U.K. Subs – Subversions II (CD Album – Cleopatra Records)
Genre/Influences: Punk-rock.
Background/Info: British punk legends U.K. Subs are now active for more than 40 years. They belong to the collective memory of the Punks. It’s hard to compare the glorious 70s punk years with today, but the band never stopped releasing new material. They last year released “Subversions” and are now back on track with the second chapter of this ‘cover-series’.
Content: Twelve songs have been chosen and covered/adapted into the punk-rock style of the band. This opus features songs that were originally composed by The Equals, The Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Joe Jackson, Donovan, The Stooges, The Kids, The Who, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Neil Young, Queen and The Rolling Stones.
+ + + : It always is a risky business and for some fans of the original artists a blasphemy to cover famous hits, but when it’s accomplished by a band such as U.K. Subs is just fun and party music. You clearly can feel they’d some fun covering these songs. Even if most of the original songs are pretty ‘rock’ like, U.K. Subs transposed them into a raw punk-rock style. I think they did a great job covering “White Light, White Heat” from The Velvet Underground and “This Is Rock ‘N’ Roll” from The Kids. I can imagine this is pure party on stage!
– – – : I’m not convinced by some of the songs and that’s maybe because some tracks feel a bit like sacred sonic anthems. I’m not convinced by their edits of Queen (cf. “We Will Rock You”) and The Rolling Stones (cf. “The Last Time”).
Conclusion: Original 70s punk music is probably dead and gone forever, but the spirit is still alive even when U.K. Subs are busy covering famous rock ‘n’ roll artists.
Best songs: “White Light, White Heat”, “This Is Rock ‘N’ Roll”, “Rockin’ In The Free World”, “One More Time”.
Rate: (7).
Artist: www.uksubs.co.uk / www.facebook.com/UKSubs
Label: www.cleropatrarecords.com / www.facebook.com/CleopatraRecords
About U.K. Subs
U.K. Subs emerged from the punk scene centred on London’s Roxy club in 1977. Frontman Charlie Harper, previously active in R&B and pub-rock bands, started the group in 1976 as “The Subversives” with Nicky Garratt on guitar and Paul Slack on bass; the name was shortened from “U.K. Subversives” to “U.K. Subs” soon after.
Singles including “Stranglehold”, “Tomorrow’s Girls”, a cover of The Zombies’ “She’s Not There” and “Warhead” reached the lower half of the UK charts in the late 1970s, as did the band’s first two studio albums, “Another Kind Of Blues” and “Brand New Age”. Garratt left in 1983 together with bassist Alvin Gibbs and drummer Kim Wylie, after which Harper kept the band going through a long series of line-ups, with Garratt and Gibbs both returning at various points.
U.K. Subs became the only band to record a studio album for every letter of the alphabet in sequence, completing the series with “Ziezo” in 2016. “Subversions II”, the covers set reviewed here, followed the first “Subversions” volume released the previous year.
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