Uk Subs

Few bands can claim a place at the very start of British punk and still be playing it decades later, but U.K. Subs can. Formed in 1976, they were among the earliest acts of the first wave, and they have been anchored by vocalist Charlie Harper, once a singer on Britain's R&B scene. Their sound fused punk's urgency with a rock and roll bite from the pub rock circuit they came from, and they count among the first hardcore punk bands.

They started out as the Marauders on the pub rock scene, but after seeing a couple of punk shows at the Roxy in 1976 they changed course. Their singles "Stranglehold", "Warhead", "Teenage" and "Tomorrow's Girls" all reached the UK Top 40, and Crash Course, recorded live at London's Rainbow Theatre in 1980, became their biggest seller. In 1982 they played Gdańsk, the first Western band to perform in Poland after martial law was imposed. Guns N' Roses later covered their "Down on the Farm" at Farm Aid in 1990, and the band have remained a fixture at the Rebellion Festival.