Martin Newell (born 4 March 1953) is an English singer–songwriter, poet, columnist and author who leads the Cleaners from Venus, a guitar pop band with jangly, upbeat arrangements.

In the summer of 1973, a 20-year-old Newell joined Colchester glam rock cover band Plod as their lead singer, replacing founder member Steve Greenfield.

However, contractual irregularities and financial problems at the label prevented the album from being finished or released,[citation needed] and the band broke up within a few months of being signed.

By the end of 1980, he was collaborating with Lawrence "Lol" Elliot as the Cleaners from Venus, a band that mostly released their work on cassettes outside the traditional music distribution channels.

On completion of the tour, Nelson was recruited as the replacement bass player for the band New Model Army and the Brotherhood of Lizards disbanded.

[citation needed] It was followed by three more albums (The Off White Album, produced by Louis Philippe, The Spirit Cage and Radio Autumn Attic) and an EP (Songs from the Station Hotel) that continued to explore the same subject matter as The Greatest Living Englishman, including the charms of rural or small-town English life and portraits of characters and scenes.

In late 2005, the British singer Richard Shelton released a jazz vocal album called Top Cat with five Newell compositions.

[7] Newell is better known to some as a poet and author; he has released several volumes of poetry (often in collaboration with the illustrator James Dodds) and a memoir, This Little Ziggy, about his youth and his days in Plod.

One of his classmates was future actor Pierce Brosnan (nicknamed "Irish"), and he alludes to "the next James Bond" in the 2022 song "Baby Space-Cakes", from the Cleaners from Venus album, That London.