Glen and Pam started out as a duo in Rotorua, under the name Unrestful Movements in a Vege Patch. They moved to Wellington in early 1982 and found Tim and Grenville. The four-piece played their first show on 14 August 1982, an afternoon gig at the Clyde Quay Tavern alongside Neoteric Tribesmen, a post-punk outfit formed from the ashes of Condemned Sector.

Wellington’s second wave of punk was steeped in UK82 and American hardcore, with thrash influences creeping in. Unrestful Movements ran against the grain, with tempos slower than many of their local peers. Live shows were relatively rare, since venues were wary of punk bands after violence at gigs, often started by the roving gangs of bootboys and skinheads some bands attracted. The band did make two trips to Christchurch, playing the DB Gladstone with bands from the A.E.B. collective.

They recorded their debut at Crescendo Studios in Miramar. First Movement in Eb, a six-track 12″ mini-album, came out through Wellington label Jayrem Records in December 1982. With songs like “No Job”, “Depressed” and “Backstabbing Bastards”, it captured the mood of a country still processing the upheaval of the 1981 Springbok tour and the Muldoon National government.

Back at Crescendo in February 1983, they recorded a second EP, Q: Are You A Fireman?, released that May with a video for opening track “Anti-trend”. In April they played the Golden Showers festival, organised by Flesh D-Vice frontman Gerald Dwyer and held over Easter weekend at the Newtown Community Centre. The festival brought the punk and bootboy “tribes” together, and it wasn’t a comfortable place to be on stage. As Glen later recalled: “Being spat on, people pulling you and your gear every which way.”

Tired of the scene’s nihilistic destructiveness, the band began playing with acts outside the bootboy sphere, including some of their final shows with the legendary Skeptics. Tensions then led Tim and Grenville to leave, and the band went into hiatus.

They resurfaced in February 1986 with a new drummer, Garth, to record another EP. Jayrem’s James Moss refused to release it, so the band put it out themselves as A Rolling Stone Needs No Moss, a cheeky jab at the label boss.

In 2023, Glen Wilson revived Unrestful Movements for four North Island dates with his current band Dead Simple, playing songs from the early records more than 40 years after they were made.