Heartland

This is a year-old blog, but didn't see a previous topic on it.

---

Today would have been Ruth Polsky's 52nd birthday. I met Ruth when she came to London to see if I could help her get The Psychedelic Furs to play Hurrah, a club she booked in NYC. I made the necessary introductions and it wasn’t too long before they were playing ‘Sister Europe’ to David Bowie, myself and a house full of curious Anglophiles.

Ruth was a big fan of the period’s non-mainstream music and bands like Simple Minds, New Order, The Smiths, The Birthday Party, The Sisters Of Mercy, The Slits and Echo & The Bunnymen can all thank her for being the first person to bring them to the States.

[...]

Ruth enjoyed photography, and one of her favourite people was Andrew Eldritch from the Sisters Of Mercy. Andrew used a photo she took inside their debut album, First And Last And Always.

The Sisters Of Mercy
publicity photo by: Ruth Polsky

and she took this one, backstage, after a show in London -

Andrew Eldritch, ht
photo: Ruth Polsky

Tragically, Ruth was killed on September 7th 1986 outside another club, Limelight, when a taxi jumped the kerb and pinned her to the wall while she was waiting to enter the venue to see Certain General play. Ruth was a lovely, kind, funny, generous and nurturing woman. At this time of year, I always think about the ways she encouraged and helped musicians. She enriched many of their lives and her presence and influence is still greatly missed.

- http://northforksound.blogspot.com/2008 ... -9786.html

Never saw the second picture on the blog...

Thankee!

It got some mention here, but it deserves its own thread.

The second pict. is a real gemm!!!

Thanks for posting it again!
And again - who is ht?

ht = Howard Thompson (author of that blog) I presume (clicky)

lazarus corporation wrote:ht = Howard Thompson (author of that blog) I presume (clicky)

thanks, Mr Watson

Northforksound, a nice blog anyway ... ... ...

Great blog.
I adore that Andrew pic - he looks so very young and innocent. Every time I see it I wonder what he thinks when he sees it...

splintered thing wrote:I adore that Andrew pic - he looks so very young and innocent.

But most of all he looks pale, so pale that even though he's smiling it's obvious that he's goff.

No, he's just compact.

Oh he's goff baby!

... a more or less slight case of overbombing ... photographed on a nice evening ...

We Rock Hard.

The missing caption.

... hardrock ...

RE: First Pic (in Detroit)

... I always thought Andrew Eldritch was taking the mickey out of the other guys in this photo. What thinks you?

I thinks he has very cute nostrils in this photo.

Skip Intro wrote:RE: First Pic (in Detroit)

... I always thought Andrew Eldritch was taking the mickey out of the other guys in this photo. What thinks you?

Obviously an old, old topic, but I was doing some research on Ruth Polsky, a photographer amongst many other things, earlier today. That Detroit's Finest pic is from Woodward Avenue in the Midtown section of Detroit. I lived on that street, but I was a few blocks further up, near Wayne State University and the DIA. Deniz Tek (a Michigander who played guitar in Radio Birdman) wrote a song about Woodward Avenue called Murder City Nights, "murder city" being another common nickname for the Motor City. It seems Ruth was crushed by a runaway taxi cab and killed when she was pinned to the wall while queuing to enter the NYC nightclub Limelight. She was by all accounts a legend who helped bring many UK bands across to America for their very first US tours.

she came very close to managing the Smiths too. Legendary woman