Gerry Hannah

Who is Gerry Hannah?

Gerald Richard Hannah is the bass player for the punk rock group The Subhumans and was also a member of the militant environmental group Direct Action, also known as the Squamish Five and the Vancouver Five.

Squamish Five carried out a political campaign of "direct actions", including the Litton Industries bombing which produced guidance systems for American nuclear cruise missiles. Hannah was convicted of conspiracy to rob an armoured car and possession of a stolen weapon, for which he received a ten-year jail sentence. He was released after serving five years of his sentence. While in jail, he recorded two records of folk music, Songs from the Underground and Whereabouts Unknown, now very hard to find.

Hannah was also a member of the Vancouver punk band, the Subhumans, from 1978 to 1981, and has reunited with his ex-bandmates for a few shows in the '90s and for the official reunion in 2005. Gerry penned at least two classics of the genre, Slave to my Dick and F*ck You.

In 2004, Vancouver filmmaker, Glen Sanford, made a documentary movie about Gerry Hannah, called Useless.