Record Store Day Black Friday 2022.

"It seems like years ago I contacted Mr. Segs and Mr. Ruffy and inquired if either Rut had possession of the In A Rut Session tape. The two song 7” with In A Rut and the prophetic H-Eyes had never been reissued since its original three pressing 1979 release.

Rarely does anything in life work out easily so when both replied not only did they not have the tape in their possession, neither had any idea as to its location. I got to work.

My pseudo-sleuth supposition was that the band had turned the tape over soon after the passing of Malcolm Owen to Virgin Records for the assemblage of the Grin And Bear It compilation album and it was likely still in the label’s grip. And this is where the hero of this story and the reason we’re able to bring you this record, a young man named Jason Repantis, comes into the story.

Jason works for Universal Music as a senior researcher in the asset and archives management department. His job focuses mainly on finding the best source of audio or video for each project among the vast archive of tapes. It can be for a reissue on vinyl, a remixing session, a video restoration on 4K, a request for an instrumental for a movie or whatever else is required.

Via email, Jason and I got to conversing as to where the tape could be. At one point, Jason told me he had located a tape that was dated 1980 with a Town House sticker on the front. The In A Rut Session happened in 1979 but Grin was a 1980 project so the tape could have very well been relabelled by an engineer. Jason gave the tape a closer look and confirmed it was the Fair Deal Studio reel with In A Rut, H-Eyes and an early version of Society." - Henry Rollins