Review by Rob Broom for MPM
The fiery and furious first five albums from the UK Subs along with singles and B sides on a 5 CD box set.
When most people think of punk rock the first bands that spring to mind are typically the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Damned. Yet the punk scene gave birth to hundreds of bands and while many of them folded, some – like the UK Subs – stuck it out and kept touring and recording. Later this year (2024) singer Charlie Harper turns 80 and so when the band started they weren’t all quite young upstarts breaking into the scene. Some of them had been around a while and experienced life.
The Subs have built up quite a back catalogue since that first album in 1979 and Cherry Red records have started at the beginning by releasing a box set of the first five albums.
The first two albums (Another Kind Of Blues and Brand New Age) are very similar in terms of composition. Basic guitar, drums and bass rattling along without any frills. However, held within these tunes are the sounds of a generation, much of the early Subs captures the anger and the frustration we all felt at the time. This was music you could (and still can) relate to, particularly if you lived in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
Songs such as ‘C.I.D’, ‘I Live In A Car’ and ‘Stranglehold’ from debut album ‘Another Kind Of Blues’ capture the mood perfectly.
Each CD also contains all the relevant single and B side releases and so on CD 1 there’s an extra nine tracks to complement the original album release.
While second album ‘Brand New Age’ (released April 1980) shows little in the way of significant musical progression (and why should it, it came out about 6 months later – bands really worked in those days), there was more than enough creativity to show the band were moving forward. It certainly nails the UK Subs credentials to the mast and if there was any doubt about their legitimacy then this album smashes them apart with power, fury and some great tunes!
Songs such as ‘Public Servant’ and ‘Organised Crime’ take a direct stab at the ‘state system’. Others, such as ‘Warhead’ (which was also a single) look at the wider world. Probably the oddity on the album is the excellent ‘Teenage’, also released as a single in a remixed format (included on this CD). It’s purely odd because of course vocalist Charlie Harper was (if my maths is correct) around 36 at the time it was in UK charts! Putting that aside of course, the lyrics are spot on, we all still ‘wanna be Teenage’ and listening to it now some 44 years later you just can’t help but singalong!
The accompanying extras on this CD are definitely essential, particularly an absolutely frantic take of Lou Reeds/Velvet Underground’s ‘I’m Waiting For The Man’ and the Subs version of the Zombies ‘She’s Not There’. This was released as an EP towards the end of 1979 and made the UK charts with the band getting one of a number of appearances on BBC TVs ‘Top Of The Pops’.
The third album was a bold move for the time, as ‘Crash Course’ was a live release. It captures the energy of the show well (recorded at the London Rainbow theatre) and for those who saw the band around that time would be a good souvenir. Listening to it today it still holds up as a reminder of those chaotic times and brings back some memories. When Charlie asks the audience to stop trashing the seats and then the band launch into ‘Teenage’ you can palpably feel the increase in destruction! As he says the seats never seemed to be that sturdy. I remember seeing Iron Maiden at the Rainbow towards the end of 1980 when they recorded their live video and the front row seats were just broken immediately.
The UK Subs were back in the studio for the fourth album ‘Diminished Responsibility’. The musical landscape was changing as punk was morphing into ‘New Wave’ and this album shows the band were definitely keeping up with what was going on. Their response was to record an album with crispness and clarity, but don’t let that fool you, it still grabs you by the throat and slams your head into the wall!
Highlights include ‘Time And Matter’, ‘Violent City’ and among the extras ‘Fall Of The Empire’ and ‘Keep On Running (Til You Burn)’. The probable ‘low light’ is the French language version of single ‘Party In Paris’, but its worth listening to at least once!
The fifth album ‘Endangered Species’ is without doubt the ‘heaviest’ of the albums. The title track, ‘Fear Of Girls’ and ‘Down On The Farm’ – among others – are full of riffs and guitars. As some readers will know, ‘Down On The Farm’ was covered by Guns N’ Roses for their ‘Spaghetti Incident’ album.
This is certainly a powerful album, if ‘Diminished Responsibility’ slammed your head into the wall then ‘Endangered Species’ jumps up and down on it! There are a few interesting musical experiments on the album such as ‘Divide By 8 X 5’ and it is probably my personal favourite of the 5 albums, but really any of the 4 studios albums could be a favourite, so make your own mind up!
Overall this is a great value box set that comes with an accompanying booklet containing a brief history of the band and their released recorded works during this period. Containing lots of extra tracks the whole set of five CDs enables you to hear the progress of a band as the musical landscape changed around them. Despite those outside influences occasionally influencing them the UK Subs managed to keep true to their roots and beliefs.
All in all even if you just have a passing interest in punk or uptempo rock, then this box set from Cherry Red Records is well worth adding to your collection.
The UK Subs are on tour (along with the Ramonas and some other guests) to celebrate Charlie’s 80th birthday during May 2024 and I will see you there.
5CD, 111-track clam shell box set covering the most commercially successful years of the band, including 29 bonus tracks to the albums A to E, which are individually housed in 5 replica album art card sleeves plus a 20 page illustrated booklet with liner notes…
