Martin Newell (musician)

Martin Newell (born 4 March 1953) is an English singer-songwriter, poet, columnist, and author. He grew up in an army family in various parts of England and the Far East. His music is guitar pop with jangly, upbeat, guitar-centric arrangements. He is also considered one of the pioneers of cassette culture.

Musical career

1973–1979

In the summer of 1973, a 20-year-old Newell joined the glam-rock band Plod as their lead singer. Plod was signed to London-based indie label Banjul Records in early 1975, and quickly began recording tracks for an album. However, contractual irregularities and financial problems at the label prevented the album from being finished or released, and the band broke up within a matter of a few months of being signed. In 2003, one track from the sessions ("Neo City") was released on a 70s glam-rock compilation CD called Velvet Tinmine. This track was credited to The Plod, and remains the only officially issued work by the band.

Newell then joined Gypp, a pop-oriented progressive rock band, as lead singer. Gypp also played abroad and became popular in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia area on account of their live performances. Gypp issued one 3-song 7" EP in 1978, but their music was out of step with the punk-oriented trends of the UK music scene at the time and the EP received a negative review in the New Musical Express. Demoralised, Newell left the band. By his own account, he then became a "musical recluse", staying in the studio and creating new songs but not playing live gigs for many years.

1979–1992

In the late seventies, Newell led a four-piece rock combo called The Stray Trolleys. They recorded material in 1979 and 1980, but it was not released until 1982 after the band had broken up.

In the meantime, Newell issued his first solo single ("Young Jobless" b/w "Sylvie in Toytown") on vinyl in 1980. By the end of 1980, he was collaborating with Lawrence "Lol" Elliot as The Cleaners from Venus, a band that mostly released their work on cassettes outside the traditional music distribution channels.

By 1983, The Cleaners from Venus had evolved into a band with a floating line-up that featured Newell as its only constant. The band still primarily issued material on cassette, got signed to the West German independent label Modell Records for one vinyl album ("Under Wartime Conditions") and ultimately the German leg of RCA Records which released two albums ("Going To England", "Town And Country").

Giles Smith joined Newell as the only other official member of Cleaners From Venus between 1986 and 1988, and in 1987, Newell returned to performing live under The Cleaners of Venus banner. As well, while releasing Cleaners From Venus material on cassette on a regular basis, through the 1980s Newell also occasionally released cassette singles and albums under his own name. On these solo releases he was usually the only musician.

The Brotherhood of Lizards was another Newell band that was active in 1988–89. It was a joint venture between Newell and the multi-instrumentalist known simply as Nelson.

1993–present

In 1993, Newell began working primarily as a solo artist with more conventional production values. His first non-cassette solo album, The Greatest Living Englishman, was produced by XTC's Andy Partridge, and was a critical success. Commercially, it remains his most popular and successful album. It was followed by three more albums (The Off White Album, produced by Louis Philippe, The Spirit Cage and Radio Autumn Attic) and an EP (Songs From the Station Hotel) that continued to explore the same subject matter as Englishman, including the charms of rural or small-town English life and portraits of characters and scenes.

Newell has also made live appearances with The Cleaners from Venus and The Stray Trolleys in the 1990s and beyond, and has issued several post-1993 live recordings with these bands. However, studio releases credited to these groups post-1993 are actually all CD reissues of pre-1993 material previously released only on cassette. In addition, Gypp played reunion gigs in 1996, and live Gypp material – as well as Gypp demos recorded in the late 1970s – have now been officially issued on CD.

In 2004 Newell released an album of light jazz songs, The Light Programme. The album was not particularly successful commercially but his next album A Summer Tamarind returned to his usual style and was much more warmly received.

In late 2005 the British singer Richard Shelton released a jazz vocal album called Top Cat with five Newell compositions. Newell's songs have also been recorded by Miki Huber, The Jennifers, Kerry Getz, R. Stevie Moore and Alphaville.

Literary career

Newell is better known to some as a poet and author; he has released several volumes of poetry (often in collaboration with James Dodds) and a memoir, This Little Ziggy, about his youth and his days in Plod. In 2007 he released a volume of reminiscences, anecdotes and historical information about his beloved Wivenhoe. He is also a weekly contributor of poetry to The Sunday Express, He now writes a weekly column for the East Anglian Daily Times (for which he won columnist of the year in the EDF/ East of England Media Awards in January 2010), performs annually at the Essex Book Festival and occasionally finds time to issue spoken word recordings of his poems.

Album discography

Compilation discography

Bibliography

By Newell

• I Hank Marvinned... ("Martin Newell, c/o The Essex Festival, Department of Literature, University of Essex"; no publisher or year stated; no ISBN.) 16-page booklet of poems
• Under Milk Float. The Greyhound Press, 1992. Illustrated by Barry Woodcock. ISBN 0-9519100-0-0. 60-page book of poems
• The Illegible Bachelor. Festival Books, 1996. ISBN 0-9519100-5-1. Poems
• Poetic Licence: The Best of 1990–1996. Jardine Press, 1996. ISBN 0-9525594-2-0. Poems
• Wild Man of Wivenhoe. Jardine Press, 1996. Illustrated by James Dodds. ISBN 0-9525594-3-9 Long poem
• New. 1999. ISBN 1-85215-078-5. Poems
• Black Shuck: The Ghost Dog of Eastern England. Jardine Press, 1999. Illustrated by James Dodds. ISBN 0-9525594-8-X. Long poem
• Late Autumn Sunlight: East Anglian Verses. Jardine Press, 2001. Illustrated by James Dodds. ISBN 0-9539472-3-8. Poems
• This Little Ziggy. House of Stratus, 2001. ISBN 0-7551-0267-3. Memoir
• The Song of the Waterlily: The Building of a Boat. 2003. Illustrated by James Dodds. ISBN 0-9539472-4-6. Long poem
• Return to Flanders. Jardine Press, 2004. Illustrated by Andrew Dodds. ISBN 0-9539472-8-9. Long poem.
• Spoke 'n' Word. Jardine Press, 2006. Illustrated by Charlotte Bernays. ISBN 0-9552035-0-3. 19 poems about Essex. Supposedly inspired by bicycle rides in the county.
• A Prospect Of Wivenhoe. Snapshots of an English Town. Wiven Books 2007. ISBN 0-9557313-0-5.
• Selected Poems – A Career Best Of. Jardine Press 2008 ISBN 978-0-9552035-6-5

With contributions by Newell

• Pioneer: Last of the Skillingers (One poem, "The Ballad of the Pioneer".) 2002. ISBN 0-9539472-5-4 Revised and enlarged ed. Jardine Press, 2004. ISBN 0-9539472-7-0
• Shipshape 2001. ISBN 0-948252-10-3 (hardback) ISBN 0-948252-09-X (paperback)

External links

• Official website
• Martin Newell on Facebook
• Martin Newell at AllMusic
• The Cleaners from Venus at AllMusic
• The Brotherhood of Lizards at AllMusic
• Martin Newell interviewed about reissue of the first 3 records by The Cleaners from Venus as well as his current life in Rocker Magazine 2012
• Martin Newell a poem by John Cooper Clarke
• martinnewell.co.uk at the Wayback Machine (archived 21 June 2007) edited by Paul Wilkinson, with news, poems, mp3 files, etc.
• Martin Newell discography
• The Mighty Plod yes, a site about the Mighty Plod
• Jardine Press Publisher of a number of Newell's books