Wasps

The Wasps are a classic "here today, gone tomorrow" band of Britain's 1977 punk wave, occupying a nether region alongside second-stringers like the Cortinas, Drones, and Suburban Studs. The quartet managed just two singles and two compilation track appearances during its abbreviated lifetime. What's more, they lacked a central London address to provide them with instant street credibility; guitarist Gary Wellman, vocalist Jesse Lynn-Dean, drummer John Rich, and bassist Steve Wollaston hailed from the capital city's less glamorous borough of Walthamstow. However, they were teenage regulars to the Roxy, and felt sufficiently aroused by what was happening there to form a band. Fourplay Records issued the Wasps' debut effort in November 1977; "She Made Magic"/"Teenage Treats" is generally rated as a classic one-off single of the era. The Wasps next appeared on December 1977's Live at the Vortex compilation, which followed similar affairs taped at the Roxy and CBGB's. The band contributed a breathless (and presciently titled) original, "Can't Wait 'Til '78," and a suitably jittery romp through the Velvet Underground's "Waiting for My Man," which became an obligatory cover. (Eater, Slaughter & the Dogs, and the U.K. Subs quickly followed with their own versions.) Music writers panned the album as reheated punk leftovers, which aroused a passionately defensive letter from Lynn-Dean himself. The stunt kept the band in print and bought time to ponder its future, which became clearer in March 1978. A feature in Sounds showed the Wasps attired in three-piece suits, which seemed to suggest a distancing from their slam-bang punk roots. The band had also acquired its own PR man in Giovanni Dadomo, one of the first journalists to chronicle the punk scene. With "proper" management --...