Mark Stewart And The Maffia – 1986 European Tour

Unknown venue, unknown date, what is definitely known is that this performance is a blinder and must be heard in clear digitalised mixing desk quality…Recorded while promoting the ONU Sound LP ‘As The Veneer Of Democracy Starts To Fade’ which had been released the previous year, this set gives a decent impression of that material and is played very professionally by ex members of The Sugar-Hill Gang, Keith Le Blanc, Skip MacDonald and Doug Wimbush, orchestrated by the wizard in the mix, Adrian Sherwood. Very loud mix on the P.A at these gigs I seem to recall from the gigs I attended in London around the same time!

I will direct you to John Eden’s site for more details about Mark Stewart And The Maffia. Well worth the read…Here

Just found a couple of ‘shorts’ from the same era and possibly the same tour:

Resistance Of The Cell / Hypnotised / Liberty City (part)

Resistance Of The Cell / As The Veneer of Democracy Starts To Fade

12 comments

Farmer Glitch
March 21, 2008 at 10:38 pm

Excellent post (again) – love the version of Liberty City – Learning to Cope with Cowardice is an LP that never really leaves the decks/car/computer in this house (despite numerous complaints at times !) … Damn fine to hear this stuff via a mixing desk mix – cheers,,,

I have a mixing desk recording of his gig a couple years back in Bristol if you have not heard it I’ll send it over ….
Tim Niblock
March 25, 2008 at 6:57 pm

I am almost certain that the main post is from The Paradiso in A’dam. I have a Walkman recording that I did that sounds identical. A couple of years ago there were other gigs floating around the interweb thingy from Berlin and Tokyo as well as the above Bristol gig. I also recorded them out here in Melbourne prob around 91 or so, and my two eldest sons are about to catch them in Holland in a couple of weeks time (BASTARDS) PS For Tony D, you prob won’t remember me but Skid Kid, Colin MacNeill you and I all crashed in and around the photo booth at Waverly Station after the night of the White Riot at the Edinburgh Playhouse back in 77. Glad we are all still alive and kicking (RIP STRUMMER) Tim
lee23
March 25, 2008 at 7:36 pm

Just been listening to this, fantastic, Mark Stewart/Tackhead/On-U were abit of an oasis of creative interesting music once punk/post-punk had run out of ideas by the mid 80s…why they never had a wider audience always puzzled me, certainly ahead of the game but the fact that the mainstream music press seemed to ignore them in favour of more acceptable music (style council anyone ????) probably explains it !
betab
March 27, 2008 at 4:26 pm

Nice one. Saw this tour in canterbury (I think) spenta all night standing next to the mixing desk watching the maestro(s) at work.
I seem to remember it was both the loudest and the clearest sound I think i’ve ever heard. Similar bowel churning bass effect as the Swans if i remember right
Carl
March 27, 2008 at 5:22 pm

Superb, Is the Farmer Glitch mixing desk recording going to appear on here ??

A programme on Radio Lancs ” On the Wire” used to love this stuff and I recall the “Democracy” album being played all the time when it came out.

Id forgotten how good this band were.
Farmer Glitch
March 27, 2008 at 7:12 pm

If I can get the mp3’s across – then for sure they should be hosted …

Hung out with Steve Barker from ‘On the Wire’ a while back in Beijing – he mentioned sitting in on the sessions for ‘Learning to cope with cowardice’ – and mentioned having some unreleased outtakes – now that would be nice to hear …. Steve was doing a pretty good job of introducing Beijing to the downtempo grooves of dub and dubstep – gsther he has even managed to get Kode9 spinning up there recently …
Carl
March 27, 2008 at 9:43 pm

Thanks for that Farmer, look forward to hearing them.

Steve Barker’s show was superb, didn’t quite play enough “punk” for my young ears but his show shone out like a beacon, and it seemed that he had complete licence to play whatever he liked in the confines of BBC local Radio. He certainly loved all the On U sound stuff and Adrian Sherwood…
betab
March 28, 2008 at 11:09 am

Discovered Steve’s show after moving up to Lancashire in the mid 80s One of my all time fave tapes was a complete ‘on the wire’ show when Steve got Lee Perry into the studio sometime – must have been 86/7 or so. Completely zonked – a fantastic hour or so long stream of consciousness mixed into and over the top of the tracks. Wish I knew what had happened to my copy…
c10
April 3, 2008 at 8:25 pm

For more Mark Stewart from 1990 with the same gang involved and some more ON-U bits and bites see
http://www.dub.org.uk/sounds/

and more music than you can bear can be found ON THE WIRE blog;
http://otwradio.blogspot.com/

Just in case you would like to know : )
Carl
April 7, 2008 at 10:46 am

Just read the blogspot for “On The Wire”, I thought it was older than 1984 !!..Or is that just me !

It brought back memories of The Fall at Clitheroe Castle, I was one of the 2500 on a red hot summer’s afternoon. Clitheroe , a small market town with Sunday bus services back to civilisation on a Sunday !!.It was chaos and it took an eternity to get back to ANYWHERE !!!…especially with that alcohol fuelled…”where are we ??? “
Nic
April 29, 2008 at 11:54 am

Has anyone seen the line-up for the Massive Attack curated ‘Meltdown’ series of concerts in London in June?

Apart from some interesting evenings (including Horace Andy & Earl 16, Gong, Grace Jones, YMO and George Clinton), there is also the following concert:

Wed 18 June – Royal Festival Hall
Stiff Little Fingers play ‘Inflammable Material’
+
Mark Stewart & the Maffia (with Sherwood on the mix)
John Eden
April 30, 2008 at 9:37 am

Yep will be there and report back. Saxon soundsystem are also playing on Sun 22nd.