About Me
The band was formed by school friends Dean Tyrell (Guitarist) and Phil Parker (Bass) in 1980, jamming punk covers and generally making too much noise...As their musicianship improved they began to write their own material, and quickly had enough songs to play their first gig at the old Sound Cellar in Cambridge, warming up for local songwriting legend Boo Hewerdine's band of the time, Talking Heads soundalikes Placebo Thing. Too loud and too raw for them, the band then proceeded to do gigs with the likes of The Addicts, Vice Squad and other punk bands of the time. They were then invited to play regular gigs at The Angel in Islington, London where a dedicated new punk night was happening weekly. Here they played with Red Alert and Peter and the Test Tube Babies, amongst others. Much music press followed, paticularily in Sounds and Melody Maker, and the band gained a good reputation, (despite the being tagged as "Rejects copyists") with a lot of promise for the future. In the spring of '82 the band were invited to contribute a track on the 4th Oi! album, "Oi, Oi, that's yer lot!". "Stick Together" was produced by the Rejects' Micky Geggus, who gave Dean some fretboard pointers, although he was already an accomplished player by this time. Around the time of the recording, original vocalist Tom Hipkin left the band and was replaced by Peter Matthews. Gathering momentum, the band was then invited to play at the legendary 100 Club in Oxford street, on a the stage which has seen just about everyone who's anyone in Rock n'Roll circles. There they supported Cocksparrer and The Exploited. The band then happened by chance to hook up with Alan McGee, pre-Creation and Oasis days, who helped to manage and release the band's debut (and only) single "Loud and Clear e.p" which dented the Indie top 40 on it's release. Sadly, right wing poltics increasingly began attaching itself to the Oi! / Street Punk scene, and gigs became difficult to come by due to recurring crowd trouble. Consequently by the end of 1983, the band had split up. Nuff said... Subculture's songs can be heard on the Captain Oi compliation cd together with ABH. The Loud and Clear EP has become something of a collectors item in it's genre, the title track was covered note perfect by Funeral Dress, a Dutch street punk combo some years later. Also you can hear elements of "University City" in Green Day's early material too. mmmm they coulda been contenders Joey...I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
