From Jonder - Mute Drivers

One day while listening to the A.C. Marias version of Lou Reed's "Vicious" I wondered who the guitarist was.  The playing was fantastic, but reckless and flashy in a way that one does not associate with Wire or its members' side projects.  Discogs revealed that the "Vicious" guitarist was Stephen Wright, and a link led me to discover his duo Mute Drivers. Stephen and bassist Dave Rogers adopted the name because they once worked as delivery drivers for Mute Records. Rogers cowrote “Collapsing New People” with Fad Gadget, and was a member of The Invaders, the band fronted by Soo Catwoman.  Stephen Wright played with The Passions near the end of their career, and was a member of Bim (a band fronted by Neneh Cherry's husband Cameron McVey, and featuring Smiths' producer "Steve Street" on bass.)  Stephen Wright also did live sound for Wire.

Mute Drivers put out three albums between 1987 and 1989 on their own label (Irradiated Records), one of which was a double LP.  A fourth and final album was released in 1990 on One Little Indian subsidiary Brave Records.  Discogs says that Mute Drivers "toured heavily throughout Europe".  In an article in The Quietus, Daveid Phillips of The Koko called their live shows "incendiary" and described Mute Drivers as “an incredible politically charged duo... think Big Black with a social conscience”.  "Big Black with a social conscience" doesn't describe all their music (some of which is funky, like Gang Of Four), but the phrase certainly fits the righteous anger of songs like "Holy Moses".  Stephen was an impressive guitarist, and Dave Rogers was equally talented as a bassist.

The Quietus article was one of the only things I found online about Mute Drivers. Unfortunately, it was written after the death of the artist born with the name Stephen Wright.  In 2009, Stephen transitioned from male to female and took the name Julia Brightly.  She wrote an autobiography titled A Day Trip To Beijing.  She recorded a series of "Letters From America" for broadcast by the BBC.  Julia was a live sound engineer for many bands, including M83, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, Slint, Caribou, The Knife, and Mogwai.  According to Stuart Braithwaite, "the sound she did for the Slint shows was the best I ever heard."

Julia Brightly died of cancer in 2014.  A tribute concert was held at The Koko and featured performances by Mogwai, The Twilight Sad and Fuck Buttons.  "At the end we all carried her coffin together as if she was crowd surfing up on to the stage," Daveid Phillips said.  Julia's website is still online and includes solo music, lyrics, essays, visual art and her BBC broadcasts.  Music videos from The Passions and Mute Drivers are included on a page of her website that is simply titled "Past".

http://www.juliabrightly.com/

https://thequietus.com/articles/15735-julia-brightly-tribute-gig

MUTE DRIVERS ALBUMS (all at 320, thanks to the kindness of the original uploaders):

Lighten Up, Volume 1 (1987)

Stop Or I'll Scream (1988)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting For World War 3 (1989)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone (1990)