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Green Gartside

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Green Gartside
Gartside performing live at Brixton Academy, 2014
Gartside performing live at Brixton Academy, 2014
Background information
Birth namePaul Julian Strohmeyer
Born (1955-06-22) 22 June 1955 (age 69)
OriginCardiff, Wales
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Singer
  • songwriter
  • musician
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active1977–1991; 1999–present
Labels
Member ofScritti Politti

Green Gartside (born Paul Julian Strohmeyer; 22 June 1955)[3][better source needed] is a Welsh singer, songwriter and musician. He is the frontman of the band Scritti Politti.

Early life

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Gartside was born on 22 June 1955[4] in Cardiff, Wales, to a "Cup-a-Soup salesman dad and a hairdresser/secretary/whatever mum".[5] His childhood was not always happy, with the family, which included a sister, having to move every twelve months or so because of his father's job.[5] The family ended up "living all over [Wales], from Bridgend to Newport to Ystrad Mynach".[6] His father died while he was a child and his widowed mother married her boss, a solicitor from Newport named Gordon Gartside, from whom he adopted his new surname.[5] Gartside recalls, "The 'Green' bit came about because I didn't like the fact there were two other Pauls in my class and I wanted something different. So I just chose something random after listening to a Captain Beefheart album where all the musicians were named odd things like Zoot Horn Rollo. I thought having a made-up name was well cool".[5]

Gartside attended Croesyceiliog Grammar School in Cwmbran. At the age of 14, he formed a branch of the Young Communist League, along with his schoolfriend and future Scritti Politti bassist Nial Jinks.[5][7] He later completed a foundation course in art at Newport Art College.[5] and formed a band called Heads of the Valleys.[5]

In the mid-1970s, Gartside moved to England to study fine art at Leeds Polytechnic.[8]

Career

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While at art school in Leeds in 1977, Gartside formed the post-punk band Scritti Politti[9] with schoolmate and friend Nial Jinks and art school friend Tom Morley. After Gartside and Morley had left Leeds Polytechnic, they moved to London, later securing a recording contract with Rough Trade Records who released Scritti Politti's debut studio album Songs to Remember in September 1982. However, subsequent Scritti Politti studio albums featured Gartside with different personnel, with Gartside being the only constant member of the group. In 1983, Gartside provided guest vocals on Eurythmics's cover version of the Sam & Dave song "Wrap It Up" from their second studio album Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).

Scritti Politti performing live at Big Chill 2006

As Scritti Politti, Gartside and New Yorkers keyboardist David Gamson and drummer Fred Maher released the band's second studio album Cupid & Psyche 85 in June 1985. The album included hits "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)" (to the music video for which Michael Clark lent his contemporary dance); "Absolute" (the music video being based on William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream);[10] "The Word Girl"; "Perfect Way"; and "Hypnotize". Released on Virgin Records, it reached number 5 in the UK and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for 100,000 copies sold. It was produced by Scritti Politti and Turkish-born Arif Mardin who coincidentally had also produced Aretha Franklin, one of Gartside's musical influences.

Released in June 1988, Scritti Politti's third studio album Provision was a UK top 10 success, though it only produced one UK top 20 hit single, "Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry for Loverboy)". After releasing a couple of non-album singles in 1991, as well as a collaboration with B.E.F., Gartside became disillusioned with the music industry and retired to South Wales for more than seven years.[11]

In the early to mid-1990s, Gartside lived alone in a secluded cottage in Usk, Monmouthshire, spending his time listening to hip hop, playing darts and drinking beer at his local pub The Nags Head Inn.[6][5] He returned to music-making in the late 1990s, releasing a new studio album, Anomie & Bonhomie, in 1999 (which included various rap and hip hop influences).

In 2006, another new studio album was released by Gartside, the stripped-down White Bread Black Beer by Scritti Politti, which returned to the more experimental era of the band's history. He also returned to touring,[12] including his first ever tour of the United States with his band Scritti Politti.[13]

In 2012, Gartside, who has suffered from recurring stage fright that prevented Scritti Politti from touring for many years, performed several songs by folk rock singer Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention as part of a tribute called The Lady in several UK cities.

In 2015, Gartside was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Goldsmiths, University of London.[9]

He has been a regular stand-in presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music.[14][15]

Gartside has also worked with Miles Davis,[16] Chaka Khan,[17] Eurythmics, Elvis Costello,[18] Shabba Ranks, Mos Def,[19] Meshell Ndegeocello,[20] Kylie Minogue,[21] Robyn Hitchcock,[22] Manic Street Preachers,[23] Tracey Thorn,[24] and Robert Wyatt (on Songs to Remember).

In 2020, Gartside released a solo single on Rough Trade Records, which featured cover versions of "Tangled Man" and "Wishing Well"[25] by folk singer Anne Briggs.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "One week, one band". Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  2. ^ Horton 2011, Matthew. "Scritti Politti Absolute Review Compilation. Released 2011". Retrieved 15 January 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Dalton, Stephen (4 August 2006). "It's getting easier being Green". The Times. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
  4. ^ Berkmann, Marcus (3 June 2021). Berkmann's Pop Miscellany: Sex, Drugs and Cars in Swimming Pools. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 9781408713846.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Owens, David (28 June 2012). "Scritti Politti's Green Gartside returns to Newport for the Busk on the Usk Festival". Wales Online. Media Wales Ltd. Retrieved 30 November 2016 – via walesonline.co.uk.
  6. ^ a b Bevan, Nathan (13 March 2011). "Scritti Politti's Green Gartside on cracking under the pressures of fame". Wales Online. Media Wales Ltd. Retrieved 1 February 2015 – via walesonline.co.uk.
  7. ^ Butt, Gavin (2022). No machos or pop stars: when the Leeds art experiment went punk. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 78. ISBN 9781478023234. LCCN 2021050347.
  8. ^ "Scritti Politti". iTunes. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  9. ^ a b "Film producer Lord Puttnam and designer Margaret Howell to be honoured by Goldsmiths". gold.ac.uk. Goldsmiths, University of London. Archived from the original on 23 February 2015. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  10. ^ "Happy Birthday, Green!". Oh by the Way. 22 June 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  11. ^ Roberts, David (1998). Guinness Rockopedia (1st ed.). London: Guinness Publishing Ltd. p. 378. ISBN 0-85112-072-5.
  12. ^ "Pop legend plays first gig for 26 years". The Guardian. 9 January 2006. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  13. ^ Scritti Politti's First Ever U.S. Tour Dates by B.V. Staff, BrooklynVegan, 27 September 2006.
  14. ^ "Green Gartside sits in". Guy Garvey's Finest Hour. BBC. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  15. ^ "Green Gartside sits in". The Tom Robinson Show. BBC. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  16. ^ "Interview: Green Gartside". The Last Miles. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  17. ^ "Pop legend plays first gig for 26 years". The Guardian. 9 January 2006. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  18. ^ "Pop music: My dinner with Derrida". The Independent. 15 July 1999. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  19. ^ "Do Remember: Scritti Politti, Mos Def & Lee Majors – Tinseltown To Boogie Down". Ambrosia For Heads. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  20. ^ Derrik, Mathis (26 January 2000). "Behind Blue Eyes". LA Weekly. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  21. ^ "Album: Kylie Minogue". The Independent. 14 November 2003. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  22. ^ "Scritti Politti's Green Gartside plays Nick Drake tribute dates". Rough Trade Records. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  23. ^ "Behind the Manic Street Preachers' new Welsh assembly: The collaborators who made Futurology possible". Wales Online. 5 July 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  24. ^ "Album: Tracey Thorn, Tinsel and Lights (Strange Feeling)". The Independent. 22 December 2012. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  25. ^ "Green Gartside – Tangled Man – 7"". Rough Trade.
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