WATCH: Britpop Vets The Jack Rubies Return With “Poltergeist”

New album, Clocks Are Out Of Time, due out in early 2024

October 5, 2023February 28, 2024 Ron Hart 0 Comments Big Stir Records, C86, East London, England, Ian Wright, Lawrence Giltnane, Peter Maxted, Poltergeist, R.E.M., SD Ineson, Steve Brockway, The Cure, The Jack Rubies

The Jack Rubies (Image: Big Stir Records)

East London’s The Jack Rubies were one of the most talented and tuneful bands of the storied C86 era of the mid-to-late 80s.

Their breakout single, “Be With You,” captured the hearts of an American audience on college radio, while its video became a staple on MTV’s 120 Minutes. Yet the changing tides of the 1990s made it difficult for the Rubies to follow in the paths of such contemporaries as The Cure or R.E.M. to mainstream success, and the band split up early in the new decade.

But good news! The group’s original lineup of Ian Wright (lead vocals and guitar), SD Ineson (backing vocals and guitar), Steve Brockway (bass), Lawrence Giltnane (percussion) and Peter Maxted (drums) have since reunited and are back with their first new single in over 30 years, “Poltergeist.”

The Jack Rubies “Poltergeist,” Big Stir Records 2023

The new track, which will be available officially on all streaming platforms tomorrow, will appear on the Rubies’ new album Clocks Are Out Of Time, which will be released in early 2024 by our friends at Big Stir Records.

Rock & Roll Globe is honored to premiere the video for “Poltergeist” today on the site, a proper visual companion to a song that will no doubt conjure up the sonic ghosts of your old college radio frequency.

“The ‘Poltergeist’ of the song is an invasive presence in a precarious world, with lyrics alluding to pandemic and climate woe, and general uneasiness,” Wright, whose daughter provides background vocals, explains of the song and video. “The visuals were culled in part from a film project I had been working on: Bassist Steve Brockway wanders as a lost soul in a deserted and closed down UK cinema, intercut with early clips of the band, refilmed off a detuned video screen – a nod to Spielberg’s haunted TV, in the movie of the same name. With brief animated sequences and abstract footage of the band recording, these various elements are woven together to form a collage of unsettling imagery to serve the themes of the song.”

“Poltergeist” is available for pre-order and pre-save here.