Born in London, England the 2nd of August 1965, father English and mother German, Mark grew up in a musical environment. Both his parents loved classical music, jazz, rock and used to hit the club scene in London in the 60’s.

No wonder, one day he gained a pair of sticks by a family friend and started bashings tubs and cans and messed up the kitchen. The washing detergent boxes (at the time) had the perfect shape of a drum and weren’t thrown away anymore. Instead of asking for a new bicycle, Mark was much more concerned about the development of the washing powder department in the neighborhoods store!

When he was five, his parents separated and his mom decided to move back to Germany because of her mothers suffering from MS. His musical interest went on. At his home his parents had the heart for Jazz, but Mark’s went rock’n roll. The early innovating seventies introduced stunning bands like Deep Purple, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Sweet, Led Zeppelin, Rush and Kiss, who changed his life forever and I’m sure many other musicians too. 

But critical situations were soon to take place! He didn’t get along with his step father and soon ended up on the streets where he made new friends and caused nothing but trouble. They’d lived in an industrial area and the environment was not what one could call very friendly, but more a bad neighborhood! For a second time, his mother took a serious decision and left with him to Greece in 1976 to change their environment and get Mark off the streets. Greece was a very friendly country and that truly helped to ease Marks anger. He attended the German school in Athens and graduated in 1983.

In 1979 he got his first drum kit and took lessons, but preferred mounting speakers on the wall banging along to the originals. His favorites were and still are tunes by Rush, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Whitesnake, Aerosmith, Billy Cobham, Buddy Rich, Thin Lizzy, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, the amazing Toto…..

Life went on while playing in high school bands and gigs. That's how he made a lot of friends with whom he shared the same musical interests in the following years. The northern and southern suburbs of Athens were the highlight spots of entertainment. Due to the American air bases you could find plenty of pubs and live clubs everywhere. There he had the opportunity to jam and play live and made sure not to miss one night!

In 1985 he was offered to drum on a movie soundtrack, which was composed by Dimitri Papadimitriou, a Greek pianist and composer. Soon more offers for studio work followed and his reputation grew. Scraptown, who were a known club band at the time, had just released their 3rd album’s single Viva Sahara, which climbed the charts in southern Europe. They asked him to join the band for several concerts in France and the promotion of “Give me a break” in 1986.

He was young, yet inexperienced, but very creative and wanted to see the world. After he’d spent 3 months at the French Rivera for promo with Scraptown, he didn’t bother going back to Greece, but took the first plane to England, later Germany to visit family and friends and explore the local music scene. But having lost contacts in both countries over the years, disappointed he returned to Greece to get a band together, since Scraptown parted their ways. 

He started working as a session musician on tours and productions with local artists, as a part time engineer in studios and in night clubs as a DJ or bar tender…..“Music has no frontiers, I learned how to play many different styles, some of them don’t suit me, but I always tried to make them comfortable for my play. I believe that that taught me a certain freedom and understanding in my approach to music. …..” 

With Magna Carta in 1989/90, Mark had his first record deal and release. High pitched vocals on progressive tunes had some attention in Greece. Unfortunately the label forced them to record the lyrics in Greek, though singer John Patelis, with Canadian origin, had already recorded half the album in English. Soon this situation ended their career and was never heard from again!
But his (as he calls it)…… “The good time philosophy will keep you from drowning….”attitude, always made him look forward and survive in difficult times. In 1990-1991 he worked with Greek top star Anna Vissi, toured with her all over and completed over 200 performances in two years.

In 1992 he formed Bad Habit, a progressive funk-metal combo with singer Vance Reese from California, who had worked as a dancer for various Greek artists, but had the convincing attitude of a great singer and performer……… “We changed his name to Vinnie de Sade. That should answer all questions!” …….Sex and rock’n roll toured the clubs around the islands of Greece and recorded a CD but never got signed. Vance moved to Sweden and then to England and opened the Blue Café in Bournemouth. 
Mark and the rest of the band joined Greek pop singer Mike Rakintzis on a project with Deep Purple’s frontman Ian Gillan in 1993, released an album and played several concerts.

It seemed that the good times were coming to an end, because the next few years Mark experienced a flow in his career which led him into a different direction from his interests and made his life not easy as a musician. He tried out the US in 1994, stayed a while in Los Angeles and New York, returned to Greece in and built the recording studio Magna Carta in Athens in 1995 and closed it down in 2000, joined the Bar business on an island in Greece for two seasons, tried to put Greece’s best known metal act Spitfire back on their feet in 1997, but nothing really seemed to work out except investing a lot and earning less! How things did change!

All over sudden he had the industries attention again, when he showed up in Hamburg, Germany and recorded Nightfall’s “Diva Futura” late1998 which was released by Holy records spring 1999. ……..“I didn’t really know the result of me playing with a death metal band, but it was the best offer I got at the time! However they wanted to change their style to gothic. I wasn’t really familiar with both styles, but simply agreed doing it. The result speaks for itself!”

JP Genkel, (Metalium, Lacrimosa, Cradle of filth, Seven Witches, Kingdom Come) who produced and engineered “Diva Futura”, was convinced by Mark’s playing abilities and recommended him to German metal act Metalium. 

In 1999 Mark moved to Hamburg and met the right people at the right time. Lenny Wolf’s Kingdom Come – “Too” was the next step in Mark’s career, which was released in May 2000.

At the end of 1999 he received the offer to join Metalium and recorded the drums on “State of triumph – Chapter II”, toured and stayed with them for 1 ½ years. He also features in the “Metalium Attacks” DVD & 6 track live bonus CD and appears on two live bonus tracks and the hidden track ‘Heart of the tiger’ on their latest “Hero Nation”. Further he recorded with Metalium the tracks “Ride the sky” on the Helloween tribute “The keepers of Jericho” released by Arise Records, “Thank you for the music” on the Abba tribute and “Another peace of meat” on the Scorpions tribute, released by Nuclear Blast in 2000.

In the summer of 2001 German power metal pumpkins Helloween approached Mark and made sure to get him in the band. 
Having heard his playing and seen his performances, I am sure that in the next few years he will keep good drumming alive and as he says himself……. “Bon Scott once said: It’s a long way to the top, if you wanna rock’n roll……very true, he was absolutely right! I couldn’t imagine myself doing something else, although there were moments when I felt like kissing show biz goodbye and start something else. I thank those who kept me away from these ridiculous thoughts and truly believed in me!

Peace on earth, stay off drugs, make as many friends as you can, play and play better, have fun and get laid, enjoy life and you will be the one who’ll make the next generation swing! ”

Text by: Terry Mavredes

Visit Mark Cross’ homepage:
www.mcross.com