Music

Music

Mark has been in the music business for over 35 years, first as session drummer and then on to guitarist, music writer and finally score writer for films and television.

He started his career at sixteen as drummer for legendary Coventry punk band, Squad. He cut his teeth by touring with The Specials and releasing their Melody Maker Single of the week, Red Alert.

Within a year, Mark had moved to Bristol and co-founded Stereo Models, their first recordings brought out on the cult ‘Avon Calling‘ album. From thereon in, Mark started his session drumming career.In 1983, he joined chart topping band, Mud, with whom he toured extensively for three years. He went on to work with Johnny Hates Jazz on a German TV tour and then settled down as musical director for The New Seekers.

During this time he founded his own band, Red Hot Red, with two friends – his first foray into writing music – and the band went on to gain the interest of Charisma Records founder and Genesis manager, Tony Stratton-Smith.

Mark continued writing and in 2001 attracted the attention of music legend, Harold Faltermeyer (Beverly Hills CopTop Gun score writer) and was shipped out to Germany to work on his own album produced by Harold. The two got on so well, they started writing together for other bands and in 1993, Mark moved to Berlin to sign a contract as in-house writer for BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group).

Over the next ten years Mark wrote music for bands such as The Weather GirlsCulture Beat and the theme tune for Axel Schulz‘s World Title match against George Foreman, Hero of the Night.

He also wrote music and lyrics for many  films and TV shows including the Hollywood epic ‘The New Adventures of Pinocchio‘ starring Martin Landau. Mark continues to occasionally write scores with his friend and music partner, Rainer Oleak.