Michael Baxter | The Astonauts - Constitution / Please Do Not Come Around Tonight - Acid Stings Records - 1990 @mickeypenguin | Uploaded July 2023 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
ONE YEAR PASSED: REST IN PEACE MARK WILKINS one of the loveliest men in Panshanger, an area of Welwyn Garden City who sadly passed away on 6th July 2022.
The Astronauts, the band that Mark fronted for forty five years, were among my favourite bands throughout the eighties, and the songs that Mark wrote still continue to inspire me.
In the eighties and early nineties, I visited Mark at his Panshanger flat lots of times.
In the small confines of his bedroom/living space, happily listening to some of his scruffy dog-eared and scratchy old album collection, successfully turned me onto bands like Third World War, Soft Machine, King Crimson, Gong and Kevin Ayres (among others).
I will also remember his skeletal round dial telephone with fondness.
Thank you Mark for the time we spent together, and for your encyclopaedic knowledge of music and your musical taste, some of which filtered down to me.
I was lucky to have witnessed Mark (with the varying line ups of The Astronauts) perform dozens upon dozens of times, in pubs, clubs, and festivals all around London and the southeast.
Mark would always give 100% even to a half empty hall.
The Astronauts were one quarter of my inspiration when in 1985 I visited All The Madmen Records based in one of the crumbling squatted houses along Brougham Road in Hackney. After that visit I started working there, volunteering, I just received travel costs, and some free records. Around the dawn of 1987 All The Madmen Records moved to another equally crumbling premises in Kings Cross. The Astronauts had three albums released on the All The Madmen record label. The Mob, Flowers In The Dustbin and Blyth Power were the other three quarters of my inspiration to get involved in one of my favourite record labels, kick-starting a three decade stint in the record industry.
Mark was so gentle, sometimes fragile, enormously intelligent, sometimes mischievous, and he was easy to get along with.
His passion for writing lyrics was immense, an obsession, and those lyrics (sometimes being carried around in a plastic bag among other flotsam and jetsam) were of an extremely high quality.
Now Welwyn Garden City has lost a special, special man, a bright light among the greyness of the town.
The world of music has also lost a one-of-a-kind lyricist and performer.
May He Rest In Peace.
Absolutely gutted.
Other than the hundreds of gigs performed and dozens of records that were released over the decades, Mark is also featured on 'Autumn Days' a documentary film by Tali Clarke dedicated to Mark's life in the music industry, with dozens of talking heads featured, myself included. Available to watch for free on Vimeo.
A large book entitled 'Survivors' is also available, painstakingly put together by Marcus Blakeston telling Mark's story and the history of the Astronauts in the written word, with plenty of rare photographs and flyers within the pages.
Not a bad legacy for Mark, a shy but an always pleasant man based in Welwyn Garden City.
Robin Basak’s Acid Stings record label that released this 7” single, was also responsible for releasing the fifth album; ‘In Defence Of Compassion’ which is well worth searching out.
Robin Basak was also from Welwyn and was an early champion of The Astronauts, featuring the band from 1980 and throughout the years after in his Zero fanzine. Robin was a regular of the Wapping Autonomy Centre and the Centro Iberico and by the look of his gig reviews in his fanzine, went to some of the finest anarcho-punk gigs in his hometown and the surrounding areas.
Zero fanzine also featured The Apostles, and Acid Stings Records was responsible for releasing the albums: ‘How Much Longer’ and ‘Acts Of The Apostles’, again well worth searching out.
The guitar duties on both the Astronauts records released on Acid Stings in 1989 and 1990 was Stuart Baker. A Hertford resident who was also the bass player in the McTells.
Stuart would go to gigs by Crass, Poison Girls, Conflict and Subhumans with some regularity when he was growing up during the early 1980’s.
Stuart was the member of The McTells that I knew best (at the time) as we both hung around together in his bedsit for hours on end playing his battered vinyl's on his battered music system (when he was not throwing stiffs into a freshly dug hole - he was a gravedigger by trade).
The ‘Front Line’ reggae compilation albums were played a fair bit I seem to remember, as was ‘Stations Of The Crass’ by Crass. We also both had a fondness for the All The Madmen record label in common. We specifically liked The Mob as well as well as having an admiration for The Astronauts.
A lovely guy.
My single photograph in this YouTube video shows Mark alongside the late Robert Dellar (may he also Rest In Peace) at the Meanwhile Gardens free festival summer 1987.
ONE YEAR PASSED: REST IN PEACE MARK WILKINS one of the loveliest men in Panshanger, an area of Welwyn Garden City who sadly passed away on 6th July 2022.
The Astronauts, the band that Mark fronted for forty five years, were among my favourite bands throughout the eighties, and the songs that Mark wrote still continue to inspire me.
In the eighties and early nineties, I visited Mark at his Panshanger flat lots of times.
In the small confines of his bedroom/living space, happily listening to some of his scruffy dog-eared and scratchy old album collection, successfully turned me onto bands like Third World War, Soft Machine, King Crimson, Gong and Kevin Ayres (among others).
I will also remember his skeletal round dial telephone with fondness.
Thank you Mark for the time we spent together, and for your encyclopaedic knowledge of music and your musical taste, some of which filtered down to me.
I was lucky to have witnessed Mark (with the varying line ups of The Astronauts) perform dozens upon dozens of times, in pubs, clubs, and festivals all around London and the southeast.
Mark would always give 100% even to a half empty hall.
The Astronauts were one quarter of my inspiration when in 1985 I visited All The Madmen Records based in one of the crumbling squatted houses along Brougham Road in Hackney. After that visit I started working there, volunteering, I just received travel costs, and some free records. Around the dawn of 1987 All The Madmen Records moved to another equally crumbling premises in Kings Cross. The Astronauts had three albums released on the All The Madmen record label. The Mob, Flowers In The Dustbin and Blyth Power were the other three quarters of my inspiration to get involved in one of my favourite record labels, kick-starting a three decade stint in the record industry.
Mark was so gentle, sometimes fragile, enormously intelligent, sometimes mischievous, and he was easy to get along with.
His passion for writing lyrics was immense, an obsession, and those lyrics (sometimes being carried around in a plastic bag among other flotsam and jetsam) were of an extremely high quality.
Now Welwyn Garden City has lost a special, special man, a bright light among the greyness of the town.
The world of music has also lost a one-of-a-kind lyricist and performer.
May He Rest In Peace.
Absolutely gutted.
Other than the hundreds of gigs performed and dozens of records that were released over the decades, Mark is also featured on 'Autumn Days' a documentary film by Tali Clarke dedicated to Mark's life in the music industry, with dozens of talking heads featured, myself included. Available to watch for free on Vimeo.
A large book entitled 'Survivors' is also available, painstakingly put together by Marcus Blakeston telling Mark's story and the history of the Astronauts in the written word, with plenty of rare photographs and flyers within the pages.
Not a bad legacy for Mark, a shy but an always pleasant man based in Welwyn Garden City.
Robin Basak’s Acid Stings record label that released this 7” single, was also responsible for releasing the fifth album; ‘In Defence Of Compassion’ which is well worth searching out.
Robin Basak was also from Welwyn and was an early champion of The Astronauts, featuring the band from 1980 and throughout the years after in his Zero fanzine. Robin was a regular of the Wapping Autonomy Centre and the Centro Iberico and by the look of his gig reviews in his fanzine, went to some of the finest anarcho-punk gigs in his hometown and the surrounding areas.
Zero fanzine also featured The Apostles, and Acid Stings Records was responsible for releasing the albums: ‘How Much Longer’ and ‘Acts Of The Apostles’, again well worth searching out.
The guitar duties on both the Astronauts records released on Acid Stings in 1989 and 1990 was Stuart Baker. A Hertford resident who was also the bass player in the McTells.
Stuart would go to gigs by Crass, Poison Girls, Conflict and Subhumans with some regularity when he was growing up during the early 1980’s.
Stuart was the member of The McTells that I knew best (at the time) as we both hung around together in his bedsit for hours on end playing his battered vinyl's on his battered music system (when he was not throwing stiffs into a freshly dug hole - he was a gravedigger by trade).
The ‘Front Line’ reggae compilation albums were played a fair bit I seem to remember, as was ‘Stations Of The Crass’ by Crass. We also both had a fondness for the All The Madmen record label in common. We specifically liked The Mob as well as well as having an admiration for The Astronauts.
A lovely guy.
My single photograph in this YouTube video shows Mark alongside the late Robert Dellar (may he also Rest In Peace) at the Meanwhile Gardens free festival summer 1987.
