Exploited, UK Subs, GBH, Antidote in the Netherlands

Gig Review: Exploited, UK Subs, GBH, Antidote, Bent Out Of Shape: great concert in Drachten, the Netherlands

By Herman de Tollenaere

Three UK punk bands. Two Dutch punk bands. Herman de Tollenaere was there for Punktuation!

Drachten is a town of 40,000 people in Friesland province, the Netherlands. In 1979, a Drachten girl sent a letter to my fanzine, complaining that she could not buy any punk records locally, and that for concerts she had to go to Heerenveen or Groningen.

In 1983, something changed in Drachten: youth club Iduna opened. Iduna has by now evolved into a concert hall for 600 people. The UK Subs have played twenty times there.

Now that the UK Subs are no longer doing long tours, they still came back to Iduna on 1 December 2023.

The other bands on the bill: Bent Out of Shape from Friesland, Antidote from the western Netherlands, and GBH and The Exploited from the UK.

UK Subs guitarist Stephen Straughan and singer Charlie Harper, 1 December 2023 Drachten, photo by Terry

UK Subs 1 December 2023 Drachten, photo by Terry

With so much punk music, the doors opened early, at 6pm. The UK Subs warmly welcomed me and photographer Terry (we had been half of the Subs’ support band in 1980-1981). Charlie Harper went to the bar to fetch drinks for the two of us.

The concert had sold out without one day. Not all people from Drachten. E.g., Exploited fans had come from the UK.

At 6:30 pm, the first band, Bent Out of Shape, started. This Oi! band played songs from their 2022 album Old Rats On A New Ship. That album name means that the band is new, founded in 2020, though the members had been in other bands like Icepick, Spirit 84, DSS, No Denial before. It was still early, the hall was not full yet, but the people who were there were enthusiastic. Charlie Harper listened attentively to songs like this My Part Of Town, from the ‘Old Rats’ LP.

The next band were Antidote. Founded in 1998, disbanded in 2012 after recording five albums and touring in Europe, North America and Russia. Now, reformed for some gigs every now and then. During their set, the hall became very crowded. Including Antidote fans who had traveled from far away Leiden, and loved it.

Then came GBH. Founded in 1978. As their setlist says, their set included I Am The Hunted …

… and their song City Baby Attacked By Rats, the title track of their first LP …

… and Generals, from their album Leather, Bristles, No Survivors And Sick Boys.

The audience moved frantically to GBH.

Then, the UK Subs.

The UK Subs started with Rockers, from their 1979 first studio album Another Kind of Blues.

Their set caused great enthusiasm in the audience, including stagediving and mass pogoing.

Eventually, the UK Subs went off stage. But the audience made clear very loudly that they wanted them to play more songs.

They returned triumphantly, and the Subs played what Charlie Harper announced as ‘Fuckin’ CID’.

Next came Teenage, and Party in Paris.

This was fuckin´ great!

So were the Exploited, the headline band.

Wattie of The Exploited, Drachten 1 December 2023, photo by Terry

Their singer Wattie shouted ‘Fuck Brexit!’, articulating how most punk musicians feel about this Conservative government policy.

Wattie of The Exploited, in Drachten 1 December 2023, photo by Terry

Everyone went back home very satisfied after hearing these five bands.

Punk is not dead, as the Exploited sing.The Exploited will also play in 2024: not with their Dutch drummer Jo Oom, who played in Iduna.

And neither are the UK Subs dead: Charlie Harper’s 80th birthday wil be next 25th of May.

Two days later, they will be back in the Netherlands: this time not Drachten, but the Melkweg in Amsterdam!

Photos by Terry. Videos by henryratpatrol and X Xlotmeister.

UK Subs get new fan

UK Subs on sunshade

At the August 2023 Rebellion festival in Blackpool, England, the UK Subs won a new fan, who had never heard them before.

After hearing the UK Subs play in the Empress ballroom, the acoustic set by Subs singer Charlie Harper, and Charlie replying to questions at the Literary stage, she wanted to have a UK Subs badge.

Charlie kindly provided one. Now it is on her sun visor, as this photo shows.

UK Subs and Cheap ‘n’ Nasty together again

Alvin Gibbs, Terry, Charlie Harper, Herman

As I still write my report about the brilliant UK Subs gig in Utrecht, the Netherlands on 13 January, here is already a photo made after that concert.

Left to right: Alvin Gibbs, UK Subs bass and background vocals. Terry, Cheap ‘n’ Nasty bass and female lead vocals. Charlie Harper, UK Subs lead vocals. Yours truly, Cheap ‘n’ Nasty male lead vocals and toy saxophone.

In the background: Christian Strohsack and Anne Waffel guitar, and bass of Utrecht band Stachel.

These four people played on the same stages in Venlo and Eindhoven in 1980 and 1981. So good to meet each other again!

The photo was taken with Terry’s camera, by Christian Strohsack.

UK Subs, Cheap ‘n’ Nasty concerts

Cheap ‘n’ Nasty bass/vocals Terry opening for UK Subs in Venlo

1980.10.11 In Ons Huis in Blerick, near Venlo, a concert by the U.K. Subs. The Bureau Pinkpop organisers refuse to pay for a support band.

Then Charlie Harper, singer of the UK Subs, steps in. He pays for petrol to get from the western Netherlands to Venlo. First with Terry’s tiny red FIAT from Delft to Zwijndrecht, next with Terry’s brother’s car to Venlo. Almost nobody in Venlo knows that Cheap ‘n’ Nasty will play, except the Venlo PIN fanzine subscriber Karin and a pen pal of Terry, who travelled from Helmond to Venlo especially to see them. Despite this, an encore has to be played. A large audience, surely more than a thousand. Among them, Venlo teenagers who decide to start a band; it became Pandemonium.

The UK Subs after the concert: ‘Come back to play with us anytime!’

This was for us the first show with Kees on guitar.

Cheap ‘n’ Nasty, Kees in Venlo. Drummer Maarten on the left

On 21 March 1981, Cheap ‘n’ Nasty played again with the UK Subs, in the Effenaar in Eindhoven.

UK Subs and Cheap ‘n’ Nasty in Eindhoven, poster

Then, the Cheap ‘n’ Nasty Covergirl EP was in the pipeline to being released on our own Smashstick Plastics label. UK Subs bass player Alvin Gibbs wanted to buy the first copy. And, indeed, the first copy was mailed to Alvin in England.