UK Subs: Still rocking

NOT FADE AWAY: The UK Subs, with Charlie Harper at centrestage, doing what they've done best for more than 30 years.

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In punk rock terms, Charlie Harper was already an elder statesman of the scene when the UK Subs started out more than 30 years ago, so God knows what that makes him these days, still touring relentlessly, still hammering out Live in a Car and Warhead two or three times a week.

But if he's well and truly a grandaddy among the loud-and-spiky mob, he's also a gentleman – a gentleman geezer, maybe, but polite, good-humoured, self-effacing as he comes on the line from his London home.

Harper's bringing the Subs back to Nelson next week, after an acclaimed show here last year, and while he initially struggles to place the previous gig here ("Umm, let me see – it wasn't the Phat Club in Nelson, was it?"), once it's confirmed that that was indeed that venue, he's on to it. "We were really quite knocked out with the club. It was a perfect club – it was brilliant, we had a great time," he says, quite convincingly.

Unlike most of the English punk bands of the Subs' vintage, who had their heyday in the early 1980s and then split but have lately reformed to tap into a weird vein of nostalgia for that era, the Subs have never gone away. Sure, they've been through more incarnations than the most devoted Buddhist – when it's observed that the line-up of musicians who have played with the band at some time or another must be equal to the population of New Zealand, Harper laughs and responds: "Easily."

But Harper, in the all-important frontman role, has been the one constant, and remarkably the entire original line-up are still around and occasionally regroup under the Subs name, including the guitarist who had such a powerful influence on their early sound, Nicky Garratt. Garratt will again be in Nelson on this tour, along with the bassist from the heyday, Alvin Gibbs, and drummer Jamie Oliver.

It's not surprising that keeping the Subs on the road since 1977 has demanded a cast of dozens, especially when, as Harper points out, they've never really slowed down – "we reckon between 150 to 200 shows per year – we're kind of the busiest band on the planet, I think".

"It's kind of like football training," he explains when asked how he's kept it up so long. "If you're in training all the time, it's not too difficult."

It helps that the Subs have never bothered themselves too much with the trappings of fame. Harper's always admired the "working bands, the bread and butter bands", so it's only natural that he should have headed down the same route. Plus, he jokes, "we couldn't sell out if we tried" – and they sort of have tried, like re-recording their best-known track, Warhead, when it was featured in the movie a couple of years back about the 1980s skinhead generation, This is England.

"We were trying to cash in," Harper laments of the re-release, but it took much longer than expected to get the thing sorted, and in the end, "it came out years after the movie ... Again, it was a great failure."

While the early Subs classics like Warhead are still staples for any gig, the band hasn't exactly stood still. They continue to pick away at their long-awaited next album, still with the working title Work in Progress.

Having a couple of dozen LPs and hundreds of individual songs already in the bag doesn't satisfy the fans, Harper says, even if "our living really is from selling T-shirts. One of our other sayings is, we don't make hit records any more, but we make hit T-shirts, and the money from T-shirts goes straight to us".

"It's much better than making hit records, which we get pennies for, but [we get] a few dollars for each T-shirt we sell. That's what keeps us alive – it keeps us on the road literally is the honest truth." And on the road is where he's always happy to be.

The last visit to New Zealand included time for rest and recreation as well as rock and roll, and they got in some fishing and some swimming.

He recalls the memory warmly.

"That's half of it – going to these places and appreciating the food and the fishing and, you know – pies. Ha. Every kind of local custom. The music is one half, but it's a great adventure."

Nelsonians' chance to join in that great adventure comes on October 17 at the Phat Club. Tickets are $30 plus booking fee.

Remember to buy a T-shirt.

- © Fairfax NZ News