Post-punk since 1981 · Sheffield → Germany
UV
UV
Pop
Driving post-punk, minimal repetitive tunes and indie-guitar songs. DIY, one-man project, still current.
Driving post-punk, minimal repetitive tunes and indie-guitar songs. DIY, one-man project, still current.
See You Later Cowboy – ten new tracks of indie guitar and synth-driven retro drum-machine pop. Home-produced by John White.
Bandcamp
| 2026-NOV-30 | Mandragora, Bochum, Germany Acoustic Monday |
| 2026-JUL-04 | Mecki’s living room, Germany invitation only – private party |
| 2026-FEB-23 | Mandragora, Bochum, Germany Acoustic Monday |
| 2025-OCT-31 | Mono Bar, Meschede, Germany 20 years Mono Bar / with No More |
| 2025-JUL-26 | Kanapee, Meerbusch, Germany |
| 2025-MAY-23 | Hanselädchen, Grieth, Germany |
| 2025-MAR-15 | Temple Bar, Essen, Germany with Yourthoughts |
| 2024-DEC-28 | Stadthalle, Meschede, Germany Inbetween Days Festival (w/ Escape With Romeo, Absolute Body Control …) |
| 2024-DEC-02 | Mandragora, Bochum, Germany Acoustic Monday |
| 2024-MAY-31 | Mecki’s living room, Germany invitation only – private party |
| 2024-JAN-13 | Mono Bar, Meschede, Germany Eight years after David Bowie – tribute party |
| 2023-NOV-11 | Cantine, Bielefeld, Germany with Lower Synth Department |
| 2023-JUL-14 | Temple Bar, Essen, Germany with Angst4 |
| 2023-JUL-07 | Chillin’ Hennesee, Meschede, Germany LIVE AM SEE, with No More / Fehlfarben |
2025 genetic music
2022 genetic music
2018 genetic music
2015 genetic music
2011/2019 genetic music
2011 Ultraviolet Records
2012 Sacred Bones reissue
2011 Sacred Bones reissue
No embeds, no trackers. Videos open on YouTube only when you choose to.
John K. White grew up near Sheffield and started his one-man project UV Pop – short for “Ultra Violent Pop” – in the early 80s.
Before that he wrote the music for the I Scream Brothers, a trio in which the other two members (Mark Hughes and Phil Shepherd) wrote and sang the lyrics. They played their first gig in Doncaster in 1980. John kept going alone, playing along to backing tapes in his cellar. Those home recordings were passed around as “The Cellar Tapes” cassettes in 1981, and they were the start of UV Pop.
The debut single “No Songs Tomorrow / Just A Game” came out on Pax Records in 1982. It was produced by Cabaret Voltaire and played by John Peel. The album No Songs Tomorrow followed on Flowmotion in 1983. It mixed guitars, drum machines, synths and saxophone with songs about the Falklands War, recession and Thatcher’s Britain – and John’s friend Andrew Darlington voicing his own poetry on the song “Psalm”. The album sold out quickly and became a sought-after cult record. With a growing line-up, UV Pop went on to release the Anyone For Me EP (1985), the album Bendy Baby Man (1986), the underground favourite “Serious” (1986) and the 12" “Music To Yeah To” (1988). In those years the band shared stages with Nico, Pulp and In The Nursery.
Then things went quiet, but John never called it a split. He kept writing and recording at home, and in 1996 he self-released the album In Your Skin.
In 2011 and 2012, Brooklyn label Sacred Bones reissued the first single and the album No Songs Tomorrow, and a new generation of post-punk and coldwave fans discovered UV Pop. The band went back on the road. They played their first New York shows in 2012 and toured Europe in 2013, with dates in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Hamburg, Prague and Berlin. Festivals like Incubate and Young & Cold followed, as did gigs with The Jazz Butcher, Sad Lovers And Giants, Clan Of Xymox and Peter Heppner. The German label genetic music gave the back catalogue a new home, with reissues of Bendy Baby Man / Anyone For Me, The Cellar Tapes and In Your Skin / Stop The World.
In October 2019 UV Pop threw a farewell “Exit Party” in Doncaster and left the UK for Germany. In his home studio there, John recorded Sound Of Silence (2022), marking 40 years of UV Pop, and See You Later Cowboy (2025). On two of the new songs he works with Andrew Darlington again.
Today UV Pop is John K. White on vocals and guitar and Rhona White on bass. Still DIY, still playing live.
