The Exploited was formed by ex soldier Wattie Buchan - Vocals and John Duncan - Guitar in the early 1980. John later got the nickname Big John. They also got two other members Dru Stix - Drums and Danny - Bass. After a while they released their debut Ep Army Life. The Ep climbed into 35th place on the indie chart. It also becam single of the week in Sounds Magazine.
The band was doing lots of gigs, and Wattie was wearing a swastika on stage. That made many people think of Exploited as a fascist band... and they we´re NOT! The gigs were verry violent and lots of them tured out to riots.
In 1981 The Exploited appeared on the music compilation album Oi! The Album. The songs that they had on that compilation was I still believe in anarchy and Daily news. They also released their second Ep called Exploited Barmy Army. The Exploited now had a following crowd that they called The barmy army.
In March 1981 The Exploited signed to the record label Secret, and three weeks later they released the Ep Dogs Of War. They also released a live album called On Stage.
Later in 1981 they released their first studio album Punk´s Not Dead. Well it wasn´t a real studio album, it contained some live material and some new studio material. And some weeks later they released the Ep Dead Cities. They now appeared on the Tv Show Top of The pops with the song Dead Cities. (This Tv apperiance is legendary.) And after that apperiance noone would by their records because everyone thought that they sold out. The day before Top Of the Pops they sold 15000x in one afternoon of Dead Cities Ep, and the day after they sold 50x. The Exploited went out on the Dead Cities Tour that took the band across whole Europe.
1982 they realeased the Ep Attack / Alternative and the album Troops Of Tomorrow. The album Troops Of Tomorrow reached top 10 on the album chart. Later they released the Ep Computers Don´t Blunder. They also went out on their first Us tour at this time. At this time their drummer Dru Stix was arrested for armed robbery and put in jail for 7 years. The new drummer was Danny but he didn´t last for long (he was a fucking wanker) and was replaced by Watties brother Willie.
Now the band changed record label to Pax. They signed for a Ep and a Album. Now the bas player also quit the band and was replaced by Billy. John Dunchan had also decided to leave the band after recording the Rival Leaders Ep and the Lets Start A War album. John was replaced by Carl. And Carl was later replaced by Wayne.
In 1985 they released the album Horror Epics. They also released another live album called Live At The Whitehouse.
In 1986 they released their first 12" - single Jesus Is Dead. They also released yet another live album called Live and Loud.
In 1987 they released the album Death Before Dishonour. Both the bass player and the guitarist was at this time replaced by Smeeks - bass and Gary - guitar.
In 1988 they released their second 12" - single War Now.
In 1990 they released the album The Massacre. And after some years of silence and rumors that said Wattie was dead, the Exploited released a new album in 1996 called Beat The Bastards. For this album they have changed the band members completely to: Wattie - vocals, Willie - drums, Jim - bass, Jamie - guitar.
