Martin Newell is an English singer–songwriter, poet, columnist and author who leads the Cleaners from Venus, a guitar pop band with jangly, upbeat arrangements. He is also regarded as a significant figure in the history of cassette culture and DIY music.
Newell in 2007
Martin Newell's collections (from left to right): I Hank Marvinned, Wild Man of Wivenhoe, Black Shuck, Under Milk Float, Poetic Licence, The Illegible Bachelor, Pioneer: Last of the Skillingers, Selected Poems, A Return to Flanders, Spoke 'n' Word, New, Late Autumn Sunlight (flanked by irrelevant Pelicans)
The cassette culture refers to the practices associated with amateur production and distribution of music and sound art on compact cassette that emerged in the mid-1970s. The cassette was used by fine artists and poets for the independent distribution of new work. This article focuses on the independent music scene associated with the cassette that burgeoned internationally in the second half of the 1970s.
R. Stevie Moore (pictured 2011) is one of the better-known artists associated with cassette culture.