Love Amongst Ruin

Steve Hewitt, the Northwich, England-born drummer who spent more than a decade in Brian Molko’s glam-grunge trio Placebo, exited the group in September 2007. He promptly withdrew to his private studio alongside Jon Thorne, the former bassist from Lamb. Together the pair sketched early versions of songs that would surface on Love Amongst Ruin’s self-titled 2010 debut, a metal-tinged pop/rock project fronted by Hewitt.

An original member of Merseyside’s Boo Radleys, Hewitt had also kept time occasionally for Tim Burgess’s pre-Charlatans psych-pop outfit the Electric Crayons and for the early-’90s charting Welsh house act K-Klass; that wide-ranging history clearly shaped the record. Reviewers praised its blend of heavy guitar riffs, electronic explorations, and robust, harmony-rich choruses. Hewitt himself noted that the “breakup” motifs running through the album-opener “So Sad (Fade)” and the darker “Alone” stemmed directly from his exit from Placebo.

Much of the album was captured during summer 2008 at Bath’s Moles studio, where Hewitt’s brother Nick and longtime Julian Cope associate Donald Ross Skinner lent support. By the time Love Amongst Ruin played their first London dates in summer 2010, Hewitt had gathered a capable roster of indie-rock musicians. Skinner, already the album’s co-producer, joined the live lineup as a core player; Steve Hove took lead guitar, and Bath-based multi-instrumentalist Laurie Ross handled percussion, cello, and keyboards. After the third show, Rome-raised singer/songwriter Teresa Morini supplanted blues-rock-oriented bassist Magnus Lunden. Hewitt himself stepped away from the drum kit and enlisted seasoned session player Keith York, whose résumé includes tours with Broadcast, Ladytron, the Orb, and the Lightning Seeds. The band then embarked on a lengthy European tour throughout autumn 2010.