PragVEC were one of the first of the post-punk bands to emerge in London in 1978 and sounded unlike anyone else at the time – or since.

When the first wave of UK punk broke, which is to say by the end of 1977 – or, for Mick Jones, “after 100 days” – things became interesting.

I don’t remember anyone calling it post-punk at the time but by then bands that had started out only knowing one chord had discovered there were even more than three.

Groups that had started out being shouty and angry (Wire, The Clash, The Jam) evolved into entirely different creatures, spreading their musical wings and taking flight.

Suddenly there was a plethora of groups that began at the same time now exploring new vistas, creating challenging new music: bands like The Fall, The Raincoats, Au Pairs, The Pop Group, Scritti Politti (before they evolved again towards soft soul).

Prag Vec probably didn’t reach further than those of us who religiously read the NME and Sounds and  listened nightly to John Peel – they recorded three sessions for him – and this is the only song I remember of theirs, possibly because it’s sung in French.

The band weren’t French: they got together in London in 1978, formed by former Derelicts members Susan Gogan (vocals, synth) and John Studholme (guitar, synth), plus David Boyes (bass) and Nicholas Cash (drums).

They chose their peculiar but memorable name by contracting the words “pragmatism” and “vector” for their name, which sounds exceedingly pretentious as I write it down, and played far and wide over the next year or two.

They seemed like a band destined always to be the support act: I saw them opening for one or more of Cabaret Voltaire, Scritti Politti, The Psychedelic Furs, The Monochrome Set , Au Pairs, Magazine, Stiff Little Fingers and The Teardrop Explodes.

Their debut EP, the four-song 7-inch Bits, came out on their own Spec Records label in October ’78 – Existential was the opening number – followed in the summer of ’79 by another single, Expert.

In December 1980 they put out their first – and last – album, No-Cowboys, which came packaged in a polythene bag and presented as a compilation by various bands, although all the songs were recorded by PragVEC.

Predictably, barely anyone heard or bought it and the band split in 1981, with Cash joining electro pioneer Fad Gadget and The Lines while Gogan joined The Atoms.

Jim Thirlwell, an Australian who had contributed a battery-operated Wasp synth to No-Cowboys, went on to form Foetus, who released records under multiple Foetus-related names* and recorded under pseudonyms including Clint Ruin.

Having come over from Melbourne around the same time as Nick Cave, he also passed through an early line-up of The Bad Seeds – he co-wrote From Her To Eternity with Nick Cave – and more recently has become a respected composer of soundtracks.

Trivia fact: The band were immortalised by Half Man Half Biscuit in a 1991 song called PragVEC At The Melkweg.

*Foetus Art Terrorism; Foetus Über Frisco; Foetus Corruptus; Foetus In Excelsis Corruptus Deluxe; Foetus Inc.; Foetus Interruptus; Foetus Over Frisco; Foetus Under Glass; Philip and His Foetus Vibrations; Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel; The Foetus All-Nude Revue; The Foetus of Excellence; The Foetus Symphony Orchestra; and You’ve Got Foetus On Your Breath.