The Pop Group were a post punk band from Bristol, United Kingdom whose uncompromising, dissonant sound spanned punk, free jazz and dub reggae. Their lyrics were, more often than not, political in nature. Post punk generally refers to the particularly fertile and creative period following the initial UK punk rock explosion, roughly spanning 1978-1982. ... Bristol is a port city in south-western England, on the River Avon. ... Look up Punk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Punk can have the following meanings: A follower of punk music, fashion or culture. ... Free jazz, or avant-garde jazz, is a movement of jazz music characterized by diminished dependence on formal constraints. ... Dub Reggae is a form of dub music. ...

Formed in 1978 by Mark Stewart (lyrics, vocals), Jon Waddington (guitar), Gareth Sager (guitar), Simon Underwood (bass) and Bruce Smith (drums, percussion), they issued their debut single, She is Beyond Good and Evil on the 'Radar' label the following year.

Their debut album [[Y]],wasone of the earliest touchstones of the emerging post-punk sound. Produced by reggae veteran Dennis Bovell, the record is still cited today as one of the best of the era, although it is, at the time of writing, along with the rest of their discography, sadly out of print.

Although it did not chart, the album's success was sufficient to convince Rough Trade to sign the band, but not before more line-up changes, with Dan Katsis replacing Underwood on bass, and Tristan Honsinger joining on cello. Rough Trade Records is a British independent record label. ... Tristan Honsinger is a cello player active in free jazz and free improvisation. ...

The band's career with Rough Trade commenced with what is possibly their best-known single, the angry 'We Are All Prostitutes', which preceded the release of their second album, For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? in 1980.

The band split in 1981, after legal wranglings and internal squabblings ingulfed them somewhat, but that was not the end of their members' involvement in the music scene, with ex-members going on to form bands like Pigbag, Maximum Joy and Rip,Rig & Panic, the latter notable for the involvement of a young Neneh Cherry. 1981 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Band Pigbag cut straight through preconceptions in 1982 by getting a big brassy jazz track into the charts in the UK. Papas Got A Brand New Pigbag got to number three in the British charts at the beginning of May 1982. ... Neneh Cherry performing live in Vienna, Austria (ca. ...

Singer Mark Stewart, meanwhile, collaborated with the On-U Sound posse, issuing records firstly as Mark Stewart and the Mafia, then as a solo artist.

The Pop Group are often credited with founding the Bristol scene that would later spawn trip-hop. Trip hop (also known as the Bristol sound) is a term coined by United Kingdom dance magazine Mixmag, to describe a musical trend in the mid-1990s; trip hop is downtempo electronic music that grew out of Englands hip hop and house scenes. ...

Discography

• Y (1979,Radar Records)
• "She Is Beyond Good and Evil" (1979, Radar Records)
• For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? (1980, Rough Trade Records- includes collaboration with The Last Poets)
• "We Are All Prostitutes" (1980, Rough Trade Records)
• "Where There's A Will..." (1980, Rough Trade (split release with The Slits' "In the Beginning There Was Rhythm"))
• We Are Time (1980, Rough Trade semi- bootleg compliation of live tracks, demos and out-takes)
• We Are All Prostitutes (1980, Radar Records (retrospective compilation))

Sources: The Great Alternative and Indie Discography (Martin C Strong) 1979 is a common year starting on Monday. ... Radar Records was the label formed by Jake Rivera in 1978 after he had previously founded Stiff Records. ... 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Rough Trade Records was a British record company. ... The Last Poets are a group of poets and musicians, arising from the late 1960s African American civil rights movement. ... The Slits were a mostly all-women band. ... This article should be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ...