Justin Sullivan


As founder member and main songwriter with the group NEW MODEL ARMY, Justin Sullivan has written, recorded and performed more than 250 songs. Across eight studio albums he has sold in excess of 1.5 million records but remains uncompromising and dedicated to his vision. Working outside the mainstream music industry, the band have amassed a dedicated world-wide following to whom the songs, and the passion and ideas contained within them, are as important, if not more so, than the group themselves. Justin is now the only original member of an ever-evolving line-up which has seen 14 personnel changes in 22 years of continuous writing, recording and touring.

2001 saw the band continue to tour extensively, including headline appearances at fourteen major European festivals. They also completed work on “Lost Songs”, a 22 track compilation of previously unreleased deleted and unfinished material which was released in February 2002. The band will begin work on a new studio album in summer 2003.

Parallel to the group, Sullivan has always maintained an active solo career and, more than ever before, 2002 was the year where Justin concentrated mostly on work outside of the band. He has just completed work on his debut solo album, Navigating By The Stars, which will be released on February 17th, preceded by a single Twilight Home on Monday January 27th. On March 6th he begins a European acoustic tour lasting several months, accompanied by NMA band mates multi-instrumentalist Dean White and percussionist Michael Dean. They perform both new material and New Model Army songs in a stripped down style for maximum intimacy and intensity. A touring rock band is a large and expensive machine to run and this has prevented NMA visiting many of the towns and cities where smaller numbers of fans exist or where the economic climate is not as strong. By stripping the songs down and taking just Dean and Michael along, Justin is able to perform a powerful set of NMA and solo material to an audience that would otherwise never get to see the band.

Well read and very widely travelled, Justin hails from a Quaker family of intellectuals, poets and artists. He has always had a passionate interest in both politics and history, which has lead to his well-documented activities in support of many social causes. Over the years this has seen him active with British mineworkers, European anti-fascist groups, road protest organisations, the homeless and most recently helping raise awareness of the plight of asylum seekers in the UK - increasingly the victims of vicious and unprovoked racially motivated attacks. Justin’s home base remains the city of Bradford in West Yorkshire, much in the news recently for rioting and racial issues.

The solo album now complete, Justin has just returned from a long planned Atlantic Ocean crossing by cargo ship, a trip that culminated in a dog-sledding expedition on the Canadian wilderness.