GEORGE ROPER'S FAMILY TREE

Most of my friends were really crazy about the Subhumans, but somehow they never really registered with me. A bit too "rock", too proggy, too much genre-hopping within one song, or maybe it was because they emerged at the exact moment when I was going head-first into US fasterlouderstuff? My friends would buy all their records, and tape me stuff that I would listen to two or three times. The funny thing is, about two years later I was heavily into 60's/70's rock, having bought my emigrating hippie uncle's record collection, and I'd lend those same friends my Pink Floyd records because they'd heard the Subhumans were into them!
One of the first punk shows I saw were the Subhumans, A-Heads and (Dutch punkers) Hollands Glorie at local youth center Troll (which, hippie name notwithstanding, has seen lots of great punk bands throughout the years). For some reason the Subhumans went on before Hollands Glorie; some people came in late to discover they'd missed the headliners (which was pretty cool of course, just be there on time!). I remember being amazed at the way they looked: two longhairs, one regular-looking guy and on vocals (as my friend Rude Swearing put it) George Roper's son! Remember, this was back when people were counting eachothers studs to check out how punk they were. It was a great gig, but to be honest I don't remember much about the music, not knowing any of their songs. Apart from "No Thanks", their track on the Wessex '82 comp EP, which I didn't care much about although I was slightly intrigued by the lines "So they put you in the papers and worked out your family tree". A family tree? Like, your ancestors and stuff? A look at the sleeve's back cover cleared that one up: there was a huge family tree of the four bands on the EP, going back all the way to 1978 and featuring great names like Audio Torture, Maggotz, Stupid Humans (you guessed it, a forerunner of Subhumans!), etc. This must have been the start of my life-long fascination with family trees (god knows how many times I've tried to make one myself, for one result look here).
Listening to the Wessex '82 EP now, the Subhumans track still doesn't really rock my boat. But the other 3 bands have more than stood the test of time: Organized Chaos play some pretty fast and imaginative hardcore; A-Heads sound really slick and poppy but nice and punchy anyway. My fave song is the one by the Pagans (not to be confused etc...) though, a great dramatic melodic-but-rockin' track reminding me of The Wall more than a little.

Subhumans - No Thanks
Pagans - Wave Goodbye To Your Dreams
Organized Chaos - Victim
A-Heads - No Rule