Green Gartside

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

Green Gartside
Green Gartside, 2014
Background information
Birth namePaul Julian Strohmeyer
Born (1955-06-22) 22 June 1955
OriginCardiff, Wales
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • singer-songwriter
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active1977–1991; 1999–present
Labels
Associated actsScritti Politti

Early life

Gartside was born in Cardiff, Wales, to a "Cup-a-soup salesman dad and a hairdresser/secretary/whatever mum".[4] His childhood was not always happy, with the family (which included a sister)[4] having to move every 12 months or so because of his father's job. He ended up "living all over [Wales], from Bridgend to Newport to Ystrad Mynach".[5] His father died while he was a child, after which his widowed mother married her boss, a solicitor[4] from Newport named Gordon Gartside, from whom he adopted his new surname. 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".[4]

Gartside attended Croesyceiliog Grammar School in Cwmbran (now known as Croesyceiliog School). At 14 he formed a branch of the Young Communist League.[4] He later completed a foundation course in art at Newport Art College (now known as the Faculty of Creative Industries at the University of South Wales)[4] and formed a band called Heads of the Valleys.[4]

In the mid-1970s, Gartside moved to England to study fine art at Leeds Polytechnic.[6]

Career

While at art school in Leeds in 1977, Gartside formed the post-punk band Scritti Politti[7] 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 deal with Rough Trade Records who released the first Scritti Politti album Songs to Remember in 1982. However, subsequent Scritti Politti albums featured Gartside with different personnel, with Gartside being the only constant member of the group.

Scritti Politti in 2006

As Scritti Politti, Gartside and New York keyboardist David Gamson and American drummer Fred Maher released the album Cupid & Psyche '85 in June 1985. The album included hits "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)" (to the video for which Michael Clark lent his contemporary dance); "Absolute" (the video being based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream);[8] "The Word Girl"; "Perfect Way"; and "Hypnotize". Released on Virgin Records it reached number 5 in the UK and was certified Gold by the BPI for 100,000 copies sold. It was produced by Scritti Politti and Turkish-born Arif Mardin who coincidentally also produced Aretha Franklin, one of Gartside's musical influences.

In 1988 Scritti Politti's album Provision was a UK Top 10 success, though it only produced one UK Top 20 hit single, "Oh Patti". 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.[9] Gartside suffered a complete mental breakdown:

We’d been doing months of chat show-type things all around the world and I’d really started hating myself deeply, and everybody around me, for talking so much b*******. Unless you’re some sort of weird egomaniac it's not healthy to spend that amount of time talking about yourself, and I’d become totally burned out and insane. So to go straight from that into making our next record was a mistake ... I just remember hailing a cab one day and coming to in bed surrounded by doctors.[5]

In the early and 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.[5][4] He returned to music-making in the late 1990s, releasing a new album, Anomie & Bonhomie, in 1999 (which included various rap and hip hop influences).

In 2006, another new 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,[10] including his first ever tour of the United States with his band Scritti Politti.[11]

In 2012, Gartside, who has suffered from recurring stage fright that prevented Scritti Politti from touring for many years, performed several songs by Sandy Denny 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.[7]

He has been a regular stand-in presenter on BBC 6 Music.[12][13]

Gartside has also worked with Miles Davis,[14] Chaka Khan,[15] Eurythmics, Elvis Costello,[16] Shabba Ranks, Mos Def,[17] Meshell Ndegeocello,[18] Kylie Minogue,[19] Robyn Hitchcock,[20] Manic Street Preachers,[21] Tracey Thorn,[22] and Robert Wyatt (on Songs To Remember).

In 2020, Gartside released a solo single on Rough Trade Records, which featured covers of "Tangled Man" and "Wishing Well"[23] by folk singer Anne Briggs.

See also

References
  1. "One week, one band". Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  2. Horton 2011, Matthew. "Scritti Politti Absolute Review Compilation. Released 2011". Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  3. Dalton, Stephen (4 August 2006). "It's getting easier being Green". The Times. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. "Scritti Politti". iTunes. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  7. "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.
  8. "Happy Birthday, Green!". Oh by the Way. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  9. Roberts, David (1998). Guinness Rockopedia (1st ed.). London: Guinness Publishing Ltd. p. 378. ISBN 0-85112-072-5.
  10. "Pop legend plays first gig for 26 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  11. Scritti Politti's First Ever U.S. Tour Dates by B.V. Staff, BrooklynVegan.com, 27 September 2006.
  12. "Green Gartside sits in". Guy Garvey's Finest Hour. BBC. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  13. "Green Gartside sits in". The Tom Robinson Show. BBC. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  14. "Interview: Green Gartside". The Last Miles. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  15. "Pop legend plays first gig for 26 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  16. "Pop music: My dinner with Derrida". The Independent. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  17. "Do Remember: Scritti Politti, Mos Def & Lee Majors – Tinseltown To Boogie Down". Ambrosia For Heads. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  18. Derrik, Mathis. "Behind Blue Eyes". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  19. "Album: Kylie Minogue". The Independent. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  20. "Scritti Politti's Green Gartside plays Nick Drake tribute dates". Rough Trade Records. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  21. "Behind the Manic Street Preachers' new Welsh assembly: The collaborators who made Futurology possible". Wales Online. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  22. "Album: Tracey Thorn, Tinsel and Lights (Strange Feeling)". The Independent. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  23. "Green Gartside – Tangled Man – 7"". Rough Trade.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.