Mute is deeply saddened by the loss of our dear friend, fellow agitator and creative force of nature, Mark Stewart.
We’ve worked with Mark since 1985, when Mute released his prescient album As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade, the beginning of a long creative partnership which, in recent years, lead to us having the great honour of re-releasing his first album with the Maffia, Learning to Cope with Cowardice, as well as one of the all-time greats, The Pop Group’s Y.
…
With such a unique interpretation on life, on everything, there really was no one like Mark Stewart.
In honour of this original, fearless, sensitive, artistic and funny man, think for yourself and question everything!
The world was changed because of Mark Stewart, it will never be the same without him.
Saw him with The Maffia in about 2005 at that Russell Haswell night with AFX, Whitehouse and a bunch of others. Great gig, he was definitely one of the highlights, massive presence.
I loved Loop’s cover of “Thief Of Fire”, but when I found a copy of Y I had my tiny mind blown by the full Pop Group experience; and his plunderphonic version of “Jerusalem” with The Maffia should be the actual national anthem of England, so sarky as it is.
It’s very sad news. His work with The Pop Group alone would be noteworthy.
But my favourite era is the run of Sherwood-produced albums in the 1980s, when The Maffia and Tackhead were the best band in the planet. I only got to see The Maffia once, in Copenhagen in 1988. Mark was terrifying and hysterically funny at the same time.
The best Mark Stewart track is, as far as I know, unreleased and only ever played on Steve Barker’s radio show “On The Wire” in 1989. It’s called “Desire”, a rocky dance tune on which Mark recalls the U2 song and Pat Benatar, among others, with a hypnotic instrumental ending.
Wow, words fail. I was spontaneously putting on some Sherwood/Tackhead on Friday for the 1st time in forever. I wore out Mark’s LPs back in the day. Mindblowing stuff. RIP.
)