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Martin Glover (born 27 December 1960), better known by his stage name Youth, is a British musician and record producer, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Killing Joke. He is also a member of the Fireman, along with Paul McCartney.

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Youth
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Youth performing with Killing Joke in 2011
Background information
Birth nameMartin Glover
Also known asYouth, Orion
Born (1960-12-27) 27 December 1960 (age 63)
Slough, Buckinghamshire, England
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician, record producer
Instrument(s)Bass, keyboards, vocals
Member ofKilling Joke, the Fireman
Formerly ofBlue Pearl, Pigface
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Early career

Martin Glover was born on 27 December 1960 in Slough, at that point part of Buckinghamshire, England. He attended private boarding school Kingham Hill School in Oxfordshire, where he met Alex Paterson,[1] who would become a roadie for Glover's band Killing Joke, and later founder of The Orb. Naming himself Youth after the roots reggae chanter Big Youth, in 1977 he joined punk rock band the Rage, who toured with the Adverts.[2][3] 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.[3][4]

Youth was the original bass player in Killing Joke but left the band in 1982 and soon after founded his own commercially-orientated dub reggae-funk fusion band Brilliant with future The KLF member Jimmy Cauty. The act recorded one album with producers Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) in 1985 before disbanding.[5]

Explaining how SAW's creative process influenced both him and Cauty, Youth said, "We'd be co-writing with them, starting a new song and Pete Waterman would come in with a handful of New York import 12"s with him and he'd go to the record player and say, 'Right, that's the fuckin' bassline!' and then he'd play another record and go, 'That's the beat!'. Then he'd play another record, it's Cyndi Lauper, and he'd go, 'That's the melody!"[5]

"It was that Picasso thing: don't borrow, steal it. I loved that. And that got me and Jimmy thinking, let's go further and sample it, and make the music from other people's records."[5]

Youth also played bass on the Bollock Brothers' discomix 12", "The Slow Removal of Vincent van Gogh's Left Ear". Jimmy Lydon, brother of Sex Pistols John Lydon, was a member of the band.

In 1989, Youth and Alex Paterson started the WAU! Mr. Modo label.[6] Their early releases were industrial techno dubs and heavy roots reggae sound system dubs from artists such as roots reggae singer Napthali, Manasseh, Bim Sherman and Jah Warrior.

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 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, Youth 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 No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart and was also a No. 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.

In 1994, Youth rejoined Killing Joke and their album Pandemonium was released on his Butterfly Recordings label, as was the 1996 follow-up, Democracy.

He 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 in 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.

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Later career

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Youth (left) with Geordie Walker

Youth's Butterfly Records label has produced artists such as Take That, Wet Wet Wet, Tom Jones, the Orb, System 7, 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 artists including Kate Bush, Guns N' Roses, Primal Scream, Embrace, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Gaudi, Art of Noise, Crowded House, Zoe, P.M. Dawn, Pop Will Eat Itself, Yazoo, Erasure, U2, Bananarama, INXS, James and Suns of Arqa.[8]

Youth had also made plans to work with Duran Duran in the later stages of their lost album Reportage,[9] before it was shelved later in 2006.

In 2008, Youth 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,[10] followed by Meteorites by Echo and the Bunnymen and Lion by Peter Murphy. The following year, Glover produced Culture Club's Tribes album.

Youth 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, he teamed up with Alex Paterson (of 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.

In 2011, he recorded Generation Indigo, a fusion of punk, dub, ambient and techno with Poly Styrene of early punk rock band X-Ray Spex.

On 27 October 2012, during the International Festival of Music Producers and Sound Designers SOUNDEDIT, Youth was awarded The Man with the Golden Ear Award.[11][12]

In 2016, he received the PPL Music Producers Guild Lifetime Achievement award and released the album Create Christ, Sailor Boy with David Tibet as Hypnopazūzu.[13]

In 2017, he teamed with Gaudi for two collaborative releases as 'YOUTH & GAUDI': the vinyl 10in '2063: A Dub Odyssey' (printed on a limited edition green vinyl) and their debut album 'Astronaut Alchemists', both on Liquid Sound Design. Subsequently, the duo released the double album 'Astronaut AlchemistsRemixes' featuring Banco de Gaia, The Orb, Kaya Project, Bombay Dub Orchestra, Kuba, Gabriel Le Mar, Pitch Black, BUS/Gus Till, Vlastur, Deep Fried Dub, The Egg, Jef Stott/Aslan Dub, Onium, Living Light, Sadhu Sensi, DM-Theory and Uncle Fester On Acid.

In 2018, he recorded a collaborative album with Nik Turner. Pharaohs from Outer Space was released by Painted Word on 17 August 2018.[14]

In 2019 he teamed with Italian musician Emilio Sorridente and created The Dream Symposium. They recorded the space rock album Green Electric Muse, produced by Youth and released in 2020 by Youthsounds Records. In the same year, he worked with Public Image Ltd's Keith Levene and Richard Dudanski on a single about the Brexit revolt with Mark Stewart of The Pop Group on vocals.

In 2021, he received the Grammy Award in the category Best Reggae Album as a producer of Got to Be Tough by Toots and the Maytals.[15]

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Production discography

Taken from Martin Glover's Youth site.[16]

More information Artist, Title ...
Artist Title Record company Credit Year
Alien Sex Fiend Who's Been Sleeping in My Brain Anagram Records Production 1983
Art of Noise "The Ambient Collection" China/Polydor Additional Production/Remix 1990
Art of Noise Art of Love China Production/Remix
Bananarama Pop Life London Production 1991
Blue Pearl Naked Big Life Production
Blue Pearl Naked in the Rain Big Life Production
The Charlatans[17] Who We Touch Frinck Recordings Production 2010
Edwyn Collins A Girl Like You Remix
Crowded House Together Alone EMI Production
The Cult She Sells Sanctuary Beggars Banquet Records Additional production/mix
Howie Day Stop All the World Now Sony (US) Production
Dido Don't Think of Me BMG Production
Drum Club Drums are Dangerous Instinct Production
Dubstar One Northern Writes Production
Embrace All You Good Good People Production
Embrace Come Back to What You Know Hut Records Production
Embrace The Good Will Out Independiente Production/Mixed
Embrace Higher Sights Hut Production
Erasure "Chorus" (single) Mute Records Production/Mixed
Faith No More A Small Victory Slash Records 12" remix
FAKE? Switching on X MusicTaste Production
The Fireman Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest Parlophone Writer/Co-producer 1993
The Fireman Rushes Hydra Writer/Co-producer 1998
The Fireman Electric Arguments One Little Indian Writer/Co-producer 2008
The Futureheads This Is Not the World Nul Records Production
James Seven Mercury Records Production
Vanessa-Mae Art of War EMI Production/Mix 2002
Marilyn Manson Mobscene Interscope Records Additional production/remix
The Music Come What May Virgin Production
Heather Nova Oyster Big Life Production
Heather Nova Siren Sony Production
Heather Nova Pearl Saltwater Production
The Orb The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld Island Records Co-producer/Co-writer
Beth Orton Best Bit Heavenly Recordings Production
P.M. Dawn Set Adrift on Memory Bliss Island Additional production/mix 1991
The Prostitutes Deaf to the Call X Production Production
Sam Roberts Band Lo-Fantasy Secret Brain Production 2014
Shack H.M.S. Fable London Production
Shed Seven Instant Pleasures BMG Production 2017
Siouxsie and the Banshees "Kiss Them for Me" Wonderland 12" remix 1991
Sonido Vegetal Las Bases del Razonamiento Maldito Digital Production
Sonido Vegetal Verbena Calavera Octubre (Sony Music)[18] Production
The Sugarcubes Vitamin One Little Indian Records 12" remix
Symposium Bury You Infectious Records Production
Symposium Paint The Stars Infectious Records Production
Tribazik Data Warfare Skyride Mixing and additional production
U2 Night and Day Island 12" remix 1998
Vega 4 Love Is The Music Taste Media Production
The Verve Bitter Sweet Symphony Hut Records Production
The Verve Lucky Man Hut Records Production
The Verve Sonnet Hut Records Production
The Verve Urban Hymns Hut Records Co-producer 1997
Naturists Naked In the Rain Interactive Records Co-producer
Naturists Naturist composition inst Interactive Records Co-producer
Naturists Naked Interactive Records Co-producer
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References

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