Martin Glover

Martin Glover
Martin Glover performing at the 2009 Ilosaarirock festival.
Background information
Also known as	Youth, Orion
Born	(1960-12-27) 27 December 1960 Farnworth, Lancashire, England
Origin	United Kingdom
Genres	Rock, post-punk, experimental rock, electronica, ambient, dub
Occupation(s)	Musician, record producer
Instruments	Bass guitar, guitar, synthesizer
Associated acts	Killing Joke, The Verve, Brilliant, The Orb, The Fireman, Zodiac Youth, Celtic Cross, Transmission, Suns of Arqa, Vertical Smile, Paul McCartney, Hypnopazūzu

Martin Glover, also known as Youth or Orion,^[1] (born 27 December 1960 in Farnworth, Lancashire) is a record producer and a founding member and bassist of Killing Joke. He is a member of The Fireman, along with Paul McCartney.

Early career

Born in Farnworth, Lancashire, between the ages of 11 and 17 Glover attended the fee-paying boarding school Kingham Hill School.^[2]

Naming himself "Pig Youth" after the reggae chanter Big Youth in 1977 he joined punk band The Rage, who toured with The Adverts.^[3][4] Later he joined 4" Be 2" - a band formed by John Lydon's brother Jimmy Lydon - and recorded the "One of the Lads" single with them.^[4][5]

Glover is most famous for being the bass player in Killing Joke. He left the band in 1982, and soon after founded his own commercially orientated dub funk band Brilliant, which recorded one album in 1986 before later disbanding.

In 1989, Youth and Alex Paterson started the WAU! Mr. Modo label.^[6] Their early releases of a selection of industrial techno dubs and heavy sound system dubs from artists such as Napthali, Manasseh, Bim Sherman and Jah Warrior are long deleted and fetch high sums in private sales.

Youth's connections with dub continued in the mid-1990s when he was asked by Adrian Sherwood to remix some of Bim Sherman's tracks for a reworking of the Miracle album. He also recently appeared on a Ted Parsons/NIC dub album, contributing a remix which opens with a sample from Glen Brown's "Version '78", a track originally released on the South East label.

In the early nineties, Glover formed techno and house music duo Blue Pearl together with American singer Durga McBroom. They scored a handful of hit singles including their blue vinyl debut "Naked In The Rain", which reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart and was also a #5 dance hit in the U.S. in 1990. It was followed by "Little Brother" and "(Can You) Feel the Passion". An album, Naked, was also released.

Later career

Youth's Butterfly Records label has produced artists such as Take That, Wet Wet Wet, Tom Jones, The Orb, Maria McKee and Heather Nova. Youth was the co-producer of The Verve's Urban Hymns and Dolores O'Riordan's 'Are You Listening?'.^[7] He has also worked, produced and remixed for bands including Kate Bush, Guns N' Roses, Primal Scream, Embrace, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Art of Noise, Crowded House, Zoe, P.M. Dawn, Yazoo, Erasure, U2, Bananarama, INXS, James, Suns of Arqa,^[8] Depeche Mode, The Shamen, Misery Loves Co., Texas, Dido, Gravity Kills, Fake?, Pink Floyd and The Charlatans.^[9]

Glover had also made plans to work with Duran Duran in the later stages of their lost album Reportage,^[10] before it was shelved later in 2006.

In 2008, Glover produced the Delays album Everything's the Rush, the Futureheads' This Is Not The World and worked on the debut album of American band The Daylights. In 2013, Glover produced the debut album Collective by the DIY indie rock band Echotape,^[11] followed by Meteorites by Echo and the Bunnymen and Lion by Peter Murphy (both set for release in 2014). The following year, Glover produced Culture Club's new album "Tribes" (set for release in early 2015), including first single "More Than Silence" which emerged in November 2014.

Also in 2008, Glover rejoined Killing Joke and is presently with them on bass.

Glover is credited with founding the first psychedelic trance record label, Dragonfly Records, as well as the Liquid Sound Design and Kamaflage Records labels. He is well known on the psychedelic trance scene, collaborating with Simon Posford and Saul Davies as Celtic Cross, with Greg Hunter and Simon Posford as Dub Trees, and on the project Zodiac Youth. He has performed both full-on trance as well as chill-out DJ sets at several Return to the Source parties, and released the Ambient Meditations 3 mix album on their label in 2000. His Butterfly Studios were also home of the Return to the Source offices circa 1999-2002.

Glover is a member of the band Transmission, together with Simon Tong of The Verve, Paul Ferguson of Killing Joke and Tim Bran of Dreadzone. He also played guitar on several tracks on the 2007 Client album "Heartland."

In mid-2010, Glover teamed up with Alex Paterson (The Orb) to compile a retrospective compilation album of tracks from the WAU! Mr Modo label. The album titled "Impossible Oddities" was released on CD and double vinyl on 25 October 2010 via Year Zero records.

On 27 October 2012, during the International Festival of Music Producers and Sound Designers SOUNDEDIT, Glover was awarded The Man with the Golden Ear Award.^[12][13]

Production discography

Taken from Martin Glover's Youth site.^[14]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Martin Glover.

• You Say It's Your Birthday: Youth of Killing Joke from VH1
• Official Website
• Martin Glover: Before Killing Joke, Youth tells us about his whole adventure in punk rock