Dragon – a band who seems to be ever present on our radio stations in both Australia and New Zealand, with hits like ‘April Sun in Cuba’, ‘Rain’ and ‘Are You Old Enough’ all standing the test of time to sound as fresh now as they did when they were first released. Since the band reformed in 2006, it has been the job of Mark Williams to take the reigns as Dragon’s frontman, bringing his own style to the band and contributing to five studio albums since their return.
This coming weekend Dragon join legendary UK band The Animals to co-headline Wanstock in Victoria, alongside The Ted Mulry Gang, Standing Room Only, Straight Shooters and Day Dreamers. We caught up with Mark to talk about Wanstock, song writing, new material, Home & Away and George Young & Harry Vanda…
Sean: Mark, how are you doing?
Mark: I’m doing well thanks Sean.
Sean: It’s fantastic to finally chat to you because I’ve loved the music of Dragon over the years. And to play alongside a band like the legendary Animals must be incredible.
Mark: Oh, it’s definitely a great feeling. I grew up listening to them on the radio, you know, so it’s like this is a big buzz to be alongside them on the bill as co-headliners. We are really looking forward to it.
Sean: So would your early influences come from bands like The Animals?
Mark: With a band like Dragon I would say yes but I’m not too sure. But they had a great influence because we sort of came along like about ten years later, maybe even fifteen years later. So as far as the energy and the social consciousness of The Animals and the dark side of them, I think, yes, very much, very much part of Dragon.
Sean: It’s been great to see that since the reformation of Dragon, the band has been extremely busy. Many a band would just sit on their heels and play the songs of yesteryear, but there’s been fresh albums released and EPs too, which has been wonderful to see a band keep progressing and writing after so long.
Mark: Oh, that’s how that’s how it feels. I mean, the band is pretty tightly knit. We’re coming up to twenty years together, as this particular line-up. I think each year we get stronger and stronger. It’s like a family. You know, you go through your family. You go through your sibling bickering, [laughs] you go through all of that, then you suddenly come out a stronger team. So we are pretty united. We’re late with another album. We know we are. We’re being rather lazy, [laughs] but we have one planned. We are going to get underway as soon as we can but we have to get the year out of the way, because this year happens to be our 50th year anniversary. So there’s plenty of work to get done, you know, live work to get done. I don’t know how much time we will get to do any production work. We might get a little bit done, but there’s a lot to do. And, you know, playing with The Animals this coming weekend at Wanstock is just one of them.
Sean: Hopefully we’ll get to see some dates over here in the West. We’d love to catch up with you again.
Mark: We were over late last year. We hadn’t been there for a long time. And it was a huge, and we absolutely fell in love with it. We’re looking forward to coming back again. It was just fantastic.
Sean: Is there still much creativity in the band? You touched on the fact that you are due to get another album out. But do you guys get much time to write, especially as you are all so busy?
Mark: Yeah, we do. We do have that time to write. We also have, like, our own little projects going on and things like that. But, yes, we’re making a concerted effort. Every now and then we make a concerted effort. In the past it’s been EPs. We’ve done two or three albums, two albums. But three or four EPs. We know we’re due for an album. And we’re kind of at that point where we would like to sort of contribute material towards that. It’s kind of a very democratic organisation, this one. So Todd (Hunter), who’s our king, he’s pretty loose and he’s pretty cool with, you know, who can contribute and all that. He writes, he still writes constantly. You know, we’re all doing that. So I reckon we’ll be coming up with something real soon.
Sean: It’s great to hear that hunger in your voice. A lot of bands sometimes ease off and just sit there and play through the hits. But when there’s that hunger, it’s really exciting for the fans to see something new bubbling up And, of course, they’re going to get a taste of that next Saturday at Wanstock.
Mark: We’re looking forward to that. We were there at the double header last year as well with Baby Animals. So we’ve been upgraded this year. [laughs] So looking forward to it. But what did you say? There is still the hunger. We still love it. I don’t think we’re ever going to give up. This line-up will stick together for a long time. And you can see it. Our set is full of sing-alongs. And that’s probably what we expect. Everybody at Wanstock, you know, we expect everybody to be singing. We expect everybody to be singing wherever we are.
Sean: Brilliant stuff. I had a playlist of Dragon on earlier on, and the songs are just such feel-good songs. I was reading about your work as a solo artist as well and while I’ve got time with you, I’d love to touch a little bit on that as well.
Mark: Of course.
Sean: Going through a little bit of background research and things always pop out which intrigue me. Being an Englishman of origin… I hope you are going to love this question. I never knew this until the other day, you sang the original theme tune to Home and Away, which was massive in England back in the day.
Mark: [laughs] I heard that… I knew that. I found that out when it happened. 1986. 1986, yes. I sang the original theme to Home and Away. And that’s the one that took off in England.
Sean: I listened to it earlier and so many memories flooded back, just from hearing that theme tune. I think it had around 20 million viewers per episode at its peak in the UK. Incredible.
Mark: I know. It was quite amazing. My partner, her cousin was Jeremy Beadle. And he would come over here and he would just rave and rave to me about that song and being part of that.
Sean: On a more serious note, I also saw that you got to work with George (Young) and Harry (Vanda) at Albert’s, which must have been an incredible experience. I’ve been able to join the dots with a lot of bands who spent time there. I’ve spoken to Angry (Anderson), who always gets quite emotional when we talk about George & Harry. I’ve talked to the Brewster’s too about the magic around the place at the time. I just would love to capture a little bit of what the magic was like back then for you.
Mark: Oh, both George and Harry…What do you call that thing where you see into the future? Yeah. Forward thinkers. I learned a hell of a lot from them. They were sort of like pedantic. Clock in at ten in the morning, finish and clock out at six in the evening. That kind of thing. The way they worked and the dedication in that was just astounding. A lot of it rubbed off and I still hold some of those values and the application in that. I still hold a lot of those that I learned in that short period of time. I was touring and I’d have to fly back to work with them. But it was over a period of about two or three years. Or three or four years, actually, that I got to work with them. And, yeah, it was… Yeah, pretty good. A pretty good experience.
Sean: I’ve interviewed Angry twice. And twice he has started getting emotional talking about them and his time in the studios. They left us such an imprint on this country and its musical history.
Mark: Oh, indeed. It’s so sad. I was so broken hearted when George left. Harry’s still okay. I haven’t seen him for a while but that’s okay. You get very close to people like that. And they really brought you into their life. So that’s why I think…That’s why Angry and every other artist that worked with them had that feeling, that emotion. Incredible. Because they were… They’ve been through a hard journey to get where they got. Incredible.
Sean: Well, it was John Brewster that put me on to The Marcus Hook Roll Band and the very early appearances of young Angus & Malcolm Young. Wonderful album.
Mark: That whole family was just remarkable. Yeah.
Sean: I don’t want to keep you much longer but I’ve just got a couple of general questions. The restaurant question. If you could invite three musicians, dead or alive, to join you for dinner one evening, who would you have sat with you?
Mark: Jimi Hendrix. Probably someone like…let me think… Marvin Gaye. They had a strong influence, honestly. And a lady called Ann Peebles.
Sean: Oh, nice. That’s a new name to the table.
Mark: Yeah, yeah. Ann Peebles. Yeah. Strong influences in my life.
Sean: I’ll add her to the list. What was the last album you listened to?
Mark: Oh, the album is… let me have a look. It was something quite left field for me, but it was very enjoyable both sonically & musically. It was ‘Notes with Attachments’ by Pino Palladino & Blake Mills. That was it.
Sean: Finally, if you could be credited with writing any song ever written, what song would you choose?
Mark: Oh, my Lord. Oh, my Lord. Oh, my God. My God, my God, my God…. ‘A Song For You’ by Leon Russell.
Sean: Oh, wonderful. I shall add that to my playlist. For 24 hours, you own that song, Mark.
Mark: Thank you. Thank you ever so much for your time.
Sean: And for yours too Mark. Thank you very much. Regards to the rest of the band. And have a fantastic show next week at Wanstock.
Mark: Thank you. I will. I’ll pass it on. Bye-bye. See you. See you.
