Anyone who’s arrived hear looking for some punk rawk from L.A’s Wasted Youth are gonna be disappointed, cos this aint no punk riot. This is more of a psychedelic, post punk, pronto goth, new romantic rock’n’roll trip from London’s East End, courtesy of 5 pale skinned sexy skinny lads called Wasted Youth. A band who’s star shone bright for a few brief years in the early 1980’s; supporting Psychedelic Furs on tour, Peter Perrett from The Only Ones producing their second single and releasing one classic album Wild And Wandering. These original Wasted Youths took their cue from the Adam and The Ants and, Siouxsie and The Banshees school of punk and came on like a cross between The Velvet Underground and The Doors, all dark and brooding. Sadly their original guitarist Mick Atkins died recently (a solo track of his can be heard on the What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen compilation I posted a while back, and the demos his band The Famous Monsters recorded can be found here) after the band split his replacement Rocco went on to find slightly more fame with Flesh For Lulu and more recently on a Channel 4 series about doing up a property in Spain, as for the rest of the band, who knows? The first of these two recordings comes from The Marquee, London on 22nd Sept 1980, the second is when they rolled down to my local venue Bowes Lyon House, Stevenage in Jan 1981. Of the two The Marquee has the slightly better sound, and a more comprehensive set list, but they’re both worthy of yer attention, as are the Memorialize Singles collection 79-82 and the re-release of Wild and Wandering, with bonus tracks. Both available from Bridge House Records.
