Ruth PO!

Sorry serendipitous finders - this is not really a manual for how anyone can write a song; I thought the title 'How to Write a Song' might Google well. Instead this is a biography of my songwriting development, bearing in mind I had little formal music training. However, it's always worth considering how other people's songs come about and trying some different techniques. Me and little brother in Sunday best, ready for a trip in the Renault 4 to Avebury Age 7 I used to make up songs whilst in the car. We lived in Wiltshire, England and my parents thought it good practice to take the children out in the Renault 4 every weekend; usually to a white horse or a hill fort.  I can't remember whether my parents had any input into the songs or not - on reflection, maybe they were based on army or girl guide tunes - but once each had evolved, the whole family would join in. With no car radio, CD player etc,  I suppose we made o...

Dress made from an old bed sheet; coat and jumper - mum's from the 1960s.  Hanging out in Newark Cemetery. After my three years 1979 - 1982 in Sheffield, where I was only in bedroom-style bands, I moved to Leicester. The reason was to do a PhD in the Communication of Science using new Information Technology. In fact, with a colleague, I published the first ever academic paper on data downloading. It was a mystery subject back then in 1981 and my research found that hardly anyone downloaded anything, let alone knew what the word meant. http://jis.sagepub.com/content/8/1/7.abstract The Soviets: Simon, Richard, Ruth, Andy I lived in a succession of bedsits, and was desperate to join a band. Before too long, I met other postgraduate students who shared my musical tastes and politics. Andy, Simon and I formed The Soviets - an overtly left wing political combo. We did have different bass players: Martin and Neil but they were less involved with the...

For 3 years after leaving The Devices and going to Sheffield Polytechnic in 1979, I did not play any gigs. Mind you, I went to plenty. It was a great time to be in Sheffield; my first few weeks included going to see Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo and the Bunnymen, Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark, the Dead Kennedys, and The Human League at Doncaster Rotters club. I had chosen Sheffield for its music; my aim was to see Cabaret Voltaire, which I did - at the fantastic Psalter Lane Art School - supported by Clock DVA. My three years as a student were a rich musical banquet. I revelled in the fact that you could go out to the Limit Club and see Martyn Fry of ABC or Phil Oakey of the Human League out having a good time, and sometimes they'd say 'hi' to you. Pulp's Jarvis Cocker was a well-known guy around town; often to be seen in the pub which had hundreds of tea pots around the ceiling. Does that still exist? After a night out, the 2.30am late bus...

How Music Got Me My thing has always been song. The kind of song that stands alone without instruments. It probably sounds better with instruments, but if you whistled it, it would retain the essence of The Song. My mother started me off with singing at the sink; songs I have never particularly heard in other forms. Schubert's The Trout was a favourite (of hers). She also sang one about 'young Molly who lived at the foot of the hill', and 'oh no John'. I ought to find these songs I suppose. The second influence on me was my cousin Christopher who was much older and liked rock groups. I thought they had to have a colour in the name to be good; Pink or Black or Purple. Anyway, he taught me a couple of chords on the guitar and that was good because... The third influence was a book of American Folk songs, which I worked out how to play, using the guitar chords. My favourite as a child was Big Rock Candy Mountain, which I now understand has significances beyond...

Here's some photos of the original line-up of PO! in 1987. Ruth Miller (vocals and guitar) Jan Fraser (drums) and Julian Glover (bass).

This is me, Ruth Miller of the band PO!, but I can't remember which year this was. My aim is to get a big box of photos and stuff scanned in and then try to put it all into some kind of order. Someone has done a Wikipedia page which does include some dates of when we recorded certain songs, so maybe I can use that to help me!     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Po!

I have started this blog because so many people keep telling me to write about and post pictures from my band PO! so here goes.