SOUNDS October 25, 1980

HARD CORE PUNX from left, Nicky Garrett, Steve Roberts, Alvin Gibbs, Charlie Harper

Pic. Andy Hanson

DUTCH COURAGE

"The UK SUBS travel to the continent and trash tulip-land, much to the delight of STEVE KEATON ".

A NIFTY TAVERN, somewhere in Europe: "To me punk was an excuse for fanatics to have their say, people like me who have never had a chance before, people who have just been laughed at. Blokes like me what've just been through life being sneered at, fingers pointing saying 'That's the local nut-case', When punk came along it was the best thing that ever happened to me, I was accepted.. head-cases rule, "
The appallingly ancient Charlie Harper smiles happily at the self image, then swiftly kills another Amstel beer. "My kids are great, they say, 'Dad you're crazy.'
Amsterdam, mid-way throught the 'Subs Over Europe' tour. It's a city that seems to suit the band. A bustling labyrinth of sex shops, McDonalds (awful ones at that) and ritzy fashion houses, all criss-crossed by filthy canals and maniacal trams in search of blood it's sordid and busy and Charlie loves it.
I arrived just in time for the first of five Dutch gigs, a key date at Amsterdam's Paradiso club, a venue more seedy than one of Cherry Bomb's melons and a mere Edam throw away from the notorious red light district - which incidently proved to be a great disappointment, I spent an hour and a half'... but that's another tale.
Enough that the show was a considerable success. Twelve hundred tulip-bashers were shoehorned in while over four hundred had to be turned away, Punk for punk the Dutch kids proved to be carbon copies of our own homegrown British spikey. An unintelligible horde of foreign types whose tattered apparel bore the signature of every conceivable punk band. A collection of parrot-punks sworn to a dictum of, 'Do the pogo, the whole pogo and nothing but the pogo'.
The support band were a dire bunch revelling under the the pathetic shock name of Jesus And The Gospel Fuckers. It's a whole new movement twisted out of ill-observed Brit-punk culture.
Still the UK Subs give them all they can handle, and a bit more besides. The new rhythm section - my chief reason for being here - are supremely tight; Alvin Gibb's bass more than copes with Nicky Garrett's blinding axework and Steve Roberts confidently fuels the whole show from behind his shaking kit.
If anything the new Subs are even more powerful than the old, which makes the set delivered a very strong one indeed. An easy blend of the past 3 albums climaxing with a heady combination of 'Tommorrow's Girls', 'CID' and 'Stranglehold'. After a third chaotic encore the Subs dramatically trash their equipment and thus satisfied the Dutch bounce out, presumably to purchase a copy of the very fine 'Crashcourse' elpee.
"If we smash up the gear, they don't let us go, " gasps a breathless Nicky
BACKSTAGE I asked Alvin Gibbs of his opinion on the Dutch crowd. Did he enjoy playing to clones?
"Well they're enthusiastic, I'll give them that; the problem is all they've done is read the English papers, things about Sid and what he was supposed to have done, spitting and that, and just copied him. They spend half the time pushing and hitting each other in the gob. Whereas people in England just come to have a good time. Sure, you still get fights which are depressing but the majority of people have got pasth the phase of throwing beer all over the band and spitting in their faces. Over here they seem al least two years behind. But it's good in a way because it means a band like the Subs can come over here and make an impression. "
Charlie on the other hand is less criticsl of his audience. His affection for the younger elements, a trait well documented in previous works, seems undiminished.
"I can't remember the towns - 'cos they're all in a foreign language - but all over Holland the kids are nutty and mad and that's what l like. I hate normality in people, I hate to see them just stand there, y'know I love to see them let themselves go. Here in Holland they've yet that old '77 energy. We did a gig some place over here which was a bit out of the way and all these punks turned up on bicycles. It was great."
For Nick and Charlie the 'Crashcourse' album is the end of an era. A final goodbye to the original line up and the early years of rebellion. The departure of Paul Slack and Pete Davies had to change the band, but to what degree, what difference has the arrival of Alvin and Steve made?
The guitarist is cautious before answering. "Well I'd never put a slur on the old members of the group, they were really good - they still are, but new blood in a band always injects something else. There's no way we've gotten any worse, we think we've got a lot better. Alvin writes a lot of the material now whereas the old stuff was just me and Charlie, so we've added another songwriter to the band and Steve can handle faster rhythms without losing time as well. "
'PARTY IN Paris' is the first single to be released by the Subs MK II, it's exceedingly commercial and rather delightful yet hardly hard-core. Is it indicative of the new band?
The vocalist shakes his mischievous mug. "For me it's a big experiment. Actually I wrote it for someone else, I didn't think it was for the Subs at all. It was meant for Marge Random And The Space Virgins, I thought it'd be good for them. I told the others it wasn't for us, but the record company really liked it, they wanted us to put it out. It's a very commercial single, but if it flops I'll be proved right.'
I'm quickly assured by all that the forthcoming Subs Mk II debut album is a completely different kettle of can-can girls; still the single is also notable for its producer, the legendary Mike Leander (Gary Glitter's mentor for those who've spent the last decade somewhere up the Congo) and its keyboard maestro, the egually legendary, Captain Sensible (who?). How come the link between our premiere speed-punks and one of the architects of glam?
"Well we had a list of producers to use - half of which we could have done better ourselves - but we all knew Mike Leander's track record and I believed he could do it. We recorded it with him and he took it away on his own and it came back with a genius touch. "
"He brings something out in the music that we can't bring out ourselves, " adds Nick.
Have either you or Charlie wanted to write for someone like Gary Glitter I wonder?
"Oh, not me, Mike Leander and Gary Glitter write classics and I'm not in that league, "retorts a shocked but modest Charlie. "But I'll tell you, the band withour me want to play on a Gary Glitter album. They're totally into that. Gary came down to our rehearsals and even had a hand in arranging the number. He just got in there and got carried away. That's what I love about the guy, he puts everything into it. He was down the studio ranting and raving and letting himself go. Despite being a big star he got into working with us. I respect someone like that. He was amazing. "
And what of Sensible, do he and his keyboards play a large part on the next Album?
"He's on a few tracks. We've know the Captain for a long while,'' confesses the guitarist. "He's a really bad keyboard player, that's the reason we had him on our record. We couldn't have anyone too flash. I'll tell you something, the Captain really understands music, he knows his stuff. He may not be a great keyboard player but we didn't want a session man who would lay down flashy stuff, we wanted someone who could feel what we where doing, so that they could complement it,''
The new album, which strongly promises to be the best Subs work yet, will be winging its way Earthward some time during November. And while I can't divulge its title just yet I can promise that it'll begin with the letter D (a snippet for collectors of useless info, this). You see all band's albums have bean titled in alphabetical sequence: "We just did it for a bit of a laugh, we wondered how long it would be before someone noticed. But no one ever did." And you lot thought the UK Subs lacked subtlety, heh? It just goes to show. ..
ANYWAY, RETURNING to the new yahoos, I must admit to being rather taken. Not only are they a harder, more powerful rhythm section than before, but they're also a bright and funny pair of individuals.
Steve Roberts, cursed with an outrageous Lancashire accent, used to drum with Yorkshire yobbos, Cyanide. "We did a really big tour supporting the Subs, see. And me and Nick got really friendly, I suppose you could say I wormed my way in. "
Bassist Alvin Gibbs on the other hand pleads almost complete ignorance of the group prior to recruitment. I'd only seen them once and had them tied in with the Cockney Rejects, Angelic Upstarts section. I wasn't really interested In that kind of stuff, didn't like it all that much, dumb and violent. But then I discovered they ware really intelligent blokes.''
His musical career can be traced back to the Users - one of the first punk groups - from whence he did time with the much under-rated Brian James and his Brains.
I asked them if they had at any time feared rejection from the fiercely loyal Subs' following?
"Yeah, we did at first, " says Alvin, "because Paul and Pete were strong members of the band, but all the feedback we've had has been really positive. I think the UK Subs are the UK Subs whoever, it's Charlie and Nick, Steve and me. ! don't want to brag or anything (heaven forbid) but everybody has said that the rhythm section is even better than before end that the band is really exciting. "
He concludes, "I just wanna say that this band is gonna continue being exciting, gonna continue being powerful and the people that liked the old band should have no fears that we're gonna be a wimp band. No, certainly not wimps.
And you Know what, ducks. I think he's right. This Subs show will run and run.