UK SUBS
BRANSON'S
CHELTENHAM. UK
MAY 11, 2000
"Punk
rock will live forever," screams Charlie Harper, his mottled grey
and green plumage stuck to his face by the good, earnest sweat of a hard-working
anarchist. Expertly placing their instruments at the maximum feedback
potential facing the battered amps, his band of veteran punks would appear
to agree.
And Charlie's right. Like a weird flashback, wide-eyed teenagers have leapt on the stage dressed in the latest bondage gear, with the excited expressions you can see on 1977's Live At The Roxy.
Successive generations have rediscovered punk, its vibrancy, its eternal youth and its intensely subversive nature.
Out of the 1977 pot came the United Kingdom Subversives, who
soon shortened their name to reflect their music. Short, sharp shots of tower block blues. Grey concrete slabs of brutal reality cut with a libertarian do-you-what-you-want say-what-you-want attitude.
Whenever it seemed punk had been flogged as much as it could, it always mutated slightly and adjusted itself for the next wave of youth. Then there was those like me, at school through the
mid-80s, punk was the only thing to keep you sane - a reminder you were still alive, not a robot that simply steps in line and lives other people's ridiculous rules and conventions.
Sure, many thought punk was dead by then, as they buried themselves in synth-pop and adulthood. But we knew better.
And now, in the year 2000 punk is live and well - although much
contemporary stuff (especially anything from hollow-hearted California) is predictable throwaway twaddle. Unlike most bands, UK Subs have stuck resolutely to their minimalist
rough-round-the-edges honest-to-goodness rhythm 'n' blues punk style. They were never that clever, have always hovered around the bottom of the punk premiership division. But they are as real
as an open wound, yet ultimately more satisfying.
How goddamn refreshing and invigorating it is to hear songs of brittle
fists-clenched-high-above-your-head anthems of valour and
youthful rag-arsed folly - I Live In A Car, Endangered Species, DIY, Warhead (extended chorus mix), Tomorrow's Girls -they ramped through the lot. That is, except my favourite She's Not There.
Middle-aged
eternal beer boys were there to try and spark a rumble - as they must
have been in the 1970s (but nothing horrendous developed), freshly coiffeured
mohicans atop fresh-faced lads brushed against designer spiked plaits
worn by the punk gals, and the stage was constantly invaded by punk's
children.
This was just one of hundreds of gigs the
band play every year globally. Though Charlie's in his mid-50s he seems to have stayed still at around 30. Nothing's changed at all in the past 20 years. The music. The
clothes. The hairstyle. The beliefs. The fanzine and T-shirt fan fraternity. It's all twitching comfortably in the forever here and now. There is no future and England's still screaming.
Owen Adams, 24/5/2000.
Pictures from Holidays in the sun 98 by Richard Henderson
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk