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Way back when, the New Zealand punk scene was a small fragile thing. For all the braggadocio and swaggering fashion violations, anything that radical was going to struggle in a country locked in the past where independence, even in broadcasting music, was seen as a threat.
We forget how stifled New Zealand was under the likes of Muldoon. You needed, for instance, difficult special licences to import equipment needed for recording studios. The making and playing of music was kept under stern control.
Which is possibly why the few ‘punk’ or ‘post-punk’ bands that emerged – the distinction here is pretty negligible – are held in high esteem, even if their achievements were relatively small and brief.
Unrestful Movements was one of those bands; though, in truth, they were a few years late for the peak of the scene. Rotorua’s Glen Wilson and Pam Curreen moved to the capital in 1982, and recruited Grenville Main and Tim Hunt. They were one of Wellington’s standout acts in 1983, the same year their two EPs, ‘First Movement in E B’ and ‘Are You A Fireman?’ were released on prestigious local label Jayrem.
Glen currently fronts Tauranga’s Dead Simple, a similarly post-punk band that plays several Unrestful Movement songs including their most well-known, ‘Anti-Trend’. Dead Simple bass player Lara Wilson takes up the story...
“When Unrestful Movements chose to dis-band, they had money left from a gig in Gisborne. Tim and Grenville had left and the band members were Glen, Pamela and Garth Evans. Glen asked what they should do with the money? Should they go out for dinner? Pamela and Garth suggested recording the new material they had been working on.”
That third EP was recorded by Nick Roughan from the Skeptics, in Wellington – but when Glen gave the demo to Jim Moss from Jayrem, he called it “s...” and said he would never release it. Possibly irking Jim was that he had requested a love song and Glen’s response was the tongue in cheek, ‘Romantic Regurgitation’. So no more record label.
Skipping ahead, Glen played mostly in cover bands before forming Dead Simple in 2010.
Then in 2012 Glen went to JB Hifi and discovered a copy of all three Unrestful Movement EPs –including the “s...” one – on CD from Jayrem. “I don’t know whether to be happy, or angry because I wasn’t asked,” says Glen. “But there is one good thing about it. You’ll finally get to hear the third EP. I bought a copy, of course.”
Now Dead Simple is touring, commemorating 40 years since ‘Are you a Fireman?’, playing songs from all three EPs. They even have former band members’ permission for the tour – and both Grenville and Tim will be at the Wellington show. Strengthening the connection, Lara still plays the bass guitar Pamela played – and several years ago Glen saw the Maton guitar from the ‘Anti-Trend’ video for sale, and bought it back.
See them Saturday, November 4 at The Jam Factory with support from Tactical Chunny.
Hear Winston’s latest playlist, specially curated by Glen and Lara Wilson of Dead Simple:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3on6wpvEs54xTdiUsL1aqZ?si=5d679fd0621341b4
