A BAND formed more than 40 years ago is to make its Reading debut next week.
The Subhumans, an English anarchist punk collective, are best known for their debut LP, The Day The Country Died.
On Tuesday, September 27, they will be taking to the stage of The Face Bar, courtesy of Club Velocity.
Support will come from Uncle Peanut and More Punk Than Your Mother.
Prior to the formation of Subhumans in 1980, vocalist Dick Lucas had played in his local band, The Mental.
He was joined by guitarist Bruce Treasure and drummer Andy Gale, before former-Audio Torture bassist Grant Jackson joined the fold.
Initially performing as Superhumans at the request of Bruce’s mother, by the end of 1980 Subhumans was cemented with Trotsky replacing Gale on drums.
In 1981, the band issued a debut demo tape which caught the attention of punk band Flux of Pink Indians, who offered Subhumans a record release on their Spiderleg Records label. That record surfaced in December 1981 as the EP Demolition War.
The record led to the subsequent EPs Reasons for Existence and Religious Wars in 1982. The same year Subhumans formed their own label Bluurg Records, which focused on cassette recordings.
In 1983, once again released on Spiderleg Records, Subhuman issued The Day The Country Died”. Now considered a classic and quintessential release of the anarcho-punk genre, the record has its thematic roots in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, epitomised on the single Big Brothe”.
Marking the band’s first solo release on their label Bluurg, Subhuman’s subsequently released the EP Evolution in 1983. The full-length From the Cradle to the Grave followed the same year, as did the EP Time Flies… but Aeroplanes Crash, featuring both live and studio tracks.
Following the release of their third full-length Worlds Apart in 1985, the band split citing differences in musical direction.
Far-removed from the band’s initial hardcore recordings, the band’s final release 29:29 Split Vision, showcases Subhumans’ more melodic, sung aesthetic.
Dick Lucas went on to join Culture Shock in 1986 and subsequently form the ska-punk outfit Citizen Fish in 1990.
A brief Subhumans reunion occurred in 1990, before a fully-fledged reunion tour in 1998 of the UK and US.
In 1998, the band released an EP of previously unreleased recordings as Unfinished Business, before issuing the live album Live in a Dive on Fat Wreck Chords.
The band’s fifth studio album, Internal Riot, arrived in 2007, followed by a tour of Europe and the US.
The gig takes place from 8pm on Tuesday, September 27, and tickets cost £12. The Face Bar is in Chatham Street, Reading. For more details, or to book, log on to: https://www.wegottickets.com/event/537123
