I need to make a posting specifically about Ruth, who started and maintained Unglamorous Music in Leicester. I found it heartbreaking to read a couple of weeks ago that she knew she hadn't got much time left; this week she died. It's so very sad.
Anyone who came into contact with her will tell you what a remarkable person she was. She brought out the very best in people, both through the zine Punkgirldiaries and the Unglamorous Music project in Leicester. She was funny and clever, and a very good musician. She was extraordinarily generous with her time and her knowledge, and was exemplary in carrying on right up till the end with her work, both loving and political, on the enabling of women musicians.
When I heard in January that she'd started a new 'batch' of Unglamorous bands, I wrongly assumed that he illness was treatable, and mentally celebrated. Alas, this was not so. How very glad I am to have met her, gigged with her, and watched her project grow successfully into a positive and celebratory articulation of the joys of being an older woman! I hope all the bands she encouraged continue to thrive; that would be a perfect legacy.
This is such sad news. My path crossed briefly with Ruth as a teenage fanzine writer and fan of her band Po! and Rutland Records when she gave me some very positive feedback on my writing (I don't know how I came to send it to her, but I must have done...) and I have never forgotten this kindness. Punkgirldiaries were always very encouraging about my punk writing too. She will be sorely missed.
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