I’ve been listening to music made by Mark Knight since I was in my teens (and to be fair he wasn’t that much older). I saw Bang Tango tour the UK in 1992 when they played my home away from home – Rock City in Nottingham, and I was so impressed I headed for Sheffield a few days later to catch them again. ‘Love After Death’ hadn’t been released then but the ‘Ain’t No Jive… Live’ EP was just out. Those two releases would be Mark’s last recorded music with the band and by 1995 he’d left.
Mark went on to form The Worry Beads with Tigg and Kyle from Bang Tango, a band that played a bluesy, rootsy rock and roll mix and released a great album ‘Iron Spittin’ Horse,’ a live album ‘Live at the Mint’ and an EP ‘Broken Down’ (Don’t bother looking on Discogs and thanks to Mark for my copy of the former). Next came the rock and funk of Gravy before a first solo album ‘Perfect American Family’ in 2006.
I trekked from Australia in 2010 to meet Mark for the first time at Paladino’s where Bang Tango Redux (All the original members except Joe) played their second show and went round to his producer’s studio with him to listen to what would become the second Mark Knight record ‘Bone Rail Tight’ before getting a sneaky listen to the first, yet to be mixed Unsung Heroes record ‘Road Sick Eyes’ on my next visit to L.A.
2015 saw a third self-titled solo record before the wonderful ‘Don’t Kill the Cat’ from the Unsung Heroes and now here we are mid-pandemic with a third Unsung Heroes record ‘Days of a Dreamer’, I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s been a long and winding road to get to this point. And this record may just be the most important of Mark’s career so far.
Mark and I caught up recently to talk about the new album, how lockdown has affected us all and so much more!
