Punk doesn't have quite the stranglehold

‘‘Alvin couldn't make it. He's got to study for a professorship in history.''  So explains Charlie Harper, singer and founding member of the UK Subs, who were part of the original punk rock movement in England in the mid-70s and struck success there with a string of chart singles.

Harper and fellow original Nicky Garratt (guitar) have had to leave old-time bass player Alvin Gibbs back in Europe (France, to be exact) to pursue his studies.

Replacing Gibbs on the Subs' current New Zealand tour is a chap by the name of Charma, who joins Jamie Oliver (drummer not chef) in the quartet's rhythm section.

Harper is on the line from Auckland, where the UK Subs opened their eight-date tour last week.

Now in his 50s, he's been enjoying the sunshine, the space, the peace and quiet, a contrast to the pubs and clubs which his band fills with a mix of bang, crash, wallop and, yes, melody.

‘‘I'm in this little old shack in northwest Auckland. It's so green here. The crickets are chirping, but I'm told they're not crickets - they are some other kind of animal. It's brilliant here,'' Harper enthuses before confirming London is still his home.

‘‘It is, yeah, although Nicky lives in California and Alvin lives in France. We don't get much time to rehearse and record.''

The UK Subs formed in late 1976, inspired by fellow Londoners the Damned although circumstance and liquor licensing also played a part.

Before the creation of the band, Harper had fronted a rhythm and blues act, played harmonica and busked. The punk scene, initially at least, was a way to satisfy his ‘‘mild alcohol addiction''.

‘‘We would search for after-hours places to drink after the pubs shut at 11 o'clock,'' Harper says.

‘‘One of the clubs was called Chaguaramas, but you had to look a bit odd to get in there because it was a lesbian club, so a bunch of us all pretended we were lesbians and got down. At the weekend they had great little bands. I guess it was the start of punk rock.

‘‘That club closed down and the guys who took it over opened up the Roxy. We didn't really know about it. We just went down there one night and it had all changed into punk rock and the Damned were playing and everything was great and we thought, "this is the future of rock 'n' roll'.

‘‘I took my band down there who were 18-19-year-olds at the time and didn't have any money to go out. They just got blown away by it and wanted to be a punk rock band.

I said, ‘well you guys go ahead; I'm an old blues man'. Eventually, I met Nicky and we formed a band and we just happened to be punk rock.''

The UK Subs also happened to write catchy tunes. Between 1979 and 1981, several songs, including Stranglehold, Tomorrow's Girls, Warhead, Teenage and Party in Paris, reached the UK top 40, leading to performances at the Glastonbury Festival and on television show Top Of The Pops.

They were also included on several BBC Radio One shows by the influential John Peel in the late 1970s.

Following their 1979 debut album, Another Kind Of Blues, the Subs released a brace of studio albums, Brand New Age and Crash Course in 1980. The band attempted to break into the United States, supporting the Police for a series of shows, but public interest began to move to other genres, such as new wave and the legions of synth-pop bands that dominated the early '80s.

‘‘We didn't know what hit us,'' Harper recalls. ‘‘We seemed to go up like a rocket. We're much happier now playing in bars and clubs, playing to a few hundred people than playing to thousands. We're on top of it; we do our own tours. It's all DIY. There's no big business skimming off all our money.''

Though many of their contemporaries (the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Damned et al) split up, the UK Subs have persevered, although Harper and Garratt remain the only original members. It has been an open-door policy: Gibbs, who joined in the early '80s before heading off to perform with Iggy Pop for a short spell, has come and gone and come again; and others have filled spaces when required.

The point is, Harper has continued to peddle his punkish tunes. Albums have arrived at regular intervals, including the 1997 20th anniversary double release of Quintessentials and Riot as well as various compilations of live and studio material.

Harper says he still enjoys writing songs. It is something that comes naturally.

‘‘I'll wake up in the morning and write a song. The first thing I do is get up and go in the living room and plonk on the guitar. I'm doing some solo work now, so I have to keep practising, keep my fingers hard and my stamina up.

‘‘I've got about three projects on the go. One is the solo thing, doing the Subs songs that I'm capable of playing. Then there is a thing called Charlie and the Truckers, which is me playing electric guitar. It is basically country stuff... a more bluesy thing. Then there is a more folky thing we do with the original bass player on banjo. We're looking for a fiddle player to complete the combo.''

Country? Folk? Banjos and fiddles? Is the frontman of a band whose moniker has adorned many a leather jacket getting a little, well, soft?

‘‘We believe in songs; we don't believe in fashion or trends. We don't like the trendy element in music... We like to try a lot of stuff. Sometimes, we'll get on stage at soundchecks and go on to a prog-rock thing. Music should be fun.''

If you missed that combination of words, here it is again. Prog-rock; the antithesis of punk. What ever happened to the ethos of three chords and no technique?

‘‘I let the song write itself,'' Harper responds. ‘‘If it's a three-chord trick, then let it be a three-chord trick. They can be pretty exciting. If there are more chords... sometimes you'll write a verse, a four-chord sequence, and have a bridge and a middle-eight so you'll end up having about 10 or 12 chords in the thing. I find songs write themselves.''

Still, the UK Subs are unlikely to indulge in any prog-rock arena fantasies tonight. Harper likes to be up-front and personal; in your face, like his music. However, crowd-surfers and pogo-dancers take note: ‘‘We don't mind people coming on stage, but sometimes people trip over cords and unplug you... we like chaos, but sometimes it gets too weird.''

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