weekend showtalk

The U.K Subs group (left to right) Paul Slack, Charles Harper, Nick Garratt and Pete Davies express some of their frustrations with the aid of a padlocked door.

Banned aid for U.K Subs

By Cedric Porter

BEING banned from at least five South London pubs, seems like one of the penalties of success for Battersea’s U.K Subs band.

"It was okay when we started off at these places, but as soon as the crowd start coming and the place is packed, the management always gets a little uptight", says bassist Paul Slack.

"In all these places they had no one outside of the bar just to see that nothing happened".

And although the Subs make a point of calling themselves "punk", rather than the inoffensively vague, "new wave", drummer Pete Davies says. "Punk is not only the crazy attitude that the Pistols would have you believe". But if punk still stands for anything in musical terms, he adds, "then we are still part of it".

Early on in the interview, which happens to be taking place in a South London pub. Paul stresses "There has been very little trouble at our gigs…It is your people that exploit situations".

In the past at least the group have been going through a boringly familiar routine of finding a new pub to play, with everything going fine at first until the local heavies turn up and one incident destroys the club atmosphere they have been trying to build up.

"Someone threw a bottle at a passer-by from a window in "The White Lion", Putney. The manager at "The Mitre", Tooting was hit over the head with a billiard ball, and a small window was smashed at "The Forester’s Arms", Tooting.

One of the three tracks on the band’s first record is titled "CID" and lead singer Charlie Harper says this was inspired because "We used to play down ’The Castle’, in Tooting, and the CID always used to be sniffing around.

UK Subs got going at the legendary Roxy Club, and have earned their reputation at a long list of club venues from Satellite City to the 100 Club, London, so it is by no means because they can’t find anywhere else to play that they want to work in local pubs.

One answer to their problem is their gig today (Friday) at Battersea Arts Centre, where they have successfully appeared in concert twice before.

They are topping a bill of The Thickets, Security Risk and DJ Jerry Floyd, and hope their maxi-single will be released by City Records to coincide with the occasion.

Another answer where pub gigs are concerned, is to do more organisation themselves, and this is something they are planning for future dates such as Streatham’s "Park Tavern" on September 28.

"It’s not to handle the kids but to handle the thugs who are trying to get at the kids", stresses guitarist Nick Garratt.