Subway Sect
Subway Sect were one of the original British punk bands.
The core of the band was singer/songwriter, Vic Godard, plus assorted soul fans, who congregated around early gigs by the Sex Pistols until Malcolm McLaren suggested they formed their own band.
Subway Sect were among the performers at the 100 Club Punk Festival on Monday, September 21, 1976 - sharing the bill with Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Clash and the Sex Pistols. The first lineup of Godard on vocals, Paul Packham on drums, Paul Myers on bass and Rob Symmons on guitar lasted for 4 gigs before Mark Laff replaced Packham. Laff himself would leave for fellow punk group Generation X after the White Riot tour. A third drummer, Bob Ward, was recruited, and it is this lineup that can be heard on the band's first John Peel session and also on the single Nobody's Scared. This was the first and only release on Braik Records, a label owned by Bernie Rhodes, who managed both Subway Sect and The Clash. Rhodes subsequently supervised the recording of their debut album at Gooseberry Studios in London, with Clash sound man and producer Mickey Foote at the production helm. At that time the band toured intensively with the Sex Pistols, The Clash and others.
However, just as their first album was ready for release, for reasons that remain obscure, Rhodes sacked all the band (except Godard) and Subway Sect mark 1 ceased to exist. The album was never released, although a single from the sessions Ambition was released on Rough Trade Records, with the B-side Different Story (Rock and Roll Even) also taken from the same sessions. A further track Parallel Lines was released as a free disc with NME magazine.
Godard put together the pieces, and Subway Sect mark 2 was formed, and the band finally released their first album "What's the Matter, Boy?" in 1980. The album features many songs written during the previous incarnation of the band, but performed with radically altered arrangements. By this time, Godard had become increasingly influenced by early rockabilly, and the "first wave" of rock and roll (Sun Records session era Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran etc.). This was just a few years before the rockabilly revival, and the album was ignored as being 'retro'. Ignoring this, Godard then went even further back in time, and later releases showed the influence of the "rat pack" (Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra), and even swing bands of the 1940s, many years before these sounds became fashionable. Facing dwindling sales, Godard eventually packed in the music business and became a postman.
In 1982, former Subway Sect members - guitarist Rob Marche, keyboardist Dave Collard, bassist Chris Bostock and drummer Sean McLusky - teamed up with American singer, Dig Wayne and formed the band Jo Boxers which had two UK Top 10 hits.
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