The Wanted & Co. released one single in 1968, a dark, fuzzed take on “Smokestack Lightning” titled “Why”.
M. Gertin and B. Marksberry wrote the song, but there’s no publishing info on the labels and no one seems to have info on the band.
This is likely the same group called the Wanted who played some shows in Cincinnati in 1967, including at the teen club One Step Beyond on Beechmont Ave. in Mt. Washington.
The Enquirer ran a feature on the club with a photo that was captioned the Wanted, but a letter pointed out the band was actually the Blackwatch.
Since the great Detroit area ban called The Wanted was having a modest national hit with “In the Midnight Hour” on A&M, the band likely added “& Co.” on the labels to distinguish them.
Thanks to Scott Lucas for inquiring about the Wanted & Co. to get this post going.
The Wanted are from Northern Kentucky, Most of the members attended Boone Co. H.S., some are still performing, Bill Marksberry passed away recently, Mike Gerkin, is still performing, Mike Hodges their drummer, has had a very successful music career, one as Adrian Belew’s drummer, who was a member of a N.Ky. Beatles group The Denems, and Mike was David Bowie’s drummer on his 1990 world tour, I had the pleasure of being involved with them as their agent while working for A.Jaye Entertainment in the early years. — Ray Lehmkuhl
Thanks for the information Ray. The connections to David Bowie and Adrian Belew are really interesting.
A little additional info on the Adrian Belew connection:
From The Adrian Belew Newsletter – Big Electric Chat (#0102):
” #1 who is the new trio?
not only can mike hodges flash the dubious badge of being my second- longest running best-friendship which began in our early teens (second only to kenny nevels my best friend from sixth grade on) but can also rightfully claim to be the perfect drummer for my solo music. mike was the drummer I chose for the mr. music head tour which lead to being the drummer I chose for the david bowie sound and vision world tour of 27 countries which lead to being the drummer I chose for the inner revolution tour of 1992. we have a kind of “spiritual” bond which is rare. intuitive. like twins. when I was joining my first teen band “the denems” mike was joining neighboring teen band “the wanted”. we went to the same high school. our bands played shows together around northern kentucky.
as aspiring drummers mike and I shared the same exciting influences: ringo, mitch mitchell, michael giles, bill bruford. we studied those beatle, hendrix, and crimson records like the bible.
after I changed over to playing guitar mike and I formed our first “power trio” (called ADRIAN before I was called adrian) with bassist ray yancey. we were a hot trio who loved to extend songs into exploratory JamLand, a recipe I’m hoping we can re-discover now.
Boone County High School had several great rock bands in the late 1960’s.
The Denems, The Middle Week The Grundies, The Bad Seeds and The Wanted were just a few.
I remember buying my Farfisa organ at Henderson’s Music in 1966 and my first gig with The Middle Week at the Petersburg Firehouse. Members of The Wanted like George Kearns, Dave Nitschke, Greg Peck, Mike Gerkin, Mike Hodges, Jim Morris, Bill Marksberry, Tim Sullivan, Jim Young and John Young played some pretty cool sock hops and high school dances before starting into clubs. It was an interesting for teenagers from the Florence, KY area. We survived the clubs………..
Tom Ross
Keyboards
Hi Tom
Dave Roberts here. Great of you to give mention to a lot of former musicians of Northern Kentucky. I’ve got some pictures of us in the Middle Week that should bring back some memories. Contact me on my email and we’ll reminisce.
Hello. Thank you for the info. I just came accross a few copies of the 45. Good stuff.
Tom Ross. I still have pictures of us in the Middle Week if your interested.
There were truly a lot of excellent musicians in Northern Kentucky.
In my early days we’d hang out at the Dixie music company ( before it became Hughes music).
I lived up the street from Terry Dalhover and watched the Denems practice all the time. They were the best Beatles cover band I’d ever heard. That’s when Steve Belew played drums and sang. Something never mentioned is the omission of one of the most talented people from Northern Kentucky was Mike Wilshier. He was bassist and lead singer for the Denems. Later to become a really great guitarist.
Others not mentioned, as I recall were Leslie Palmer and Dave and Robbie Workman and Joe (little Joe) Williams.
There was a guy, named Mark Shulty that worked at Dixie music co, that wound up playing with Groove Holmes. Also the manager of the store was Hank Henkie, an excellent keyboardist in his own right.
I’m Dave Nitschke’s sister. I have the 45 record recorded by the wanted. Good times. Great memories.