"It's Friday night, we've gotta have some fun tonight"

GEMLP111 front cover GEMLP111 back cover

  • Above: Crash Course UK LP release, 1980, front and back covers.
    Click to enlarge.

Cat. No: GEMLP 111 (PL 43423)
Label: GEM
Recorded: 30th May 1980
Released: 12th September 1980

Side One:

C.I.D. (Harper, Anderson) 2.09
I Couldn't Be You (Presley, Arr. Harper) 1.57
I Live In A Car (Harper, Garratt, Slack ,Lions) 1.60
Tomorrows Girls (Harper) 2.17
Left For Dead (Harper, Garratt) 1.21
Kicks (Harper, Garratt) 1.39
Rat Race (Harper, Garratt) 1.44
New York State Police (Harper, Garratt, Slack) 2.19
Warhead (Slack, Harper) 3.20
Public Servant (Harper, Garratt) 1.46

Run-out groove: The Purple and black vinyl pressings have different info in the run-out grooves:
Purple Vinyl: GEM LP 111 - A - 1  A1B  'w'  TA1PE
Black Vinyl: GEM LP 111 - A - 2  (GEM 111 . A . 2)  TA1PE  A2A  W

Side Two:

Telephone Numbers (Harper, Garratt, Slack, Lions) 1.03
Organised Crime (Harper, Garratt) 1.55
Rockers (Harper, Garratt) 2.41
Brand New Age (Harper, Garratt) 1.25
Dirty Girls (Harper, Garratt) 1.35
The Same Thing (Harper, Slack) 1.12
Crash Course (Garratt, Harper, McCoy) 1.27
Teenage (Harper) 2.22
Killer (Harper, Garratt, Slack) 1.20
Emotional Blackmail (Harper, Garratt) 2.46

Run-out groove: The Purple and black vinyl pressings have different info in the run-out grooves:
Purple Vinyl: GEM LP 111 - B - 1  A 1 K  'w'
Black Vinyl: GEM - LP - 111 - B - 1  A2R  'w'

Line Up

Vocals: Charlie Harper
Guitar: Nicky Garratt
Bass: Paul Slack
Drums: Pete Davies

 

Recorded at The Rainbow theatre in London on the 30th May 1980, the penultimate gig of the Brand New Age tour and only five days before this line-up broke up. It has been said that Charlie was so drunk during the gig that some of the vocals had to be re-recorded (Source: Paul Mileman, Official UK Subs website). Mixed at Matrix Studios by Nicky Garratt and Nick Bedford, the audience sound track was taken from a Lyceum gig (Possibly the For Export Only show) as the sound wasn't good enough due the way the mikes were hung.
To give some depth, a little Gong from a show in Paris was also added, though it is not known if this means a gong as it is printed with a capital letter, in the Captain Oi cd liner notes, and may mean the sixties psychedelic band?

All the vocals were re-recorded as Charlie hadn't been happy about the whole concert in the first place and was a bit worse for wear having been drinking all day, and as Alvin notes in his exclusive memoirs for T&M "...on the recording, on just about every song, he was late coming in with his vocals, slurred and forgot his words, screamed obscenities in random places and generally did his best to subvert the proceedings."

The first Subs album to go Gold (over 150,000 sales, see images below), Crash Course entered the UK album charts on the 27th of September, peaking at number 8 and dropping out after six weeks. (Source: Guinness Book of British Hits Albums, sixth edition)

All the purple vinyl releases and a limited number of the black vinyl copies (30,000 in total) included the 12" EP
For Export Only.

The photograph on the back cover was taken out the back of The Greyhound in Fulham, London, on the 26th of April 1980, just before the band went back on stage to play an encore for an under 20s matinee performance.

The shape on the vinyl is actually different between the purple and black vinyl pressings.
The black version is a heavier weight with a half inch ridge around the edge of the label and a larger run-out groove on side one.

 

Click on images to enlarge

GMLP111 purple side 1 Purple Vinyl Side 1 GEMLP111 purple side 2 Purple Vinyl Side 2
GMLP111 black side 1 Black Vinyl Side 1  GEMLP111 black side 2 Black Vinyl Side 2

 

Crash Course white label on Ebay

  • Above: Some nutter paid £360.00 for this white label copy!
    Err, there's some images below. Embarassed

 

White label a-side White label a-side White label b-side White label b-side

 

Info sheet page 1 of 2 Info sheet page 2 of 2

  • Above: RCA product information sheets.

 

Charlie and Nicky with their Crash Course gold disc

  • Above: Charlie and Nicky with their Crash Course gold disc.

Image from ebay auction September 2008 Image from ebay auction September 2008

Image from ebay auction September 2008

Image from ebay auction September 2008

Above: Images taken from an ebay auction in September 2008.
David Simone was the Managing Director* at GEM records, and it was his Gold disc that sold on ebay for £500.
If you were the lucky winner and can provide us with some better images please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 *Thanks to Pete Davies for this info

  • Above: Album review, NME, 27th September 1980, page 39

If you have any additional information on this release, please get in touch:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

To view the next UK Subs A-Z LP release: CLICK HERE