Olli Wisdom

A Hero is someone who possesses a strong influence on society or a smaller group of people within a society… even the deepest and most charitable of idealisms have their beginnings in the mind of a hero. Everyone believes in someone, everyone has a hero in their own way... the person I nominate as mine is a man named Olli Wisdom. He was a singer in an early 1980’s British band, as well as a large influence on a great deal of things that I very much enjoy and believe in. Olli Wisdom is my hero because he was a founder of a highly innovative band as well as its front man, his vocal style was heavily influential on a large genre of music, and he laid the basis of a then-developing sub-cultural scene.

Specimen Upper left: Olli Wisdom (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cb/Specimen_promo.jpeg/220px-Specimen_promo.jpeg)

Olli Wisdom was the front man of the Gothic Rock band Specimen, as well as one of its original founding members. Specimen was and still is quite a prominent band in the Gothic Rock genre, mainly for its innovative style and spooky visuals while on stage and off. The fashion of the band members, including Wisdom, is largely influential upon those largely present in the modern Gothic subculture. Incorporating elements from both the Glam and Punk fashions, they presented a darkly elegant vision that still remains the most identifiable aspect of the Goth scene.

While he was very influential on Gothic fashion, Olli Wisdom’s vocal style was very influential on Gothic music as a whole. Wisdom bore a singing style that can best be described as a darker flavor of Glam Rock with a large New Wave and Post-Punk influence. Eventually his style became a staple of Gothic Rock as well as a large degree of other Gothic genres. His influence can even be seen to a degree in the American-founded Deathrock genre, using low, yet sometimes high pitched vocals in a somewhat campy fashion. Lyrically, the music takes a very similar approach, ranging from Glam Rock-inspired lyrics to a more haunting Post-Punk fashion on and off. These were a very prevalent theme in Olli’s singing, and all of which provided ample inspiration for the next generations of Gothic music.

Specimen Members [Center: Olli Wisdom] (http://www.geocities.com/dekadenze1/specimen7.JPG)

One could say that Ollie Wisdom was a legendary man by his own hand, having laid the very basis of the British Gothic Rock scene, as well as the entire Gothic subculture. In July of 1982, Wisdom opened “The Batcave” in London, a nightclub which originally specialized in Glam and New Wave music. The club gave rise to a plethora of well-known Gothic Rock bands and became a place of legend within the Gothic subculture; it now specializes almost exclusively on genres of Gothic music, including Gothic Rock, Deathrock, and Darkwave (some say even state “Batcave” as an unofficial subgenre of gothic music). From the black and white horror movies shown there, to the eccentric fashion and musical style, the entire Gothic subculture has some degree of respect to be given to the Batcave and its influence.

When it comes down to it, I envy much of what Olli Wisdom has accomplished in his life. Whether it be his time in the innovative Gothic Rock band Specimen, his influential style of singing, or his founding of the legendary Batcave nightclub, he has shaped the modern Gothic subculture with every movement. I also respect his strength of will, he went strongly against the societal norms with his sense of fashion, even going so far as to dress effeminately, wear pale and eccentric makeup, and clad himself entirely in black against the heavy pastels of the 80’s Glam scene. Even now I respect him as a hero, as when Specimen was broken up, he maintains a musical career as a psychedelic trance artist by the name of Space Tribe. Olli Wisdom kept true to his dream and had to devotion to never give up in his career or lifestyle even in the face of society, a very commendable trait for anyone, and he displays it in a way that can never be matched.