When Charlie Harper and his band of punk rock subversives played a packed Sub89 a few years back, we thought that was the last time we would ever see the band in town. However, Charlie’s not ready to hang up his boots yet and he’s back in Reading on a cold miserable January night to inject a rush of nostalgic adrenaline-fueled rebellion into the local populace.

Support band Knock Off may have originated in the last decade but their sound is distinctly UK82 with vitriolic lyrics to match. The three piece soon win over the crowd with their angry street punk anthems.  ‘Are You Offended?’ and ‘Alibi’ are early highlights in an hour-long set covering the band’s full career. The excellent ‘This Ain’t No Love Song’ channels The Adverts whilst ‘Lowerarchy’, title track from their 2024 album, shows that the band have lost none of their lyrical edge. Knock Off - Jan 25 Opening with ‘Rockers’, the latest incarnation of UK Subs take to the stage. The band are sounding fantastic with new boy Abel effortlessly taking on guitar duties. Charlie’s vocals remain remarkably strong throughout as we are treated to a well-received set dominated by old favourites from the band’s first four studio albums. UK Subs - Jan 25 Setting the scene for the rest of the night, the band launch into ‘Kicks’ and the pace rarely lets up. ‘Police State’ and the proto thrash metal of ‘Emotional Blackmail’ follow. ‘Rat Race’ is as frantic as always whilst under the surface ‘Time & Matter’ has a nice late sixties psychedelic Nuggets feel to it. ‘Bitter & Twisted’ from 1997’s ‘Quintessentials’ album has been a staple of recent tours and is not out of place with the early material.

Fan favourite ‘Down on the Farm’ allows long time bassist Alvin Gibbs to flex his muscles with its deep rumbling intro. In his long career with the Subs, Alvin’s played with an almost infinite number of drummers. Since current drummer Stefan joined the band in 2023, the two have formed a solid rhythm section providing much of the band’s power and allowing Abel space to add his own signature to the guitar parts. UK Subs - Jan 25 Bringing us virtually up to date, ‘Kill Me’ from 2023’s ‘Reverse Engineering’ album keeps up the relentless momentum with a classic late period Subs song. ‘Scum of the Earth’ takes us back to the debut album before ‘Limo Life’ with its chugging chords (only) marginally slows everything down. ‘Barbie’s Dead’ is followed by the glam rock singalong stomp of ‘Party in Paris’. UK Subs - Jan 25 The one two combo of ‘Tomorrow’s Girl’ and ‘Warhead’ is always going to bring a smile to a Subs fan, and the latter deservedly gets the loudest crowd participation of the night. Continuing the fan pleasing set list, ‘Riot’, ‘Stranglehold’ and ‘Disease’ bring the set to a close. UK Subs - Jan 25 Having played at breakneck speed for the good part of an hour, the band could have called it quits there and then, but Charlie is up for more and returns for a rapturously received ‘C.I.D.’. ‘I Live in a Car’ and the Duane Eddy infused ‘You Don’t Belong’ follow before the show ends on a euphoric ‘Endangered Species’.  The world is once again on a precipice with mankind seemingly intent on wiping itself out so Charlie’s sentiments still ring true as they did in the early eighties.

It’s been an excellent night of fast noisy old school punk rock with Charlie and the lads on top form. Here’s looking forward to the band’s visit to Reading. UK Subs - Jan 25