Andy Martin is a groundbreaking musician, lyricist and writer who lives in London, England. London — containing the City of London — is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England and a major world city. With over seven million inhabitants (Londoners) in Greater London area, it is amongst the most densely populated areas in Western Europe. ...

The 1980s

During the 1980s, he was the singer, lyricist and occasionally drummer for The Apostles, a group that was founded in 1980 and played a prominent part in the anarcho-punk scene in London. Some of the band's recordings were released by the record label Mortarhate run by the group Conflict and others, many on cassette, by the The Apostles themselves. The group published their own zine, called Scum and, as well, Martin and various associates, including at times members of the band Crass, helped run several different anarchist venues in London for performances, films and meetings, including "The Autonomy Centre" and "The Zig-Zag Club". During the time he was with The Apostles, Martin began to express his views about his own homosexuality and the topic in general in his lyrics for the band, emerging as a forerunner for the nascent Queercore scene. The Apostles, as well as Martin's next band, Academy 23, were both on the J.D.s Top Ten Tape, the first queercore compilation, issued by J.D.s zine in 1990, and were interviewed in Homocore zine. The Apostles are an experimental punk rock band who developed within the confines of the 1980s Anarcho Punk scene in the U.K., but did not necessarily adhere to the aesthetics of that movement. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... The anarchy symbol commonly used by anarcho-punks Anarcho-punk (sometimes known as peace-punk) is a subgenre of the punk rock movement consisting of groups and bands promoting specifically anarchist ideas. ... An independent record label is variously described as a record label operating without the funding (or outside the organizations) of the major record labels, and/or a label that subscribes to indie philosophies such as DIY and anti-corporate art. ... Conflicts logo as originally designed by Nihilistic Nobody Conflict is an anarcho-punk band originally based around Eltham in South London. ... A zine—an abbreviation of the word magazine—is most commonly a small circulation, non-commercial publication of original or appropriated texts and images. ... For information about the anarchist writer see Chris Crass Crass was an influential English anarchist punk rock band. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Homocore/Queercore is a cultural and social movement which arose in the mid 1980s. ... J.D.s was a queer punk zine founded in Toronto by G.B. Jones and co-published with Bruce LaBruce, that ran for eight issues from 1985 to 1991 and is widely recognized as having launched the Queercore movement and queer zine scene. ...

During the 1980s Martin and fellow Apostle Dave Fanning had sought to go far beyond the typical manner of releasing records. Each of their releases came with booklets or pamphlets written by Martin and artwork and comics by Fanning. Eventually they ceased to perform live in order to concentrate on this aspect of the band. Disillusioned with the punk scene, their interests in art and in other forms of music such as folk and Industrial began to surface. Folk can refer to a number of different things: It can be short for folk music, or, for folksong, or, for folklore; it may be a word for a specific people, tribe, or nation, especially one of the Germanic peoples; it might even be a calque on the related German...

The 1990s

Im 1990, The Apostles changed their name to Academy 23, and at the same time changed directions musically and philosophically. The band became more involved in cassette culture and collaborated with Industrial band The Grey Wolves on a couple of recordings. Moving away from their earlier punk sound, they successfully merged folk and industrial elements, and in the process became one of the early creators of the genre that would come to be called neo-folk. Frequently recording in other languages such as German, they became popular in continental Europe. Academy 23 was the name given to the new experimental music project created by Andy Martin and Dave Fanning immediately after disbanding their former group The Apostles. ... Cassette culture was in part an offshoot of the mail art movement of the 1970s and 1980s. ... The Grey Wolves are a British Industrial music group. ... The name Neo-folk refers to a music genre, not resembling folk music at all, which is based upon the style of nationalist marching music and ancient traditional music approaches of certain indigenous cultures (mostly northern European modal music) with modern synthesizers and atmospheric epic mood settings. ...

Also in 1990, Andy Martin began a collaboration with Peter Williams, who later joined Academy 23, in a band they named Time To Think, releasing several cassettes and a 7" EP on William's label Thinking Time.

From 1992 till 2001, Andy Martin wrote for and edited 26 issues of the non-commercial art magazine SMILE, an internationally edited publication first launched by Stewart Home in February 1984. SMILE is an international magazine of multiple origins. ... Stewart Home (born 1962) - Otherwise known as Lachlan Kuhn - is a British fiction writer, subcultural pamphleteer, underground art historian, and activist. ...

2000s

At the end of the nineties, Academy 23 changed names once again, this time to Unit, for which Andy Martin continues to perform and write. His constant collaborator through all three bands has been Dave Fanning.

Martin is also an essayist and chronicler of the periods in which his bands existed.

Publications

• Scum
• SMILE, 1992 -2001, editor

SMILE is an international magazine of multiple origins. ...

External links

• Official "Unit" Site, featuring essays by Andy Martin
• "Anarchy, punkrock and The Apostles" by Andy Martin