The Pop Group

Gracing a Brighton stage for what frontman Mark Stewart thinks is the very first time, and to a sellout crowd, this was the epitome of short but sweet. Playing for under an hour, The Pop Group have basically continued where they left off when they originally disbanded back in ’81. True pioneers at the time, their original, invigorating, sometimes violent, cut and paste mash up of funk, dub, squawk-noise-jazz, and even a little pop, was at times brutal, and uncompromising, particularly where their politics were concerned, situated very much on the left of the spectrum. Even today, now in late middle age, they still wear their politics on their sleeves as evidenced by the outward support for the Campaign Against The Arms Trade during this tour.

Children of Thatcher and existing in a peculiarly toxic period of spiralling social unrest, their Bristol roots gave them an edge in so much as the city that ‘hosted’ the slave trade and then a subsequent influx of Jamaican migrants, was much more integrated, socially and culturally, than practically anywhere else in England. Their subsequent discovery of the nascent hip hop scene whilst Stateside in the late 70s was also influential in kick starting the musical career of Robert del Naga, aka 3D, of subsequent Wild Bunch and Massive Attack fame.

Clearly struggling with match fitness, Stewart’s voice however remains a powerful tool; not so much singing as doing what his big fan Nick Cave does, or even Johnny Lydon, Stewart alternately yells and talks, interspersed with sloganeering, some poetry and voice effects, all heavily reverbed. Propelled by the funky bass of bassist Dan Catsis, the driving drums of Bruce Smith and the slashing, careering and noise promulgated guitar, clarinet and keys man Gareth Sager (all members of the original band), The Pop Group concentrated on their just re-released We Are Time album, songs taken from their Cabinet of Curiosities album, a newly released collection of early b-sides, live tracks, outtakes and unreleased material, plus some singles that didn’t make any album. While many those early recordings were purposefully cacophonous, the live show is a smoother, funkier ride, shorn of the wild production sound, that at the time was a fearsome blast of agit-funk-dub blowing up in your face.

Starting with the charged, PiLesque dub-funk of Trap, and finishing with an encore of perhaps their best known song, the still startling We Are All Prostitutes, this was just about enough to satisfy, although no doubt the mesmerised crowd would have enjoyed if more had been on offer.

Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Sat 25 October

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