Birthday Salute to Mark Clarke
Bass powerhouse for Colosseum, Ian Hunter, The Monkees, Tempest, Uriah Heep...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend and colleague, powerhouse bassist and singer-songwriter Mark Clarke. The uber-talented Liverpudlian has played with the “who’s who” of pop and classic/progressive rock. I know him from the Davy Jones/Monkees orbit (he was music director on the very successful Monkees comeback tours of the 80s). Currently he’s an anchor for the long-lived British jazz-rock band Colosseum and the spin-off band JCM https://jcmband.com
Besides having one of the best tenors in rock’n’roll, Mark’s recording resume can give you hours of listening pleasure—from his solo album to Tempest (w/guitar heroes Allan Holdsworth and Ollie Halsall) to Natural Gas (the Badfinger/Humble Pie spin-off) to Billy Squier to Ian Hunter to Colosseum to Uriah Heep—for which Mark co-wrote 2 of their signature songs, “Easy Living” and “The Wizard.”
When I was 14, I hurt my brain on the guitar trying to figure out that low note on “Wizard.” At the time I was clueless about alternate guitar tunings. Years later I reported this to Mark, who replied, “Drop D tuning John…Drop D.” Duh on me and we laughed.
Here’s a clip of us performing together with Davy Jones in 2005:
...Meanwhile, thank you Mark for your years of plunking and hitting all the high notes.
#markclarke #colosseum #monkees #davyjones #tempest #naturalgas #ianhunter #billysquier #uriahheep #birthday #johnnyjblair