Formed in the wake of Crass, UK band The Subhumans (not to be confused with the Canadian band of the same name) were at the forefront of what became known as the anarcho punk scene. Having split in 1985, they reformed briefly in 1991 and again in 1998, finally releasing a new album Internal Riot last year.
The Subhumans New(ish) Album Internal Riot
Suite 101: The Subhumans reformed a decade ago but you only got round to putting out a new studio album in 2007 - why was that?
Dick: “For the last six years Phil our bassist moved to Spain and Trotsky our drummer moved to Germany, which made getting together for rehearsals or whatever very difficult. We'd only do it two or three times a year and new tracks would come out and get played or dumped and replaced – we were quite picky so some songs that were actually quite good got dumped and revitalised later on. Back in the 80s we were practicing once or twice a week and we were thrashing out loads and loads of songs but we're just not in that situation any more.”
Suite 101: Who's in a Subhumans crowd these days – is it all 40 year old punks or a good mix of old and young?
Dick: “Generally it's a good mix. In this country there are a lot more 40 year old punks turning up than in, say, America. In America we get a whole bunch of 17 year olds turning up but generally, yeah, it's all mixed together, which is a good thing.”
The Subhumans and Citizen Fish
Suite 101: Is there a bit of a crossover between Citizen Fish and Subhumans crowds?
Dick: “Yeah, quite a lot of people come to both, although Citizen Fish never really made the impact the Subhumans did. That's just the way it crumbles really.”
Suite 101: Are you still finding things to get riled about in the 21st Century?
Dick: “Yeah, it's largely the same stuff as the last century (laughs) but we're perhaps more philosophical about it, looking at the nature of culture and the power of advertising on people's heads and the way politicians have become much more touchy-feely and covertly oppressive instead of being overtly oppressive. There's plenty still going on – there's twenty per cent of the world's CCTV cameras watching this country, I saw today on the news that there might be a judgement by some lawlords to say that a certain part of the latest anti-terrorism act is in fact wrong. It's the bit where they want the power to stop suspected terrorists from receiving benefits or drawing money out of the bank. Judges are quite likely to say 'you can't do that' and the response of the government was 'okay, we'll just do another law to make it legal'. That's the way the government goes these days. It goes against human rights where they just recreate the laws to affect what they want, which is total control of everybody. Mostly through fear but bottom line also through laws and prison.”
Old Punks on Tour
Suite 101: How do your bodies cope with touring these days?
Dick: “(Laughs) Well, we've learned to take lots of vitamins and not to get too drunk every night, not to stay up too late, get a comfy sleep and keep healthy as much as possible. The body can't quite handle the intake it used to, I suppose. If you get ill on tour it tends to last for weeks now instead of days but...yeah, a forty year old body is twice as old as a twenty year old body and if you think you can still do what you did when you were twenty, you soon get caught out. We've moderated the input a bit.”
Click here for more from Lucas on the early days of anarcho punk.
For more on The Subhumans and Lucas' ska-punk outfit Citizen Fish, check the two bands' combined website here.
Paul Travers - Paul Travers is a full-time journalist and writer. He has had work published as far afield as Musikexpress in Germany and Smash Hits ...
Join the Conversation