My first photography break was in the “EMI 100 Years of Recorded Music” exhibition where my shot from Abbey Road was chosen to represent the Beatles Anthology. Since then I have managed to capture many of the people who changed my life through their music; from the instigators such as Sam Phillips right up to the “new hopefuls” of today. Although I have been lucky in my access to many a great gig, the thrill, anticipation and appreciation of covering these events has never left me and I hope this comes across in the pictures themselves. Although some of the pictures featured have appeared in great magazines like Mojo and The Word, album covers and sleeve notes and earlier on the pages of Pictorialpress.com, most of the pictures are shown here for the first time. The shots featured on this website, bar the Anthology shot, are taken from concerts from the past ten years or so. Ten years is a long time in music. Look who has come and gone on the reality TV “talent” side for example. On the flip side however, and far more importantly, 10 years is longer than the Beatles existed as a band, developing from writing “Love Me Do, You Know I Love You, I’ll Always Be True” to Strawberry Fields in half that time. This personal selection of shots features some of the most influential music artists of the 20th Century and beyond. Before these people arrived music tended to be classical – some of these people simply produced classics. There are some great stories behind some of these pictures, which I’m collecting for a book which I hope takes me less time to compile than Brian Wilson took to release Smile. Some of the great stars listed on the site were captured years after completing their great works and many may look a little older but in truth it’s a miracle that some were here at all after living the rock’n’roll lifestyle to the hilt - many of them invented it and a few have since “Left The Building”. Some of those legends still performing may look a little older close up but really, wouldn’t it be terrible to think that there are not some great lines yet to come? Enjoy this site of sounds as well as the other selections of a few of the numerous famous people and locations I have also been fortunate enough to capture over the same period. MM I would like to thank all my friends and family for their support past and present. I would also like to thank those people who have shared and helped shape my musical tastes over the years - Steve, Charlie, Mike A, The Bros, Phil, Ivan, my Dad for giving me 3 TDK tapes of old juke box singles as an early teen that changed my life and to my mum for spending hours in record shops searching for obscure and deleted albums by bands with strange names. Thanks to Tim, Glenn, Sabina, Miles, Lara, Jude & all the staff at the RFH and the QEH and to Bhaumik and all the staff at Visions. Thanks to Richard at VMC for his understanding and to Tony & Carol at Pictorial. Thanks also to Sasha Kordininsky and Jill and Stu at Rock Archive. Thanks to those who’ve given me parts of their own record collections over the years and a raised glass to the St. Hilda’s Church Fairs where I picked up so many discarded classics. Thanks also to Jimmy Forsyth, a North East legend who was inspirational and who’s photo of my 21 year old self and my Grampa, another inspirational photographer, I still cherish as much as my Nana did. Thanks to Joe at Green Wave for his patience and insight. Special thanks to Shirley at Promark without whom I’d have just had the one Anthology story to tell over dinner now and again. Lastly to my wife Emma who puts up with this because she knows I love her more than Elvis and to my two little girls Mauve & Xanthe as this gives them a chance to see a small example of exactly who and what their Daddy saw in a way that few words could ever describe. Mark's photographs have featured in many of the leading titles in the music press such as Mojo, OMM, and Music Collector. His work has also featured in books such as I Was There: 50 Gigs That Changed The World as well as most of the leading nationals such as The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Independent. His shots have featured on CD and DVD covers and linear notes and he was “amazed” to be chosen as one of the first music photographers to lecture at the 02 Musical Experience alongside some of his inspirations. When not shooting he spends most of his time trying to work out what shots to use for his own book which is still on-going. |
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