Bio

The Beginning

It all started with my dad forking out for a Bass guitar and amplifier for me so I could form a school band with a few mates when I was 16 or so. We played many of the “Hits” of the time and a few of the old classics. One song we really wanted to play was “Stairway to Heaven”, but our singer didn’t want to sing it. I had not sung a note at this point, but I offered to give it a go. We started the lovely guitar intro, I steadied myself in front of the microphone, and when the time came, I took a breath open my mouth and what came out shocked everyone. Wow! I could actually sing! After we all stopped laughing, we pulled ourselves together and finished the song. I was never allowed to only play bass again...................

25 Years On

 and i still get the same buzz from performing as i did when i was a spotty teen, although some things have disappeared from my performances.....My Bass and spots!

As you can imagine, I’ve performed a lot, recorded a lot, and have had the privilege of meeting and playing with some amazing people over 25 years and it would be a hefty read if i was to list it all, so here’s a quick summary.  I’ll try to list present day bands with the people that I mention so if you pop along to one of their gigs you can say hello from me.

Summary (BTW, This is the short version of the summary!)

I learned the basics of my trade in the mid 80’s  with my good pals Eric Campbell(Catch 22), Andy Radley and Lass Martin(Nazem 27) in my first proper band ”Sweet Revenge”. Other bands followed, but the band that brought me to the next level (a gigging pub band) was “Middle East”. An excellent drummer and now good friend Fran Mc Dermot (The Great Escape) spotted me and asked me along to an audition to stand in for their singer/bass player Ronan ‘Nifty’ Nally (Back 2 Back) whom had gone to England. The rest of the boyz were impressed so bam.. i was in. Barry and Colin Carvin (******) completed the line up. Later members of Middle East was the Legendary talent that is Rory O’Connor and my good pal “Dogz”, or as you might all know him, Gary Murphy, the friendly face of “The Sound Shop” in Drogheda.

Unfortunately, Ireland was not a booming country in the late 80’s and like thousands of others i had to head over to England to find some work. After coming home for a while, i then returned to England in 1990.

In Leeds, i joined forces with Mark Cooper (Desilva) and formed “Damn Nation”, later to be joined by Scott Jonson and Andy Wilson (Desilva). We recorded 2 (EP’s) as they were called back then, (You Wan it!, You Got it!) and (Take me home). We performed all over the country and did a full British Tour with the British rock legends “FM”. The biggest thrill for me was ending the tour in The Marquee Club in London where so many of my idols had played before me, Amazing! It was on the second time that we played The Marquee Club that i had an after show, dressing room meeting with Representatives from British Metal gods “Iron Maiden”, whom after hearing my vocals on a demo, had come to the show to talk to me about the position of Lead Vocals that needed to be filled after Bruce Dickinson left the band. Yep!, you read that right.....Iron Maiden! However, while they were very impressed with my vocals, there were some other (Surprising) reasons why it didn’t go any further.

Now the Mid 90’s, i put myself through a Diploma in music technology in Bradford and returned to Ireland in late 1996.

Back home in Ireland, i did a few stints with great bands like “Dead Ringer” and “The Glitter Bugz” before being head hunted by Conor Curren(Sound circus) and TOLD by Conor that I was joining “The Rock Monsters”.

I gigged with the Rock Monsters playing covers all over Ireland for the next three or so years, opening a recording studio along the way (The Art Of Sound) and joining another “original” Celtic Metal band called Celtic Legacy. Legacy recorded what was undoubtedly the bands best album (Resurrection) at my studio, which was a double album that we launched in Germany and Ireland. A large portion of the album sales was presented to Philomena Lynott at the Dublin album launch in Temple bar for the Phill Lynot statue that stands in Dublin today.

Next in line is Knuckle Head. Four of the finest musicians you could ever meet. Flash Murphy (Bad reputation, Metalisha and Double entandre), John (Fist) Mulrooney (sound Circus), Mark Dempsey (Paddy Usher), Darragh O’Heir (Paddy Usher). I knew Darragh and Fist from our days rockin’ together in the Rock Monsters, and with Mark and Flash on board we Rocked Ireland and parts of Germany again. We compiled a CD called (Knuckle Dusted) from some older original songs from Fist, Mark and Darragh, a few live recordings and a couple of new original songs by myself. I’ve always liked to believe that if i ever manage to hit the age of 70 and could still belt out “More than a feeling” that these four guys would be right with me rockin’ from their Zimmer frames. ROCK ON LADS!!

Around the same time i grabbed Mark, Fist and Flash (Knuckle Head) and Stevo Cash, Darren Maher and Dave “Slim” Bolan (Celtic Legacy) to Help me with another Original venture called (Wiccan).

Here is a couple of tracks originally intended for Wiccan, but was recorded by Knuckle Head. A word of WARNNING, I do drop the “F bomb” in (You’re Fake) sorry Mam.

Bleeding by Mark Guildea

You're fake by Mark Guildea

I have always loved rock music and have played in many venues and met lots of great people through it, but i also love old music like Elvis, Buddy Holly, Tom Jones, Bobby Darin. I also love songs in the charts at the moment. I even love Country music.......yes i said Country music! Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Tim M’Graw, Toby Keith and Garth Brooks, to name a few.  So a few years back i decided to go it alone so that i could build an “ACT” around ALL the music i love so much, and this is where I’m at now. At one of my shows, you are as likely to hear me sing Michael Buble as you are to hear a Kings of Leon song as you are to hear The Maverricks.

Well..... That is the story so far. I hope to see you at a show sometime soon so we can work on a few more chapters.......

Mark.