UK Subs
The UK Subs is a British band that was founded in 1976 as one of the first punk bands in London. The name is short for "The Subversive " (see: Subversion). Since there was already a Scottish band of the same name, had been preceded by UK.
Band History
1976-1979
Charlie Harper played earlier rhythm-and - blues with "The Marauders ". The Roxy Club The Damned had inspired him, so he founded the UK Subs, with whom he also wanted to pursue this musical direction.
First, Steve Slack on bass, Richard Anderson, the guitar and the drums Robbie Harper. Shortly thereafter, Anderson was replaced by Greg Brown. There was a new drummer name Steve Jones, and Dave Collins played the saxophone. In October 1977 guitarist Nicky Garratt was added to the band. The UK Subs played in this time many live gigs in London, for example, in " Western Counties Pub ", in the " Castle Pub " or the Roxy Club. Everything organized Charlie Harper from his hair salon in Tooting, where he worked during the day, and the meeting point of the band was for long years. 1977 saw the band at the Roxy a live set on hoping it would be published as their album, but the shots ended up in the drawer and came only in 1980 under the title Live kicks out.
Now playing in the 100 Club and the Vortex, John Peel invited them in 1977 and 1978 several times in the studio and finally it came to a recording contract with the label " GEM ". The debut album Another Kind of Blues reached number 21 in the UK charts, and there were a number of hit singles, the UK Subs. Each chart single had a TV appearance on Top of the Pops result. All the leading music magazines - such as the Sounds magazine, which published a two-page cover story on the band and the Melody Maker - reported on the tape. In addition, they were the subject of Julien Temple's film documentary Punk Can Take it. They appeared at Glastonbury Festival and in September and October 1979, she gave during her first extensive UK tour including three concerts at the Marquee. In 1980, she accompanied the Ramones on some stations in Europe, on a small tour in the U.S. they joined the Police as a support act. As another studio album Brand New Age was released and climbed the charts just as upward as the live album Crash Course, which was recorded in late May 1980 at London's Rainbow Theatre.
1981 to today
When moving the public interest in the early 1980s from punk to New Wave and synth pop, vanished also the popularity of the UK Subs. As in earlier times now changed permanently again the band members, and although frontman Charlie Harper finally starred as the sole founding member, the band did not dissolve. However, with the albums Diminished Responsibility and Endangered Species with which the tradition has continued to follow up the alphabet the first letter of the title in official albums, they changed their sound towards Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. The band toured in the following years through half of Europe with stops in Holland, Austria, Switzerland and Germany. In Finland they played as support band Hanoi Rocks, and in the U.S., they played a few concerts in Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. In the spring of 1983 they gave as the first punk rock group that walked into a communist country, some ideas in Poland. The band today is still on its way around the world and plays mostly in clubs and at festivals.