UK Subs (GB)

About

Also known as: The UK Subs, U.K. Subs

UK Subs have been rattling around since 1976, making them one of the earliest acts in the first wave of British punk. Fronted throughout by vocalist Charlie Harper, the band built their sound on the raw energy of punk fused with a rock and roll edge inherited from the pub rock scene they came up in. Their first six singles, including "Stranglehold", "Warhead", "Teenage", and "Tomorrow's Girls", all cracked the UK Top 40, and their live album Crash Course, recorded at the Rainbow Theatre in 1980, remains their biggest seller. Harper and guitarist Nicky Garratt consider Endangered Species, from 1982, to be the band's finest record. They have always punched above their weight in terms of cultural footprint. Guns N' Roses covered their song "Down on the Farm" at Farm Aid in 1990 and put it on a studio album. "Warhead" turned up on the soundtrack of This Is England. In 1982, they became the first Western band to perform in Poland after martial law was imposed there, playing in Gdańsk. With a revolving cast of musicians backing Harper, the Subs have kept going through it all, and they are regulars at the Rebellion Festival, which traces its roots back to 1996.