About The Subways
The Subways are an English rock band from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. Formed in 2002, the band consists of Billy Lunn , Charlotte Cooper , and Camille Phillips . Founding member and original drummer Josh Morgan left the band for personal reasons in October 2020.
The Subways' debut album, Young for Eternity, was released on 4 July 2005 in the UK and 14 February 2006 in the U.S. Their second album, All or Nothing, was released on 30 June 2008 and their third album Money and Celebrity debuted on 19 September 2011. The band's self-titled fourth album was released on 9 February 2015, while their most-recent album, Uncertain Joys, debuted on 13 January 2023.
The Subways name comes from a time when brothers Billy Lunn and Josh Morgan and Charlotte Cooper used to hang around the local subway underpass which ran underneath a Welwyn Garden City roundabout. They began playing at an early age in Lunn and Morgan's home in Welwyn Garden City, first playing Nirvana, Green Day and other punk songs, under the name of Mustardseed. They later changed their name to Platypus, and began to tour small local venues, such as The Square in Harlow, Essex. An early CD of the band playing live was recorded at The Square which they sold at gigs.
The band released several demos and EPs in their early days when playing the London circuit in the UK. With every batch of new songs that The Subways would compose, Lunn would insist that the band record them. However, at such a young age the group had no money with which to go into a studio to record consistently, so they came upon the idea of buying their own cheap recording system at home. Eventually, the band had their own website, thesubways.net, which Lunn himself constructed and maintained, where they put all their new songs. Through the use of their own home recording system they now had roughly eight demos worth of songs both on the internet and being sent out to local and London promoters at various venues. The Subways then began touring in the local and London area playing regularly at the Buffalo Bar in Highbury and Islington.
Having the home recording system also proved useful for production: the band felt that it would not only benefit themselves, but other local bands who could not afford the studio prices, even in the Welwyn Garden City area. It was here that Billy and Charlotte both stumbled upon the opportunity that would eventually prove significant for the band. "I was producing a local Welwyn Garden City band in my front lounge one day and I noticed that it was quite good so I asked if they were going to send it to any London venues, because I knew a few that would like it. They said that they were going to send it off to Michael Eavis who runs Glastonbury Festival, and I asked why..." Michael Eavis that year was running an unsigned bands competition to play on the Other Stage, and The Subways decided that would be a great idea. "It was really just another address to send one of our CDs off to. All we wanted was to play shows and this was another great opportunity. The CD we sent off to Michael Eavis was literally one among a bunch of 30 that were being sent out to London promoters for a load of gigs we wanted to book. We never expected the phone call saying that we'd won and were to play Glastonbury", said Cooper on radio. The Subways remain friends with Eavis today, and have suggested that other upcoming bands should send demos to Eavis.
After Glastonbury, The Subways went on to play The Carling Weekend 2004 in both Reading and Leeds, and then proceeded to play their very first tour of the UK consisting of 35 dates.
Map & Directions To Venue
