U.K. Subs play ??? in Warsaw, Poland - 2 shows

 

Line up:
Charlie Harper - vocals
Nicky Garratt - guitar
Alvin Gibbs - bass 
Kim Wylie - drums

11th and final date of Polish tour with Republika.

The tour was covered by Magazyn Muzyczny

Nicky Garratt describes the tour on his NRA website;

"The Uk Subs became the first punk rock band to enter Communist Poland for a tour. The opening band were Republika the #1 alternative band in the country. Laura took on the task of tour manager for this the last tour of the Garratt/Gibbs/Harper line-up (until 1997 that is). We needed a sound engineer and persuaded Dave leaper, who was the sound man back in the Supermusic days, to come along.

The Polish tour was bizarre. We were paid vast sums of local currency which had no exchange rate and bought only the most mundane articles in the stores. (the exception of pottery and glassware which I bought in abundance). The shows extended over a two week period traveling by bus. The promoter, Greg Kuczynski, provided a PA (of sorts), road crew of about a dozen, lights and accommodation. The venues were mostly sports stadiums ranging incapacity from 5,000 to 12,000 and the audience was about equally split between Republika fans and UK Sub fans varying from night to night. The shows went well and were peaceful for the most part, except one night when the crowds didn't leave the stadium fast enough and the police (In riot gear) fired tear gas into the middle of the audience.

All the shows were at capacity and on our final show in Warsaw we did two shows to over 10,000 people per show making it our biggest ever headlining show. Then it was all over!"

 

Thanks to Dave Leaper for getting in touch with the dates for this tour.

 

From the Mark Chadderton U.K. Subs collection 

  • Above: Gibbs, Wylie, Garratt & Harper, circa 1982.
    Click to enlarge.

 

 

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