Just a quick post to mark the birthday of probably the best loved frontman in the British punk scene who has been celebrating turning 80 tonight at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, fronting the UK Subs as per usual. Why is Charlie so loved? Two reasons I think. One , is that after jumping aboard punk in 76-77 when he started the UK Subs despite being in his mid-30s, he is one of the few to stay the course and not abandon punk when others had jumped ship only to jump back on later. The Subs have gigged every year since 1977. Secondly he is one of the nicest, most approachable , most down to earth people that you will find fronting a reasonably well known band.
Like most people in the UK punk scene I’ve met him on several occasions. The first time was when I approached the merchandise desk at one of their gigs that he was manning as usual and managed to spill the contents of my wallet over his desk and around the floor which he proceeded to scrabble around for and hand back. Years later I used to take a box of records that I was flogging to gigs with me and if it was a Subs gig Charlie was always happy for me to set up on a corner of the table and sell my wares. On one occasion he had a flick through and found I was selling and old solo single of his which he bought off me. He’d forgotten he’d released it. On another occasion I was getting a nasty kicking in the street outside a gig after upsetting a couple of skinheads, when suddenly they disappeared , it turned out because Charlie came out of the venue. I saw him another gig a week later (his birthday as it happened) and thanked him for possibly saving my life and offered him a drink. He explained that it was completely unintentional , he’s just been leaving the venue and the skinheads had assumed he was leading some kind of punk cavalry, but he accepted the drink anyway.
My favourite story though is when a rumour went around about 15 years ago that he’d died ( a mix up with an American cartoonist of the same name seems to have been the source of the rumour) and a mate phoned up his wife to ask if it was true and offer condolences. She asked him to wait a moment and then shouted “Charlie – it’s another person asking if you’re dead”.
Happily he’s still with us. Happy birthday Charlie.
The 'Spill 
My uncle was 80 a few days ago, he said he’s looking forward to the next decade, I hope Charlie is too 🙂
I expect he is . He’s slowed down but only slightly – weekend gigs instead of full tours. Happy birthday to your uncle.
Got tear-gassed at their Surrey University gig. A similar experience at the same venue, when the Splodgness smoke effects exploded. This didn’t happen at the Lloyd Cole or Fall shows, but they may have been the worst frontman performances I’ve ever seen.
The moral of the story is don’t go to shows at Surrey University.
(Hang-on, Shriekback were really good).
Charlie Harper that takes me back. UK Subs used to play The Marquee Club a hell of a lot in 1978. I can’t imagine how many times I must have heard the choruses of B1C and CID.