Mark Stewart

Mark Stewart (born in Bristol on 28 April 1960; died 21 April 2023) was a British musician and founding member of The Pop Group. He makes polemical noise-funk with a hip-hop reggae dub feel and has recorded for On-U Sound Records and Mute Records.

Stewart started out in music with The Pop Group a band whose titles (such as "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?") demonstrated political conviction, disrespect for copyright, and willingness to collaborate that laid the foundations for his later work.

The Pop Group split in 1981, with Stewart and two other members heading off to London to hook up with the emerging On-U Sound "conspiracy of outsiders" as part of the New Age Steppers. On-U became a focal point an absurdly diverse set of networks - punks, reggae players from both the UK and Jamaica and free-jazzers.

Stewart subsequently made several albums under his own name as well as collaborating with artists such as Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails), Massive Attack, Tricky to name just a few. In 2005, he released a collection of his best work on Soul Jazz Records titled 'Kiss the Future'.

In later years, he lived in Berlin and continued touring.