One man that always pops into my mind when I think of Rebellion is SUBHUMANS / CITIZEN FISH / CULTURE SHOCK singer and age-defying renaissance man, Dick Lucas. The following is kinda sorta a rebellion spotlight interview. Kind of.

I reached out to Dick about doing a Rebellion Spotlight Interview over the interwebs, but I didn't hear back, and there could be at least three reasons for this:

Dick Lucas doesn't check his email all that much because it is annoying and he prefers to interact face-to-face and he is very busy touring, living life, and being Dick Lucas.
It could be that Dick was gracious enough to make time for an interview with me before his gig at the legendary OTTOBAR in Baltimore last year. But, the outlet that published the piece, a California-based music and lifestyle magazine, was going through some editorial changes at the time, resulting in a slow publication process. In my opinion, the best bits were also edited out. Although I still felt the piece was good and funny, I believe it could have been much better if it had been released in a timely manner. Perhaps this would have helped the band sell a few more tickets. Maybe Dick felt the same way and thought, "I don't want to be a part of any more of this guy's shenanigans."
Most likely, it’s that I am an old geezer who refuses to put on my readers and often sends emails to the wrong people or does not send them at all when I think I did. I might have even sent this interview request to myself. I don’t understand. I yell at these gadgets and they still don't work the way I want them to.

In any case, by the time I realized I had not heard from Dick (another old man mistake), it was too late to try and follow up, and I was sad because I like Dick, all his bands, and I think he is a big part of Rebellion for all of us. I very much wanted to include him and share great photos that I feel almost capture his magic. So I listened to the tape of last year’s interview and decided to redo the piece and turn it into a Rebellion Spotlight, as it was all the Rebellion and Steve Ignorant content that got cut out of the original piece – not that many of you read it anyway. The original piece was called:

Dick on Dick: Interview with Dick Lucas of the SUBHUMANS

You can google it if you dare. It will be the 17th or so result after a lot of other Dicks. When I say Dick Lucas is a Renaissance man, it’s no exaggeration. Dick is a musician, a novelist, runs a record label, writes poetry, paints, hosted interviews on BluurgTV during the lockdown, is a true philosopher, and has a unique passion that we share (which I sadly forgot to bring up in the interview) — he is a very accomplished balancer of objects, mostly rocks. He is also playing in three bands at Rebellion Festival this year. SUBHUMANS, CITIZEN FISH, and CULTURE SHOCK. Below are all the good and Rebellion-y bits that were cut out.

Dick Slaughter: I really love your paintings. Can we talk about that a little? What inspired you to start? How do you pick your subject matter?

Dick Lucas: I started painting just to see how it went in the mid-90s as I was never very good at it when I was a kid. Thought I would sort of give it another go and I just love doing it. Then someone told me about Instagram and I thought–ok, that’s a good place to put my paintings because people can see ‘em. Because Instagram is far more based on visuals and that is what paintings are. I have never joined Facebook; I tried Myspace and it was just stupid. Spending all day having people you don’t know asking how you are – I was bored shitless telling people I don’t know how I am. This social media stuff is far over-praised. It could be good, just like television could be good, but it is all misused and there is more dumbing down than enlightenment that takes place.

This–three-dimensional thing is how it was and how it fucking should be. Painting-wise, my favorite subject is the sea. I do like the sea, just trying to capture the movement, a sort of fairly realistic picture of how it looks. With most things, having to be accurate with people’s faces and stuff, it's very difficult to get. With the sea and rocks and natural stuff, you can add a bit of surrealism in there and just go a bit offkey and do it in different colors than it should be. And it is a great way to relax and get away from the madness of the world.

Dick S: Are you still doing Bluurg TV?

Dick L: It’s on permanent hold. It matched in with the lockdown situation in the UK. Coincident to that my partner Michelle and I sort of started it up, she got working with Rockaway Park who are nearby to us–they’re a unique venue, basically a very large communal living space: they do live shows, have a vegan cafe, they grow their own food, they’ve got a printer of t-shirts, people doing iron and metal work building things out of scrap and just housing people for a nominal rent–that sort of thing. It’s communal living in the best way it possibly could be, totally DIY and Michelle works on their behalf sort of doing online stuff promoting what they do. She just doesn’t have the time and basically, once lockdown ended, far fewer bands were sending us stuff to put out on Bluurg TV. The input was not coming in and we almost ran out of friends to ask for material. It is all permanently there as a lot of it is timeless being punk rock.

Dick S: So, Baltimore! Is this your first time here?

Dick L: Oh no, we’ve been here several times. The OTTO BAR is a really good venue: they've got a fantastic PA and the crowd is always good.

Dick S: Have you seen any of Baltimore? Have you been to Red Emma’s or other great book or record stores?

Dick L: No it is the same in most cities wherever we are. We go to the venue, we hang around for a bit, by that time most of the stuff to see is closed. So No the reality is we have been everywhere and seen nothing.

Dick S: Dogs or Cats?

Dick L: Cats (laughs)

Dick S: What was the last gift you gave or received that you enjoyed?

Dick L: (thinking for a moment) Oh – I gave Oscar to the punk rock museum that is being built in Vegas. Oscar is a small red plastic squeaky fish that appears squeaking on the start of “Walls of Silence”-- he’s been sitting on the window sill staring out for decades. They want 3-dimensional stuff or the museum and we haven’t got anything. I don't have any old microphones. I've thrown away my old leather jacket. We don’t have old guitars to give away, so Oscar is the last 3-dimensional link we had to the past.

In Spite Magazine - dick lucus of the subhumans-19.jpg

In Spite Magazine -Dick Lucuas of the Subhumans-4.jpg

In Spite Magazine -Dick Lucuas of the Subhumans-3.jpg

In Spite Magazine - dick lucus of the subhumans-5.jpg

*Dick Lucas of the Subhumans at the Otto Bar in Baltimore Maryland. All Photos courtesy* *©dickslaughter.com*

Dick S: How many times have you played at Punk Rock Bowling?

Dick L: We’ve played there 2 or 3 times over the years.

Dick S: How did you enjoy that?

Dick L: Yeah, it is just so different, it is hard not to enjoy some aspect of it. Just the madness of all these punks in the middle of Vegas that becomes the normality that you attach yourself to because Vegas is just too surreal and bizarre.

Dick S: I love Punk Rock Bowling partly because a lot of people are still so taken aback by the punks. It is hilarious to see the little old lady and the guy with the mohawk sitting side by side on the slot machines. I think of it as sort of like the American Rebellion.

Dick L: Yes, it sort of is.

Dick S: You guys play Rebellion Every year. You seem to really love it.

Dick L: Oh yes, we do love it. We play every year. The best thing about Rebellion is meeting the people you haven’t seen in a year. It's like a big family gathering. The best thing about Rebellion is the socialization. For a lot of people it’s not about seeing this band or that band, no, because you can plan it all you want but you’ll get caught up in a conversation and before you know it you’ve missed that band. I mean for me, it is socialization and meeting people, meeting new people that you would otherwise never meet. They travel across the planet to get there, you know.

Dick S: What do you think of this whole punk resurgence? It seems like the SUBHUMANS are more popular now than you’ve ever been.

Dick L: It’s hard to judge, but people keep turning up.

Dick S: Any new bands you’re listening to? Do you know the Viagra Boys, Amyl and the Sniffers, Bob Vylan?

Dick l: Oh yes, Bob Vylan–very impressive. He's got the heart and soul.

Dick S: Steve and Crass. I am surprised you guys have never toured together.

Dick L: Um, people have never set up tours of one headline band with another headline band - you know, it's just never happened. We played with Conflict in the 80s like four times but we never went on tour because you would have Subhumans this week and Conflict the next and we were both the headliner. But yeah, it would be great to do a tour with Steve, but nothing like that is planned.

Dick S: I saw your interview with Steve on blogtv and you seemed like old buddies. It was a good interview.

Dick L: You know, that was the first conversion we had that lasted more than 5 minutes.

Dick S: Really?

Dick L: Yea you know, previously it was always five minutes max before someone would be butting in asking one of us, can you do this or that? But yeah, that was quite a good interview. We had a good chat.

Dick S: Do You Smoke Weed?

Dick L: I do at home, yes.

Dick S: So you are in favor of legalization?

Dick L: Yes - well, you see, New York has gone one better, they’ve decriminalized it. I’ll point out the difference:

“Once you legalize it, people start stacking on taxes and shit. But if you decriminalize it, you can just buy it from the same people you always have and not get arrested, so it’s much better that way.”

Dick S: We’re almost done. What is in your pockets?

Dick L: In my pockets? My hand.

Dick S: Just your hand?

Dick L: In these pockets, yes. I’ve got lots of pockets: in this one, I have me phone, obviously.

Dick S: Smartphone or old phone?

Dick L: It’s very smart. It kind of needs to be. Some SUBHUMANS stickers. I have always got at least three of these. I got my tobacco and a lighter and some lockets which are like throat lozenges cause I’ve been coughing so much. Sorry, nothing too interesting. Good question, though.