Charlie: In the beginning, I had a band called the Subs, and like every Punk rock band in London… well the press hadn’t invented the word Punk Rock yet. We were cover bands, we’d  do a lot covers like West Coast kinda covers, and Chuck Berry covers and stuff. Everyone did their own kind of stuff. But we started doing some original numbers. And record companies started signing these bands doing original numbers. They signed up a band called The Subs from Scotland. And I thought, God we’ve gotta change our name. ‘Anarchy in the UK’ had just come out , and I’d been to America before and everyone said to me ‘how do you get that sound, that English?’ sound. I tried to tell ’em it’s like, bass heavy, a lot more guitar, and a few other things. Anyways we called the UK Subs after Anarchy in the UK, and it all just kinda went right, ya’ know. We’d been waiting for something that we could be really dedicated to, not just go from place to place every year. It was just about being in the right place, at the right time, playing the right music, and that happened.
TC: Charlie you’re like the Energizer Bunny of Punk. I mean that as a compliment.
Charlie: We were doing that before. I was in a band called the Marauders before the Subs and we had that energy of running around the stage. I had an audience. You never had to pay to get into a club it was all free. Music was free. Now every club has a charge at the door. In them days it was all free and we were playing to packed audiences every night. So we had our audience. And it wasn’t until Punk Rock came around, this is the paradox that Punk is meant to be cheap music, free music. But as soon as Punk Rock came around so many people wanted to come they started to charge one pound, two pound, three pound at the door. And it used to be free. We’d all sell two hundred dollars worth of T-shirts and everyone would be happy. I’ve gotta say this, there’s no need for twenty-five dollars, whatever, it should be ten dollars on the door and it would be brillant, it would be old Punk Rock. Ten dollars is enough. Everyone would do well if the price was lower.
TC: What do you owe it to that wherever you play, even Skinheads who don’t normally come out for Punk shows turn out for the Subs? Why do think you have such a good connection with the audience?
Charlie: I think the thing is a lot of our songs are very close to R&B and Skinheads have soul. Skinheads love moving to music; they can dance. I think our music is very rythmic and it’s good dance music. That’s partly it. It’s like Sham 69, they’ve got that really ya’ know, downbeat. You can’t cheat on this thing. We come out here to express ourselves and get rid of the every day mundane waiting by the telephone doing your job or whatever, and this is how we should be living. We should be living in this kind of noise and turmoil.
TC: So what was your first thought when you heard what bands were going to be on this tour?
Charlie: Well we were sold a bigger line-up, like Sham and Exploited and a few other big bands. And it’s a shame that One-Way System, one of the best bands on this tour quit. And it’s a real shame because they were doing great. It’s a let-down to everyone. Another let-down was the Varukers who didn’t do the tour. The money’s shit but we’re having a great time.
TC: So the money is shit?
Charlie: Yeah, the money’s shit. Both our drummer in England and our UK Subs drummer in America,  our old drummer who lives in America now,  wouldn’t do the tour cause’ the money’s shit, so we had to get cheap Mexican labor to do our drums [laughing] but he’s OK. We whipped him into shape.
TC: How old were you when you first got up on stage in front of a crowd?
Charlie: 17 I think.
TC: At that time could you imagine you’d still be doing it now?
Charlie: Well you don’t even try to dream about that then. I thought maybe it’d just be a year or two but I’m so privileged that I’ve been playing music most of my life. I mean if you find something you really love doing and then going out and doing it and getting paid for it, that’s what everybody should be finding, something you really love doing. And getting paid for it. Going around the world and getting paid for it is just so good.
TC: The Subs have put out a lot of albums. 
Charlie: My one ambition in life was to make a record. One record. Now we’ve made so many I can’t even name them.
TC: Usually bands that churn so many out, usually they suck. But most of the Subs’ manage to be pretty good.
Charlie: Well thank you for that but I don’t think that’s exactly right. I’ll tell you a lot of bands get in a position where they’ve gotta do a world tour, and their management say well we’ve got this world tour, we need a new product. And they go in the studio and they’ve gotta make a new product just like that. And it never really works that good. At least bands that do that die out and new bands come along, but we really should be like artists. We’re trying to make a contribution, by saying listen, when governments are trying to screw you, don’t go along with this system. Make your own society, make your own judgements, make your own rules. You don’t need a government to tell you what to do and put you through their system. Make your own system.
TC: What do you think about the unity you see here tonight between Punks and Skins?
Charlie: It’s brilliant. You mentioned it before about a lot of Skins at UK Subs shows. And it’s always been that way. We’ve had Skinhead roadies, Skinheads in the band. Our present drummer in England is Gary Baldy, a Skinhead. We’ve always been into that. When we were pretty young, every gang of Punks had at least one Skinhead in the gang. We’ve never discriminated. I’ve got a tattoo here; Punks and Skins[shows tattoo with a head half Punk and half Skin and Miami on the bottom].
TC: What’s that say about Miami?
Charlie: A Miami shop was the guy that done it. And it’s always been like that with us. The Business and Sham 69 have always been great mates with us. Always done shows together and always got on together [with Skins].
TC: Any chance you are coming to Florida any time soon?
Charlie: I hope so! Because we miss it and we missed it this year. So hopefully next year we do our own tour and go everywhere. This was only major cities, it was pretty limited. But the UK Subs have the freedom to go anywhere!