UK Subs - The Early Years >> Chapter Eight >> By Nicky Garratt




1 London 2 Band From The Pubs 3 John Peel & CID 4 In The Charts 5 U.S. Subs 6 Top 10 & The New Subs 7 Endangered Subs 8 The Cold War 9 Aftermath Table Of Contents UK Subs Main Page Back To Bands	Shortly after we returned to the UK we set off for another US tour, for the Wartoke concern, this time using local bands as openers again. Laura tour managed and John Towe played drums. We opened at the City Gardens in New Jersey on December 7th. This tour was a monster! Again we flew from show to show. At some of the shows we started with the moody Sensitive Boys, followed by other songs from the ‘B’ side of ‘Endangered Species’. This was a reaction to years of hardcore punk bands trying to out punk each other both with speed and stripped down riffs. Although not quite as intense as the last tour, it was a little longer ending on February 9th. There was a short vacation in Clearwater FL built into the middle of the tour which John, and I used to check out some of the small deserted Islands off the coast. Wortoke concern seemed to have done nothing to secure a record deal for us and we (Alvin, John and myself) returned to the UK with intent to leave the band. However, when we got home we were greeted with the news that a tour of Poland, cancelled around six months earlier was now on and we set of for Warsaw currently under marshall law. The Uk Subs became the first punk rock band to enter Communist Poland for a tour. The opening band were Republika the #1 alternative band in the country. Laura took on the task of tour manager for this the last tour of the Garratt/Gibbs/Harper line-up (until 1997 that is). We needed a sound engineer and persuaded Dave leaper, who was the sound man back in the Supermusic days, to come along. The Polish tour was bizarre. We were paid vast sums of local currency which had no exchange rate and bought only the most mundane articles in the stores. (the exception of pottery and glassware which I bought in abundance). The shows extended over a two week period traveling by bus. The promoter, Greg Kuczynski, provided a PA (of sorts), road crew of about a dozen, lights and accommodation. The venues were mostly sports stadiums ranging incapacity from 5,000 to 12,000 and the audience was about equally split between Republika fans and UK Sub fans varying from night to night. The shows went well and were peaceful for the most part, except one night when the crowds didn't leave the stadium fast enough and the police (In riot gear) fired tear gas into the middle of the audience. All the shows were at capacity and on our final show in Warsaw we did two shows to over 10,000 people per show making it our biggest ever headlining show. Then it was all over!

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