THE LINE-UPS 1981/82 - Sheba's Earhole & the 5 yr plan: Hamish Andy Simon + various drummers Jun 82 - Aug 82 - The Trees: Hamish Andy Duncan Simon Sep 82 - Mar 83 - The Wait: Hamish Andy Duncan Kevin Mar 83 - May 83 - The Wait: Hamish Andy Duncan Kevin Dawn May 83 - May 84 - The Wait: Hamish Andy Duncan Jeanette Kevin Jun 84 - Jul 84 - The Wait: Hamish Andy Duncan Jeanette Angling Aug 84 - Dec 87 - The Wait: Hamish Andy Duncan Jeanette Pat Jan 88 - Jun 88 - The Crabs: Hamish Andy Duncan Jeanette Pat
	The story of The Wait goes back to 1981, when schoolfriends, Hamish Champ and Andy Linden picked up guitars and decided to form a band. Teaching themselves to play, they invited various personnel to join them, including Simon Matthews on guitar and Duncan Clayton (drums). This line up went by the name of The Trees, but Simon soon got bored and Kevin Tweedy joined on Keyboards in Sep 1982.
The name was changed to The Wait after the songs by Killing Joke and The Pretenders. Hamish and Andy shared the vocals, and they were finally ready to play the first gig in Feb 1983. After the first 5 gigs, Dawn Kelly was recruited as lead singer, but was sacked 3 gigs later because she was a bit of a wally (!). Jeanette Purcell was invited to join in her place.
	Simon Pannell offered to be manager and stayed as the sixth member until 1988. The band were soon getting good reviews, and, in summer 1983 won the local Tramshed Talent contest. (With a little help from a friend). This period of the Wait's career culminated in an excellent gig review, and full page interview in Sounds - the first in a national newspaper. All was not well though, and in June 1984 the band parted company with Kevin.
The chance to play an open air gig in Lewisham supporting Darts was not to be missed, so Angling was rushed in to play it on keyboards. In October 1984, Pat Bristow joined The Wait on guitar and a change in direction was taken, with a slightly harder, less pop, sound. The gigs continued to improve and supports were played to The Icicle Works, That Petrol Emotion and Serious Drinking, among others.
	The Wait released a single (Cry Without Tears) in Nov 1985, and a flexi disc (Without Me) in 1987 which was played on Radio 1 by John Peel. They also recorded numerous demos at Studio 99, Woolwich, with Mike Westergaard. Despite numerous good reviews in the local press and Melody Maker, the band still struggled to gain a following or a record deal.
In Jan 1988, soon after the 100th gig, the slightly desperate step was taken of changing the name to The Crabs. This achieved little and with the music starting to grow stale, Pat Left in June 1988 for Screeming Custard. This resulted in the rest of the band folding.