Mark Stewart, founding member and frontman of the pioneering UK post-punk band the Pop Group, has died. Stewart passed away in the early hours of Friday, April 21, according to a statement from his longtime label, Mute Records. No cause of death was given. Stewart was 62 years old.
Born Aug. 10, 1960, Stewart grew up in the English city of Bristol, where, according to Rolling Stone, he immersed himself in the city’s funk and reggae scenes as a teenager. It was also in Bristol that Stewart in 1977 formed the Pop Group with youth club friends John Waddington and Simon Underwood. Gareth Sager and Bruce Smith joined later, the band billing themselves as “beatniks of tomorrow.” Inspired by genres including dub, proto-punk, and funk, the Pop Group released their debut album Y, made with dub producer Dennis Bovell, in 1979. For How Much Longer do we Tolerate Murder? followed in 1980 and was more commercial, offering “tighter funk rhythms and a presaging of the industrial music of the rest of the decade,” per The Guardian. The album also featured a collaboration with U.S. group the Last Poets.
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“Knowing Mark, working with him, laughing with him and thinking with him was like nothing else. His hugely confident and dominating presence was coupled with a sensitive, warm, creative, curious, intelligent and hilarious nature-traits that were often hidden upon first meeting this towering tour de force-and as soon as that unmistakable twinkle in his eye appeared, there could be no doubt that he would be in your corner,” Mute Records wrote in a statement. “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 Pop Group split in 1980, after which Stewart continued to collaborate with dub producer Adrian Sherwood on solo releases. He released the 1983 album Learning to Cope With Cowardice and went on to release several solo albums and collaborate with artists including Massive Attack, Tricky, Chicks on Speed, and Nine Inch Nails. In 2010, the Pop Group reformed for a concert tour and went on to release two more albums, 2015’s Citizen Zombie and 2017’s Honeymoon on Mars. Stewart’s last album was Vs, a collaborative project released last year.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Sager remembered Stewart as “the most amazing mind of my generation,” with Sherwood sharing in his own statement, “Thank you, my brother. You were the biggest musical influence in my life and our extended family will miss you so, so much. Love forever.”
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