hypersongs

The Pop Group

A Bristol post-punk band that mixed funk, dub, free jazz and radical politics on the 1979 album Y and its debut single "She Is Beyond Good and Evil".

Bristol, 1977 to 1981

The Pop Group formed in Bristol in 1977 (one secondary source says 1978). Mark Stewart, John Waddington and Simon Underwood were schoolmates, and Stewart set out to form a funk group; Gareth Sager played guitar and saxophone and Bruce Smith drums and percussion. Dan Catsis replaced Underwood on bass around 1979. They signed to Radar Records after notoriety for their live shows and an NME cover, and gave the proceeds of their first high-profile tour to Amnesty International. Their debut single, "She Is Beyond Good and Evil", came out on March 2, 1979 and the album Y on April 20, 1979, both on Radar. They moved to Rough Trade later that year, starting with "We Are All Prostitutes", and in 1980 made For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? and a split single with the Slits, who shared their drummer Bruce Smith and manager Dick O'Dell.

Their last show of the original era was the CND protest in Trafalgar Square in 1980, where Wikipedia says the crowd was about half a million. They split in 1981 after legal disputes and internal disagreements. Members went on to New Age Steppers, Rip Rig and Panic (with Neneh Cherry), Pigbag, Maximum Joy and Head, and Stewart made solo records with Adrian Sherwood and the On-U Sound label.

Reunion

They reunited in 2010, with Stewart, Sager, Smith and Catsis, for an All Tomorrow's Parties festival curated by Matt Groening, and toured the UK, US, Japan, Australia and Europe, playing Glastonbury twice. Citizen Zombie (2015, produced by Paul Epworth) was their first studio album in 35 years, followed by Honeymoon on Mars (2016, recorded with Dennis Bovell) and Y in Dub (2021, produced by Bovell). Mute reissued Y as a definitive edition box set on November 1, 2019. Mark Stewart died on April 21, 2023, aged 62, and John Waddington's death, at 63, was announced on June 21, 2023.

Mike Watt, Primal Scream, Sonic Youth, Steve Albini, A Certain Ratio, Trent Reznor and Massive Attack have named them as an influence, and Nick Cave called one of their gigs life-changing. Simon Reynolds writes about them in Rip It Up and Start Again (2006) and UK Post-Punk: Faber Forty-Fives (2012).

Albums

  • Y 1979 ยท Radar

    Their 1979 debut: nine songs that put funk, dub and free jazz through a punk band, produced by the reggae musician Dennis Bovell.

Songs

  • She Is Beyond Good and Evil 1979

    Their debut single of March 1979 on Radar, a seething piece of funk, punk, dub and free jazz that was not on the original Y.

Sources

  1. The Pop Group, Wikipedia
  2. Y (album), Wikipedia
  3. She Is Beyond Good and Evil, Wikipedia
  4. The Pop Group, thepopgroup.net