Ben Mandelson


Ben Mandelson is an English world musician, and also manager and producer.

Punk and new wave years

In the mid-1970s, Mandelson was a student at Bolton Institute of Technology, where he met Howard Devoto, future Buzzcocks and Magazine frontman. When punk emerged, he formed a band called Amazorblades, being the group's guitarist.
In 1981, he joined Howard Devoto's band Magazine, replacing Robin Simon and playing on their last album Magic, Murder and the Weather.

World music years

In 1982 as Hijaz Mustapha, he started playing with Lu Edmonds a.k.a Uncle Patrel Mustapha Bin Mustapha, which led to the formation of 3 Mustaphas 3, a band that was active throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s.
He was founding director, in 1994, of the world music fair WOMEX.
In 2009, together with Justin Adams and, again, Lu Edmonds, Mandelson formed the band Les Triaboliques and released the debut album Rivermudtwilight.