HUMANS
BUBR
Dick of the Subhumans.
"The Subhumans," a band from
England, stopped in THRASHER'S
home port of San Francisco for a few
shows. I cornered them at Jennifer's
house, a prominent host of many of
the traveling bands (G.B.H., Peter &
Test Tube Babies), for a vegetarian
stew After dinner we retired to the
smoking room where everyone
whipped out cigarettes and began
smoking. I whipped out my little tape
recorder and
Tell me your names and a little
bit about yourselves. That way I
can recognizes your voices a lot
better on the tape.
Dick: My name's Dick, I'm the
singer. I'm six foot and I wear glas
ses, so when you read my voice you
can say, "That's the one who wears
glasses
Bruce: I'm Bruce the guitarist, and I
don't wear glasses.
Do you have six feet, too?
Bruce: Yeah.
Trotsky: No he doesn't, he's five
foot nine. I'm Trotsky, long hair, silly
boots
Long hair, silly boots and...de-
signer jeans! Next.
Phil: My name's Phil, I play bass
I'm the new boy of the band, only
joined last September.
Why?
Phil: The other one left
Okay, why?
Phil: He left to go to art college in
Yorkshire
So how'd you get picked?
Phil: I've known everyone for years
and years. I went to school with
Bruce
Dick: Well, you see, he was the only
person we knew who had a beard.
Phil: I used to be a roadie for the
band as well
Oh, I see, then you just learned
how to play bass and did it.
Phil: No. I played guitar in bands
with Bruce and I just sort of switched
over to bass. I was a lead guitarist
originally
So now you're a "lead bans."
Okay, who has the best stories
and the best lies for the beginning
of this band?
Dick: Sorry? Well, Bruce is the only
"original-original member.
Oh, so there's a history?
Dick: A hell of a lot of histo
Okay, day one in a colensed
version.
Dick: Day one. Bruce and the old
drummer, Andy, were in a band
called the Stupid Humans, and then
Grant, the old bassist, joined from
another band, so it was a three-
piece and Bruce was singing, so
they called themselves Subhuman
because they were less a singer.
Then I joined a couple months later
and we were the Subhumans, so it
was plural. It's not because we're
nasty or anything.
So the name doesn't infer any-
thing in particular.
Dick: It does if you think about it.
Because most people think punks
are subhumans and not worth talk-
ing about and not worth the shit they
wipe their asses on. We're the proof
that we're more intelligent than the
majority of the people believe.
What would be an example of
your intelligence, your insight, in
what you're talking about? In
your songs, I know they're not
mindless, they have topic.
Dick: A lot of punk songs are really
mindless, you know, stupid.
Any examples?
Dick: No. That sort of pinpoints it
down, and people would generalize.
"Oh, they don't like such and such a
band."
Then what sort of topics would
you consider mindless?
bick: Sexist. The few racist bands
that are about.Nazi punks. Most of
the Oil stuff is pretty mindless and
violent. All the stuff that is a load of
crap is sexist, racist, violent. We feel
to be a little bit more constructive.
How about some topical exam-
ples as far as your songs go? Do
you do the writing for the band?
Dick: Yeah. You should know that.
I should.
Dick: Well, there's some real obvi-
ous topics like "Evolution is About
Vivisection. The exploitation of ani-
mals, obvious topics like that. The
majority of the ones I'm writing today
are about people's attitudes and
about things that could be changed.
or should be changed if they thought
a bit harder about what they were
doing
Then you don't have a circle of
influence or a topical center.
Dick: We're not a sort of "anti-war"
band or an "anti-animal exploitation
band. We're a mixture of the whole
lot. We're generally just a "construc
tive band, if you want to put a label
on it, although we'd rather you didn't
What are your gigs like back in
England? Have you had any prob-
lems?
Dick: It's actually pretty good
Hardly any violence at the gigs. It's
mainly the place you play, not the
band who's playing Any band could
play there and they'd get hassled by
the crowd.
Any hassles from the authori-
All: No.
Then you're not labeled as a
"trouble band."
All: No.
Bruce: Well we might be.
Mild-mannered guys?
Dick: Well, we don't take pride in
smashing up hotels, backstage
rooms, or smashing windows, be-
cause it's not doing anybody any bit
of good, and it just propagates avio-
lent attitude which is wrong. "Propa-
gates, it's a good word.
Is it a real one?
Trotsky: Yeah.
Phil: How about "Screaming Yellow
Zonkers?
What's a "Screaming Yellow
Zonker?
Trotsky: You should know. They
come in little packets, a sort of sweet
corn.
Dick: "Screaming Yellow Zonkers!"
You think we're weird?
I don't eat those things. I eat
rabbit food and steak, and the
stuff we just had.
Dick: Wouldn't you prefer to just eat
the stuff we just had and not eat ani-
mals?
It all depends. Sometimes I'll
eat a roast beef sandwich and see
a vein.
Dick: When you see things like that,
whole chunks of an animal hanging
in the butcher shop, that's when it re-
ally hits you. It's quite easy to look at
a beef sandwich and not think about
it. If you see a pig's head in the win-
dow, then it starts really hitting you.
Or a cow's tongue.
Bruce: Back home there's a train
station where they kill animals as
they come in. The stench is disgust-
ing.
Yeah! Okay! Next question.
When you guys started out as a
band, were you all musically in-
clined or did you just pick up
guitars and say, "Hot damn, I
want to make some music"
Bruce: I've been playing guitar for
ages, had a band back in 78. Got
into skateboarding as well, when it
was big back in England. I've got a
skateboard, but I haven't been on it
for years. There's no one to ride
with, plus it's raining all the time.
Dick: I think most people start up
bands or want to be in a band, either
because they're bored sick of doing
nothing, or they want to imitate their
favorite bands, or they've got some
talent and can't use it unless they're
in a band.
Why did you guys come to the
U.S.?
Bruce: Because we knew of this
skateboard magazine and wanted to
get an interview in it.
Trotsky: Because most of the gig
prices were right
Dick: Five dollars or under. We try
to make it affordable. Back home
you have to deal with agencies. We
don't
Trotsky: We don't play for over two
quid.
How much is that?
Trotsky: About three dollars.
Bruce: We had to do a couple in
L.A. for seven dollars, that was for
Golden Voice. They put up all the
money for us to come over, so for
that we didn't have much choice. But
the rest of the gigs are six, five and
four bucks.
Are you making very much
money or does it matter?
Dick: Don't know.
Trotsky: As long as we have
enough money to cover the ex-
penses
Dick: The fact is, that we're living off
the band. Which is what we've al-
ways wanted to do. Rather than
work for someone else, we'd rather
work for ourselves.
None of you guys work?
Dick: No, but we're not taking the
social security and all that either. So
we have got to worry about the
money in that respect, because we
have to live off of it. Over here we
see all these punks driving around in
cars. You just don't see that in Eng-
land. They travel by bus, coach,
plane, hitch. No wait, not plane,
forget plane.
Bruce: I was on a skateboard team
a long time ago.
You were?
Bruce: Well, it was sort of a local
one.
What are some of your reflec-
tions on your stay here?
Trotsky: People are really friendly
Dick: In the scene, it seems as far
in terms of hairstyles, here it's a
bit less than it is in England. A lot of
the people really go over the top the
way they look.
as
Fashion conscious?
Dick: Yeah, over here a lot are as
well
That's just because there's
more people. Especially the dark-
clothed new wavers who claim to
be artists and listen to "bat cave"
bands.
Dick: The difference between L.A.
and, let's say, San Francisco, is in
LA. everything is just geared to be
as big as possible, people like it that
way. But here (S.F.), it's a bit more
seedy, a bit more humane.
Bruce: Sort of a community spirit.
Dick: Everyone on the streets shouts
The old as well as the young as
well as the dead. What are the
band's future plans?
Bruce: We never make any future
plans other than what the next
album's gonna be.
Dick: Can I just ask why we're being
interviewed by a skateboard maga
zine?
It doesn't matter. I like the
music, your band, nothing else to
do, my roommate is cleaning the
house and I don't want to go
home right now. Actually there's
no real reason. How old are you
guys?
Dick: Collectively about 60. I'm 23.
Bruce: I'm 20 but still think I'm 19.
Trotsky: I'm 18.
Phil: I'm nearly 20
Trotsky: You're 19.
Phil: 19 and three-quarters
Thank you, Subhumans, you're
a very admirable band.
Пед
T
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