Welcome Mark Wirtz, producer, arranger, former Abbey Road employee!

Once the subject of Keith West and Tomorrow came up I thought it'd be fun to get Mark Wirtz on here to answer for himself. This forum fit's Marks very diverse background as a writer, producer, arranger etc.

Mark is best known for his two big songs: A Touch of Velvet, A Sting of Bass and Excerpt from a Teenage Opera (aka Grocer Jack) but he produced a wide variety of artists in the 60s and from 1967-1969 was one of the first "independent" producers working at EMI Abbey Road. He came to the states around 1971 and started a solo career recording his first album back in the UK at Apple Studios (a McCartney favorite called Balloon). What is not widely know is that Mark changed his name to Marc Peters in the mid-70s and worked as a producer arranger for Helen Reddy (with Kim Fowley) and artists like Dean Martin and others.

He'd kill me if I didn't put a plug in for his latest project as producer for an as yet unknown band called Spyderbaby. It's a great pop CD and definitely an appeal for fans of The Wondermints, The Beach Boys, Jellyfish etc. He needs to tell us how to buy it because I still don't know.

Anyway, I can tell you that Mark is a true music fan and he spends almost no time promoting himself (like he should). To that point be prepared for his distinct opinions on things...

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome aboard!

We are very fortunate to have your expertise. Good luck!

Tom

 

I'd like to hear more about this band, although I think there's gonna be trouble as there's a band called Spyder Baby that is about as far from Wondermints/Beach Boys/Jellyfish as one can get, and that's the one I kept finding Google links for. (Ewwwww...)

Welcome to Mark!

 

welcome! looking forward to your postings.

 

Howdy.

 

Let me endorse Mark's words on Spyderbaby. It is a fabulous CD and as Mark said.....how can people buy it!

 

Welcome to the forum, Mark Wirtz

 

Very cool. Mark's unreleased 1967 LP "Teenage Opera" is kind of like the British Smile. It was recorded at EMI by (I think) Geoff Emerick in 1967. "Excerpt From A Teenage Opera" is a classic British psychedelic 45..

 

Mark, welcome to SH Forums! I look forward to reading your posts.

 

Hey Mark! Great to have you here.

Question if you don't mind - we were finally treated to stereo mixes of 'Excerpt from...' and 'Sam' ten years ago on the RPM 'TO' CD. Was there ever a stereo mix of '(He's Our Dear Old) Weatherman' - a track that NEEDS to be heard in stereo, so rich you could grow your tomatoes in it! AND, if not, would it be possible to create one - do multis exist?

 

Welcome aboard!

You'll find lots of music lovers here with an appreciation for music of all kinds. The folks are friendly and the sense of community is the best part.

Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

 

Sam and Dear Old Weatherman are fantastic lost gems, absolutely on the level of Excerpt From A Teenage Opera. Even if Mark doesn't like this particular release, I can recommend it for the great music and production: http://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Origi...6141/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-3063412-5392036?ie=UTF8

Here is what Mark wrote about this release:

 

I think Mark must be sleeping in?

Anyway, here is a link to Spyderbaby info with sound clips:

http://markwirtz0.tripod.com/id18.html

 

Welcome Mark! Just saw Steve Howe and he said that he learned much about production from you!

I love the sound you got on that Tomorrow record!!!!

 

'Ello muh lit'l duhlings

Wow... what a welcome! Thank you ever so much. I'm tickled.
Only have time for a few lines right now, since I am preparing for a (comedy) show tonight in Florida, and I am booked on a plane to Kansas City for an appearance at the Wizard Of Words writers conference on the weekend (if any of you just happen to live in KC, come by and say hello!). And I'm out of milk and bread and toilet paper...

Mark F. is right. I don't promote myself much, because I am ever so shy and introverted and really don't say much. Well, not so much. Well, sorta kinda...

So, I guess that, 40 years later, my appearance here will inevitably shake the moth balls and spider webs off T.O. and Grocer Jack once again, and while flattered by the interest, as well as grateful for the luck I had back then (which seems to have very, very, long legs), I sorta feel like Edison being asked about the light bulb by folks who believe that that is all he ever invented. So sad, too bad, but so be it. I count my blessings not only to have something to talk about at all, but that I am actually still alive, healthy and sane (sorta kinda) enough to do so. Hold on, let me take my pills and allow the nurse to change my bed pan...

OK... Before I'll be happy to answer some of your specific questions in a later post, let me quickly point out in general that a) I personally do not support the "A Teenage Opera" CD, because I think that ever since the release of "The Fantastic Story Of Mark Wirtz and the Teenage Opera," ATO is a lousy bargain. "Fantastic Story..." is a double CD (a virtual anthology), containing 40 tracks or so (including all the key tracks from ATO, together with a bunch of never-before released or heard tracks), for the same price. So, especially since ATO is 90% pretense and not even the actual opera, why spend twice the money for half as much. (By the way, yes, I did record/mix Weatherman in stereo, but nobody has been able to find the tapes - just like the tapes for "Two's Company, Three Thousand's a Crowd" have been mysteriously missing.) If you feel like it, check it out on i-Tunes (and other online vendors), who also feature my "Hollywood Years" CDs, as well as my recent, new, "Love Is Eggshaped" Rev-Ola release (not on i-Tunes USA right now, but will be shortly).

B) Spyderbaby's "Glassblower" (a labor of love production by all involved) is a "slow-mo" release, because the small, tiny, record label is run by two people who don't know what the hell they're doing (namely me and my partner), but are trying their best, anyway, to bring the thing to market -- because Rob Stride, Mickey Groome, et al's, buoyant talents make it most deserving to be there. So, thank you for your support of, and interest in, the album (also available as a vinyl edition).

You can listen to sound samples on the music page of my website at www.markwirtz.com and the CD is now available on:

http://www.amazon.de/Glassblower-Ma...ef=sr_1_6/302-2446854-3128023?ie=UTF8&s=music

That's Amazon DE, but it should be listed internationally very shortly.

See? Like Mark says, I don't self-promote, and I don't say much...

I'll be back later to answer some of your questions, so if you think of any in the meantime, go ahead and post them. Just please, please, don't ask me why Keith West and I split up, because we never did -- simply because we were never a couple to begin with. Similar regarding Tomorrow's break-up, which never really happened per se. Keith, Steve, Twink and Junior simply went into different directions, which would have happened anyway, T.O. or not. Twink and Junior tried their luck as the "Aquarian Age" (which I enthusiastically supported and produced), but when the "10 000 Words In Cardboard Box" bombed, Junior got out of the business, Twink joined The Pretty Things, and I carried on producing a billion singles in the hope that maybe, just maybe, I'd come up with something that the BBC was actually willing to play. I didn't. And so, eventually, I accepted Denny Cordell's invitation to join him at Shelter Records in Los Angeles and, with a heavy, heavy, heart, stepped onto a Pan Am flight to the USA, bidding farewell to what had become a dearly beloved home to me (and will forever remain "back home") - good old England.

That's all for now. Gotta pack and run to the store (if the nurse let's me)... I really need that milk, bread and toilet paper...!

Tu - duh,

Cheers,

Mark

P.S. You can also find me on MySpace at: http://www.myspace.com/markwirtz

 

Thanks Mark. So now stereo 'Weatherman' is the new Holy Grail!

Well ever one for wanting to fill in those annoying blanks, the young girl in the blue dress whom Keith West is carrying, on here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J534B5NsVzU&mode=related&search=keith west

...is the same girl seen sitting on your piano in a pic in the 'ATO' booklet. So are those kids in the film the ones who sang on the various 'TO' songs?

 

Mark - I don't want to speak for everyone but I think you'll find things to be different here than on other groups. You can probably relax and just be a fan or an insider as needed. The reason I thought you'd like it here is that the focus isn't on just 60s music and therefore I think you'll find people with wider interests than say Spectropop etc. I just thought you'd enjoy the range of topics and from my past experience of your insights I thought you could contribute from time to time.

Of course, if you've got an good scoop on Geoff Emerick or Alan Parsons or any of those guys... start talking buster!

 

Welcome aboard. Just thought about your 60s
work the other night when I tracked Kim Fowley's
"Lights" 45. What's the story behind that one?

 

Gary,
"Don't worry about avoiding temptation. as you grow older, it will avoid you."

As if! (chuckle)

Willy,

...is the same girl seen sitting on your piano in a pic in the 'ATO' booklet. So are those kids in the film the ones who sang on the various 'TO' songs?

Yes.

Mark F:

"You can probably relax and just be a fan or an insider as needed.... the focus [here] isn't on just 60s music and therefore I think you'll find people with wider interests than say Spectropop etc."

That's music to my ears. While I deeply appreciate the blessings of my past, I am nevertheless very detached from bygone periods of my life, by nature forever preoccupied with the present and the future. By the same token, I have always welcomed and embraced progress, be it technologically, or evolutionary, in the creative arts. And, if we only open our ears and minds to it, there has been and continues to be, some great music being made out there by some awesome talents. It's just not as innocent anymore as it was in the 60's (especially in the UK). Well, neither is the world we live in.

I am an entertainer by nature, and as such, my absolute priority consideration (often to my political detriment) has always been the "people"... the audience -- not the industry. Unfortunately, to get to the people without first pleasing the industry is an almost insurmountable challenge. Perhaps, that is one of the reason why, during the last few years, I have traded my personal, long-term, enigmatic, obscurity and phantom existence for going out to the people in the first place by becoming a performance artist. And, frankly, I'm loving it. After so many years of hiding in studios and in front of a computer, I now connect directly with audiences, getting instant, psychological pay-back, and gratification in a mutual dance. And so, as it has affected my creative music activities, all my new works start off not in seclusion or solitary confinement, but on stage. As a result, my recent "Love Is Eggshaped" album having been the Swan-song of my pop-artist recording career, my new project-in-progress, "Cooking For Cannibals" (concert/CD-DVD/book) is a for me unprecedented combination of edgy, in-your-face, music and comedy (the latter being, in my eyes, the new Rock'n'Roll) -- but for inevitable, idiosyncratic elements, not a trace left of Teenage Opera and fairy-land fantasies. Frankly, I can't wait to perform "C4C" in the UK, where nobody has ever seen me perform live, to shake up all the preconceived notions and perceptions about me. I'm hoping to coincide a London performance with r.p.m.'s projected release of a deluxe 'Teenage Opera' package in the Spring of '07, containing a documentary DVD packed with never before seen music video clips and interviews - in celebration of Grocer Jack's 122nd- and T.O.'s 40th birthday - to dramatize the contrast.

Let me preface any further posts here that, while I take my work very, very, seriously, I don't take myself seriously at all. That is how I have stayed alive and remained pro-active. So, if my quirky, self-deprecating, sometimes sarcastic, attitude occasionally reflects in my communications (though I always remain within the parameters of decorum and respect), then... well, ummm... that's simply and honestly who and what I am, without ever wishing to intimidate, or offend.

I already like it here and look forward to some cool and informative exchanges.

Cheers,

Mark

 

Just want to thank you, Mark Wirtz, for many years of listening pleasure!

 

Welcome Mark,

I listened to the samples of Spyderbaby and I must say that I do like it. I have always been a fan of good vocal harmonies.

 

Welcome to the boards Mark!