Mark Gillespie (English singer)

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Mark Gillespie, (born 17 November 1970 in Stockport, England) is a singer, songwriter, currently living and touring in Germany, where he has built himself a substantial fanbase, and has toured with Jethro Tull, Meat Loaf, Lisa Stansfield, Fool's Garden and Chris De Burgh.

The Mark Gillespie Band[edit]

The band line-up remained unchanged for about a decade and yielded several live and studio albums. In 1997, they released their follow-up to the debut, "Live at the Traumstern '97." Another live recording, "Exit", came in 1998, featuring acoustic performances of original and cover songs by Herrmann and Gillespie.^[1]

In 1999, 2000, and 2002, the band released three studio albums: "Mindless People," "I believe...," and "Barefoot and Naked," respectively. On 9 June 2004, the band returned to the "Traumstern" venue in Lich to record a live gig, later released on the CD/DVD set, "Supersonic Wednesday." The CD and DVD were available separately and slightly varied in editing and track listing.

In 2006, Gillespie ran a promotional campaign for his newsletter subscribers, releasing exclusive unreleased live recordings, videos, remixes, guest appearances and demos in regular intervals. At first, these were available for download as MP3 files, but due to legal complications, Gillespie had to switch to streaming some way into the campaign.

"Unplugged," a set of studio-recorded acoustic versions of original Gillespie songs and covers, was released in 2007, including several new songs.

Over the years, guest musicians had occasionally joined the band as well, e.g. José Cortijo ("Percussion and all kinds of strange things"), Miriam Pfaff and Tess Wiley (Backing Vocals) on the 2004 DVD, "Supersonic Wednesday."

Since 2008[edit]

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The band has been in a state of flux since 2008. By 2008, the members of the Band were Gillespie, Herrmann, Leukel, Oliver Jäger (Keyboards), Gerd Stein (electric guitar), who replaced Dill (Dill left the band in February 2008), and Thomas Drost (flute), whom Mark got to know during a street music festival. Leukel parted ways with the band some time later as well.

Mark Gillespie subsequently mostly performed on his own or in "Duo" gigs with Thomas Drost on the flute. Interspersed were occasional band performances.

2009 saw the release of the Mark Gillespie Band album, "In Your Hands," comprising songs written and recorded over the period of several years and featuring the classic pre-2008 line-up. It was the first studio album not to feature an instrumental song.

In 2012, Gillespie released "Real to Reel," a live album pulled from performances with Thomas Drost. The album featured classic Gillespie material as well as cover versions of songs by Sting, Eric Clapton, The Beatles, Snow Patrol. It also featured two new songs, "Throw me a Line" and "The Friends you have Gained."

During 2013, Gillespie announced the band were planning to record a new album in the fall.

Kings of Floyd[edit]

In 2011, Mark Gillespie co-founded the Pink Floyd tribute band "Kings of Floyd", which he has been performing with since, in addition to his continued solo, duo and band performances.The spectrum ranges from albums like Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall, to more recent works.^[2] The new High Hopes Tour was supposed to start in January 2022, but to be postponed to late summer 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Band members[edit]

• Mark Gillespie – guitars, vocals
• Maurus Fischer – guitars
• Jürgen Magdziak – keyboards, vocals
• Berni Bovens – drums
• Frank Höfliger – bass, vocals
• Bernd Winterschladen – saxophones

Past members

• Lucy Wende/Lucy Fischer – backing vocals
• Andy Schmidgen – keyboards, vocals
• Hans Maahn – bass
• Ian Stewart – bass
• Bernd Renn († 2015) – bass
• Reto Mandelkow – saxophones

Style, Personality[edit]

Gillespie's musical style is largely acoustic and soft rock, but comprises influences from Jazz, Progressive Rock and various other genres. Fans of the band especially appreciate Gillespie's humor, spontaneity and talent for improvisation.

Gillespie lives in Kornelimünster, a district of Aachen, Germany.^[3]

Discography[edit]

Albums[edit]

• 1996: Give it Time
• 1999: Mindless People
• 2000: I believe...
• 2002: Barefoot and Naked
• 2007: Unplugged
• 2009: In Your Hands

Live albums[edit]

• 1997: Live at the Traumstern '97
• 1998: Exit (live)
• 2004: Supersonic Wednesday (live)
• 2012: Real to Reel

DVDs[edit]

• 2004: Supersonic Wednesday (live)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mark Gillespie (musician born 1970).

Citations[edit]

References[edit]

• DVD: "Supersonic Wednesday Live" by Mark Gillespie Band, Documentary
• Mark Gillespie Band Website
• Newsletter of the Mark Gillespie Band