The Rejects

The Rejects were formed at Goldsmith's College in South London in 1976 when Bruno Wizard recruited a young songwriter named Ian Kane to help express his disquiet with the modern world and disappointment with his heroes of the Sixties. The Rejects did their first gig at The Roxy in January 1977 supporting The Damned and The Vibrators. In the following five months, The Rejects played with Wire, Generation X (with a very young Billy Idol), The Jam, Eater, 999, and Sham 69 on multiple occasions. 

 

In the summer of 1977 Wizard recruited Jim Welton on bass for a new lineup of The Rejects. Included in this new lineup were David Dus, the drummer for Wayne County (later to become Jayne) during their 1977 tour of the UK, and occasional itinerant guitarists. Bruno set up auditions to find a permanent guitarist, and after a series of metaphysical mishaps, Anton Hayman was recruited. Bruno Wizard needed a new name for this next stage of his creative outpourings. The name "The Rejects" was too deeply embedded in what Wizard regarded as "the new conformity of Punk." Homo equals men of the same sex/rock equals sexual/men of the same idea in ancient Greece discussing art, music, literature, astronomy, science equals The Homosexuals. David Dus, sensational drummer that he was, could not hack being in a band called The Homosexuals and duly left.