The Subway Organization 1986-1989
Auszug aus den Linernotes der gleichnamigen Compilation-CD, erschienen auf Cherry Red Records am 10. Mai 2005.
Maybe you had to be there to appreciate it, but believe me, the early eighties were desperate times for pop fans. Punk had mutated. At one end of the scale it had become Goth; the theatrical and slightly more grown up second cousin of New Romantic. At the other end, a broad spectrum of mohicans and bondage trousers. Both ends seemed more interested in the dressing up box than the 7″ box. Oi! and Psychobilly – a good scrap set to a mediocre tune. Whether you listened to the Redskins or Grass, polemic was more important than melody. In the NME, „Jazz“ was where it was at. Whether it was Kid Creole and The Coconuts, or the home grown vibes of Weekend or Pigbag, no one got taken seriously without some brass in their line up.
Then in 1984 came the first trickle of bands that were rediscovering pop music. Music that doesn’t need to have a reason to be made, other than the pleasure and vitality of its existence.
In summer 1985, growing out of „The Underground“ fanzine, The Subway Organization released the first of a series of singles and albums that made it a major icon of the late 80’s indie pop scene.
To call Subway a cottage industry would exaggerate any sense of business or planning. „Bedroom enterprise“ might be more appropriate. Sleeves were printed cheaply, hand folded and stuffed into polythene 7″ bags, together with the obligatory picture insert. The philosophy was simple… when you hear a great pop song, get the band, to record it, then press it up as a record, and send copies to the music papers and radio stations. No time for contracts and hang the cash flow projection – just get the song out there. It was „music“, without the „industry“. If artists were asked to make an album, like Rodney Allen or The Chesterfields were, it was because they had an album of great songs in their sets, not because the financial projection showed it was necessary to recoup the PR spend and Video shoot for the debut single. Some bands only had a couple of blistering tunes – so why ask them to make a mediocre album when they could make a brilliant 7″?
It was never on Subway’s agenda to be „awkward“. At it’s heart it was a pop label, but these were records that were released because they were a bit different. They stood out from the pile of demos that were sent to the fanzine and label. Nearly 2O years on, many bands have come and gone which have been influenced by that period in pop, but this is what one label was doing at the time. Oh, and by the way… for all the historians, sociologists and pundits say… we did it ‚cos it was fun.
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Subway’s whole raison d’etre was simply to make sorne great pop recordings available to other music fans. With no business plan, no promotional budget, no business experience and less common sense, Subway was doomed to crash and burn. It’s a wonder that during its brief but bright existence it managed to release 27 singles and 15 albums before it did.
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"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." - George Best --- Dienstags und donnerstags, ab 20 Uhr, samstags ab 20.30 Uhr: Radio StoneFM