Simon Underwood is a British bass guitarist best known as a member of the bands

The Pop Group The Pop Group are an English rock band formed in Bristol in 1977 by vocalist Mark Stewart, guitarist John Waddington, bassist Simon Underwood, guitarist/saxophonist Gareth Sager, and drummer Bruce Smith. Their work in the late 1970s cross ...

and

Pigbag Pigbag were a British post-punk band, best known for their instrumentals, active between 1980 and 1983. Origin and formation Pigbag were formed in Cheltenham in late 1980 by Chris Hamlin, a fashion student at Cheltenham Art College. Hamlin ...

. As described by punk rock producer

Dennis Bovell Dennis Bovell (born 22 May 1953Huey, Steve"Dennis Bovell Biography" Allmusic. Retrieved 27 December 2014.) is a Barbados-born reggae guitarist, bass player and record producer, based in England. He was a member of the British reggae band Mat ...

, Underwood was "a wicked bass player... Together Simon and Bruce mithwere the

Sly & Robbie Sly and Robbie were a prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production duo, associated primarily with the reggae and dub genres. Drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare teamed up in the mid-1970s after establishing themselves separ ...

of the punk period."

Biography

Underwood joined

in 1977. Underwood knew Mark Stewart and Bruce Smith because they would frequent black blues clubs together. This blues influence has been cited in many punk histories as contributing to the band's unique multigenre sound. Underwood played on the Pop Group's first 7" single, featuring "She Is Beyond Good And Evil" b/w "3.38" and on the albums ''Y'' and ''We Are Time''. He left the band shortly after the release of its first album and was asked to join

in 1980. As noted by

The Quietus ''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics. Content ''The Quietu ...

, after leaving

"Simon Underwood ended up having one of post-punk funk’s biggest smash hits with Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag." In 1983, he married bandmate Angela Jaeger at Hammersmith Registry Office. Lacklustre sales and critical reception of Pigbag's new work caused them to disband in June 1983. Underwood then formed the short-lived Instinct with Angela Jaeger and James Johnstone on ZTT Records. As of 2015, Simon Underwood is a member of the experimental noise ensemble Conspirators of Pleasure, along with Poulomi Desai. As a duo and as solo artists they have performed many times live in the UK and Europe. In 2015 Simon Underwood and Poulomi Desai joined the Waywords and Meansigns project, a collaborative project setting James Joyce's

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon. It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a bod ...

to music. In 2017 Simon Underwood released a cassette/download album with Poulomi Desai and Jonas Gustafsson under the musical art group 'Conspirators of Pleasure' on the IMPEKA label titled ''The Usurp Tapes Vol.1 - Species of Spaces'' - an exploration of the everyday surroundings, mundane activities and forgotten objects located at Usurp Art Space in West Harrow, London. The title and concept was a reference to the French writer and documentalist Georges Perec. Upcoming projects in 2018 was a double CD release of electroacoustic / noise duets between Simon Underwood and Jonas Gustafsson on the IMPEKA label titled ''Momentary Masters of a Fraction of a Dot'' due for release late July 2018.

Discography

References

General * * Notes {{DEFAULTSORT:Underwood, Simon Living people Musicians from Bristol English bass guitarists English male guitarists British post-punk musicians Male bass guitarists The Pop Group members Year of birth missing (living people)