The official flag of Rutland, with a horseshoe representing a local tradition, and several nuts representing the general population.
Rutland is the smallest historic county in England, taking 18 miles to drive through north to south with 17 miles east to west. Despite this, it has served as a centerpiece to the story of the Prefab four.
The Rutles, counter to general belief, were not actually from Rutland, but instead Liverpool. This was where each member was born, and where the band members first met.
However, it is undeniable that Rutland culture has had a strong impact on the band, due to their early gigs at The Cavern Rutland, where they developed what has been known as the Rutland sound. Thus, Rutland essentially adopted the band, which the four generally accepted. Films such as A Hard Day's Rut and Tragical History Tour are at least partially set in Rutland, and Yellow Submarine Sandwich borrows from the local culture's obsession with horseshoes for the "Sea of Horseshoes" sequence.
Many have argued that it was the band's time in Rutland that allowed them to develop substance. In 1978, occasionally visiting Applied Narcotics professor Stanley J. Krammerhead III, Jr had this to say:
- “Listen, look, very simply, musicologically and ethnically The Rutles were essentially empirical mélanges, so they're rhythmically radical yet verbally passé and temporarily transcended lyrical content welded with historically innovative melodical material, transposed and transmogrified by the angst of the Rutland ethic experience, which elevated them from essentially alpha exponents of, in essence merely beta potential harmonic material into the prime cultural exponents of Aeolian codensic cosmic stanza form.”
- ―Stanley J. Krammerhead III, Jr
Culture[]
Rutland Weekend Television - Series One, Episode One (1975)-1
Your average day of programmes on RWT.
The people of Rutland couldn't afford television sets until 1975, at which time they began their own television station, Rutland Weekend Television (abbreviated as RWT). The population are still saving up to afford television on weekdays.
Additionally, famous Rutles documentary filmmaker Melvin Hall was, in fact, from Rutland.