Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The Subhumans Are Home!

There's no place like home. Finally I'm well enough to write here again. We all got brutally ill on the New Dark Age Parade tour and I'm only just starting to recover. This is gonna be short. I'll talk about the tour and other stuff later. I just wanted to say thanks to all of the excellent people that helped us out on the tour and thanks to all of our dedicated fans that braved all sorts of weather to come out and see us. You people made it worthwhile and are greatly appreciated. We'll talk more soon.

7 comments:

Gerry Hannah said...

Hey Spuzzum,

I'm the wrong person to be asking about keeping warm. I'm always fucking freezing (except in the summer). I've found the farther you stay away from large bodies of water (the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, Lake Ontario, etc.), the easier it is to endure the cold. Also, the cold seems nicer if you don't have a cold (I still have mine).

Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

Merry Christmas to the Subhuman Santas. Do not know your plans but a live concert in Pigeon Park this spring would be nice. Counting on you to gather force and attack on Canada Day 2007. Would also like to see you guys playing between races at Hastings Park, then again I'd like to see a 3-year-old win the B.C. Derby blinkered in DOA red, white and black colours.

Like I have said to the Drive-By Truckers, you motherfuckers have got it in you to make a record better than the Sex Pistols'. The Drive-Bys may have it in them, like Kiki fucking Dee did, but I do not think they will do it.

You fuckers can do it. You have come fucking close twice before.

Maybe Anne Murray will sing some backing vocals to put you Over The Top.

Gerry Hannah said...

Mr. Beer n. Hockey,
I've gotta say that's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about the band (us having it in us to make a record better than the Sex Pistols). I don't know if I agree with you or not, but still, a hell of a nice thing to say. A gig on Canaduh Day you say? Sounds like a good idea to me. I'll run it by the rest of the crew.

Hey Spuzzum, I don't know Peggy Lee's stuff that well, nor have I done much session stuff, but hell, I'll try anything once (well, almost anything). Especially if there's no money in it and the album is likely to remain obscure. Hell, that's my specialty!

Anonymous said...

Hey Gerry Hannah,

For lack of anywhere else to ask this - where can one get a copy of the movie USELESS? Any tips on where to order it?

Also, are there any articles or things out there about where your other Squamish 5 co-defendents are these days, besides Ann Hansen? Or about y'alls legal experiences after the convictions? There's alot of stuff about pre-trial, yet I don't understand how a life sentence for Ann meant only serving 7 years. Are things that different in Canada than the U.S.? I know all this was a long time ago -- so I don't stand if you don't talk about it.

Could I email you some questions about this stuff? An an activist I'm really interested in learning from the histories and experiences of other militants and radicals in North America, especially between the 80's and now.

Anyway, if I can correpsond with you via email... please let me know.

Cheers,
Questions, questions, questions.

Anonymous said...

About the above:

"so I don't stand if you don't talk about it."

I'm crazy: meant to say I understand, if you don't want to talk about it.

Cheers,
?'s, ?'s,?'s

Gerry Hannah said...

Hello anonymous,

At the moment, to my knowledge there are no more copies of the movie, "Useless" available to the public. That could change in the future. In fact, the guy that made the movie, Glen Sanford is talking about releasing it on DVD at some point (it was only available in VHS format). He's a very busy guy though so it could take awhile.... If it becomes available again I'll mention it on this blog spot as well as our Subhumans website.

As to articles dealing with the various members of Direct Action's (the "Squamish Five")experiences after our arrest, I think it would be very hard to find any of the stuff that was being circulated around Vancouver back then. You could check on the internet for titles like, "The Open Road", "BC Blackout", "Resistance" and "Free the Five Newsletter", but I don't know how much success you'd have. Also, you could see if you could get your hands on some copies of "Maximum Rock'n Roll" from San Francisco from around that time. They took a great interest in our trial and imprisonment and even published a few articles by me when I was in prison.

As far as Ann Hansen's life sentence goes, in Canada a "life sentence" means that the sentenced person is on parole for life. The person has to regularly report to a parole officer, they are subject to special restrictions in terms of movement and association and they can be sent back to prison to continue serving their sentence at any time should the parole board deem that necessary. There are 3 different types of life sentences: serving a minimum of 7 years in prison before being eligible for a parole board hearing and possible release (for lesser offences), serving a minimum of 10 years in prison before being eligible for a possible release (for more serious offences) and serving a minimum of 25 years in prison before being eligible for possible release (for the most serious offences). This latter catagory of people in fact, often never get out. Their requests for release just keep getting turned down by the parole board. The parole board can keep any one of these catagories of people in prison for life if they choose to do so. Ann was sentenced to life in the first catagory and she was released after 7 years because she was deemed to be a model prisoner.

Unfortunately, I have to say I'm not into answering a bunch of questions about my experiences via email. No offense, you're probably a very nice, well-meaning person, but I'm a very slow typist, I don't like sitting in front of a computer that much and I find I already don't have time to do the things I need to do without taking on yet another project. I do interviews with media sometimes and talk about my experiences with Direct Action, but that's because I promised the record labels I would (plus my comments are reaching awhole bunch of people at once rather than just one person). Thanks for taking an interest in our experiences though and best of luck (I do plan on writing stuff about Direct Action on this blog spot eventually and maybe some day, who knows, I might write a book).

Anonymous said...

Having been fortunate enough to be in Vancouver (Surrey actually) during the rise of the Subhumans and other great bands of the era, I just want to take this opportunity to give you a THANK YOU for the amazing times, and also for changing my mind to accept "incorrect thoughts". You and the band have been a huge part of my life (even though I've never met you guys). I wish you guys the best of lives.