My friend Mark Wilkins, who has died aged 68 after several years of declining health, was the founder and frontman of the Hertfordshire-based anarcho-folk-punk band the Astronauts.
In the 1960s, amid a prevailing sense that the joy and naivety of the music scene in and around London was about to take a darker, drug-fuelled and more highly politicised turn, Mark was growing up close to the action, in suburban Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.
His parents, David, a pastor, and Doreen, though not from a musical background, were supportive of his exploits. Born in Barnet, Mark spent his early childhood in Manchester after his father retrained as a teacher and took a job in the city, moving to Welwyn Garden City in 1964.
On leaving Sir Frederic Osborn school in Welwyn, Mark found himself drawn to local musical figures. He promoted local music events, including one that featured the as yet undiscovered Sex Pistols, and was later inspired by its DIY sentiments to begin his own career in music.
By 1976, he had started to compose songs. For Mark, a non-instrumentalist, this was no mean feat. To be able to express complex ideas and even more complicated riffs without being able to play them yourself takes a certain doggedness and determination. He and his backing band, the Astronauts, made a concert debut at the Corn Exchange in Hertford in 1977, where his way with verse and fractured melody and his alluringly plaintive baritone, took centre stage – and, in 1979, they released an eponymous EP.
I met Mark in 2001, initially for a trial gig with the Astronauts, and ended up a constant member for several years. Mark was never afraid to reinvent the sound of his group: the lineup and, with an eclectic catalogue of work, even the material was rearranged, old songs being brought back to life and new songs introduced. Among more notable performances were the Rhythms of the World festivals in Hitchin – and, in 2007, the group was invited to play in Athens, Mark’s first trip abroad. After local bookings, we would convene at Mark’s flat to be inspired by his choice of music, much of it amassed from charity shops. “You like Gong/Robb Johnson/Robert Wyatt … ?” he’d ask, and, afterwards, we would settle down to a cryptic crossword.
During the 2010s, the Astronauts morphed briefly into the Otters, but it was as the Astronauts that we were recording a new album when Mark died. He was a prodigious talent, and an important cultural icon for the anarcho-punk movement in Hertfordshire and beyond.
