Paul Fox (musician)

"For the U.S. record producer see Paul Fox (producer)"

Paul Fox (11 April 1951 – 21 October 2007) was a British musician and singer, best known from his work with the UK punk band, The Ruts. The Ruts' style combined punk with dub reggae, a sound that owed much to Fox's guitar skills and earned him respect and admiration. The Guardian noted in his obituary: 'Fox played a pivotal songwriting role, and quickly became a model punk guitarist at a time when the three-chord thrash was the height of many of his contemporaries' ambitions.'

Fox was a founder member of the Ruts. When the original lead singer Malcolm Owen died of a heroin overdose the band continued with Fox on vocals, renaming themselves Ruts DC. After the break-up of the band in the early 1980s, Fox joined a London rock band called Dirty Strangers, who recorded two albums, that The Rolling Stones guitarists, Keith Richards and Ron Wood, both guested on. He went on to form Choir Militia, in 1983. This band soon folded after which he worked with Screaming Lobsters in 1987 and Fluffy Kittens from 1991 to 1994, retaining hard-core fan interest. From this point on his musical career was combined with carpentry, but he cut singles with the Chelsea Punk Rock Allstars in 1997, and ska legend Laurel Aitken in 2000.

Fox revived the Ruts name and songs in 2006, touring with a line up known as Foxy's Ruts, featuring his son Lawrence on drums. Fox died of lung cancer in October 2007. Five months before his death, Fox headlined a concert in his own honour, teaming up for one final performance with his surviving band mates and long time Ruts' fan, Henry Rollins, filling in for the original Ruts' singer, Malcolm Owen.

External links

* [http://www.clubska.com/www.humanpunk.com/index.html Ruts Official Site]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2747693.ece Obituary in The Times]
* [http://www.myspace.com/paulfoxtheruts My Space page, featuring tributes]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2196342,00.html Guardian obit, cited in this entry]

ee also

*List of musicians in the first wave of punk music