January 14, 2006
More Mohicans, flesh tunnels and spiky hair than slab square, oldies perhaps fans from the beginning and even a John Lydon look-alike.
It's 2006 and UK subs are on tour, which would never have been predicted 10 years ago, but its 9 years since their 1997 reunion now and they're in Nottingham in no better place than Junktion7. A venue which could boast of its punk bands catalogue. And what better Saturday night entertainment than the godfather of Punk himself. You can really sense the energetic excitement and anticipation in the crowd.
First up is Verbal warning from Nottingham who are a fairly recent band but with 70s influences including The damned, Buzzcocks and The clash. They are a political punk band with songs including 'Kill an animal' and 'Freedom dies'. The set kicks off with 'anti-you' showing the older generation can still rock with power chords and shouting which nowadays is difficult to see a similar deliverance. The set continues with elaborated texture and fast fuelled melodies. Showing the band can vary dynamics with a light hearted personality the band give us their rendition of 'Cyber Love song' reminding us we are only a click away from finding 'the one'. Next, which really excited the crowd came a clash cover as a tribute to the late Joe strummer, an idol in many eyes of the crowd tonight. Alcoholic drinks, clenched fists and cigarette smoke echo in the air with the set continuing with perfection. Flawless. Verbal warning successfully lived up to the UK Subs fan base.
Next came three girls. The leader of The Smears comes on in a pin stripe shirt with a sparkly boob tube and the bassist in a black revealing dress and high heels. Seeing as they look nothing like a punk band, there's anticipation of whether they're actually gunna be any good. They start off reasonably well slipping in a Patti Smith cover giving the crowd at least 3 minutes of enjoyment. Unfortunately and predictably comes the 'You're shit and you know you are' banter from the back of the room. This only encourages the girl band to speed up the drum beats, bass lines and guitar rhythms increasing the texture and notching the music up a few levels. Credit has to be given to them supporting the UK subs because they aren't actually half bad and I can't help but wonder if the response would have been better if not supporting the legendary teachers in punk. There aren't many girls who could pull this off whilst looking good doing it. The atmosphere waiting for the 'subs' to come on is now immense.
Finally the wait was over and the once called 'United Kingdom Subversives' were here and with vengeance at that. 2002 saw the bands 25th anniversary, which with the band starting due to the influence of The Damned is pretty impressive. The band has experienced numerous line up changes but the line up here tonight has been together for a while now. UK subs were even lucky enough to be invited to do some John peel sessions. You can almost forget how old Charlie Harper is with classic songs coming effortlessly one after the other including 'I couldn't be you' early on. It started to get a bit messy at the front with the pushing, shoving and downpour of sweat dripping from the red and adrenalin rushed faces but even the girls were bravely joining in. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the whole set but the immensely loud noise could still be heard outside resulting to a constant ringing in my ears. The sign of a pretty damn good gig. Now we can only wait with anticipation as the new band and new albums come out in 2006, including 'arctic monkeys' to see what punk influenced bands will be big this year. And if any of them are still together in 25 years time.
Reviewed by Kristi
Written By Kristi
