THE WASPS (TEENAGE TREATS SINGLE)

Teenage Treats is an excellent 77 punk record. She made magic is my favorite out of the two. If you go to the Punk 77.com site, there's allot of info on The Wasps and a great interview with Gary Wellman. I recommend you go check it out. There's also a disc called Punkryonics for purchase which is where this info comes from. Go pick it up. Formed in February 1976 The Wasps were one of London’s earliest punk bands. They were regulars at The Roxy, The Bridge House etc. and soon built a large following. One of the first punk bands to tour nationally, in true punk rock style they managed to get themselves banned from many provincial towns following a particularly memorable gig at Shrewsbury Civic Centre in May 1977. Forced to play behind a barricade of stacked chairs, the security men sustained injuries trying to keep fans off the stage. Fireworks were thrown by the audience, one causing the drummer Rich’s shirt to catch fire. Soon people were diving off the balcony onto the crowd below and lots of fights broke out. The local newspaper reported that the gig had put a strain on the casualty department of the local hospital and the council branded The Wasps as "depraved" and started the ban.
In November 1977 their first single ‘Teenage Treats’ was released on the 4-Play label. Reviewed in the NME as "great single" by Bob Geldof, the single is vintage ’77 punk rock and now highly collectable.
A month later, The Wasps appeared on the ‘Live At The Vortex’ album. Recorded in October ’77 their track ‘Can’t Wait ‘Till ‘78’ was chosen as the lead track for a split single with Mean Streets who included a young Gary Numan!
In mid ’78 the band played a gig at The Bells in Kings Cross, London. During their set a fan was set upon by over zealous bouncers who thought he’d let off a firework, beat him up and he consequently died.
A change of management saw Jesse go to the USA. In New York he guested with The Ramones at CBGBs and in Los Angeles stayed with Sharon Osborne. Having met several major labels Stateside Jesses realised that the tactic was to sign the ‘new wave’ bands then bury them. Not for him! He headed home.
Back in the UK the band signed to RCA. ‘Rubber Cars’ was released to much acclaim and a TV company wanted to make an animated series based upon the band. Suddenly The Wasps were hot property and former managers filed writs causing RCA to pull the plug on ‘Rubber Cars’, despite it being RCA’s biggest selling single of the week!
The disappointment and the legal problems caused the band to split.
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REFERENCES - THE PUNKRYONICS LINER NOTES AND PUNK 77.COM http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/wasps.htm
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4 PLAY RECORDS 1977
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