Whilst I try to keep up with the wealth of new music and new artists coming out - and spectacularly fail to do so - I also try to keep a steady rotation of albums in my collection.
On the digital decks this week is The Fire Of Love, the 1981 debut from The Gun Club.
I knew of the band via bassist Patricia Morrison's subsequent stint with The Sisters Of Mercy, although she joined later, Rob Ritter aka Rob Graves being in the line-up that recorded this album.
Another member who missed out on the recording was co-founder Kid Congo Powers, having temporarily joined The Cramps at the time The Gun Club entered the studio to record The Fire Of Love. but has a co-writing credit on one of the songs.
Otherwise, all songs are written by frontperson Jeffrey Lee Pierce, and I've picked the three fire-themed songs, including the title track. All live performances, all varying recording quality and camera angles, all fizzing with the same energy and excitement that listening to the album brings.
Remembering Mark Stewart, 10th August 1960 to 21st April 2023.
I posted a hastily compiled Dubhed selection as a tribute the morning after news broke of Mark's passing. In closing, I promised that
"There will be a follow up post,
where I try to articulate just why Mark Stewart
is such an important figure [...]
I just can't find the words right now."
This is that follow-up post, marking two years since Mark died. I'm still not sure I have the words, but Mark's stepped up and done it for me by releasing a brilliant new single, Memory Of You.
Memory Of You is the opening track of The Fateful Symmetry, out in July and completed before Mark's untimely passing. No compromise, even in death.
I discovered Mark's music in the late 1980s via my interest in Adrian Sherwood and ON-U Sound and the Mute label, the channels leading me to his solo albums with Maffia aka Doug Wimbish, Keith LeBlanc and Skip McDonald.
At this point, I had no idea of Mark's links to my birthplace Bristol, and was largely ignorant of The Pop Group, their significance and legacy. The past thirty-odd years have been a voyage of discovery and learning, revealing the complexity and contradictions through a career of challenge and non-conformity.
I've had a little more time to compile today's selection, compared to the ad-hoc tribute in 2023. Even so, this remains a surface-scratching exercise; there are so many layers, and Mark's work goes way beyond that with The Pop Group, Maffia and solo. The good news is that much of it is available in digital and physical formats via Mute, Bandcamp or your friendly local record shop.
Mark's music remains as crucial now as it ever has done.
1) Deep Time Dub (Mark Stewart Mix): Nohumaneye vs Mark Stewart (2022)
2) Hysteria (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Adrian Sherwood): Mark Stewart + Maffia (1990)
3) Death Trip To Tulsa ('Mark Stewart’s Exopolitix Demix'): Mark Lanegan Band (2015)
4) Where There's A Will There's A Way (Single Version By The Pop Group & Dave Anderson): The Pop Group (1980)
5) Shame And Pain (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Jim Sclavunos): Mark Stewart & Jeffrey Lee Pierce ft. Thurston Moore (2014)
6) Gustav Says (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Youth): Mark Stewart ft. Keith Levene & Achim Treu (2012)
7) Toxic Waste (Mark Stewart & Uncle Fester On Acid Remix By Mark Stewart & Patrick Dokter): Lampredonto (2022)
8) Babycino (Album Version By Mark Stewart & Youth): Mark Stewart (2012)
9) Forces Of Oppression (Album Version By The Pop Group & Dave Anderson): The Pop Group (1980)
