Gerald Richard Hannah (also known as Gerry Useless) was the

bass guitarist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...

for the Canadian punk rock group The Subhumans. Hannah was also a member of the armed revolutionary group known as the

Squamish Five The Squamish Five (sometimes referred to as the Vancouver Five) were a group of self-styled "urban guerrillas" active in Canada during the early 1980s. Their chosen name was Direct Action. The five were Ann Hansen, Brent Taylor, Juliet Caroline ...

Musical career

Hannah was a member of the

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

-based punk rock band The Subhumans from 1978 to 1981. He reunited with his ex-bandmates for a few shows in 1995 and was part of an extended reunion between 2005 and 2010. The Subhumans were best known for their 1980 album ''Incorrect Thoughts''. The Subhumans also released ''New Dark Age Parade'' in 2006 and ''Death was too Kind'' in 2008. ''Same Thoughts, Different Day'', a re-recorded version of ''Incorrect Thoughts'', came out in 2010. In December 2014, Hannah released a solo indie folk-rock record ''Coming Home''. The album is a re-recording of selected tracks from ''Songs from Underground'' with some additional material. Most of the songs were written during his time with ''

Direct Action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

'' and his imprisonment. Hannah was an interviewee in '' Bloodied but Unbowed'', Susanne Tabata's 2011 documentary about Vancouver's early punk scene.

Squamish Five

Hannah was a member of the Squamish Five (known as the Vancouver Five in the alternative press and Direct Action internally), an anarchist group who carried out a political campaign of "

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

s", including the

bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...

of missile

guidance system A guidance system is a virtual or physical device, or a group of devices implementing a controlling the movement of a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or any other moving object. Guidance is the process of calculating the changes in po ...

manufacturer

Litton Industries Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States named after inventor Charles Litton Sr. During the 1960s, the company began acquiring many unrelated firms and became one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. ...

. In 1983, Hannah was convicted of conspiracy to rob an armoured car and possession of a stolen weapon, for which he received a ten-year prison sentence in

Matsqui Prison Matsqui is a former district municipality in British Columbia, Canada. It was incorporated in 1892 and merged with the district municipality of Abbotsford in 1995 to create the new City of Abbotsford. Matsqui used to be the western part of what is ...

. He was released on parole in 1988 after serving five years of his sentence.

References

External links

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Gerry Hannah
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hannah, Gerry Canadian anarchists Anarcho-punk musicians Living people Canadian punk rock bass guitarists Canadian indie rock musicians Subhumans (Canadian band) members Year of birth missing (living people)