The Subways Artistfacts

2000-
Billy LunnLead Vocals, Guitar2000-
Charlotte CooperBass, Backing Vocals2000-
Josh MorganDrums2000-2020
Camille PhillipsDrums2021-
The name of the band comes from where the band members used to hang out in their hometown of Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, as teenagers - a UK subway is merely an underground footpath, rather than a railway line, and the one the band got their inspiration from was one running under a roundabout junction.
Singer Billy Lunn and drummer Josh Morgan are actually brothers - Lunn's birth surname is Morgan, with Lunn being a stage name he takes on.
From early on, Lunn and Cooper were actually an item, and dated up until the recording sessions for second album All Or Nothing, when they split up. Both noted in press interviews that the breakup was amicable, although there is a clear sense of emotion emanating from this split in the lyrics on the All Or Nothing album (see "I Won't Let You Down" and "Strawberry Blonde").

Both later married new partners, and have remained on very good terms ever since, however Lunn did revisit the breakup on a song from their fourth album called "Taking All The Blame," letting Cooper write and sing vocals for the second verse, and using the song as a way of apologizing for acting poorly during the breakup period. Nonetheless, like Fleetwood Mac, they managed to do the impossible: survive a breakup within the band and keep going.
They started out playing Green Day and Nirvana covers under the name Mustardseed, before changing their name to Platypus and then settling on The Subways. The Square in Harlow was an early haunt of theirs, as was the Buffalo Bar in Highbury and Islington.
The band had a completely DIY approach in their early days. Realizing quickly that they had neither the money nor the exposure to gain a recording contract or record in a professional studio, Lunn put together a cheap home setup to allow the band to record demos to send out to promoters. He also constructed a website for the band, thesubways.net (which is still in use to this day as the band's official website) in order for them to host the demos and music online, furthering their exposure. Lunn also used it as a way of helping to promote other bands in the local area, charging much cheaper studio rates than professional studios in the area and producing for other local bands.
One local band alerted The Subways to a competition being run by Micheal Eavis, head of the Glastonbury Festival, looking for unsigned talent to perform at the festival. The band hastily submitted a demo, not expecting to hear anything back, only to be told they had won the contest and were to play the festival. They have since remained on good terms with Eavis and encourage other unsigned bands to submit their demos to him.
After their Glastonbury 2004 performance, they then backed that up with performances at Reading and Leeds Festival 2004 and a totally self-funded 35-date tour of the UK. This led to being signed to City Pavement & Infectious Records, which allowed them to fully record and release their first studio album, Young for Eternity, in 2005, with Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie producing.

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