The Wasps

The Wasps story is an incredibly complicated one not for its long history, but for the labyrinthine, complex legal arrangements bands sometimes without knowing get themselves bound up in when all they want is to just play and write songs. Sometimes it’s record companies with royalties, advances, and publishing tying bands in legal and financial knots. In this case, it’s managers with stakes in bands holding out for a big deal who are due a piece of any success a band has and record company politics.

The Wasps, though formed in 1976, didn’t seem to make any impression till midway through 1977 and then became regulars playing clubs like The Roxy and Vortex. They released the minor classic Teenage Treats on 4Play Records and then appeared on the Live at The Vortex compilation with 2 songs and tie in single.

A few months later an image change and money behind them then nothing till a year later they re-appeared signed to the major label RCA. Again a new look, a new single Rubber Cars but now a totally new band behind singer Jessie Lynn Dean before that all collapsed in a cloud of writs and lawsuits and the band folded.


This entry has been pulled from 4 interviews Punk77 did with ex band members – Jessie Lynn- Dean (22.9.03), Steve Wollaston (14.9.03), Tiam Grant (19.7.03) & Gary Wellman (??.03)

Facebook sites – The Wasps Official | The Wasps

Like many other bands that became punk The Wasps were seasoned players in a number of progressive and underground bands including Trance, Lady June’s Elysium and Blockade which was Del May’s and Johnny Rich’s band immediately prior to being in The Wasps.

Blockade with Johnny & Del ringed

Steve Wollaston  I teamed up with Johnny again – a fantastic drummer – with Del May at the beginning of ’76. Shortly after, we met Jesse Lynn-Dean, who possesses a huge talent for writing excellent lyrics, and things seemed to click into place.

It wasn’t long before we were gigging as The Wasps. Apart from Jesse (a North Londoner), we were all living on the east side of the capital at the time. Johnny knew Del from his last two bands and was one of the most creative guitarists I’d come across.

Jesse did indeed have a talent and apparently a publishing deal with EMI having walked into their offices in late 1975 and impressed EMI executive Dave Ambrose with a tape of his songs.

Del Ray Bridge House mid 1976
Jesse Bridge House mid 1977

Hearing the other members rehearse, Jesse teams up and The Wasps start up. They are based in East London and the earliest photos of them show them playing live mid 1976 at the famous Bridge House venue there. The photos show a remarkably punky looking band. Strangely though they are never mentioned as among the originators and despite having a booking agency and management don’t play centrally. Perception is they were one of the second wave following the Pistols and Clash and Damned. Jesse puts this down to location.

Jesse Lynn-Dean  When The Wasps first started playing we were playing local gigs in the East end of London in pubs & clubs that were traditionally Rock and Blues strongholds. We had no management at that time whereas the Pistols and some of the other bands you mentioned had management right from the start and were able to get to play in the West End and central London. It would have been easier for us if we had been playing Punk venues from the start, but it was a good education to do it the hard way anyway.

The band were also unaware of the developing punk scene.

Jesse Lynn-Dean I don’t really remember becoming aware in that sense of the Pistols; everything seemed to be happening at the same time. Steve Wollaston and myself had been listening to The Stooges, MC5 and a few such bands for quite a while, but to be honest I think at many Punk gigs the real stars and the most influential people was probably the audience. I think the atmosphere brushed off on everybody and you can’t really pinpoint where you picked things up from

From the onset The Wasps played power pop which was a melodic more uptempo music.

Jesse Lynn-Dean The Wasps have always had an element of Pop in their sound as have The Ramones & The Buzzcocks for example, but in the early days there were four creative members in the band who had different musical influences and it took a few gigs for The Wasps sound to gel. During these early days we did a few covers in our set, these included “Jean Genie”, Lou Reed’s “Waiting for my man”, which we later did on the “Live at the Vortex” album, a Power Punk version of “Paint it black”, Tommy Tucker’s “Hi heel sneakers” and we did “Search and destroy” once or twice. Our early sound was quite heavy and we were described by Giovanni Dadomo of Sounds magazine as “looking back street chic dressed in black with subtle touches of yellow to flesh out the name’s connotations”.

Frances Lass from Sounds who reviewed their September 1977 gig at the Music Machine described them as

Last year, the Wasps had an identity problem; dressed up as punks, their music was a mixture of Status Quo guitar riffs laid over a Smal Faces bouncy rhythm glued together with Jesse’s hilarious in between numbers patter. The energy they expended got lost somewhere in the ensuing mess… 3.9.77

It was around mid 1977 that their name started to come up in gig listings as more places put on punk gigs so the Rochester Castle and of course the Roxy Club which they play for the first time in May 1977 and will play several more times before it closes.

Steve Wollaston  I always thought the Roxy was one of the best venues. The Wasps always attracted a good crowd there and went down a bomb. The audience always got their money’s worth, as there were usually two support acts, then we would headline. It was relatively small – compared to the Vortex or Music Machine -compact, hot and sweaty, but I liked it! And no, it wasn’t a cliquey audience; these were real Punks from tough working-class backgrounds, just as we were,

The Wasps doing I’ve Got Something To Tell You from the Roxy Club possibly from 9th September or 18th November when they are listed as playing there.

But just as they are starting to get going, trouble hits when guitarist Del May handed his written notice on a 2 month notice period in mid-July as he didn’t ‘dig’ the current new wave scene. Gary Wellman the band’s sound man aged just 16 years old stepped in and took over for his first gig at the Music Machine. A positive Sounds review summed up the change to the band.

..welded together by this 16 year old the Wasps are now a band and all that previously wasted energy goes straight into the music. Frances Lass, 3.9.77

This is a start of a purple patch for the band. They recorded three songs at Pathway from which a single Teenage Treats is released on Fourplay Records in November 1977. This is one of Miles Copeland’s many record labels that fell under his Faulty umbrella. They also appeared on the Live At The Vortex album in late 1977 and a single release from it. At the same time Jesse waged war against the drubbing the album received in the music weekly Sounds letter pages giving them some more valuable PR.

Steve Wollaston, Gary Wellman, Jessie Lynn-Dean & Johnny Rich

Moving into 1978 the progress continued with first a John Peel session in February then a feature in March in Sounds with the boys in matching sharp suits promising a mystery tour and a promising future. They also had Sounds writer Giovanni Dadomo doing PR for them.

Steve Wollaston  The suits were just for a video that we did, consisting of ‘Angelica’, ‘J-J-Jenny’ and ‘Something To Tell You’. We were just experimenting. Yes new equipment was bought. We’d been out on the road with a lot of gear that was getting worn out and it was nice to have some new Marshalls. We got them made in red with black fronts and had six four-by-twelves and amps either side, which created an impressive backdrop.

Jesse Lynn-Dean  First of all I never did that promo interview in Sounds. It was written without my knowledge or consent (management interference) and I cringe whenever I read it. Anyway, the suits were never worn for any gig, they were worn for a photo shoot which was used in the promo for the Sounds interview and a short live video of three songs.

Rare footage recorded at Island Records Studios, London 1978 – compare the versions of I’ve Got Something To Tell You.

Yeah maybe some of our fans could have been confused, but Punk not just about what you wear, it’s an attitude and I would have preferred to focus on our music. We always wanted the band to grow into the public domain organically and by word of mouth and to some extent this was happening until interference from publicity seeking old wave management began to conflict with what the band was really about.

Conflict it did. If the image change was confusing The John Peel show was the last music heard from The Wasp for exactly a year as the band had an extended layoff.

Gary Wellman Yes our manager cleaned up our act and our appearance, he also invested large sums of monies into the band believing in our future. We rehearsed and rehearsed for several months, building the act and the set.

Jesse Lynn Dean The deliberate layoff to be honest was the brainchild of our manager at the time who wanted to showcase the band to major record companies and secure a deal. The band was never happy with the idea and it stopped our momentum at a time when we were going like an express train. All the members of the band loved playing live and it was a very frustrating period and the beginning of heavy management interference against the band’s wishes and this is when all the problems started.

For Steve Wollaston it was partly because of a tragic incident where a fan died at one of their gigs at The Bell Kings Cross London after being put through a plate glass door by violent bouncers.

No it wasn’t a good idea to come off the road. We were building our fan base up, but there were one or two incidents that were more than just cause for concern. The death of a member of your audience is not something anyone can take lightly. We concentrated on new material, and it was refreshing to have some time out and work this way, instead of trying to do it on the road all the time. But things did start to go wrong. 

Through this layoff, there were more management troubles which meant no record releases

Steve Wollaston It was not for want of trying! We went through a period of changing managers about every six months. None seemed to be able to close a deal properly. I don’t want to slag anyone off, but there are some exasperating stories the band could tell about being mismanaged. 

During that layoff, Jess was whisked off to America by the band Mgmt. in the hope of securing a major deal which didn’t happen and the band parted company (gain) with them. A layoff like this and losing mgmt. would kill most bands stone cold but instead against the odds it ended with them signing to a major label.

Jessie Lynn-Dean Jet Records, CBS are two that I know about, but again management was holding out and looking for big money up front whereas we just wanted to make records and get on with it.

There were always record companies interested in The Wasps. Virgin was in the offing for some time, but got pipped at the post by RCA.

RCA may well have had Elvis & Bowie but their only punk act was Cherry Vanilla so they had no experience of what they were dealing with. And then as quick as that should have been a turning point it nosedived.

In short, RCA was a disaster; the A&R man who signed the band left almost immediately and his successor was never going to get any credit for a successful Wasps since he never signed the band in the first place, so we got very little help from the record company.

It then got compounded by old managers wanting a piece of action from the signing to a major

Jessie Lynn-Dean We got a lot of aggravation from previous managers trying to claim a piece of the action. It wasn’t long before the whole thing turned into a circus of threats of litigation, writs, injunctions and any other legal terminology you can think of. Subsequently, at that point, I think I was as close to a nervous breakdown as I have ever been although I didn’t realise it at the time.

So February 1979 saw confusion reign as apart from Jess a completely new band does another John Peel session and the first RCA single comes out with that band on the cover and credited even though they only did overdubs.

A very rare short clip of Jesse Lynn-Dean of The Wasps punk band performance on Runaround TV show, hosted by Mike Reid, Southampton TV, 1979

Gary Wellman recalls what happened and was the bitterest having been just 16 and going from being in a band releasing records and doing gigs

John, Steve and myself didn’t agree with our singers’ choice of direction (very long story) so we original members split. RUBBER CARS IS SHIT… Jessie Lyn Dean continued under The Wasps name with 3 new members.

And sums it up

Best moments: Being 16 years old and out of school, same billing as the Police, BBC sessions, shooting videos and being chauffeur driven etc..
Worst moments: Being deceived, served with a legal writ at 17, unpaid royalties for John, Steve and myself.

Steve Wollaston  I thought Gary, John and I did some good work on it, but don’t know what possessed RCA to credit other musicians with the recording. No one around seemed to be doing the right thing and a split was inevitable.

One of the new members was Tiam Grant on drums who had played with Steve in a previous band and recommended by him.

Steve was still in the band when I joined, only to be kicked out about a month later. They’d just signed to RCA and I thought I’d really landed on my feet. I thought we would be taking punk to a different level and we would be huge (I was still thinking like an old rocker).

There was a hiatus during the period the new band was rehearsing, but we started gigging after about two months. We were fine but nervous and we seemed to be gigging as support act to non-punk acts. General indifference – I got the impression most people had never heard of us.

Jesse had complete control over image, material and how we played our instruments. I mention this without bitterness, but it was a case of “my way or the highway”. I certainly didn’t object to this as Jesse was (and maybe still is) an extremely talented composer and singer from whom I learned a great deal. Jesse’s plans were world domination (in a purely musical sense you understand) and he felt punk was now a hindrance to that end.

I didn’t play on the Rubber Cars single but did do some overdubs on it after John left so that, technically I could appear on the single sleeve.

One of Tiams worst moments.

Playing at a big children’s bash at Hyde Park which was bad enough in itself, but to compound it, the event was visited and sponsored by the Queen. Pretty galling for a Republican.

With the lawsuits and RCA basically dropping the band The Wasps ended when main man Jess decided to pursue a solo career though he joined up again with Tiam in the band The 1 which was..

…punky pop. We did do loads of demos as The Wasps, and these were eventually pushed out as the 1 and then eventually Jesse Lynne-Dean demos (I think these days it would be called recycling). Jesse’s publisher was EMI and one of the songs “Boyfriend” was put forward to some TV presenter who agreed to do it as a Eurovision hopeful (it didn’t get selected).

To finish a couple of reflections.

Gary Wellman Punk produced many Great Bands and memories, and I would like to think that The Wasps made a minor sting in this…(excuse the pun…)

Steve Wollaston It’s hard to judge to what extent we have made an impact, but collectively with other pioneers of UK Punk our influence is still very much alive today.

How would you describe The Wasps music? Poppy punk or as Sounds succinctly put it…”All Wasps songs ….are well constructed, paying strict attention to melody yet retain the more energetic traits of the orthodox new wave bands.” The songs were good but they were never going to set the world alight in all honesty and that sounds worse than I mean. Two singles in nearly two years meant they had a mountain to climb. The John Peel sessions give a much better idea of the band.


Teenage Treats / She Made Magic
(4Play November 1977)

Reviewed by John Savage in Sounds 3.12.77

More punk but after the undistinguished verses there’s a great hook and some insinuating high-register guitar. And a middle eight. In other words, more than routine rent -a-riffs; some originality. Maybe with time, a minor-league classic.

Fair comments. Produced by Kim Turner The single IS a minor punk classic. The back cover reads…”what you are holding in your hands is more than a single. If we are lucky, it is debut.” Ahh the dreams of youth!!!

Steve Woolaston ‘Teenage Treats’ is a great number and received rave reviews, getting in and out of the New Wave charts for the next couple of years. I think it reached something like #3. I love Jesse’s lyrics: ‘Slashed red lips and a little bit green, what would you expect from a girl of sixteen?’

We actually recorded three numbers at Pathway that day, as weren’t sure whether ‘Treats’ or ‘Free Country’ would be the A-Side. On reflection, I think we should have done a three track debut record. Punk77 Interview, 14.9.03


The Wasps / Mean Street – Vortex Live
(NEMS December 1977)

Contributed two songs to the Live At The Vortex album (Nems 1978)  – Can’t Wait Till ’78 & Waiting For My Man. The album got a real drubbing in the music press but that withstanding, The Wasps contributions rate as arguably the best on the album. 

Can’t wait (yawn) til ’78 (zzzz) over and over again. Cashing in on a live Vortex album is one thing, but to release a single from it has the same effect as an out of context quote. It reeks of capitalism, and the cover is just an advertisement for the L.P. ‘B’ side is even worse, bland, atonal mockery of the dead. Is nothing sacred? Donna McAllister, Sounds, 17.12.77

The Wasps themselves mix some enviable freshness and youthful energy – and cliche-free playing with some awful lyrics and misplaced cockiness. `Wasn’t worth being alive in 75/Didn’t get too many kicks in ’76’ – so now safety-pin satori, hey? Jon Savage, Sounds, 10.12.77

Can’t Wait Till ’78 is another gem that incidentally was featured on the single from the album (along with Mean Street’s Bunch Of Stiffs). Nice touch covering Waiting For My Man and explaining in the pre-song lead in that “if Lou Reed was alive now this is how he would have done it!”


Rubber Cars / This Time
(RCA February 1979)

Average single that sank without a trace. Gary Wellman described it as ‘pure shit’ which is a little harsh. Steve Wollaston says it was the fastest selling RCA single and destined for No1 in the charts but I can’t verify this. 

Jesse Lynn Dean When I received the print outs of RCA’s sales of singles for the first week of the release of “Rubber Cars” our record had sold more copies that week than all their other singles put together and I was told the record was likely to go straight to number one. However, by the end of the first week of release, RCA had to pull the record out of the shops due to litigation arising from disputes between band members and management.

“Rubber Cars” was a personal song and was written after a relative of mine was killed in a senseless car accident and was never really meant to be in our set, let alone our debut single, but someone in RCA heard me strumming it one day and thought it should be our first single. Punk77 Interview

Danny Baker in NME 24.2.79 wrote.

I can feel a rage coming on….The Wasps sing fly in the air nonsense under a cloak of closed-club intellectualism, fake wonder Floyd inflection and drawing board ‘clever song’ structure. Did I fight the war to hear them abuse hard worn privileges so?

The Band. Jesse only original member. Neil Fitch – Guitar. Dave Owen – Bass. Tiam Grant – Drums. (However Steve Wollaston reckons the original band played on the single and Tiam says they did overdubs.)


John Peel Shows

22.2.78

  1. Teenage Treats (0:07)
  2. J-J-J-Jenny (3:01)
  3. She Made Magic (5:27)
  4. Something To Tell You (8:18)

20.2.79

  1. Run Run Angelica (0:07)
  2. Rubber Cars (2:48)
  3. This Time (6:38)
  4. She’s Alarming (9:12)


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