Music: The Pop Group
The legendary post-punkers have reformed, and frontman Mark Stewart speaks with Jeff Hemmings
“I knew people liked that band, but I didn’t realise it would be this crazy!” says Mark, as he gets ready for a new phase of The Pop Group, a group that briefly alighted the UK before splitting up in 1981, leaving a trail of breath-taking music, as can be heard on albums such as We Will Not Tolerate Mass Murder. We Are Time, their debut album has been remastered and will be reissued in line with their UK tour.
The Pop Group count Trent Reznor, Nick Cave and Mike Watt as big fans, while Mark Stewart himself has worked for many years with the On-U-Sound collective, who for a while included Gary Clail amongst the extended family (a fellow Bristolian, he had a number one hit with ‘Beef’.)
“Me and Gary Clail used to hang out in the Greyhound (legendary Bristol pub), near the Massive Attack studio up in Clifton. I used to wash up at Keith Floyd’s restaurant just a fews doors down so that I could earn money to go to London to buy records and clothes and stuff … we were at school, and then we were on tour with Patti Smith and Pere Ubu; about seven months after our first gig we were on the front pages of the music papers, and then we were in New York when the No Wave stuff was kicking off, and we heard some really early hip hop stuff … we were recording radio shows on double cassette ghetto blasters, then took them back to Bristol and immediately it went viral. Delge (3D, later of Massive Attack fame) was drawing graffiti on them, and hip hop kicked off in Bristol.”
The Pop Group lay dormant for years before Matt Groening, The Simpsons creator, called: “He was curating All Tomorrow’s Parties, and he asked us to play. He wanted Iggy to reform The Stooges and us to reform The Pop Group. I thought I’d see it as a new commission, not a ‘heritage’ thing.”
And now with a full head of steam, some new tunes (“The new stuff is sounding demented”) and amid a strong resurgence of interest in the more experimental and avante-garde end of the post-punk and funk spectrum, The Pop Group, complete with original members Gareth Sager, Dan Catsis and Bruce Smith, are embarking on a tour of the UK, including what is their first ever show in Brighton.
“They aren’t copying,” says Mark about the current crop of Pop Group influenced acts, “they cut, paste, juxtapose, attack, question, and are running off free to experiment. If that’s what we did or hopefully what we are still doing, then it’s a reason to be.”
Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Sat 25 Oct, 7pm, £17.50
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