Like so many punk groups, The Ruts were inspired to become a band after singer Malcolm Owen saw The Sex Pistols, but as their short career progressed, they increasingly incorported reggae into their sound.

Political from the start, the West London band formed by schoolfriends Owen and guitarist Paul Fox were synonymous with Rock Against Racism, often performing benefit shows alongside another Southall band Misty In Roots, as part of their People Unite collective.

This was the first of their half-a-dozen great singles – some punk, some reggae, some a hybrid of the two – before the tragic death of singer Malcolm Owen in 1980 from a heroin overdose.

Three years earlier, already struggling with addiction, he had written the B-side of that first single In A Rut is an anti-heroin tirade called H-Eyes, with Owen’s lyric especially ironic: “You’re so young, you take smack for fun / It’s gonna screw your head, you’re gonna wind up dead.” He was 26.