UK Subs – Live Kicks LP – Stiff Records 1980

Recorded ‘live’ at the Roxy Club, Covent Garden, London, WC2 during the sessions that produced the ‘Farewell To The Roxy’ LP over three nights 31/12/77 to 02/01/78. This material performed by the band that included Steve Slack on bass and Rory Lyons on Drums. Paul Slack and Pete Davies from the ‘classic’ line up joined up with Charlie Harper and Nicky Garrett being the mainstays of the band, later on in 1978. A very tight performance for a half empty club by the sound of it.

UK Subs emerged from Tooting based Charlie Harper’s R & B pub rock roots, getting more with the punk ethic at the beginning of 1977, and became the band that all folk that pass by this site will recognised as a true ‘peoples’ band. Charlie always, like Strummer, had time for a chat and to answer the same old questions put to him at gigs that some 12 year old would ask, with much patience. A high point in my youth was performing ‘Stranglehold’ with the band at Stevenage Bowes Lyon House, sad though it is, it still remains the high point going into young middle age…oh well! I was also a member of the UK Subs fan club until 1981 or 82…the only fan club I have ever joined!

Such great 7″ single releases, all on coloured vinyl, LP’s that were in alphabet named order and in coloured vinyl. I never heard anything from the Subs I am ashamed to say after the LP beginning with D (‘Diminished Responsibility’ fourth official release). This release on Stiff Records was not really official and was sold on mail order in 1980 after the band had several T.O.T.P’s appearances and were one of the larger names in ‘Street Punk’ bands, like The Rut’s and Sham 69. Even the pictures on the back of the sleeve are of a different line up (i.e. the popular one) that performed long after The Roxy had closed it’s doors.

My copy of this record has from time to time a pressing fault so mucho apologies to your ears if you hear annoying scratches in this upload.

19 comments

sean
March 6, 2008 at 11:25 am

An album that I know nicky garret resented greatly,as taking the wind out of the sails of crash course,their then current live album,and of course that they were done out of the money.
Even so,a proper slice of history,and well deserving of the post. Saves me having to set up my 1200’s to listen to my copy!
Thanks Boss!
chris
March 6, 2008 at 12:10 pm

haha, i used to have that. didn’t you have to save up tokens from ‘sounds’ and then you took them to your local record shop and got it for £1.49 or something.

another thing about this Subs lp was in the blurb on the back i remember it mentioned a band called The K9s who i remember seeing loads of punks with on the back on their jackets one time i came down to london with my folks, but never heard any records by. in fact, i dont think ive even READ anything about them so they always remeined the ultimate enigmatic band for me.
gerard
March 6, 2008 at 2:01 pm

i quote a K9s lyric in my Crass book:

“tell idi amin, tell idi i’m out
tell that idi, i am not about”

i also remember being told back in the day that crass ripped off a K9s song for So What. which is probably rubbish, but at least they got namechecked 🙂

subs album is brilliant i got mine from sounds tokens as well!
chris
March 6, 2008 at 2:40 pm

gerard, do you have a recording of any of their stuff then? would like to hear it if so.
Carl
March 6, 2008 at 3:22 pm

Gerard…unrelated to the UK Subs thread, but your Crass book was great. I found it far more interesting than the band’s music ever was…

And an album from sounds tokens…WTF ?
Bryan Swirsky
March 6, 2008 at 4:10 pm

ah, the memories! bleecker bobs in new york city charged for 25 american dollars for ‘live kicks’ at the time of it’s release, advertising the record as being a rare mail order only record. charlie harper and nicky garrett acknowledge the record as a bootleg put out by roxy club owner, kevin st john in conjunction with stiff records. two of these songs eventually resurfaced on the ‘farewell to the roxy’ record. sadly, the record rarely sells for more than a tenner on ebay
gerard
March 6, 2008 at 9:20 pm

chris, i’m afraid i don’t have any k9s stuff – 9/10ths of my record collection is missing in action – too many house moves and too much blind lending i guess.

carl, cheers for that, glad you liked the book. the ‘music’ was always the weak point with crass for me – i was vaguely astonished that people latched onto that as a value in itself…
Carl
March 6, 2008 at 9:53 pm

Agreed Gerard, I found the whole thing, apart from a few bands , as just heading down a blind alley, and definately away from London, Crass shared many a leather jacket with the likes of The Exploited etc etc…

A lot of people missed the point and the whole thing became a laughable straight jacket..certainly away from the “inner circle”…I guess in my case I took the best bands from various genres, with the best of the “goth bands” and yourselves, Brigandage etc etc…..

The whole ethos of “Think for yourselves”…so many of these bands/people didnt…not sure if Crass did more harm than good…maybe a point for debate ?
Martin C
March 7, 2008 at 12:20 pm

Love this LP! First Subs one I ever heard, the first studio LP was great but sounded a bit overproduced and leaden compared to this. Sounds great on the Northern Line at 00.35 incidentally.
Nic
March 7, 2008 at 1:28 pm

The music papers (especially Sounds) regularly did that ‘Records for Tokens’ thing back in the late 70’s and early 80’s…particularly in tandem with Virgin Records…

I was in the UK Subs fan club too, Penguin – and it’s the only one I ever joined as well (apart from the Dennis the Menace fanclub)…

Here’s a page with info on the K9’s, Chris:
http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/k9.htm
Interestingly, it mentions a connection to Inner City Unit which should please Al (I believe one of the K9’s played on the classic ‘Pass Out’ LP)…

Don’t mention the Crass ‘music’ thing, Carl!!!!
😉
Carl
March 7, 2008 at 2:11 pm

Must have missed the token thing !!

And I wont mention Crass again !
Mark Chadderton
February 3, 2010 at 12:42 pm

More info here:

http://uksubstimeandmatter.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=339:live-kicks&catid=514:lps-compilations&Itemid=124
slyme68
February 3, 2010 at 8:42 pm

Crash Course. The Subs played that gig with the Upstarts… I stood outside, unable to blag a way in, while my mates who had tickets went in and smashed the seats up… Incidentally, the rainbow where that gig was is now a “help centre” run by christians the UKCG. It was in there that they publicly exorcised poor little Victoria Klimbie as her aunt (who tortured her to death) brought her there claiming she had the devil in her. Some help. Thanks, Jesus.
dan i
February 4, 2010 at 7:29 pm

Crash Course….the absolute business.
TonyEhrfucht
February 5, 2010 at 11:54 am

Looks like the ICU connection is with Sprog the bass player.
Just searched for the ICU history pages on the web but they seem to have disappeared…

If I remember correctly, Sprog Turnip as he was referred to at that point played on the tour preceding the recording of The Presidents Tapes LP. The band went into the studio to do the album, at which point they apparently realised of Mr Turnip : ‘the guy couldn’t play bass to save his life. He was given twenty quid and promptly told to fuck off.’ Dead Fred played bass on the recordings in the end. It would have been Baz Magneto on bass on Passout I think.
mikeyG
March 14, 2010 at 10:29 am

@slyme68

I remember that gig at the Rainbow. My mates and I used to regularly break in via the fire doors to see bands there.

About that gig, I remember Charlie Harper walking up to a bunch of us, at the back of the place. He had this great idea to steal a ladder that was on the scaffolding of a building opposite. So a few of us, Charlie Harper included climbed up the scaffolding and undid the wire holding the ladder in place. I remember being quite impressed that Charlie climbed to the top with no trouble. We took the ladder back across the street and put it up to a window. Charlie then walked off back to the front of the place, beer can in hand.

So we had a line of folks queuing up to climb up the ladder. Shame was, the window was of a store room at the back of the upstairs bar, so no way in there! I’d just started up the ladder myself when the police came round the corner, so I scarpered with the others still waiting. The police had those they caught up against the wall, searching em while a bunch of us watched from over the road, waving to them 😀

I vaguely remember getting in later through a fire door, and had our usual fun of removing the first half dozen rows of seats and chucking em down into the photographers pit at the front. Trashing the seats was a regular occurrence at gigs there 😀 Charlie was hassled to ‘ask us to stop breaking the chair’s’, which you can hear on the live Crash Course album. Of course, he then changed the lyrics to the next song ‘teenage’ saying how ‘we’re gonna smash this place tonight’.

The Angelic Upstarts played that night as well, but I don’t remember them cos I’d had a few pints by then, so was a bit slaughtered (being just 16 and a lightweight even then).

Funny enough, I was talking about the same gig just the other day on the phone to an old friend.

It’s a shame that the UKCG bastards have the place now, what a waste. Last time I lost my temper (which isn’t often these days, thank fuck), was giving some UKCG ‘charity collectors’ outside our local sainsbury grief about poor Klimbie last xmas. Recently, they were kicked out of wood green library where they had meetings, after Dave Morris (from Haringey Solidarity Group etc..) put a complaint in.

Strewth, this has gone on for long enough. Sorry about the waffle, its just great to remember old times from before I got fat, balding and mellowed with medication 😛

…just my tuppence worth…
DavidM
March 14, 2010 at 3:19 pm

This album has just been made available again on CD, this time round called “Live At The Roxy”. Released through Music Avenue.
John no last name
March 16, 2010 at 1:17 pm

I remember that UK Subs gig with the Upstarts too. If the old memory serves me correctly there was also a third band on the bill, a power pop/melodic punk band called Liquid Stone who did a cover of the Glitterband classic “Tell him”.

I also remember getting trapped on the tube platform (I think at Victoria) with about 50 skinheads coming towards us. Somehow we escaped, but that part of it is a bit of a blur. I think we found a staircase or something. All good clean fun.
karl
June 22, 2012 at 3:16 pm

Many thanks for this, brought back great memories. A friend borrowed this from a friend and some how it found its way into my collection! Can’t remember how that was 😉 . Anyway its long gone now with the rest of my collection, so like I say many thanks!