Ian Craig Marsh
| Ian Craig Marsh | |
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| Born | 11 November 1956 |
| Origin | Sheffield, England |
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| Years active | 1977–2007 |
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Ian Craig Marsh (born 11 November 1956) is an English musician and composer. He was a founding member of the electronic band the Human League, writing and playing on their first two albums and several singles, until leaving in 1980 to form the British Electric Foundation and later Heaven 17.
Marsh began in music at Sheffield's council-sponsored community theatre group Meatwhistle. There he met Mark Civico; they formed a performance art band called Musical Vomit, taking the name from a music paper's hostile review of the band Suicide. Musical Vomit specialised in Alice Cooper-style stunts, such as vomiting soup onstage, and singing about such topics as masturbation and necrophilia.
Marsh played guitar on two shows in 1973 with the band before leaving after his expulsion from school (for being "an undesirable subversive element"). Civico (stage name Trigae Thugg) persevered with Musical Vomit, adding fellow Meatwhistle artists Paul Bower (later of the band 2.3), Glenn Gregory (who went on to become lead singer for Heaven 17) and Ian Reddington, who later found acting fame in EastEnders and Coronation Street. Musical Vomit mainly played at the Meatwhistle workshop at Holly Street, but during 1974 they also played shows at the Sheffield University Drama Studio and at Burngreave Church Hall, where they gave their only performance of a self-penned rock opera, Vomit Lost in Space, that featured early use of primitive synthesizers. Martyn Ware, a leading figure in The Human League and Heaven 17, was an occasional guest on stylophone but formed a more pop-orientated offshoot of Musical Vomit called Underpants. Vomit went on to play at the Bath Arts Festival in 1974 and were described by Poly Styrene, who was in the audience, as "the very first punk band". They were booed by the crowd but remained on stage despite the bombardment of bottles and abuse, although they never played together again. A planned comeback was shelved when percussionist and backing vocalist Ian Reddington was offered a place to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
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