 |
Martin
Newell
Martin is a writer, broadcaster and musician, best-known
nationally for his poetry and humorous writing and internationally
for rock music.
He has had a dozen collections of verse published and one rock
memoir, This Little Ziggy. He was first published in 1984 in
The Guardian. In 1990 he became poet-in-residence and
occasional columnist with The Independent and The Independent on
Sunday. He has also contributed to Mojo, Record Collector, Viz
Magazine and The Sunday Express where he is now poet-in-residence.
As a broadcaster he has frequently been heard on national BBC
Radio in programmes such as Off The Page, Loose Ends, The
Today Programme, Poetry Please, Open Book, The Verb, Night Waves and
Saturday Live. Martin has been the subject of two TV documentaries
and is increasingly used as a guest presenter for BBC TV's Inside
Out series. A forthcoming programme, Rock Ferry, about the UK's
early rock music scene is to be screened on BBC1 in the near future. |
 Martin
Newell's chequered career as a rock singer and songwriter began making
headway in the early 1980s when he led the notoriously anarchistic
Cleaners From Venus, who broke up on the verge of international success,
becoming the subject of a best-selling book, Lost In Music by Times
journalist Giles Smith. During this time he worked for five years as a
co-writer for the punk-rocker Captain Sensible. His solo career took off
in 1993 after his first solo album, The Greatest Living Englishman was a
success in America, Japan and France, being hailed as a 'rock
classic' by Rolling Stone magazine. Newell toured Germany, France, Japan
and Iceland before finally quitting for a while to resume writing. At the
end of the 1990s he signed to veteran London independent label, Cherry Red
Records, where he is happily settled, having recently released his sixth
solo album, A Summer Tamarind. Other musical activities have included
working as librettist with French opera composer Francois Ribac, with
English composer Colin Towns and as a songwriter for Richard Shelton the
jazz singer whose orchestral debut album, featuring five Newell originals,
was recorded in Abbey Road Studios in 2005.
 |
In 2007, Martin flew to the Falklands for a writing
assignment, made an album, conducted ten weeks of guided tours of
Wivenhoe, and performed at a number of gigs including the Edinburgh
Festival. He has recently completed a book about his home-town, A
Prospect Of Wivenhoe and next year will see the publication of his
Selected Works.
A former garden labourer in Wivenhoe, now the country's
most-published living poet, he has lived and worked here since the
mid 1970s.
Left: Martin's sixth solo album, A Summer
Tamarind, was released by Cherry Red Records on 1st August 2007
Note: Album cover photo, left, and picture of Martin at the top of
this page courtesy of Charlotte Bernays. |
|
