence, he too was welcomed back into the fold. Suddenly the band was given a new lease of life with Martyn and Andy certainly livening up the visual side of the band's shows.
But the band’s problems didn’t end there because, just to really rub salt into the wound, whilst all this was going on Stevie Smith had, for family reasons, moved from the South of England to a remote part of the Scottish Highlands. Not exactly convenient for getting a rehearsal together or doing gigs in London and the Home Counties – Ruthless Blues’ main stomping ground!
At this stage most bands would probably have called it a day. But Ruthless Blues is not like any other band. Certainly, several serious discussions were held regarding the band’s future. But, following a particularly well received gig at a blues weekend in Hayling Island, it was unanimously agreed that even after two decades of appearing extensively around the UK, plus the occasional trip to France, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Denmark, and Norway, the band still had something to offer musically. So, as long as everyone in the band was still enjoying playing together, and the fans were still coming to the gigs and enjoying what the band were doing, the band would carry on, albeit not as frequently as it had in the past.
And so that brings us almost up to date. Ruthless Blues as an entity is still very much alive and well, albeit gigging only occasionally. There is even talk of another album, probably a live one. But it is only talk at the moment! So don't hold your breath.
The next little hurdle for the band to overcome is the relocation of Tony Fernandez from the UK to Portugal! Tony says that he is keen to continue with the band whenever possible but, as the saying goes, only time will tell.