IT COULD BE YOU. IT WAS US. On 31st March 1997 we're re-releasing I don't know which we originally put out in October 1995. Amongst other things, we shall be appearing on The National Lottery Live on Wednesday 26th March (BBC1 7.50pm). The Lottery show is the most sought after music slot on television which tends to draw really big acts so what in the name of gracious heck, you might ask, are RUTH doing on it? Well, believe me, we are as surprised as you are but, as ever, there is a story behind it and it goes like this: Once upon a time a band called RUTH released their first single and tried to get on the television. One of the televisions that let them be on was cable channel LIVE TV (broadcasting from London's huge phallus, Canary Wharf). So they went on it and were approved of. Later RUTH released Fear of flying and LIVE TV said "OK we'll have them back again", which is where it really started getting interesting. Presenting the show on LIVE TV was a man called SIMON LONDON who revealed that his girlfriend pages him while he's on-air and the vibrating pager reminds him to smile more. The show was called "425 1" and it was Simon's job to perform the intricate finger movement that was the show's catchphrase and also to endure an interview and performance of unremitting foolishness from RUTH. We thought he was all right for a presenter on a sad-act cable channel. A bit later on after Fear of flying had been out for a while, we were suddenly booked by ITV's GMTV. When we got there who should we be met by than Simon, revealing his lust for the stern-but pervy GMTV newsreader whose name escapes me and his admiration for Eammon Holmes' formidable girth. He professed his liking for the music and characters of our four young heroes. We gave him a tape of our just-finished album. August came around and Simon called up to beg a favour of us. He wanted to introduce a new music section into GMTV and would we mind filming a performance to be part of the pilot (pilots are made of shows which aren't for broadcast but are used to show the TV bosses how an idea might work). We didn't mind, so we happily went to mime Valentine's Day and were also able to look at the back of Noel Edmonds' actual head as he sat in a green room. Simon revealed that he truly loved the album and wanted to marry us. A month or so after that, we called Simon to see if they'd accepted his proposal and he said "Huh, that old thing. In fact, I've left GMTV and now I'm the associate producer of The National Lottery Live where my job is (among other things) to book the acts for the show." "Ohhhhhhhhh realllllllllllly" we said. In the early weeks of 1997, when we had finally concluded that the next single should be I don't know [see FEATURE], Simon rang to ask us another favour - they were going to be doing a Wednesday Lottery draw and he wanted to have music on it. Lottery organisers Camelot wanted him to make a pilot and so he called on the ever-eager RUTHmen. We said yes. Part of our task was to make a 30 second film which explained our interest in one of the Lottery- aided worthy causes. We chose the mental health charity MIND so as to tie it in with Stephen's training as a psychiatric nurse (it's true - he really is a psychiatric nurse). Simon arranged for us to make this film in a recording studio, where we could look like some kind of proper band. It's quite hard to think of an entertaining way to talk about Issues of Mental Health so we ended up doing the serious to-camera thing which you will before we do the song (complete with cheesy freeze-frames). The following week we had to film the pilot performance at BBC Television Centre which was truly ridiculous because there was an audience and everything was done exactly as if it was being broadcast - even down to the "live draw" - but it simply wasn't. It was very strange, but at least we got to meet those extraordinary Carols Smillie and Vorderman as well as hang around with a few millionaires. We got the impression that we had impressed the actual producer, but we were still a long way from being booked for an actual appearance. It was a few tense weeks with regular calls from Simon (who had taken to wearing a suit) saying that he was doing all he could to get us on before one fateful day the producer walked in and said "Let's confirm those lovely RUTHboys". At which point we went "weeee". So on Wednesday 26th March we'll be there performing to 14 million people - do join us. THANK GOD FOR SIMON LONDON RUTH Perform at the Royal Bloody Albert Hall The Sad Story of Valentine's Day Back to ALAN 7