To coincide with his upcoming Ruby And The Duke dates and the documentary of the same name that went out this week on RTÉ One – you can still watch it on the RTÉ Player – Duke Special has recorded a three-track CD of Ruby Murray songs, which comes with a series of specially designed note cards in aid of DePaul Ireland.
Out tomorrow, it’s available from selected bookshops, music stores and the [link]www.dukespecial.com[/link] website.
If you’re not familiar with the name other than as the rhyming slang for a curry, Ruby Murray was the Belfast singer who in the 1950s set the still unbeaten record of having five songs in the UK top 20 at the same time.
“The premise was that a contemporary Belfast musician would make a journey of discovery into the life of Ruby Murray, her music and the world she moved through,” the Special one says of the documentary. “As I read about her, immersed myself in her music and interviewed people who knew her, including her family, I discovered a young girl who had been propelled into stardom from a very modest background at the dawning of television and the recorded music charts. She was someone who seemed to embody the innocence and warm accessibility of pre-rock and roll music. I discovered the unfortunate timing of her success as rock and roll soon arrived and swept away everything in its path and I discovered her struggles with addiction as she tried to cope with her fame and her slide into relative obscurity.”