Mark: BIO
Courtesy of: stevenyoungphotography.com
Mark
has been playing bass for over 40 years. He first got the music bug
when he was 4 years old. His mother had gotten him a little guitar for
Christmas that year and when she would turn on the radio in the kitchen
he would run and get his little guitar and his mother would put a
kitchen chair next to the counter and put him up on the chair so he
could sing and play along with the music. At least that’s what he
thought he was doing. The rest as they say is history. At 13 he was in
his first band playing school dances, various teen clubs and the NCO
club at Pease Air Base. This continued through his high school years.
Through these years he was very fortunate to have seen the best bands
of that time. Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Mountain, Yes, Foghat, Queen,
Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Wish Bone Ash, etc. It was these live
performances that were the music fuel to make him want to continue
playing to the best of his capabilities and to want to play in front of
an energetic crowd. At the end of high school he would join a band out
of Portsmouth, N.H. called Kick. He was with this band for 6 years
traveling all over the northeast with the likes of other New England
bands such as the Blend, Bill Chinnock, Gunnison Brook, The ill wind
and Stone Cross. This was back in a time when you could actually make a
good living playing at a club 4 or 5 nights in a row. Sadly those days
are gone. The highlight of this time was when Kick opened up for the
Allman Brothers Band at the UNH field house in 1977. That was an
unbelievable opportunity. Mark’s son was born around this time and he
did not want to be on the road all the time with a new born so he made
a conscious decision to walk away from music in 1979. He would not play
out again until 2005 at his wife’s birthday party. On that day they had
hired a band for the party and the band members were good friends and
knew that Mark was a former musician and asked him to come up and do a
couple numbers with them. Well he did and his wife was so smitten by
this because she had never seen or heard him play. Well it started
something because she kept after him to get back into the whole music
thing. He tried to explain that the music scene and clubs were not like
they were all those years ago. But she kept after him and after a
couple months of prodding he said o.k. I’ll take a look at what’s out
there. He responded to an ad on BandMix. There was a Band called
Contagious that was auditioning bass players. He contacted Petch the
drummer and set up a time to tryout. The rehearsal went really well and
everyone liked what they heard. The guys in the band said they would
let Mark know as they had other people set up for auditions. A week
later they called Mark back and wanted to play a few more tunes
together. After playing together again the deal was done. The
last 5 years with Contagious have been quite the ride. I think Petch
touched on it best. We are like brothers in this band. Aside from all
the musical history and knowledge all of the guys in the band have we
have so many other things in common. All of the places that we have had
the opportunity to play from Bentley’s to Cuddy’s from Jackman to
Madawaska and all the many places in between. Foremost the support of
our families and great friends and people who really enjoy the band is
what will continue to drive the four headed monster known as CONTAGIOUS.
9/2008
