Mark was actually born a Frenchman in 1896, but after deciding that this just wasn't right, he decided to sleep for 86 years (thanks Casio calculators) until 1982. He chose this year because he knew that the momentous release of "Back To The Future" was only 3 years away and he figured he'd better get his arse in gear and get round to growing up before it came out.

In 1985, when Mark was 3, he travelled to Wombwell where he met a small, bald and slightly fat monk. After many years under the careful watch of the monk Mark emerged in 1993 as a real boy and went to high school.  After much thought and consideration Mark decided to pick up a bass guitar. He chose this as it only had 4 strings and thus must be 2 easier to play than a real guitar. He soon joined a local band and travelled to The Polish Club for many many wonderful gigs with the band, which came to be known as "Enchanted", or "The Cult Of Non Free Thinking" as it later transpired. After stealing Jelly Tots from each band member, Mark left and disappeared for a while, surfacing only for food and water in such remote places as Stairfoot and sometimes (when the weather was really good) Ardsley.

In 2004 Mark joined the band which was later to become GBF known as "SteepleJack" and after having an awesome time with Jim and Steve, and doing all of 3 gigs, decided to break free to pursue his own songwriting venture in 2007.  2007 was the location where Mark and Nic became lovers formed the new lineup of Green Ball Flyers and with a little help from Matt & Dean (not much mind you) started a little revolution in his own head.

The rest they say is cornflower.

Rig:

Well after years of lugging around big heavy bass tackle, I've now settled for an awesome lineup of punchy but portable gear:

• MusicMan Stingray 4, 3 band electronics version. Black.
• Markbass stack - CMD 102p 500w with Traveler 102p cabinet
• I also have a custom built five string with Lukather active EMG electronics, beech body and purple heart neck with an ebony fretboard
• Been using a Shure SM58 Beta but it broke so I'm looking at an EV or Senheiser replacement

Style, influences and all that

I'm a fan of two things, melodic harmonious tunes and a good story. I seem to stick to my guns with that when it comes to song writing. All my songs seem to have a story to them be it from my imagination or based around events in my life, sometimes a combination of both.  I grew up on a diet of rock music (cock rock?!) which includes bands such as Bon Jovi, Queen and Whitesnake and this is probably reflected in my writing but given my advocacy to the Jamie Wilson train of composition (each song must have its foundations in something that's at least worth talking about) and my foray into more acoustic style music my writing is now a mash of this classic rock feel with not so subtle overtones of John Ondrasik (Five For Fighting) and more recently people like Newton Faulkner. I'm always listening out for nice vocal harmonies too as I think this is what sets a band apart from your usual pub group.

In terms of bass playing, I'm no Flea but I do love a good funky slap beat (Red Tarmac anyone?) and the occasional tapping frenzy (albeit usually some kind of Bach, hmmm kinda doesn't fit?!) but I mainly play rock bass in a style not too dissimilar to Hugh MacDonald and John Deacon. Again, it is very melodic and I do tend to play alot of 3rds, 5ths and the occasional curve ball 6th or 7th (Queen of Hearts?) to keep it at least mildly interesting. I used to play alot more rigorously and move the notes around alot more than I do now, I've kinda gone down the "less is usually more" route with my playing and it serves well as I'm normally doing the vocals too and due to me being a new addition to the singing world it takes me all my time to concentrate on that! Really concentrate actually.