By Jason Cole
So here I sit in front of a computer. Fourteen years ago I would have never dreamed of having a computer or doing anything else but getting drunk, doing drugs, and listening to Punk Rock really fucking loud all the time. Oh yeah I forgot. Vandalism and girls were a real big pastime back then too. But anyway, think about it for a minute. I was about sixteen years old in 1984. You do the math.
1984 was a good year for punk rock. And it was around this time that I first saw the Subhumans at the once infamous Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles for eight bucks. Three thousand fucking people was a normal crowd for that place and the Olympic at that time was pretty much the punk rock center of the universe. And seeing a band like the Subhumans there was just about as good as things could get for a sixteen year old punk kid in the mid eighties. That show changed my life.
Fourteen years later the Subhumans regroup and roll through town again. And the show is still eight bucks! And this time four thousand people show up beating the record by a thousand. I guess it just shows that being honest and sticking to your guns over the years can in some cases pay off. Good for them.
The Subhumans originally formed in 1980 as a three piece but soon added Dick on lead vocals who has continued on as the bands front man and political spokesperson for the last nineteen years. The band is most known for Dick’s extremely intelligent and political lyrics and were involved in animal rights and the anti war movement as well as direct action against the state. Song’s like "Religious Wars", "Straight Line Thinking" and "The Day the Country Died" are all just as relevant today as they were when they first wrote them. Thriving in the flourishing anarcho-punk scene of Eighties Britain, the Subhumans toured Europe extensively and even made it to America a couple of times while at the same time bands like The Exploited, Discharge, Crass, and G.B.H were helping to spread the anarchist punk ideal to all four corners of the globe.
The result of their efforts and others too numerous to mention is the scene that now exists today. If there wasn‘t real commitment back then there wouldn’t be shit today.
The band broke up sometime in the late eighties and reformed only once in 1991 to play just two shows. In the meantime Dick recruited two members of the Subhumans and formed the seminal ska-punk band Citizen Fish. Way ahead of it’s time Citizen Fish’s first album "Go Wild" was the first REAL mix of ska and punk that I had ever heard, even before Operation Ivy. That record, arguably, may be the single handed cause of the current wave of ska-punk bands we see today.
The Subhumans once again reformed in 1998 for what is probably the last time and have embarked on a tour of Europe and the United Kingdom. Drawing thousands to their shows, bringing the new and old punks together and telling it like it is. The tour, coinciding with the release of "Unfinished Business" on their own Bluurg record label may be the last we see of the once and forever great band known as The Subhumans. Thanks for the music you lot. It won’t be forgotten.
Subhumans are/were: Dick: Vocals: Phil: Bass Bruce: Guitar Trotsky: Drums
Jason: So how does it feel to be back playing in the Subhumans again?
Dick: Good.
Jason: Why are you doing it now?
Dick: Well cuz all of us were up for it. And why not? I mean, no one else can do it. I mean, it was an idea and it got scoffed at. And we thought we’ll have a practice and it was just fucking brilliant. So we thought y’know, why not do it even though it contradicted nine years of us saying "No, we’re never gonna’ do it again".
Trotsky: That was you.
Dick: Yeah, that was me and my fucking head. I’m doing the answer!
Trotsky: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Dick: And uh, that’s what we did.
Jason: A lot of the band also play in Citizen Fish. Did that make it easier for you to get back together as the Subhumans?
Dick: Well the similarity ends with members. There’s a few of the same people but that’s where the similarity ends. The music is totally different. A few of us were together anyway so it was just convincing Bruce to get in to it after we were all convinced that we were getting into it ourselves.
Trotsky: One of the things about being in a band with some of the members of Subhumans is you know how they play. I wasn’t sure if Bruce could still play with the same intensity as he used to.
Jason: Every time I saw Citizen Fish I heard a lot of people requesting Subhumans songs.
Dick: Yeah. We got a notion that people might actually want to see us.
Jason: So did you ever play a Subhumans song during a Citizen Fish set?
Dick: No way! That’s fucking Citizen Fish. That’s not fucking Subhumans. If Citizen Fish starts playing Subhumans songs then people just come along to see the Subhumans songs. Which some people would. Some people would actually prefer Citizen Fish to the Subhumans which is how it should be.
Trotsky: It’s two separate bands, it’s just three of the same faces which is us. We never played a Subhumans song as Citizen Fish.
Jason: Do you have any plans for recording new material?
Dick: Well there is some old material that never got released and it’s gone on a c.d. called UNFINISHED BUSINESS and it was at the stand and I couldn’t believe I’ve been talking to people at this gig just don’t know what I’m talking about when I mention this new c.d. It’s been out there all bloody night.
Jason: I haven’t heard of it.
Dick: Well it’s a selling on tour sort of a c.d. thing.
Jason: Right. So are you still running Bluurg records? Is that still alive?
Dick: Well if you wanna’ call it running. Walking it really.
Jason: Can you order the new c.d. from that address?
Dick: Yeah, you can. Yes indeed. Send about ten bucks and that’ll cover the postage as well.
Jason: So what is it, all old material re-recorded…
Dick: They’re old tracks that never got recorded except live or at practice so we learnt it and recorded it properly.
Jason: Looking back at when you first started this band known as the Subhumans years ago do you feel like you accomplished some of the goals that you wanted to accomplish when you first set out?
Dick: Yeah. I had a good time doin’ it. Um, got ideas across. Motivated people to do things and got to see loads of places across the planet.
Jason: How far have been able to go across this globe with the band?
Dick: Well we went to Sacramento.
Jason: So what’s next, Vegas, Tijuana?
Dick: Nah! We did England, we did America, and next year we’ll probably do Europe as long as we don’t kill each other by the end of this tour.
Jason: Have the Subhumans played any shows in Europe this time around yet?
Dick: No. Just England.
Jason: Of course England is not Europe.
Dick: It’s not mainland Europe. The gigs in mainland Europe are different than the ones in England.
Trotsky: We’re island monkeys.
Dick: Island monkeys. Apparently. In Citizen Fish we’ve gone to Austrailia. Twice even. And obviously America and Sweden and Denmark and Norway. Um, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Checoslavakia, Yugoslavia, before the war started. Um, Italy, Wales, Scotland Ireland. The Shetland Islands. Is there any more? Spain.
Jason: What’s your view on what’s going on in Northeren Ireland right now? You have a song about it on one of the Culture Shock records that is really great. Does it look like there may be peace in the near future. Is it finally coming together?
Dick: Well, it ironic but it’s hopeful at the same time. Just say that that bomb that killed twenty odd people could be the final straw for even the minority that want to continue the armed struggle. Because that was just civilian deaths and there was absolutely no fucking point to it whatsoever. It didn’t say anything except that these bombs are fucking stupid. So in that ironic way it’s probably helping the peace process more than if it hadn’t happened. And that’s really ironic. And it’s weird saying it as well.
Jason: Do you think that the government should go in and start forcibly disarming these people.
Dick: Well, no. Well how do ya’ mean? That can’t really go in and disarm them because they don’t know where the arms are. The arms are hidden away. Um, if the I.R.A says they are going to decommission their arms and hand them all in then that’s one step towards it and if these people that call themselves the real I.R.A do that… I mean if they say they can handle the rebels (within the I.R.A itself) and then they do, then it’s a big step forwards.
Trotsky: I think it’s a long way off . There’s always going to be someone, some little group…
Jason: With a bomb.
Trotsky: That’s got access to the equipment.
Jason: Were you surprised at the amount of people that came out to see you this evening?
Dick: Yeah!
Jason: It was like the old Olympic auditorium days. That was the last time I saw the Subhumans.
Dick: Well if that was packed out, which it looked like, that was probably more than the Olympic was because we had three thousand, one hundred at the Olympic at the Olympic the second time I think, so that would have been the biggest crowd ever.
Jason: How many people do you think showed up tonight?
Dick: I don’t know, I’ll find out later. But it looked packed out and it’s supposed to hold four thousand.
Jason: Since it was such a success do you think that you’d want to come out again?
Dick: No…I do have reservations about it because it would seem like we’re just doing it for the money. Just doing the old stuff over and over again. Doing it once is fine.
Trotsky: We’d have to have new material.
Dick: Yeah. I mean old bands that just go out and play all the old stuff over and over again are just status quo. It’s just boring.
Jason: So when are the Subhumans going to put out some new material then?
Dick: If Bruce’s new guitar ideas are anything like the old Subhumans ideas then I’ll give you a thousand dollars. I don’t think they’re gonna’ be. Cuz Bruce has gone on from those days to playing Spanish music and folk music. Teaching drums, raising a family. His heads expanded in all these different ways, musically and socially and everything. I don’t think it’s gonna’ have the same type of angry energy.
Lou: (Lou is some drunk guy who decided to help me with the interview)What’s the difference between the old Subhumans and Citizen Fish?
Dick: Well there’s a lot of ska and reggae involved in Citizen Fish and we’re older people. So the lyrics are…how do I say it, concentrated a bit less uh, what’s the word? A bit less simplistic.
Lou: What ska and reggae influences do you have as far as Citizen Fish.
Dick: Ska influences? Old Two Tone stuff mostly.
Lou: Lee Scratch Perry?
Dick: Yeah, Lee Skratch Perry, Sly and Robby. It depends on who produces the albums. I mean a lot of reggae is what they do in the studio so live. I’d much rather listen to dub like Lee Scratch Perry than Bob Marley.
Jason: What do you think of the crowds here as opposed to the crowds in Europe? Is there a big difference.
Dick: Yeah, there is a difference. In Europe nobody wants autographs. In Europe no one wants to shake your hand so much or squeeze your ass or rub your head or poke your genitals or want your T-shirt ‘cuz it’s got your own sweat on it. None of that stuff really goes on in Europe at all, which is nice. And, there’s more self-run, D.I.Y, communal squat venues in Europe. That's not really the nature of the crowd but…Punk Rock in general has become quite commercialized in America in the last three or four years with Green Day, Offspring, Rancid and that. And so there’s a lot of people on the back of that who have seen it for the first time as a commercial thing and have yet to discover the D.I.Y, Anarchist angle of it because it doesn’t go through the same channels.
Jason: Do you think it’s good thing that big bands like that are out there on MTV Do you think it leads kids into the more D.I.Y stuff?
Dick: Basically that’s the only good thing good about it. I’d rather people just find out about it from their friends playing them tapes. Rather than them seeing them on MTV played with no decent lyrics and playing Pop music not Punk music or whatever. Which is a bit narrow minded. It’s just love songs. It’s a bit poppy. But the thing about music actually is the way MTV and EMI, Warner brothers and all that its all part of the big commercial capitalist game and that capitalist game involves all the wars and all the starvation and all the diseases and all the pesticides and all the bullshit and crap in the whole world. So it’s all part of the capitalist game.
Trotsky: In a way that’s what killed the punk scene. A lot of the punks became majors.
Dick: Everyone deals with money but the amount of respect you give to it and the way you exploit people in order to get more of it really sets the tone on how much of a capitalist you are or aint’. Like this is eight dollars to get in and some of these places they usually never go below fifteen bucks or whatever and what do you do? You say it’s gonna’ be eight bucks and they say the guarantee is going to be lower then. In that case O.K. fuck it.
