Punk legend Charlie Harper might have recently announced the UK Subs’ final tour dates for 2027, but he’s still making new music.
The 82-year-old has teamed up with Peter And The Test Tube Babies guitarist Del Greening to form a new band, Derik & The Disasters.
Today they released their first track, New Palestine, which is being released as a 7in single ahead of their self-titled debut album, which is out on 30 October via Damaged Goods Records.
The pair are joined in the band by Vicky Smith from the Ramonas on bass and Marley Perez, Charlie’s grandson, on drums.
“When I was a teenager, Charlie Harper was my hero,” admits Greening. “I saw him on Top of the Pops snarling through Stranglehold like a man trying to start a riot on his own, and that was it. I was in.
“Not long after, I was crushed against the front barrier at Crawley Leisure Centre, watching the UK Subs, half suffocated, probably deaf for three days and loving every second of it.
“I met Charlie a few times over the years. Always seemed like a decent chap. Then he started turning up at Peter And The Test Tube Babies gigs, not just casually, either. Every time I looked up, there he was, front row, arms folded, watching my hands like a mechanic inspecting a suspicious engine noise.
“Slightly unnerving, if I’m honest. I kept thinking, what does he want? Should I be playing better? Afterwards, he’d come over. ‘Love your guitar playing. We should do a project together…'”
With Charlie and Del both based in Brighton, athey both had time to start something new and fresh. With no rehearsals, no pre-production and some skeletal song ideas, Del, Charlie, Vicky and Marley headed to Brighton Road recording studios and got to work in October 2025.
“We set up, and Charlie suggested we just start jamming until something happens,” laughs Del. “I fucking hate jamming, I find it pointless. So, I voiced my opinion. “What’s the point of just endlessly jamming for hours in a studio that we’re paying for? It’s not as if a hit is just going to suddenly pop up from nowhere.” ‘That’s how I wrote Stranglehold‘ Charlie snapped back. Fair point!
“He also mentioned that the Subs’ classic track Warhead had also emerged from a jam but had been discarded and disliked by ex-guitarist Nicky Garrett and ex-bassist Paul Slack and had been thrown in the bin, which he retrieved. ‘The song outlived them both.’ Charlie laughed. Was that our first argument? I’m not sure. I knew there weren’t gonna be many.
“We’d finally got everything plugged in and ready to record, guitars humming with feedback, everyone poised to go, then Charlie would suddenly start telling a story. Ten minutes later, he’d forgotten who the story was about, where it happened, or why he’d started telling it in the first place.
“By the end, even Charlie looked confused! He then suggested a couple of chords, A and C, and after going around in circles for 20 minutes, nothing seemed to be happening. That’s when I got out my latest song, Deadlines. I had typed out the chord sheets, arrangement and lyrics, and I distributed them around the studio floor for everyone to see. We tried it, and it sounded fantastic.
“We then did another one of Charlie’s, Cyber War, and the original jam produced Divide, then I threw in another riff, Lost, which I’d based around a brass riff idea that I’d written on my son‘s Casio keyboard he had used for his school music lessons. Not a bad result, four songs in one six-hour session. Third of an album, maybe?”
With four songs written in the first six-hour session. Somehow, against all the odds, Charlie’s completely chaotic method was working. With most of Marley’s drums recorded and him now away on tour, the sessions moved to (engineer) Ali Gavin’s tiny back-garden studio in Aulburn Village in Mid Sussex.
“The routine quickly settled in,” explains Del. “Ali engineered. I layered guitars and vocals. Charlie sat behind us, throwing in ideas, stories, lyrics, or complete confusion, depending on the hour. Somehow, out of all that chaos, the album slowly began to take shape.”
However, a brief period of ill health for Charlie led to the Disasters working on some songs without him. “The three of us ended up recording a couple of new tracks, Scars and The Disasters. Vicky played bass while Ali engineered, then jumped behind the drums while I handled the guitars. We sent the rough tracks over to Charlie. He loved them.
“By the final sessions, the album had become something none of us had expected. Not really a Subs record and not really mine or a Charlie solo record. Something completely different.”
“What I wanted on this album,” Charlie said, “Was that thing you do at the end of the Test Tubes set. Peter’s already gone for a beer, but you’re still out there, stretching the guitar out, and the crowd are hanging on every note. “That’s what I wanted, and that’s what you gave me.”
- Derik & The Disasters’ self-titled debut album can be pre-ordered now from Damaged Goods Records HERE.
