The Unwanted
“…anyone could be in a band and didn’t’ necessarily require any talent, songs or musical ability but you could do it anyway. In the end the cream floats to the surface and the dregs float to the bottom. We were pretty down near the bottom in those days (lol) but it was a progression that led to the Specimen happening. I can see a direct evolution to what I’m doing now in Space Tribe. It’s the same attitude behind it.”
Ollie Wisdom, Punk77 interview, 2006
The Unwanted could be held up to be both what was possible in Punk rock and what was detested by so many others. A band who on their first gig, with no real talent for playing or writing songs get on stage and are captured for posterity on an album that goes Top 20. As a result they get gigs and a record contract, releasing two singles before giving up the ghost after multiple line up changes.
That said, this so called ‘talent less’ band gave the Psychedelic Furs a drummer Vince Ely and Guitarist – John Ashton and gave the Barracudas a guitarist Robbie. It would also spawn a few years later a club – The Batcave – the base for a whole musical movement called Goth, all under the direction of the Unwanted’s singer Ollie Wisdom who until his death in 2021 pursued a career in music as DJ for the very successful Space Tribe.
Don’t ever discount Punk or the attitude!
For Ollie Wisdom Punk Rock, like for so many teenagers, was just what they had been waiting for.
I was about 18 and it what I was always waiting for for years and it was the right thing at the right time. I went to to see the Sex Pistols and it totally inspired me and I just jumped in head first. The Sex Pistols were what turned me on and the way Malcolm McLaren marketed them was right up my alley.
Sleeve notes Secret Past: Unwanted LP: OLLIE WISDOM (19) Schooled in Hereford dropped from college in Hereford after serving 3 months of his sentence. Served in an office as a shipping clerk / dogsbody then left due to terminal boredom. Next year on social and selling clothes in Kings Road likes girls Debussy and speed
And the happening place for yer Punk Rock in early 1977 was the Roxy Club to which Ollie was a regular.
The Roxy was the first club that was a Punk club rather than just a night for Punk. For something to happen it needed to have a spiritual base somewhere rather than being scattered at the 100 Club here and a support slot there. A place where people could come and leap about on a nightly basis and gave it a home. The Sex Pistols had a following but they never had a base.
Fiona Dutton (Roxygoer) Our gang was Adrian (Thrills), Alan Anger, Sharon and Adie (brother and sister from Essex), Tony Drayton (Ripped & Torn fanzine), Eddie Duggan, Nicola Tyson (at school with my sister, now an artist living in New York), Pete Jennings, Dave Maher (who can vouch for the fact that it is unwise for boy’s to try to leapfrog pillar boxes when wearing bondage trousers!), Carl and Ritchie who used to have an old car painted up like a 50’s police car, Shanne and Shane (later of the Nipple Erectors), Ollie (Unwanted), Big Wally (Wally Davison), Little Wally, Mick Collins (school with Eddie) and a boy we used to call Cherry (real name Jeremy Healey who was about 13 at the time and who later was in Hayzee Fantayzee).
With no previous band experience Smak, as they were first called, came about very quickly in March 1977.
No.. the Unwanted was our first band and we put it together very quickly. I had a clothing stall in a place called Beaufort Market in the Kings Road selling punk clothes and we decided to do a band.
Sleeve notes Secret Past: Unwanted LP: [The band formed]from a meeting between Ollie a clothes shop proprietor in the Kings Road and Mark Curzon a student at a private educational establishment. Mark knew of Ollie’s guitarist requirement due to a notice pinned to the back of his vile leopard skin t shirt.
It’s true I put a notice on my back saying ‘Wanted: a guitarist. Enquire within’ and that’s how we met. The early band members were me, Mark Curzon, Danny Destroy (aka Danny Wilson) and Paul Grotesque (aka Paul Gardner) playing bass. Paul was just a mate who had never played, Mark taught him and we just picked up Danny the drummer from somewhere!
What happens next could only have happened in Punk Rock. After 2 short rehearsals the band blag their way into playing the Roxy Club. By chance the gig is being recorded for a live album and the Unwanted appear along with the Buzzcocks, Eater, X Ray Spex, Wire, Slaughter & The Dogs, the Adverts and Johnny Moped on the album.
The band would later visit EMI to help sort out the tapes. By then they had changed their name to the Unwanted after having a few problems with the name Smak and were treated to the dry sense of humour from EMI security.
Mike Thorne (Roxy WC2 Album Producer) They actually showed up at EMI to sort out the tapes one day, poked their heads around the corner and announced themselves to security and said “We’re the Unwanted” and security said “Oh, very sorry to hear that sonny.”
Ollie Wisdom (The Unwanted) It’s probably true (laughs) we were quite proud to be ‘unwanted’ at that time.
The Roxy album went top 20 giving a lot of exposure to the bands featured.
It was.. one of us could play a few chords on the guitar, we wrote a few songs and we blagged a gig. Suddenly we were getting offers to continue being a band and make records and it all really flowed from that. We were called Smak for our first gig actually, but Unwanted suited us better (laughs).
The album catches something, the chaos that was unleashed at the time.. anyone could be in a band and didn’t’ necessarily require any talent, songs or musical ability but you could do it anyway in the end the cream floats to the surface and the dregs float to the bottom. We were pretty down near the bottom in those days (lol).
The band and Ollie had no illusions about their prowess both live and in the studio. They knew why they were doing it, they hadn’t played many gigs and they were raw and learning. As such they were ripe for critical maulings.
Everyone gave us a pasting; deservedly so no doubt, but we didn’t care. We were having a laugh and we were making records.
Ian Hodge (the Worst) We did go to London to see X-Ray Spex and some band with a lead singer with used tampons tied to his t-shirt [the Unwanted]… now those things you don’t forget.
Jon Savage (Sounds 21.5.77 Man In The Moon) As Smak, I’d already given the Unwanted a pasting a few weeks back – in answer to your pesterings, guys, yes, you were better than last time. Still. Although they’ve ditched the ‘shock’ tactics and come on a bit more tight, with inklings of dress sense, they really aren’t great. The music is barely adequate; most of the songs -1984, ‘freedom’ – sound exactly the same. Lead singer Ollie tries very hard to be heavy but doesn’t make it – ‘cos he’s so obviously the punk-next-door on your TV sitcom. Somewhere near the last twitch, they do a splendidly awful version of ‘Chainsaw’ which makes me like them a bit more. Their third gig.
Paul Morley (NME 10.9.77 Barbarellas Punk festival) The Unwanted: sounding immediately tougher than the last time I saw them – in fact the Roxy recording date. Still a shambles. Mock-aggressive chip-on-the-shoulder riff-routines. Sludgy and dead-end. A song called “Fuck The Jubilee” outlined their subtle and unusual approach to the genre., whilst a meaningful rework of Nancy Sinatra’s “Boots (“These boots will kick the shit out of you”) soothed me to sleep.
George Webley (Blitz) I think the Unwanted was the first band we went to see at the Roxy, or was it Chelsea? Whoever, it made us realise “hang about, we can do this” because they were so terrible.
Songs in their set list throughout their history included
1. Fraulein
2. Secret Police
3. These Boots Are Made For Walkin’
4. Withdrawal
5. Bleak Outlook
6. 1984
7. I’m Not Me
8. End Is Nigh
9. Juvenile Delinquents
10. Freedom
11. Factory Floor
12. Destroy
13. Fuck The Jubilee
14. Chainsaw (Ramones Cover)
15. Probation Officer
To add to their punk credentials Ollie was arrested on June 2nd 1977 for nicking a union jack flag.
I did get arrested for stealing a flag at a party and someone grassed me up because their dad got cross. The police came to my squat where was living in Gypsy Hill but I wasn’t there when they knocked so they went in and the whole house was decorated in stolen union jacks from head to toe. They went into my room and took the biggest one as evidence and came back later to arrest me.
As a result of this Ollie would have to sign on regularly at the police station until his case came to court.
Straight on the back of the Roxy album came offers to record.
After the Roxy album we had 6 or 7 record companies who were happy to sign us without even hearing us.
With that in mind the band chose Raw Records, an independent label set up by Lee Wood in Cambridge that had already released two classic punk singles by the Users and Killjoys. Neither on reflection think this was a good move.
Ollie Wisdom (the Unwanted) A bad mistake I’d say. We were absolutely young and naive about the music business at that time and we got scrunched on by the first person who took into a studio really. We had a deal but we never saw any money basically but we didn’t care as long as we could put records out and could do gigs then we’d get paid for that. That was great.
Lee Wood (Raw Records) The Unwanted – totally untogether. I should have passed on them! I knew of them from the “Live At The Roxy” LP and I decided to sign them because of this and I thought they would be good and sell records. Bad Idea. Their first single is one of the worst selling singles on Raw. Probably sold around 500 copies.
The rollercoaster ride continued with some hard lessons
Six weeks after the Roxy album we had a single out on Raw. We got a management company which was the worst mistake we could have ever made. These are how you learn your lessons.
The single was 1984/ Bleak Outlook released in mid October and the band had already changed a couple of times. Danny had left to join the nascent Psychedelic Furs. He was replaced by Robbie (Aka Robin Wills) who was in the band for barely a few weeks in the summer.
Sleeve notes Secret Past: Unwanted LP: ROBBIE(17) Little known about this enigmatic character apart from the fact that the manager stole him from PEROXIDE ROMANCE. Likes; vile clothes and his vile drum kit.
Robbie departed not longer after joining after a chance meeting with Jeremy Gluck while the Unwanted supported Dead Fingers Talk at the Speakeasy
“There was a shady figure lurking nearby, apparently eavesdropping”, says Jeremy. “Thought nada of it. After my conversation with the broad concluded the lurker lurched forward and simply asked whether I had been discussing The Seeds. It was Robin, alright…and we soon were ranting and raving about our shared – and at that time, still niche – interests. A day or two later I went to the ‘burbs where Robin was living with his folks and he introduced me to his extraordinary record collection.” http://www.nkvdrecords.com/barracud.htm
The two formed a band called RAF with Robbie on guitar. That band would split and both would start the Barracudas who would achieve some success.
On drums was now Vince Elite (aka Vince Ely) who had joined mid 1977. Another change was on bass with John The Postman who had joined after Paul Grotesques smack habit got too much.
Sleeve notes Secret Past: Unwanted LP: DAVE POSTMAN (20) Likes lager and sleeping on the job. Plays cheapo fender bass copy and lent his 2nd cheapo fender to Sid Vicious. Was in Flowers of Romance with Sid.
This revolving door of band members pattern was to repeat itself for the rest of the bands life.
Left Ollie and Paul Grotesque. Right Vince Ely and Paul Curzon
Stuart Hall, Norwich Arts Centre 26.8.77 – Photo Credit by Allen Adams
By Christmas Vince had left the band and joined up with Mark ‘The Kid’ Ryan to form The Photons and the band on the side, The Moors Murderers, en route to joining the Psychedelic Furs in mid 1979.
The Unwanted continued playing
We did quite a few tours with Siouxsie as well and they were always really good. We played the Vortex, Roxy, Man In The Moon and wherever we could play.
Crowd reaction – pretty good most of the time.. good vibe with the crowd.. always quite wild and messy. Hard to know what it sounded like live because I was in the thick of it all you know but we went down well. The Banshees weren’t embarrassed to take us out on tour (laughs)
In spring Danny was back and a second single for Raw was recorded and was a total change with the more reggaesque tinged ‘Secret Police’ but backed by a ferocious sublime version of ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking.’ The single is not received well in the music press.
Summer 1978 saw Ollie’s case finally come up in court. He got off but with the bands manager, Ral Lofting, they concocted a story and fooled the NME about Ollie getting 6 months.
No that was just us bullshitting the press. The whole thing went to Crown Court a year later with me signing on twice a week and they made me bring the flagpole into court. They attached the flag and one end is on top and the other is trailing on the ground and the case is laughed out of court. We then phoned the NME and told them I got 6 months for it and they wrote the story on that. We were quite naughty.
This time also saw the departure of Paul Curzon the guitarist. His replacement was John Ashton who had come to London in 1977 to seek a band with his friend Dave Martin. While Martin scored straight away with Chelsea in October 1977 it was a longer wait for Ashton.
A third single was slated for the Unwanted (Memory Man/Guns Of Love) and they went into the studio in October 1978. The unpredictable Wilson failed to show and the band pressed on with an unsuccessful recording without him. The band fell apart. Both Danny and John were in the Psychedelic Furs within 2 weeks, Ollie upped sticks and left to travel and Dave? Well Dave stayed being a postman!
That was 1978 and punk had moved on…that was how it ended for the Unwanted. We had a shit manager, shit record company and you go only so far before it all implodes. There was nothing left to do and I went travelling in Africa for 6 months and I was already thinking about the Specimen.
And that was it for the Unwanted. But not for Ollie Wisdom. Ollie formed the Specimen in 1980 playing a punky pop glam goth sound, heavily stylised with clothes fashion and built around a club. He had learnt his lessons well.
Next time round when it came to the Specimen we made our own club, the Batcave, and Batcave album and controlled the whole night of entertainment. Fantastic learning experience and no regrets.
The Specimen and the Beauty Of Poison from the Riverside TV Programme
After the band [Specimen] split up in 1986 Olli went travelling in Asia and in 1988 came to Koh Phangan in Thailand where he first encountered the fantastic electro-driven wild psychedelic parties on the beach. He stayed there for 2 years, DJing, and set up a small studio and making tracks for the parties, before moving to Goa, India. Over the next 4 years, Olli spent his time mostly in Goa, but now starting to travel around making parties in other places (San Francisco, Switzerland, UK, Japan), spreading the word and turning people on.
In 1995, the first Space Tribe tracks were hatched in the studio and everything flowed from there. Olli moved out to the rainforest in Byron Bay in Australia, and set up the Rainforest Space Base studio. Space Tribe released the first album, ‘Sonic Mandala’ on Spirit Zone in 1996, and since then Space Tribe has released at least an album a year. Olli travels all over the world, playing live at parties and bringing joy to the thousands of dancers who know exactly why they are there. Space Tribe
Punk77: Best thing
Ollie: We had some moments musically when were touring with The Banshees…it was just a fantastic time and to surf that whole wave of chaos. It taught me so much.
Punk77: Worst moment
Ollie: There was nothing bad about it.. just a mad rush of all sorts and cruise along with.
Punk77: Ever tempted to remix the Unwanted?
Ollie: Nahhhh! (laughs)
Sadly Ollie passed away in August 2021
The Roxy London WC2 (EMI Harvest July 1977)
Slaughter & the Dogs: Runaway & Boston Babies
The Unwanted: Freedom
Wire: Lowdown & 12 X U
The Adverts: Bored Teenagers
Johnny Moped: Hard Loving Man
Eater: Don’t Need It & 15
X Ray Spex: Oh Bondage! Up Yours!
Buzzcocks: Breakdown & Love Battery
The Roxy Club was a famous club in London that gave a home to nascent punk bands and was important as a base for the emergent scene. Andy Czezowski and Barry Jones the owners had the idea to record a live album and capture the sights and sounds of the Roxy for posterity. This was duly done and released on Harvest EMI reaching the top 20 in the album charts in May 1977. The Unwanted AKA Smak were on this album.
In the NME of 20.8.77 Mike Thorne comments generously on their performance without actually saying they were bad!
Mike Thorne (Roxy WC2 Album Producer) Because when a group travels from beginning to end – the end is, uh, I hesitate to say ‘musical competence’ – there are stages they pass through where it’s struggling, fighting against limitations. And that is actually part of the energy. That’s part of it.
In actual fact the band weren’t even supposed to be there. They pulled a fast one!
Ollie Wisdom (the Unwanted aka Smak) We had two half hour rehearsals and blagged our way to a gig at the Roxy Club. We weren’t booked to play there at all. We just turned up and said ’You booked us.’ And they said ‘ooerr I don’t know about that’. We said ‘course you did. Do you think we would be here if you didn’t book us?’
Turned out that X Ray Spex were headlining and Eater and Slaughter & the Dogs were all playing and it was being recorded by EMI. It was our first ever gig. None of us had ever performed before and it was completely atrocious. We had five songs and we played four of them twice! It was pure Punk Rock. We just got it together. It just so happened that it got recorded and ended up as a chart album.
Reviews of their turn in weren’t all bad.
Julie Burchill (NME 2.7.77) The Unwanted have the definitive pogo song in “Freedom”, Boris The Spider spinning a 45 rpm web. Listen to this track to discover how they were named. No, despite the “raw nihilism” spiel (how can nihilism be raw?), they’re more all right here though live they’re probably grisly.
Jon Savage (Sounds 26.6.77)…and the Unwanted (then Smak) are just inept. I’ve been rude about them already in my review of the time, so it’s only fair to say it was their first gig and apparently they’ve got better. At least it’s something to show around.
RAW 6 – THE UNWANTED: Withdrawal/1984/Bleak Outlook
Punk77 says: I’ve no idea why this should have done so badly because it’s actually frikken good with heaven forbid ‘1984’ being ahead of its time with its almost hardcore double quick tempo. While the Killjoys and Users got some advertising this was left to fend for itself which it obviously wasn’t able to. Multiple line up changes and infrequent gigging didn’t help sales either. Cool sleeve though!
Also released on 12″ in 1978 with no picture cover.
RAW 15 – THE UNWANTED: Secret Police/These Boots Are Made For Walking
Having sold bugger all with their first single it’s a surprise to see the band make another single. No surprise though that half the line up has changed again!
Punk77 says: Yes it’s a brave attempt with a slower paced reggae tinged Secret Police and like their first single some thought has gone into the picture sleeve but it can’t disguise the fact that it’s a stinker. That said the cover version of These Boots Are Made For Walking is a stone dead, 100 carat punk beauty.
Vivien Goldman (Sounds 25.3.78) Raas Claat! Baame Claat! and so forth. ’78’s obviously the year all the bands have listened to so much reggae they don’t think twice about rehashing the clumsiest reproductions of reggae rhythm sections anymore than the Beatles thought anything was weird when they cut Motown tunes. Statutory punk/reality lyrics about shady men in shady macs, plain godawful neo-reggae myoozik.
Phillip Hall (Record Mirror 25.3.78) Now this is really is a good progressive punk record. Interesting vocals over a memorable Costello-ish reggae beat. Far more stimulating than any of the current sixties rehash sounds currently gaining so much publicity. Talking about the sixties, the B-side is an erratic, lively version of “These Boots Are Made For Walking” It would make Nancy Sinatra feel unwanted.
Live At The Vortex – 13.9.77
01. Juvenile Delinquents
02. Freedom
03. Factory Floor
04. Destroy
05. Bleak Outlook
06. These Boots Are Made For Walking
07. Withdrawal Symptoms
08. Fuck The Jubilee
09. 1984
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