Martin Newell also known as "the Wild Man of Wivenhoe

Wivenhoe

Wivenhoe is a town in north eastern Essex, England, approximately south east of Colchester. Historically Wivenhoe village, on the banks of the River Colne, and Wivenhoe Cross, on the higher ground to the north, were two separate settlements but with considerable development in the 19th century the...

", is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 musician, singer, guitarist, songwriter, poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. He grew up in an army family in various parts of England and the Far East. His music is guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 with jangly, upbeat, guitar-centric arrangements.

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

Velvet Tinmine

Velvet Tinmine is a compilation album consisting of 20 obscure, yet high quality, British pop rock tracks from the glam rock era...

. This track was credited to The Plod, and remains the only officially issued work by the band.

After Plod broke up, Newell briefly considered accepting an invitation to audition for the proto-punk group London SS

London SS

London SS were an early British punk rock group founded in March 1975 by guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Tony James.The band spent most of their short history auditioning potential members. Besides Jones and James, however, guitarist Brian James was the only other semi-permanent member...

, but decided against it. Instead, he 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 (see Cassette culture

Cassette culture

Cassette culture, or the cassette underground , refers to the practices surrounding amateur production and distribution of recorded music that emerged in the late 1970s via home-made audio 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

RCA

RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...

 Records which released two albums ("Going To England", "Town And Country").

Giles Smith

Giles Smith

Giles Smith is a British journalist and former musician. In 1998 he was named sports journalist of the year.Smith was one of the two members of the band Orphans of Babylon who in 1983 produced the cassette Pinch Me - I Think I'm In Kent.This cassette featured 36 tracks including "Helluva Break By...

 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

New Model Army (band)

New Model Army are an English rock band, who were formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1980. They have been variously classified by Allmusic as post-punk and alternative rock.-Overview:...

.

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

XTC

XTC were a New Wave band from Swindon, England, active between 1976 and 2005. The band enjoyed some chart success, including the UK and Canadian hits "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Senses Working Overtime" , but are perhaps even better known for their long-standing critical success.- Early years:...

's Andy Partridge

Andy Partridge

Andrew John "Andy" Partridge is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has been known as Sir John Johns and Melchior and rose to fame as a founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter of the pop/new wave band, XTC. He lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, where he was raised.Partridge also...

, 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

Louis Philippe (musician)

Louis Philippe is a London-based French singer, songwriter, arranger and producer who has been active from the mid-1980s onwards...

, 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

Richard Shelton

Richard Shelton is an English actor and singer, best known to millions for playing the role of Dr Adam Forsythe on British television's daytime Soap Opera Emmerdale on ITV1...

 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

R. Stevie Moore

Robert Steven Moore is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. In addition to having numerous albums released on labels around the world, the prolific Moore has self-released over 400 cassette and CD-R albums since 1968, as well as dozens of home videos, mostly through the 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

Essex Book Festival

The Essex Book Festival is a literary festival that has been held across the county of Essex annually since March 1999, United Kingdom. The festival aims to provide an opportunity for writers and the public to meet. The festival has been the host of numerous authors of international acclaim but is...

 and occasionally finds time to issue spoken word recordings of his poems.

Discography

• Blow Away your Troubles as Cleaners from Venus, 1981 (Man at the Off-Licence Tapes) No catalogue number (Cassette release)
• On Any Normal Monday as Cleaners from Venus, 1982 (Man at the Off-Licence Tapes) No catalogue number (Cassette release)
• Barricades and Angels as The Stray Trollies, 1982 (Man at the Off-Licence Tapes)- catalogue number POW 003 (Cassette release)
• Secret Dreams of a Kitchen Porter, 1982 (Man at the Off-Licence Tapes) - catalogue number NOW 004 (Cassette release)
• Midnight Cleaners, 1982 (Man at the Off-Licence Tapes)- catalogue number MAO CO5 (Cassette release)
• In the Golden Autumn as Cleaners from Venus, 1983 (Man at the Off-Licence Tapes) - catalogue number FRAU 006 (Cassette release)
• Under Wartime Conditions as Cleaners from Venus, 1984 (Man at the Off-Licence) - catalogue number TAO 008
• Songs For A Fallow Land as Martin Newell, 1985 (Man at the Off-Licence) - catalogue number 009 (Cassette release)
• Living With Victoria Grey as Cleaners from Venus, 1986 (Cassette release)
• Mind How You Go as Cleaners from Venus, 1987 (Jarmusic) (EP)
• Going to England as Cleaners from Venus, 1987 (Ammunition)
• April Fool 1987) (Jarmusic) (EP)
• Town and Country as Cleaners from Venus, 1988 (Man at the Off-Licence)
• Winter as Cleaners from Venus, 1988 (Jarmusic Pink Lemon) (LP)
• Lizardland as Brotherhood of Lizards, 1989 (Deltic), reissue 1995 (Long Play)
• Number Thirteen as Cleaners from Venus, 1990 (Man at the Off-Licence)
• Golden Cleaners as Cleaners from Venus, 1993 (Tangerine)
• The Greatest Living Englishman, 1993, featuring Andy Partridge of XTC
  XTC
  XTC were a New Wave band from Swindon, England, active between 1976 and 2005. The band enjoyed some chart success, including the UK and Canadian hits "Making Plans for Nigel" and "Senses Working Overtime" , but are perhaps even better known for their long-standing critical success.- Early years:...
  
  , (Humbug, Pipeline) CD and cassette. Reissued with bonus CD of poetry recorded live as The Greatest Living Englishman: Very Limited Edition, 1993 (Humbug); also in 1995 and 1996 (Jarmusic) and 1996 and 2000 (Cherry Red)
• Live 1987 as Cleaners from Venus, 1993 (Jarmusic Pink Lemon)
• Let's Kiosk, 1995 (Humbug) EP
• Live in Japan as Cleaners from Venus, 1995 (Jarmusic Pink Lemon)
• The Legendary 13 as Cleaners from Venus, 1995 (Jarmusic Pink Lemon) (EP)
• Back from the Cleaners as Cleaners from Venus, 1995 (Tangerine)
• The Off White Album, 1995 (Jarmusic), reissued 2002 (Cherry Red) with Newell reading excerpts from This Little Ziggy and an enhanced video track.
• Martin Newell, 1996 (Jarmusic) promotional CD
• Box of Old Humbug, 1996 (Humbug) double CD with the content of The Greatest Living Englishman, The Off White Album, and Let's Kiosk
• Don't Step on My Rainbow as Cleaners from Venus, 1996 (Jarmusic) box set of five 7-inch singles
• The Wayward Genius of Martin Newell, as Martin Newell, Cleaners from Venus, and Brotherhood of Lizards, 1999 (Cherry Red) compilation CD
• Mind How You Go / The April Fool 1999 (Jarmusic) cassettes re-released on CD, with extra material
• Wild Man of Wivenhoe and Black Shuck 1999 the poems recorded
• My Back Wages: A Collection of Cleaners Rarities as Cleaners from Venus, 2000 (Jarmusic)
• The Spirit Cage, 2000 (CD on Cherry Red, LP with bonus single on Jarmusic)
• New Europeans as Martin Newell and The Cleaners From Venus, 2000 (Jarmusic) (limited edition EP)
• Barricades and Angels + Secret Dreams of a Kitchen Porter as the Stray Trolleys (Jarmusic)
• Songs From the Station Hotel, 2002 (Jarmusic) (EP)
• Radio Autumn Attic, 2002 (Cherry Red)
• "Live at the Greyhound", 2003 (vinyl EP, Jarmusic), spoken word
• Living with Victoria Grey': The Very Best of the Cleaners from Venus, 2004 (Cherry Red)
• The Light Programme, 2004 (Cherry Red), includes Newell reading excerpts from This Little Ziggy
• A Summer Tamarind, 2007 (Cherry Red)
• Spoke 'n' Word. Poems About Essex By Martin Newell. A collection of poems read against a pastoral background soundtrack. November 2007 (Self Released)
• English Electric, 11 track download album credited to The Cleaners From Venus. Released June 2010. All new compositions. Available solely from his website. Pending forthcoming CD release.

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 0955203503. 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 0955731305.
• 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

• Martin Newell interviewed on his life and work by Iain McNay for Cherry Red TV
• Martin Newell a poem by John Cooper Clarke
  John Cooper Clarke
  John Cooper Clarke is an English performance poet who first became famous during the punk rock era of the late 1970s when he became known as a "punk poet"...
  
  
• martinnewell.co.uk edited by Paul Wilkinson, with news, poems, mp3 files, etc.
• Jangly the Martin Newell mailing list
• Martin Newell discography
• The Mighty Plod yes, a site about the Mighty Plod
• Jardine Press Publisher of a number of Newell's books
• Martin Newell at Cherry Red Publisher of a number of his CDs, some of which are now available as downloads.
• Martin Newell at Falling A Records The DIY years, compilations and rare single.