Playing music is a privilege. Some people take it lightly, but I don’t. I think playing music is the greatest gift in the world, and I take it very seriously.
— Rudy Rubini (1989)

By GREGG KIRK
October 1989
So says the diminutive rocker, Wilmington native, and recording artist named Rudy Rubini. The singer/songwriter and leader of a relatively-new band is certainly no stranger to the area music scene, and his list of former bandmates and business associates reads like a local and national Who’s Who of musicians. It’s not surprising he takes his music so seriously — it’s what has been supporting him for the last several years.

To say that Rubini’s roots run deep in the area’s music scene is an understatement. He formed his first band with his brother Ritchie when Rudy was in fourth grade. Rudy played the accordion and Ritchie sang Monkees cover songs at church functions and family get-togethers. A few years later, Ritchie took up the drums, guitar, and keyboards, and Rudy concentrated on singing and later songwriting.

As a junior in high school for his music class project, Rubini wrote a musical score for Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” to be performed by a rock band, which was played live at the end of the year with bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, background vocalists, a horn section, Rudy on vocals, and Ritchie on drums. It wouldn’t be the last time the two brothers would be playing tunes written by the eldest brother, but there would be gaps as much as years at a time when the two would pursue outside projects.

“I played in a few college bands when I went to the University of Delaware,” laughs Rubini. “And I had a hard time getting Ritchie in the bands because he was so small. He was only two years younger, but the other guys in the band never wanted him in. It wasn’t until about 1977 when I started writing my own stuff that we started playing together again.”

The two performed in a collection of incidental bands until 1982, when they founded one of the more seminal groups to come out of the Delaware area in recent memory — The Imports. The varying line-up originally included Ritchie on drums, Rudy on guitar and vocals, Bobby Corrado on bass and vocals, and Pete “Eggman” Smith on guitar. Before the band began to play live, Smith left to play guitar with Robert Hazard as one of the original Heroes. Smith’s shoes were adequately filled by guitarist and vocalist Dean Wilson (who coincidentally enough became the leader of the band Honour Society showcased in the June issue of this magazine).

The band played live for a little more than a year, and Wilson left for artistic differences. His departure spelled the demise of the Imports, but the same line-up sans Wilson resurfaced under the name Radio Caroline with Tommy Conwell of all people on guitar. This comeback group disintegrated in less than four months.

“Dean left because he wanted to go in a more alternative direction, while we were going into hit radio territory,” says Rubini. “Tommy left because I was trying to hook into a management and production deal for the band, and he was looking to play out live more.”

The final break up did a number of things. It sent Conwell to form his own band, Ritchie to join forces with Wilson to found Honour Society, and Rudy to mire himself in recording and the record-making process, not to emerge in a planned live performance until just last year.

“It all started one night at Hoxter’s (now Kid Shelleen’s) when Gary Watson (from the Drinkers, Watson Brothers, and Blue Rocks) stopped me and suggested I call a producer at the Power Station in New York named Lance Quinn. Lance had just produced some of Wayne’s stuff, and Wayne knew I was looking for a producer and a manager,” says Rubini.

“I gave a Lance a call, met with him, gave him a tape, and he actually called me back. He told me he was opening a studio in Philadelphia to be called the Warehouse, and he made me a development deal. He agreed to let me do all my demos there, and he would shop the tapes to the major labels.”

And so began a long and happy relationship with Rubini and the Warehouse Studios that still exists today. The meeting was an incredible break for Rubini when you consider Quinn had just produced such heavyweights as the Talking Heads, Billy Squire, and Jon Bonjovi‘s first two albums.

In the ensuing months, Quinn would enlist Rubini’s vocal skills for such artists as Lita Ford, Nils Lofgren, April Wine, Miles Goodwin, Skid Row, and “a zillion heavy metal bands,” according to the singer. Rubini also sang ghost vocals for a number of local groups whose lead vocalists, for one reason or another, could not cut it in the studio. All the while he was logging more and more studio experience and learning every aspect of the process… but there was still one thing missing.

“I got into the record-making process instead of playing live,” says Rubini. “Lance was wonderful to me, and we’re still very good friends today. He’s a very talented man, and I thank him for everything he’s done for me. But I believe in a balance between recording and playing live. At the time I was doing all of one and none of the other.”

Things came to a head two summers ago when Ritchie became restless with his spot in Honour Society, and he began prodding his brother about a new live line-up.

“I feel a certain responsibility to certain people in my life,” Rubini says wryly. “Ritchie’s one of them. He was asking me all these questions about when we were going to play out again, and I was wondering if my old chops were still there. You always worry about what you don’t have. So I started looking for a live band.”

He didn’t have far to look. In the studio at the same time under a similar development deal were guitarist Ron Damiani and bassist Tony Reyes. According to Rubini, the two were content as session en and had no grand ideas about playing live, but the singer “tricked” them into joining the band. With only a keyboardist left to find, Rubini ran into Jim Loretangeli who was playing with the Yow Kings at the Buggy Tavern one night, and a group was formed.

“I can honestly say I am playing music with my friends,” smiles Rubini. “These are the musicians I wanted in the band. And as for my brother, even if he weren’t my brother, I would want him as my drummer — he’s that good.”

After only eight rehearsals, the unit played their first live performance at the Stone Pony in New Jersey in September of ’88. According to Rubini, the band brought the house down, and any doubts as to whether the group would stay together were soon quelled. The unit is now playing on a regular basis in the immediate area, and their immaculate live sound and slick presentation reflect the many hours of studio sessions that make this band as tight as a drum.

Rubini’s recorded product can be heard more often than nought on Bob Bowersox’s FT², which airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on 93.7 WSTW, and other demos are currently being shopped to the major labels. In the meantime, Rubini is booking the band himself, writing more tunes everyday, and “having a great time.”

And everyday the roots run a little deeper…