Ruth PO!

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 to Totley (7 miles) wa

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.